Strange menu behavior - need good advice

We have a customer with a client application made by Avaya. It is a
softphone and it has a button which brings up a small menu with things like
minimise, exit, log off, etc.
What should happen - click on the button and the menu stays open until the
user click on an item in the menu.

What actually happens - the user clicks on the button and the menu flashes
up for approx. 1/2 a second and then disappears. Too fast for the user to do
anything in the menu.

We think that the problem must be with this customers desktop config. It is
a large corporate so they have an image which has been customised according
to their policies. They use Dell desktop machines.
The reason we think it is related to the desktop config is that we can take
the application with exactly the same configuration to a standard XP desktop
and we cannot reproduce the problem.

Has anyone ever seen this kind of behavior before or anything like it? And
if so, can anyone give me a clue what could be causing it?
I apologise if these are not the right newsgroups for this and if so, could
someone plese let me know which group is appropriate?

I think the programmer of their software missed
something. I've seen this when an error occurs and the
program didn't properly test some issue. This means the
error is caught by the development lanquage and it has to
stop execution. Unfortunately that returns control to
the O.S. so any error messages are blown off the screen.
I think your customer must contact their software
vendor. Any chance the program can be run from a DOS
prompt? That would leave the message so you could read
it.


>-----Original Message-----
>We have a customer with a client application made by
Avaya. It is a
>softphone and it has a button which brings up a small
menu with things like
>minimise, exit, log off, etc.
>What should happen - click on the button and the menu
stays open until the
>user click on an item in the menu.
>
>What actually happens - the user clicks on the button
and the menu flashes
>up for approx. 1/2 a second and then disappears. Too
fast for the user to do
>anything in the menu.
>
>We think that the problem must be with this customers
desktop config. It is
>a large corporate so they have an image which has been
customised according
>to their policies. They use Dell desktop machines.
>The reason we think it is related to the desktop config
is that we can take
>the application with exactly the same configuration to a
standard XP desktop
>and we cannot reproduce the problem.
>
>Has anyone ever seen this kind of behavior before or
anything like it? And
>if so, can anyone give me a clue what could be causing
it?
>I apologise if these are not the right newsgroups for
this and if so, could
>someone plese let me know which group is appropriate?
>
>
>.
>

On Wed, 19 May 2004, "Axel VK" <sparqs@pigpond.com> wrote:

>What should happen - click on the button and the menu stays open until the
>user click on an item in the menu.
>
>What actually happens - the user clicks on the button and the menu flashes
>up for approx. 1/2 a second and then disappears. Too fast for the user to do
>anything in the menu.

This is just a GUESS... but that is exactly what happens when I visit
a web page which tries to pop up a new window, and my pop up stopper
halts the new page before I am able to read it

IF the computer in question has some kind of pop up stopper active the
user will need to hold the "bypass" key to allow the pop up to run


John Thomas Smith
http://www.direct2usales.com
http://www.pacifier.com/~jtsmith

"John Thomas Smith" <jtsmith@pacifier.com> wrote in message
news:kp4na058fmf0vsjkjagm96grnrj7j8hb57@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 19 May 2004, "Axel VK" <sparqs@pigpond.com> wrote:
>
> >What should happen - click on the button and the menu stays open until
the
> >user click on an item in the menu.
> >
> >What actually happens - the user clicks on the button and the menu
flashes
> >up for approx. 1/2 a second and then disappears. Too fast for the user to
do
> >anything in the menu.
>
> This is just a GUESS... but that is exactly what happens when I visit
> a web page which tries to pop up a new window, and my pop up stopper
> halts the new page before I am able to read it
>
> IF the computer in question has some kind of pop up stopper active the
> user will need to hold the "bypass" key to allow the pop up to run

Thanks for that. I checked and the client tells me that there are no popup
stoppers running (apparantly, they get popus all the time).
Thanks anyway.

