Alright team, I need to pick your brains.
I have literally though of everything regarding this issue, and cannot figure out a solution.
Leading up to the event: I installed Vista 32bit Ultimate on my older PC today (new fancy one is MIA). This PC has a dual core E6750 65nm Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB (other 2GBs of RAM are dead) Crucial Ballistix DDR2-1066 RAM (running at 800MHz EPP), and 2x 7900GT eVGA KO cards in SLi config, a 620watt Enermax PSU with completely stable rails and voltages down the line. It has 3 Sata 3.0Gb HDDs, the main install drive being a 16MB cache Maxtor SataII drive.
I have tweaked all I can tweak. I went though hell doing VGA BIOS flashes on the 7900's, in order to even make Vista function graphically. After solving that issue, everything seemed to be going a ok.
I started Guild Wars, and got a clean, crisp 60 FPS (Vsync enabled) I minimize GW all the time while playing, for song changes, internet browsing (mainly the wiki and or game updates), and dealing with TeamBuilder. I minimized GW, and when I maximized it again about 40 secs later, my FPS had dropped to 4-12 FPS. No matter what graphical setting I put it on, even staring right at the ground I couldn't pass 25 FPS in the Guild Hall.
I have tried to think of what might be causing this. My brain is exhausted from work yesterday and today. With all these issues with Vista, I am about to scream. I need you guys to help me figure out a solution. I will look at every suggestion. If I haven't tried it, I will; if I have tried it, I will tell you so you can try another solution creation. Please guys, this issue is even stumping me.
Thanks everyone,
Rahja
Guild Wars FPS, oh noes, Vista, so many woes!
Lord Sojar
Lord Sojar
Hmm, I may have figured it out. I ran TF2 and minimized it. When I reopened it, my FPS was completely normal, and quite high (with settings maxed out). I think the gw.dat may be corrupted. I am going to uninstall guild wars, delete the current .dat, and redownload everything via -image tonight. I hope it works.
0siris
uninstall Vista...
seriously it will save you a lot of headaches
seriously it will save you a lot of headaches
The Meth
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by 0siris
uninstall Vista...
seriously it will save you a lot of headaches |
Does the FPS drop stay after you load into another area?
Does the FPS still drop if you run guild wars in a window?
Does the FPS drop still occur if you minimize guild wars and then immediately maximize it?
I don't think .dat corruption would lower fps like that, the .dat is just a resource accessed by the exe so I would think the exe would need to be bad for that to happen. Loading a texture or a sound shouldn't impair performance if its corrupted, at least not nearly that much. And that wouldn't explain why it works fine before you minimize it.
I'm wondering if Vista is doing some kind of funky memory management, possibly dumping the gw.exe memory space into the page file and not bringing it back into memory when you go back to guild wars
Brianna
Hmm, that's amazing! The legendary Rahja is stumped. 
For now that is. It happens.. especially with me, just about every time.
I think you may be right about the Guild Wars .dat file, I wish we had a Diag tool that we could run to ''Scan'' the .dat and check to see it's condition. I can dream though.
However, I have heard of Guild Wars having troubles with SLI configs sometimes, it may just be that. Try turning off SLI and see if the problem persists.. but I'm quite sure you've already done this, just throwing it out there in case.
EDIT: To The Meth, I think I have heard of corrupted .dat's causing FPS problems in one or two instances.. but I don't know where to find the threads.
For now that is. It happens.. especially with me, just about every time.I think you may be right about the Guild Wars .dat file, I wish we had a Diag tool that we could run to ''Scan'' the .dat and check to see it's condition. I can dream though.
However, I have heard of Guild Wars having troubles with SLI configs sometimes, it may just be that. Try turning off SLI and see if the problem persists.. but I'm quite sure you've already done this, just throwing it out there in case.
EDIT: To The Meth, I think I have heard of corrupted .dat's causing FPS problems in one or two instances.. but I don't know where to find the threads.
Lord Sojar
While I would love to uninstall Vista, I plan on upgrading this rig in the very near future will some serious hardware I am getting from work, for which Vista will be required.
@Meth: Yes, it stays low if I load into another area. Yes, it still drops while windowed, and yes, it still drops if I immediately maximize it. No other game is doing this right now, so I think my hunch has some merit.
@Osiris: Actually, what would really save me headaches would be not having to program ASM cache systems all day long... ouch, my brain... We started our new project, and these first few weeks are going to be long and tedious.
@Meth: Yes, it stays low if I load into another area. Yes, it still drops while windowed, and yes, it still drops if I immediately maximize it. No other game is doing this right now, so I think my hunch has some merit.
@Osiris: Actually, what would really save me headaches would be not having to program ASM cache systems all day long... ouch, my brain... We started our new project, and these first few weeks are going to be long and tedious.
Wrath Of Dragons
When the FPS change, did you happen to look at your computers pagefile usage compared to before the FPS drop?
