Dissapearing Winamp main window [Archive]

nikrusty

13th January 2008, 09:22

Winamp 5.51
Clean install, no 3rd-party skins or plugins
Language Pack: None (default English US)
Skin: Bug occurs with Classic skins

OS: Windows XP sp2 (autopatched to Aug07)
Locale: English US
CPU: Athlon 64 4000+
Memory: 2GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA 8600GT (drivers 163.44)
Sound: Integrated Soundmax
DirectX v9.0c

Problem:
Only the main Winamp window dissappears

Method of Reproduction:
This is very random, the main Winamp window doesnt show up when clicked on; the library and playlist donot get affected by this. Am not using any skin, just the Winamp Classic. This doesnt seem to happen with Bento skins only with classic skin.

Minimizing and then Maximizing fixes this.

I think this started to occur after winamp introduced Bento skins as far as I recall, becoz before that it was perfect. but I cant be too sure. Also Winamp appears to refresh the window much slower than afore these new skins came into being....this bug is perhaps related.

DJ Egg

13th January 2008, 10:18

Hi

Alas, we can't reproduce this.
You're going to need to come up with a better, more exact method of reproduction.

How are you opening Winamp?
What state was it in when you closed it previously?
eg. was it minimized to the system tray, or minimized to the taskbar, etc?

What do you mean by "when clicked on"?

Please also zip & attach both your List Of Plugins and HijackThis logs:
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=161361#spec (http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=161361#specs)

JonnyMac

13th January 2008, 21:50

I think that I have reproduced this

@ nikrusty
By "when clicked on", do you mean right click Winamp Taskbar button > Winamp > Main Window?

So the main/player window is minimized and using the above steps does not restore the window?

Is nVidia's nView enabled? For me nView disables Winamp's window items in the context (right click) menu of the taskbar button.

nikrusty

15th January 2008, 09:21

Hi all thank you for replying so quick. Let me make myself clear.

I don't use any system tray minimize fancy stuff, just plain minimize to Windows Taskbar always!
I'll tell you as exact as I can...
Listening to music i generally minimize Winamp in classic mode to Windows Taskbar. I generally control Winamp from built-in Hotkey, but in classic mode I dont get song information popping up unlike Bento skins. So I open winamp to check my songs or change them, this is when RANDOMLY Winamp Main Window disappears only. I generally have my playlist as well as Library open which doesnt disappear. So i have to minimize either Winamp and maximize it or just minimize other window behind which it appears to be hiding it.

Now I know what you are thinking,no I dont have any other application thats running in "Always on Top" mode or anything so there cannot be any application hiding Winamp. I generally have Firefox, Office and several Explorer windows open during normal usage.

Also note...this doesnt happen if Winamp is the only program that is maximized. It happens only when other applications are running MAXIMIZED and then I switch to Winamp and there RANDOMLY main window goes missing. I first thought this is skin issue...but Bento skins dont get affected by this behavior at all...trust me I've tested a lot of times with Bento skins, with classic mode winamp invariably plays hide-n-seek.

AS for JonnyMAc...I checked nvidia properties...my nView is NOT enabled. And no I don't Right-click winamp to Maximize it...that would be plain silly...such a long process. Yes after you mentioned it...only then I did realize I can switch off main window of winamp by this method. Neat it almost looks like the "bug" can be reproduced which is clearly not the case here.

JonnyMac

15th January 2008, 23:14

You have Winamp Minimized and sometimes when you restore Winamp the main/player window does not appear. Is that what you are saying? Also, what do you mean by "when clicked on"? What are you clicking on?

DJ Egg

16th January 2008, 03:23

I assumed it was the taskbar icon (click to minimize/restore)...?
However, I can't reproduce the problem.
Though my graphics card is an ATI, not nVidia.

nikrusty

16th January 2008, 04:27

Originally posted by JonnyMac
You have Winamp Minimized and sometimes when you restore Winamp the main/player window does not appear. Is that what you are saying? Also, what do you mean by â€œwhen clicked onâ€? What are you clicking on?

Yes that is exactly what I'm saying! When "clicked on" meaning in reference to hitting the Winamp window which is currently sitting in the Windows Taskbar.

You know what I'll do...Next time this random disappearing act happens, I'll check whether Winamp Main Window is switched off by itself by right-clicking winamp window | Winamp |Main Window. Maybe that'll give us some insight or this may be only related to my PC...whatever will see!

JonnyMac

16th January 2008, 10:09

Now that I have a better understand of what
nikrusty is saying, I realize it is not the nView issue as described in the earlier reply.

Also, I am unable to reproduce the issue as nikrusty has stated.

nikrusty

17th January 2008, 09:01

Hi all,

Lookie what I found...I noticed even Media Library hiding...wow hadn't noticed that before.

