Strange bug?
Hi,
I seem to have a strange problem with ATIH 2012.
I had been using it successfully but then noticed the version chain option for backups. I had been using incremental and, following a program update, I noticed this version chain option and liked what it did, so switched to it.
Since then, following a backup my start button (Windows XP SP3) disappears. I can recover it using TaskbarRepairToolPlus but it is a bit of a nuisance. It looks to me like a bug in either the updated ATIH 2012 or the version chain option. Has anyone else seen this happen, please?
Colin, I don't know. I will give that a try today and let you know.
Right, I have tried another task (incremental), which was what I was using before and the same thing happened. I was watching ATIH 2012 as it finished. The green progress line disappeared (as it was finished), the time shows complete and the start button disappears at the same time.
Howard,
Congratulations I think you've managed to a hit a somewhat unique problem :) I've not seen this mentioned before.
I can't really see what TIH would be doing to cause that. I have seen it make desktop icons temporarily disappear, I presume when it is writing info back to it's database or clearing it's RAM cache.
If you hover the mouse near where the start button would be and click, does the start button open?
Are your video drivers up to date?
Hi Colin,
Do I win a prize for the unique problem? ;-)
I don't know the answer to you question about clicking where the start button should be. I will try tomorrow morning (I usually do my backups overnight) and reply with the answer.
Yes, my video drivers are up to date.
Fortunately, this problem is only a slight nuisance as it is easy enough to replace the start button. I did try googling to see if anyone else gets the problem at any time and the only hits I got were for people losing both the start button and the task bar, none reported only losing the start button.
Another experiment might be to disable the sync agent service and timounter.
It might also be worth trying a repair install, just in case something isn't quite installed fully.
Is this installed for all users or just a single user?
Hi Colin, I will try those things and report back tomorrow morning after the next backup run. At least the bug is reliable and happens every time. Intermittent problems are harder.
For the moment, clicking on the absent start button was just like clicking on the rest of the task bar. No start window was opened.
Hi Colin, I found sync agent service in Task Manager and deleted it. However I could not find timounter anywhere (including local services). I opened ATIH2012 to see if I could find it there and it promptly re-activated sync agent service. How do I disable then please?
Sorry Howard,
I keep forgetting that Timounter works differently since v2011 - you wont' find an entry for it.
What you will find in MSConfig under the Startup tab is TrueImageMonitor, untick this and reboot. Unticking this will result in not being able to see the imaging progress and you won't be able to cancel the task from the taskbar icon.
SyncAgent should be either disabled or set to manual in Windows Services.
There is a Windows Services tab in MSConfig so you can disable it there, to set it to manual (NSB uses this service as well) you will need to bring up services.msc from the start\run dialogue box.
Thanks for that, Colin. I will use MSConfig as I can disable both services in one go and it is only till the backup run tonight. I will worry about the differences between disable and manual when we see the results of this test.
Hi Colin, that has worked. This morning the start button was still in place.
What is the next step, please? Do we need to identify which of the two fixes was responsible or is it a combination of the two?
More importantly, how do I make the fix permanent? I would like to have the system tray notification in place, although at the moment it is not essential (the main backup runs while I am asleep).
Well Howard, that is a step forward, it would be useful to find out which one is causing it. Just a thought, does your system go into deep sleep, that is, do you have a 'green' motherboard and like mine after 30 minutes (or whatever time yours is set to) my disks switch off?
There seems to be a, I assume, Microsoft buglet with some PC's coming out of sleep, I occasionally get desktop icons not reappering properly and Microsoft Sync for mobile phones always runs on return from sleep.
If your PC doesn't switch the disks off, then it probably is the Acronis monitor that is causing the problem.
Hi Colin, no I don't have such a green motherboard and I don't let it go into a shallow sleep, let alone a deep sleep. I'm quite sure now that it is the Acronis monitor that is causing the problem, not least because the start button would disappear at the same time that the backup finished.
What I will do is enable one of the two disabled items (any preference as to which one?) and then run a backup and see what happens. It may be sensible to then switch items just to prove it is one or the other and not both working together.
Just enable the monitor for the moment.
Ok. I will then start a backup and let you know the result.
Hi Colin, I have now re-run the backup with the monitor enabled and the start button has remained.
That means it has to be syncAgent. Apart from keeping my start button, what other effect would I notice if I continue to run with it disabled, please? What is the next step? (I cannot see any point in reversing the enabled items now).
Howard,
The only effect of SyncAgent not running will be that the Sync option definitely won't work, so if you don't intend to use it, no problem and NSB may not work.
Personally I would want to double check that it is definitely SyncAgent causing your problem and would run two further tests, one with SyncAgent reenabled with TIMonitor and one with SyncAgent by itself, partly because I like to know these things and partly because you might want run SyncAgent in the future and so would need to know if this is a combination of services problem or one specific one, in which case Acronis would be interested in the bug.