Lord Sojar
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Wrath Of Dragons
When the FPS change, did you happen to look at your computers pagefile usage compared to before the FPS drop?
|
Vista without GW running is using 1,171MB/4332MB of my pagefile.
With it running and minimized, Vista consumes:
1,839MB/4332MB of the pagefile. My RAM usage goes from 750MB to 1.29GB, with an available 2GBs.
So that doesn't seem to be the route of the issues. TF2 minimizes and maximizes just fine.
Oh, and as an update, the new GW.dat file didn't solve anything.
I just can't see what is causing this... oh well, maybe it will come to me tomorrow. Sleep time, my brain is dead.
Snograt
I don't know - Guild Wars just gets weird when you minimise and maximise. I often minimise to check wiki, take a bathroom break and when I maximise I get the peculiar lagging heroes syndrome - you know, where they all stand still and jump a few feet every few seconds while you're running.
I'm under the impression that GW just hates being minimised :/
I'm under the impression that GW just hates being minimised :/
Lord Sojar
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Snograt
I don't know - Guild Wars just gets weird when you minimise and maximise. I often minimise to check wiki, take a bathroom break and when I maximise I get the peculiar lagging heroes syndrome - you know, where they all stand still and jump a few feet every few seconds while you're running.
I'm under the impression that GW just hates being minimised :/ |
I used to get 120 FPS with everything maxed, 1920x1200 on this particular rig. I tried goofing around and setting everything as low as it could go, and @ 1024x768 and I was getting 400+ FPS. So... something is wrong. Anyways, I am off to bed this time, fo' real my hommies. If any of you have a moment of genius this evening, post it.
Brianna
On XP I have no problems maximizing and minimizing, but I also always run window, but even in full screen, no problems.
On Vista, it's a bit different. It disables the Aero theme in full screen, so Aero has to re-load all the time if I'm in full screen, annoying. Does this with most games though, it's not just Guild Wars.
Don't know.. try disabling Aero?
On Vista, it's a bit different. It disables the Aero theme in full screen, so Aero has to re-load all the time if I'm in full screen, annoying. Does this with most games though, it's not just Guild Wars.
Don't know.. try disabling Aero?
LoneReaction
I'm using vista ultimate 32bit, on a C2D E6420 with XFX 8800GT 512MB, and 2GB RAM. I overclock the CPU and 8800GT a lil too. There's no problem with me minmizing and maxing, takes just around 1 second to switch, and 2 second to be stable (eg. you get out of game, and only 2 seconds later can you click your icons and stuff).
No problems really for me.. have you tried disabling vsync? Or updated your drivers? (had to ask this obvious question) Maybe do a run of the services on your PC or do a full virus scan (Kaspersky would be good, there's a free trial.) Also, consider just using one 7900 to see if using 2 of those babies are causing the problem.
I'm not an expert in anything, but that's what I would do if I were you.
No problems really for me.. have you tried disabling vsync? Or updated your drivers? (had to ask this obvious question) Maybe do a run of the services on your PC or do a full virus scan (Kaspersky would be good, there's a free trial.) Also, consider just using one 7900 to see if using 2 of those babies are causing the problem.
I'm not an expert in anything, but that's what I would do if I were you.
Snograt
Yeah, Rajah, update your drivers - you know what those damn nVidia people are like
Brother Andicus
Indeed, i'd try disabling SLi and seeing how things work with just 1 card
Mineria
Never had problems with SLI in GW on Vista x64.
Which drivers are you using?
You got the latest chipset driver for your mobo/windows installed?
What background app's (visus scanners etc) do you got running?
X-fastest 175.80 seems like a good set of beta drivers.
Might have issues with other games, but they work perfect in GW and WoW for me.
Which drivers are you using?
You got the latest chipset driver for your mobo/windows installed?
What background app's (visus scanners etc) do you got running?
X-fastest 175.80 seems like a good set of beta drivers.
Might have issues with other games, but they work perfect in GW and WoW for me.
Snograt
<chuckles quietly to himself>
SnipiousMax
I have this same thing happen to me. It only happens with guild wars and only on vista. The game runs great as long as I keep it in full screen mode, but if I minimize it for whatever reason or hit alt/tab or the win key by accident, it shreds my fps. It'll seriously drop to 5-10 fps, and renders everything completely unplayable.
I can save you some time though. Reinstalling Guild Wars will not fix it. Turning off Aero will not fix it. Turning off desktop composition in the the shortcut properties will not fix it. I've tried the 'usual fixes' when it comes to games and vista and nothing works.
Only thing I haven't tried yet is running the game in XP compatibility mode.
I can save you some time though. Reinstalling Guild Wars will not fix it. Turning off Aero will not fix it. Turning off desktop composition in the the shortcut properties will not fix it. I've tried the 'usual fixes' when it comes to games and vista and nothing works.