Yes there is a screenshot....have a look...u can clearly see media library and main winamp window hiding behind a normal Windows Explorer window and yes classic skin is on. No other plugins were loaded except Cubicle Clinet Jukebox that controls winamp over network...this was just loaded by me and wasnt there before.

I cannot consciously reproduce this...but keep my eye out for it and quickly take screenshots. Its a very random thing.

FaeGiN

18th January 2008, 11:31

There is no more information I can add to this except for one important point:
I have EXACTLY the same thing happening too.
It is when I have minimized winamp/playlist&EQ windows by using the minimize button on the top right of the main window (classic skin).
If I then later click the systray icon to make winamp appear again (with playlist and EQ too as I always have the three together) then quite often what is happening is that the playlist and EQ are appearing but not the main window.
sometimes however it turns out that the main window has just remained behind whatever is open in front....the browser (Firefox or IE) or some application. Yet, I have winamp set to be Always on top.
Apparently it isn't 'always'!
Let me be clear though - a lot of the time therte really is just NO main window, not behind anything, just apparently disappeared completely! all I can get to appear by clicking the tray icon is the rest of winamp (Playlist & EQ). In this case I end up having to rightclick the tray icon and make the windows appear andf disappear randomly until, at last, when I tick the Main Window it appears. then it is back to normal.
Strange...
I have an ATI card.

nikrusty

13th February 2008, 05:23

Thanks FaeGiN for the support (which I'm sure you dint want to consciously do...lol), now I know I'm not crazy!! Alright here is more evidence of Winamp clearly playing hide-n-seek.

This happens when there is a window other than winamp that isn't maximized fully to fill the screen edges...like in the screenshot...it has to be smaller than the desktop resolution.

Also like I had promised before...when the main hiding problem occurs, I right-clicked the Winamp Taskbar button > Winamp > Main Window to check whether it was OFF...it wasn't. It clearly showed as main window ticked.

And FaeGiN thanks again for clearing this up, that Always on Top mode doesnt help in Classic Skin either which I was going to try.

I seriously think some coding issue exists with Classic Skin's main window hiding behind another window, but cannot for the life of me understand what would make it do so. Computers don't make mistakes they say!

In any case I don't think this is going to be anyone's priority as its so small an issue (+ is hard to reproduce), also most must be using new skins...I wonder if there is a classic skin in the new skins...I love the familiarity of classic skin therefore I ask.

????Hey the option to upload pic has disappeared???

nikrusty

13th February 2008, 05:27

I dont know why the pic dint upload last time!!! Anycase here it is!

angel_wing0

14th March 2008, 06:17

any updates with this? i m using 5.22 and the same problem happened too. It's a system tray problem, if u only use the taskbar mode then it wont happen. Would appreciate if the developer can fix this bug.

I can generate this bug anytime i want which is sad. I will do a video on this.

angel_wing0

14th March 2008, 06:27

http://download.yousendit.com/08CA8BCA52A3039B

Here is the link to the video. It's .mov.

If you have any more questions, pls let me know.

?? why isnt the link showing up?!

angel_wing0

14th March 2008, 06:31

http://download.yousendit.com/08CA8BCA52A3039B

angel_wing0

14th March 2008, 22:26

any updates pls?

angel_wing0

20th March 2008, 07:45

still nothing?

substitute

30th April 2008, 08:43

I have a similar problem, although not exactly the same. Yesterday when I tried to start Winamp it seemed to load fine, except that the only thing I got was the task bar button. No winamp windows what so ever appeared on screen, only the task bar button. I tried to restore winamp by clicking (right or left, no difference) on the task bar button, which didn't do anything. Then I tried to change the skin by right clicking the task bar button and choosing something other than what I was using before. That did the trick and Winamp appeared on the screen as usual.

It seems that the Big Bento skin I was was using before has suddenly stopped working for some reason. If I try to change back to big bento the window disappears again and I can't get it back without changing to another skin.

I'm using:
Winamp 5.53
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit, Aero theme
Geforce 8800GT /w Forceware 169.25
Intel Q9300, x38 mobo

WaVeTrIp

1st June 2008, 13:48

finally i found this topic, i thought i was the only one having this problem.
i am using 5.531 lite, i used earlier w5 versions too, they also had this issue. i was a happy w2.95 user, then i wanted to try this "new thing", but this random focus problem annoys me.

1) if winamp is running, but there are maximized or windowed apps in front of it (so winamp is not visible) i click on the taskbar to get the winamp window, and sometimes it brings up only the playlist window (i use winamp with main+playlist window only, no eq, no ML, classic skin).

