ZA hangs Display Properties

ZA hangs Display Properties

Windows XP Home (SP2)
ZoneAlarm 5.5.062.004
S3 Graphics ProSavageDDR

I have found two ways to freeze my computer with Zone Alarm running...

(1) Display Properties, Themes tab:
Attempting to change to the "Windows XP" theme freezes the computer if ZA is
running. Changing to other themes still works OK.

(2) Display Properties, Appearance tab, "Windows and buttons" dropdown list:
Attempting to change to "Windows XP style" also freezes the computer if ZA
is running. Changing to "Windows Classic style" or "Default (blue)" still
work OK.

Other operations that I tried in Display Properies still worked OK with ZA
running.

The freezeup is fatal. The color on the screen slowly fades to black &
white. The impression is of a very slow operation in progress, but too slow
to complete itself in a reasonable time (I waited about 5-10 minutes). The
hard drive still shows occasional activity, and the mouse can still be moved
around the screen but nothing works. Turning off the computer with the power
button is necessary to recover control of the computer.

I have the latest S3 graphics driver from March 2004. I tried rolling back
to the prior driver from 2003, but no help. I also reinstalled ZA, which
didn't help either.

Now that I know how to sidestep it, it isn't serious for me, but it took
quite a bit of fooling around to discover the cause.

--
skydiver
(this space intentionally left blank)
P.S. If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you.

Re: ZA hangs Display Properties

I have seen exactly the same freeze when trying to change to XP style.
The workarond is to shutdown ZA (right-click system tray icon and
select shutdown), then change to XP style.

Disconnect from internet before doing this and restart ZA
afterwards....

Gary

Re: ZA hangs Display Properties

Thanks for your confirmation. So it's not just my computer! I reported it to
ZA, but of course the chances are miniscule that they'll pay attention.
--
skydiver
(this space intentionally left blank)
P.S. If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you.

wrote in message
news:1105533016.270331.58940@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>I have seen exactly the same freeze when trying to change to XP style.
> The workarond is to shutdown ZA (right-click system tray icon and
> select shutdown), then change to XP style.
>
> Disconnect from internet before doing this and restart ZA
> afterwards....
>
> Gary
>