Annoyingly of course you might also find that disabling and reenabling has solved whatever the problem was and we'll all be none the wiser! :)
Hi Colin,
Ok, I'll re-enable them both for tonight's run and then run with just SyncAgent enabled with a special run tomorrow.
In a way, I hope it fails both tests as it would be very frustrating to have it work after all this. I don't think I will need to synchronise anything but, if I do, it will surely be a one off and I could re-enable it for that one job.
Anyway, I will let you know the result of the first test tomorrow morning.
Hi Colin, I'm afraid that, this morning, the start button was still in place.
I have tried thinking this through and my conclusion is that there was a small corruption in the code in relation to one of the two items, perhaps happening during install. By dis-enabling the items, re booting and then re-enabling them, perhaps the code has corrected itself.
Whatever the reason, I am very grateful for your assistance and patience. Thank you very much.
Isn't that so annoying?
Good to hear you're up and running.
Hi Colin, guess what? Last night the start button disappeared again. I sometimes think that computers like to play tricks on you. Perhaps they are more capable at AI than ge give them credit for. ;-)
Anyway, I have now disabled Acronis Sync Agent from within Windows Services since that is less trouble than msconfig. I will stick with the one item this time and see what happens tonight. I will report back tomorrow.
Howard,
I mentioned your problem to Acronis, is it possible you could provide a screenshot of your desktop with the missing start button?
I think it would be worth making an Acronis system report and either wait and see if Acronis ask for it here on the forum, or you could raise a support ticket.
Hi Colin, I will make a screenshot the next time it disappears although everything else is still in place, it is just the desktop without a start button. The taskbar just continues to the left hand edge of the screen.
If there is some special reason they want to see this, I can, of course, make the start button disappear very easily (by using the same utility that I use to replace it with ;-) ) but I suspect they would prefer the real thing.
As for raising a support ticket, I suspect that it may be best for us to finish our experiments first. They will then have much more information to go on.
Hi Colin, just an update.
This morning the start button had disappeared so I made a screenshot and saved it.
I went to services to restart SyncAgent, with the intention of then disabling the monitor. However the SyncAgent was still running. I have therefore made certain it was stopped and will wait for tomorrow to see if it had any effect.
Hi Colin,
This morning the start button was missing so it is looking like either the Monitor or both monitor and SyncAgent together.
I have now re-enabled the SyncAgent and disabled the Monitor. Let's see what happens tomorrow morning.
Hello! I experience exactly the same problem after update 1. (6131).
My system configuration:
Pentium 3 1,13 GHZ
1,5 GB RAM
Windows XP SP3
nvidia GeForce FX 5200
I can't click the invisible button! In the matter of fact I can push the windows-key on my keyboard. So I see the
startmenu. But the start-button is always invisible.
Hi Wolf. Welcome to the start stop group. ;-)
At the moment it is looking likely to be the TrueImageMonitor responsible. See Colin's post Tue, 2011-11-29 10:14 for how to disable it.
Thanks Howard. I will disable this tomorrow, because the backup task starts daily at 5:10 p.m. GMT and check the result during 2 or 3 days.
Then I will report at this site.
Well, this morning the start button was still in place. This, to me, rather confirms that the problem lies in the TrueImageMonitor although it will be interesting to see if Wolf confirms this later.
Today I disable the TrueImageMonitor. After running scheduled task the start button was still in place.
Now I leave the TrueImageMonitor disabled wednesday and thursday and will report again.
Great. Thanks for that, Wolf. I think we have identified the problem area. Perhaps the next stage is to get Acronis to fix the bug.
I hear that Acronis are already looking into this, so any information posted here could be helpful.
That is good news, Colin. Do you know if there is any other information they need?
Today it was a full-backup. Yesterday and today all OK. Tomorrow I will enable the TrueImageMonitor again and will report the results. But saturday and sunday is no backup.
Ok, just so that you are aware, when I first tried this (re-enabling the monitor) the Start button stayed in place for a couple of days before it disappeared again.
Yes, it was fine exactly one day after I enable the monitor. At the second day the start-button is disappered again.
Yes, it was fine exactly one day after I enable the monitor. At the second day the start-button is disappered again.
That sounds the same time scale as when I first tried it. I took the monitor off, problem disappeared, put monitor back on and everything was fine for a day (one backup) and then the problem resumed. Perhaps this little detail may give the Acronis engineers an idea as to where to look.
New: After todays backup the start-button, the taskbar and the system-tray are completely disappear.
Today I watched during the backup to the monitor. When the backup ist finished, a pop-up window show the message: "Backup finished" (I translate with a definition, because I use the german version). The start-button at this moment is OK, after a few seconds the pop-up window AND the start-button disappeared.