2) if winamp is running but there is a windowed app covering some parts of winamp, i usually click on the playlist window, and that will randomly bring the main+playlist window to front or just the playlist window to front. i dont really understand the second behavior. and i don't see why it happens, so i can only say its random, but its not rare, and its very annoying. please fix it.

misterdan

8th June 2008, 15:21

I also have the problem, using the classic skin. so far it hasn't happened using the big bentoo skin.

trisweb

20th June 2008, 19:48

I just want to chime in, that I have this exact same problem. I've had it on my desktop for a while now (probably 2-3 years, can't remember, it's just always been there, and is VERY annoying). I have recently installed a fresh copy of XP on a new hard disk on my laptop, installed winamp, set my settings and lo and behold, bug was reproduced. Let me see if I can clarify the situation.

My setup:

Windows XP
Winamp 5.531 (but happened since 2.5+)
nVidia/Intel/ATi graphics (happens on all)
"Show Winamp In:" set to: Taskbar + System tray (Minimizes to tray)
Classic Skin

How I reproduce:

1. Open Winamp
2. Begin playing.
3. Minimize to taskbar
4. [go about work, listening to music]*
- Time before bug presents is unpredictable, it seems like within the first 2-5 minutes minimized it does not happen.
5. Click System tray icon to bring to front.
6. Unpredictably, bug presents. Equalizer and Playlist show, but main window is below other windows and not visible.
7. [Workaround] - Minimize again and maximize again, main window then shows as normal.

Playing around with it just now, it seems more consistently reproducible when changes to the playlist are made (eg: through enqueue/play in explorer) while Winamp is minimized to the tray.

Any ideas? Is there a bug open in a tracker somewhere for this?

angel_wing0

9th July 2008, 02:00

hmm...still no help eh?

elitexero

16th July 2008, 23:11

Wanted to offer my input here.

Having the same issue here. Most notably, the main window seems to have issues determining whether or not it's always on top or in the background while the playlist and EQ windows stay neutral. Having issues playing counter strike - if I have winamp open and I'm playing CS, I alt tab back into windows and everything's fine, but when I alttab back in, winamp pops itself over the application effectively taking over the screen until I get back to the desktop and minimize winamp again.

Seems to be a widespread issue over the past 2 releases of Winamp.

hmilch

31st July 2008, 12:19

I have a similar problem
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=295325
(sorry for the wrong position of my post)

Regards Thomas

FaeGiN

12th August 2008, 19:54

Well I am glad to see others with this because it is definitely something that will have to be looked at...maybe...at some point...?
Still happening with the very latest version
:(

euer_hirte

5th September 2008, 13:42

this was the same reason why i turned back to 2.91 from testing 5.x.
now that i wanted to use the "luxury" function of track counting etc... i was forced to install 5.x again.

but still the same bug remains.

so on my wishlist to the developer of winamp: i'd like to have the thing everybody's talking here about fixed. its really annoying if you use the same product for years now and somehow it starts to do more and more and more... what i don't need, but what i really need, it stops doing it.

by the way: i am using the classic skin too.

MariAdkins

5th September 2008, 21:20

Am having the same exact problem after a winamp reinstall yesterday afternoon. I have no main window no matter what I do. I have a playlist and a media library - but nothing else. This is so aggravating.:cry: :down:

Karatedog

15th September 2008, 20:47

I'm joining the "club". Today I started Winamp (5.541 and I use Modern Skin), and the main window was partly missing.
"Partly" means, that the top of the window (frame) and menu was there, but everything from there down to the lower frame was missing.
I tried to turn on and off every window but it was the Equalizer when I realized that something is wrong.
The Equalizer opened down directly from the upper window frame (of the Main Window), practically over the menus. So I guess the Main Window is there, but it has a height of 0.
Changing to any other skin solved the problem (Winamp Classic, Bento, Big Bento)

Karatedog

15th September 2008, 21:04

solution is here ;) :
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=164598

WaVeTrIp

11th October 2008, 17:42

where? huh?

DJ Egg

11th October 2008, 18:22

Originally posted by WaVeTrIp
where? huh? Originally posted by Karatedog
solution is here ;) :
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=164598

nikrusty

14th October 2008, 09:28

Thanks DJ Egg for the URL and all of you guys for ur feedback.
However I cannot confirm an answer there for you but certainly there must be a solution somewhere in the Url mentioned as a lot of useful suggestions are posted, I suggest you read it to find out.

For me I just changed to the Bento modern skin and am quite ok with it, though Winamp now eats more RAM I've noticed which is what I really liked with old skin. Anyway with 2GB + RAM who really cares right?

scratchingbeard

2nd February 2010, 16:13

I know this an ancient bug which only happends to some users. I just put up a clip on youtube to demonstrate how it happends (or how I can replicate the problem easily) along with my specifications:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM_i6KniRGY

Asus GeForce 7600GS 512MB PCIe
Winamp 5.572 (most recent to date)
Nvidia drivers 6.14.11.7519 - "nv17519_Win2KXP.zip"
Windows XP SP3

Is there anything else I can provide or try?

scratchingbeard

2nd February 2010, 20:40

The youtube-id is: rM_i6KniRGY

Not sure why the url was 'hidden'.

zepper

12th February 2010, 20:21

This must be one of those bugs they're probably unable to fix. It's been going on for several years and despite the numerous complaints they won't even acknowledge them. The simplest and least frustrating solution for me is to just minimize the browser first then maximize Winamp.

