FrameMaker 7 vs Windows 7 and Windows Vista

Report · Dec 14, 2010

We have several computers with either Windows 7 or Windows Vista. On these we have Frame version 7 (latest patch). I have heard that Frame 7 is not compatible with these 2 operating systems. Is that true?

We all have the same problem:

If we, with our mice, try to mark text in a flow or cells in a table, and have the left button pressed too long (more than a couple of seconds), FM freezes. The only way to get out of this is to crash it and loose everything since the last save.

Will this problem go away if we upgrade to version 9? Has anybody else experienced the same, upgraded and now FM behaves properly?

Lena, Sweden

Report · Feb 09, 2011

Lena,

we are currently running FrameMaker 7.2 on Windows 7, and we too are experiencing 'Not Responing' hanging issues that we have to then end FrameMaker and lose the unsaved information.

I initially thought it was network related but eliminated this when i looked at files on a local hard disk.

I can now produce the error by selecting a large section of a framemaker document and trying to copy it (we have a lot of referenced illustrations which are EPS files stored on the network and these seem to assist in causing the program to hang.)

I found reference on a site about the Desktop Windows Manager, and decided to do a test. I have forced my computer in to a Hang situation and then looked at ending the dwm.exe process in task manager. As soon as i do this, the screen flashes, and i now have a responding framemaker program. I have done it a few times and it seems to correct it each time.

DWM is linked into the Aero interface. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_Window_Manager, so it looks like the way to get framemaker 7 working is to turn off/disable the DWM service,

Under Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Tools -> Services -> Desktop Window Manager Session Manager -> Disabled

I would recommend testing this by causing Framemaker to stop responding and then use Task Manager to end DWM.exe. If this works the long term solution would be to disable the DWM Service. I am going to do this and see how i get on.

Hope this information is of some use.

Report · Feb 09, 2011

NJAN1K wrote:
Lena,
we are currently running FrameMaker 7.2 on Windows 7, and we too are experiencing 'Not Responing' hanging issues that we have to then end FrameMaker and lose the unsaved information.
I initially thought it was network related but eliminated this when i looked at files on a local hard disk.
I can now produce the error by selecting a large section of a framemaker document and trying to copy it (we have a lot of referenced illustrations which are EPS files stored on the network and these seem to assist in causing the program to hang.)
I found reference on a site about the Desktop Windows Manager, and decided to do a test. I have forced my computer in to a Hang situation and then looked at ending the dwm.exe process in task manager. As soon as i do this, the screen flashes, and i now have a responding framemaker program. I have done it a few times and it seems to correct it each time.
DWM is linked into the Aero interface. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_Window_Manager, so it looks like the way to get framemaker 7 working is to turn off/disable the DWM service,
Under Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Tools -> Services -> Desktop Window Manager Session Manager -> Disabled
I would recommend testing this by causing Framemaker to stop responding and then use Task Manager to end DWM.exe. If this works the long term solution would be to disable the DWM Service. I am going to do this and see how i get on.
Hope this information is of some use.

Just a guess: have you tried setting FrameMaker's compatibility to Windows XP, in the Properties dialog box when you RightClick maker.exe?

HTH

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

Report · Feb 09, 2011

What about just running it in the XP Virtual Machine that comes with Win7?

Report · Feb 09, 2011

We have tried starting Virtual PC but had trouble with the password. Our IT-guy couldn't solve it either. We will look into that later. When we try to run Frame in XP Compatibility mode we get an error message...

Report · Feb 09, 2011

Thanks for the tip, I will test it the next time I get a freeze. The thing is that we are about 5 people here using FrameMaker, all are experiencing the same problem as I described, and we are using Vista, Windows 7 and XP. As far as I know XP doesn't have Aero, so that can't be the problem...

Report · May 23, 2012

Have you tried the work around covered in http://forums.adobe.com/message/3966795 ?

Tigdave wrote:

"I think I have finally found the offending parameter that makes all versions of Frame (including 10) lock up at the autosave time or 60 minutes, whichever is sooner. It started happening to me again (even when logged as the new user) just after I went into the Windows Control Panel and adjusted the keyboard settings. It turns out that if I set the Cursor blink rate to None then I get the freezing problem. If I set the blink rate to any other setting then Frame doesn't freeze."

I am having the problem with freezing after installing FM8 on a new machine. It freezes at the set auto save time or 60 minutes, whichever is soonest. It also seems to freeze if I attempt to work with a large amount of text, copying, pasting, formatting. It runs Windows 7 instead of XP. I had no problems with XP Tigdave's work around didn't help me but I have high hopes after disabling DWM, as the copying, pasting, formatting appears to be working as it should.