On Gabor frames generated by sign-changing windows and B-splines

For a class of compactly supported windows we characterize the frame property for a Gabor system $\mts,$ for translation parameters $a$ belonging to a certain range depending on the support size. We show that the obstructions to the frame property are located on a countable number of "curves." For functions that are positive on the interior of the support these obstructions do not appear, and the considered region in the $(a,b)$ plane is fully contained in the frame set. In particular this confirms a recent conjecture about B-splines by Gr\"ochenig in that particular region. We prove that the full conjecture is true if it can be proved in a certain "hyperbolic strip."