Start by changing the Menu Speed. TweakUI - Mouse/Menu Speed or use the
edit from my site on line 68:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

--
All the Best,
Kelly

Microsoft-MVP Windows® XP
2004 Windows MVP "Winny" Award

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm


"Axel Van Kampen" <sparque@bigpond.com> wrote in message
news:enhbY%23hPEHA.3524@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>
> "John Thomas Smith" <jtsmith@pacifier.com> wrote in message
> news:kp4na058fmf0vsjkjagm96grnrj7j8hb57@4ax.com...
>> On Wed, 19 May 2004, "Axel VK" <sparqs@pigpond.com> wrote:
>>
>> >What should happen - click on the button and the menu stays open until
> the
>> >user click on an item in the menu.
>> >
>> >What actually happens - the user clicks on the button and the menu
> flashes
>> >up for approx. 1/2 a second and then disappears. Too fast for the user
>> >to
> do
>> >anything in the menu.
>>
>> This is just a GUESS... but that is exactly what happens when I visit
>> a web page which tries to pop up a new window, and my pop up stopper
>> halts the new page before I am able to read it
>>
>> IF the computer in question has some kind of pop up stopper active the
>> user will need to hold the "bypass" key to allow the pop up to run
>
> Thanks for that. I checked and the client tells me that there are no popup
> stoppers running (apparantly, they get popus all the time).
> Thanks anyway.
>
>

<anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:f1b001c43da3$8d1c1d10$a101280a@phx.gbl...
> I think the programmer of their software missed
> something. I've seen this when an error occurs and the
> program didn't properly test some issue. This means the
> error is caught by the development lanquage and it has to
> stop execution. Unfortunately that returns control to
> the O.S. so any error messages are blown off the screen.
> I think your customer must contact their software
> vendor. Any chance the program can be run from a DOS
> prompt? That would leave the message so you could read
> it.


Thats the tricky bit. We are the integrator and Avaya is the vendor (we are
a business partner of theirs).
I have since found out that Avaya blames Microsoft for this.
Unfortunately, it cannot be run from DOS. It also has to be able to access
the servers to run.
It was suggested to me today that this program may be incompatible with one
of the many Microsoft OS patches.
Does that sound realistic?

"Kelly" <kelly@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:uYNTqUiPEHA.1160@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Start by changing the Menu Speed. TweakUI - Mouse/Menu Speed or use the
> edit from my site on line 68:
> http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm


Thanks we'll try that.

Also;
It was suggested to me today that this program may be incompatible with one
of the many Microsoft OS patches and this could be one of the symptoms.
Does that sound realistic?

One of the updates has been noted to interfere with the vertical scrolling,
not for the menu delay, AFAIK.

--
All the Best,
Kelly

Microsoft-MVP Windows® XP
2004 Windows MVP "Winny" Award

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm


"Axel VK" <sparqs@pigpond.com> wrote in message
news:utFSaBnPEHA.556@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>
> "Kelly" <kelly@mvps.org> wrote in message
> news:uYNTqUiPEHA.1160@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>> Start by changing the Menu Speed. TweakUI - Mouse/Menu Speed or use the
>> edit from my site on line 68:
>> http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
>
>
> Thanks we'll try that.
>
> Also;
> It was suggested to me today that this program may be incompatible with
> one
> of the many Microsoft OS patches and this could be one of the symptoms.
> Does that sound realistic?
>
>

In message <utFSaBnPEHA.556@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl>, Axel VK
<sparqs@pigpond.com> writes
>
>"Kelly" <kelly@mvps.org> wrote in message
>news:uYNTqUiPEHA.1160@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>> Start by changing the Menu Speed. TweakUI - Mouse/Menu Speed or use the
>> edit from my site on line 68:
>> http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
>
>
>Thanks we'll try that.
>
>Also;
>It was suggested to me today that this program may be incompatible with one
>of the many Microsoft OS patches and this could be one of the symptoms.
>Does that sound realistic?

There's a rather nifty little program called Y'z Shadow that gives
windows a 3D effect by simulating shadows. I love it, but initially
found that the default settings made some application menus 100%
transparent! It may be worth investigating translucency on the problem
machine and disabling it if found.

--
Neale Hind
Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your children