Troubleshooting Video Card Issues?

[Misha_Ko]

Is there any sort of checklist or flow chart for diagnosing a video card problem?

I have FM 9.0 p255 (installed through Tech Comm Suite 2), on a Win 7, 64 bit (pretty new) Dell.

My video card is an AMD/ATI FirePro 2.

Re-installed the driver for the card -- the correct driver, verified by ATI -- yesterday, but FM

has crashed twice, already, today.

Both times while I was in other apps, and it was in the background. Came back to a 95%

black screen, and had to re-start FM.

Any suggestions or ideas or steps to take, to check this out?

Thanks,

Mike K.

[Guest]

No troubleshooting flowchart that I'm aware of, unfortunately.

Several folks on the forum have suggested changing FM so that it runs with Compatibility mode set to be "WinXP SP3", have you tried that yet?

If you look in the Event Viewer can you see anything that coincides with the period before you had the "FM lockup"?

Are you accessing any content over a network? Do you typically leave documents open in FM while you use other apps?

[Misha_Ko]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I run FM simultaneously with a bunch of different app's -- most worrisome of all -- a variety of AutoDesk DWG and DXF viewers.

I had a 30 day timed trial of Audesk Inventor "Publisher" for a while. After that was installed, that's when Bad Things started to

happen.

I stick to Adobe 3D Reviewer now, and generic STP files, but last week FM started crashing in the background while I was in other

apps, which it didn't used to do.

Re-installing the video card driver has worked, so far.I was ready to demand a new video card from our IT guy, but all of a

sudden -- FM has STOPPED crashing in the background.

One more re-boot is all it took? (An extra one, after the re-installation of the driver.) I was coming back to a big blackrectangle

centered over 90% of my FM window -- with the top menu bars all washed out -- but now everything has been working

normally for the last couple of days.

....I looked around but couldn't find the  Windows XP serv. pack 3 emulator.

Also, since I NEVER use either one, can I just go ahead and uninstall Adobe AIR and Captivate?

There's already enough useless Win 7 stuff working in the background, I don't want to add to the overall clutter and drain on

system resources.

[Guest]

I've seen a few instances where apps install files (e.g. the various flavors of .NET libraries or whatever they're called) but they clobber already-installed newer versions. Perhaps the video driver has had something similar caused by one of the apps you installed, so reinstalling the video driver could possibly clean up the leftover badness.  Your experience of the extra boot after installing the video driver is pretty consistent with standard practices, as the installer can't do anything to "refresh" dlls or other internal bits that are already loaded into Windows.

I've started using Revo Uninstaller Pro (there's a free or trial version available too) -- it seems to have a much better memory for rooting out leftover files and  registry detritus that many s/w uninstallers just ignore.

Running an app in XP compatibility mode is built into Windows (most or all versions??), here's a tutorial on it:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/316-compatibility-mode.html

Compatibility mode is a life-saver for running x86-designed apps that aren't 100% correctly coded to run in Win7 -- and that certainly would include FM9 (and probably FM10).

Note, however, that XP compatibility mode is different than installing and using "Windows XP Mode" from Microsoft, which is a variation on using "MS Virtual PC"  type of virtualization:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/install-and-use-windows-xp-mode-in-windows-7

I believe many Adobe apps rely on Air for their help systems, as does FM9 (the window is titled "Adobe Help Viewer" but if you open the help it will check for updates to Adobe Air), so I wouldn't uninstall it. Air is one of those things like Flash that need to be updated regularly, though, as they're always prone to  security issues.

As far as Captivate goes perhaps other folks could give you some advice, as I don't use it so I'm not sure of the benefits.

How much RAM do you have?  With the heavy-duty apps you mention I'd really, really be pushing for at least 8GB and more better would be 12 or 16.

There are great tutorials on the SevenForums.com website that list a whole variety of ways to tweak Win7 to get rid of dross and keep better grip on what services are loading automatically and which ones can be changed to load manually to reduce system overhead.