FaeGiN

6th May 2010, 07:18

I hate to say it but...
This is STILL happening with the latest version!!!
Also - THERE IS NO SOLUTION AT THE URL GIVEN ABOVE! I just read through it all and, apart from that it is for a different problem anyway, none of it fixes this problem. It isn't being addressed anywhere on the site as far as I can tell. apart from this thread :)
Why does no one fix this I wonder?
Oh well...:igor:

yuval29

7th July 2010, 15:29

I have a similar problem... only WORSE! :stare:
Somehow - a few days/weeks ago - the main window disappeared completely and I couldn't find ANY way to bring it back! I can make the playlist window appear - but the main and EQ windows - are nowhere to be find - even though they marked in the winamp menu (I can reach it by right-clicking on the icon in the taskbar. I tried right clicking in the task-bar and choosing 'move' to see where the windows is supposedly is - and it brings the cursor to the lowest position on the screen, just above the taskbar. It's as if the window has gone "too down" off screen and I can't get it back! I tried moving the taskbar to see if somehow it is "hiding" behind it but it's not! aahhh!

EDIT: It was snapped into the video window. Once I made it appear - I found it... :\ :)

nozikins

24th July 2011, 10:28

i tried what was suggested and still no cigar...

so i tried putting a different skin just coz I wanted to, when i changed the skin lo and behold the main winamp window showed up!!!

hope this helps others

MrSinatra

24th July 2011, 20:27

Egg,

do u think either of the last two posts might crack the grey/blank ML issue?

Klow

19th August 2011, 08:34

I can't believe that 3 and a half years after this thread was started, there's still no solution given to this issue.

I started having this problem quite recently (like a month ago), never had it before, and I've been using Winamp for about 12 years now. I have this PC for 4 years, and I always install the same stuff after I format. There just are a few changes with the .NET Framework programs (from 1 to 4), might these cause the issue? I have the latest Winamp version with a classic skin and no additional plugins, and an up-to-date Win Xp pro SP3.

citle

3rd September 2011, 05:29

I don't guarantee that this will work for everyone but here's what worked for me. Open Winamp Preferences. In the left column, choose Skins -> Classic Skins. Now, in the right column, Uncheck the box next to "Display tooltips in Winamp's main window". For a visual representation view this image: http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/9171/winampdisappearingmains.jpg

romyggar

20th October 2011, 13:57

I had the same problem, so i went to this suggested tread http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=164598

It looks like you accidentally used the Alt+W keyboard shortcut, which closes just the main/player window (not Winamp completely). Apparently clicking Move from the taskbar icon restores the main window.

Anyways, please update Winamp to 5.08e (http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=208529) for the latest in bug and security fixes. You can also download the latest version at the Winamp download (http://www.winamp.com/player/free.php) page.

At Nunzio...
:p
got there first

I pressed ALT+W and my main window came back from ghost world!...
i hope this simple solution help someone with the same issue.

jinx101a

27th November 2011, 16:24

I had the same problem, so i went to this suggested tread http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=164598

I pressed ALT+W and my main window came back from ghost world!...
i hope this simple solution help someone with the same issue.

Thanks romyggar, Alt+W fixed my problem and brought the window back. I'm using Windows 7. I had to click on the open Winamp in the taskbar (which did not show the window) then hit Alt+W. After that, the window came back.

Tortue

12th July 2012, 07:15

Fixed mine!

I had the same problem, here's what I did on Windows 7.

1. Drag the mouse over the taskbar icon and leave idle for a second.
2. You should see the main window. Drag mouse up over and right click.
3. I had Minimize black, and Maximized greyed, so I clicked Min.
4. Back to the menu, both should be grey. Click on Restore.
5. Go back step 1, but this time click Move on step 3.

Main window should appear then!

boris6

16th July 2012, 09:06

pmjm

18th October 2012, 18:28

somewhat related issue...

I had an external monitor connected, it was bazillion pixels wide, i placed the controls and playlist windows at the right of the desktop.

i no longer have the external monitor, when i start winamp with my 1000 pixel wide monitor, the window is not visible, i presume its still at the bazillion pixel to the right position.

how can you get it back?

I've had this problem too. The only way I've found is to quit Winamp, then delete the Winamp.ini file in C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Winamp - That stores the window data. When you run Winamp again it will prompt you to configure it as if it were being installed for the first time.