Only thing I haven't tried yet is running the game in XP compatibility mode.
The Meth
I have to guess that its some kind of graphics driver issue.
We can rule out the vista background memory usage processes since the problem appears even if you immediately switch back to GW. And we can probably rule out some kind of unknown vista process taking up CPU or GPU time because otherwise the FPS would change when you went from low to high quality graphics when instead it only changed when you swapped resolutions.
We can rule out the vista background memory usage processes since the problem appears even if you immediately switch back to GW. And we can probably rule out some kind of unknown vista process taking up CPU or GPU time because otherwise the FPS would change when you went from low to high quality graphics when instead it only changed when you swapped resolutions.
moriz
this is just a shot in the dark, but it might be because the graphics card is stuck in "low power 3D" mode.
modern graphics card has 3 utilization levels: 2D, low power 3D, high power 3D. low power 3D is the one vista uses to run aero. it is also used in games right as you start it, where the graphics card sort of "warms up" and goes into high power mode a split second later.
it might be possible that your card is stuck in low power 3D after you've alt-tabbed. if that's the case, it might be a driver issue.
modern graphics card has 3 utilization levels: 2D, low power 3D, high power 3D. low power 3D is the one vista uses to run aero. it is also used in games right as you start it, where the graphics card sort of "warms up" and goes into high power mode a split second later.
it might be possible that your card is stuck in low power 3D after you've alt-tabbed. if that's the case, it might be a driver issue.
Quaker
I have Vista 32-bit and I'm running Aero. I don't have any problems when switching from Windowed mode and back, but I don't minimize GW. I play in full screen mode and when I check wiki, or Guru, or w/e, I go to windowed mode. My guess though would be something like Moriz above - it sounds like GW is getting stuck in some other mode.
Lord Sojar
I am using our most up to date drivers, and I tried previously released drivers, and even my developer drivers. No effect. I checked power draw on my card, and it is going through proper gate switching (2D, 3DL, 3DH, CX3DH) This has got to be an issue with Vista... but I cannot pinpoint it.
I tried running GW in XP-Compatibility mode, no result. Tried running it as admin, no result. Tried changing drivers as listed above, no result. If my developer drivers can't fix the issue, then it certainly isn't a driver issue. That is because the developer drivers use an open platform system, fully enabling all services on the card(s), and running full chip instruction sets, not limited like public release drivers. My 7900GTs that I kept around are running at an efficiency level equal to that of the 8800GTS using the dev drivers, because they are not being limited by software throttling. When I first start GW, I get 160-280 FPS with vSync off.
I tried disabling SLi. I also tried 2 different modes of SLi rendering, including split frame and reverse frame (dev drivers allow reverse frame). Nothing changes.
And actually, as an update, it isn't just when I minimize... if I change ANY graphical option in GW, the FPS drops to the 8-15 range, and I have to restart the game to fix it. I am at a loss of words...
I tried running GW in XP-Compatibility mode, no result. Tried running it as admin, no result. Tried changing drivers as listed above, no result. If my developer drivers can't fix the issue, then it certainly isn't a driver issue. That is because the developer drivers use an open platform system, fully enabling all services on the card(s), and running full chip instruction sets, not limited like public release drivers. My 7900GTs that I kept around are running at an efficiency level equal to that of the 8800GTS using the dev drivers, because they are not being limited by software throttling. When I first start GW, I get 160-280 FPS with vSync off.
I tried disabling SLi. I also tried 2 different modes of SLi rendering, including split frame and reverse frame (dev drivers allow reverse frame). Nothing changes.
And actually, as an update, it isn't just when I minimize... if I change ANY graphical option in GW, the FPS drops to the 8-15 range, and I have to restart the game to fix it. I am at a loss of words...
The Meth
Whoa... thats even weirder. Gotta be some horribly screwy interaction between guild wars and vista specific to your setup. I don't know what to say.
Lord Sojar
Quote:
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Originally Posted by The Meth
Whoa... thats even weirder. Gotta be some horribly screwy interaction between guild wars and vista specific to your setup. I don't know what to say.
|
*goes off to test another theory*
Snograt
Hate to say this, but you could open up a support ticket and hope & pray that it ends up with someone who understands what you're saying.
Lord Sojar
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Snograt
Hate to say this, but you could open up a support ticket and hope & pray that it ends up with someone who understands what you're saying.
|
Ah yes, and my TEXMOD theory failed, but I didn't have much hope for that. I would be able to figure this out if I had somewhere to start, but I don't have a starting place I can find. I can't just go ripping my PC/OS apart blindly searching and hoping something I do will mysteriously make this better.
The Meth
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Snograt
Hate to say this, but you could open up a support ticket and hope & pray that it ends up with someone who understands what you're saying.
|
Lord Sojar
Quote:
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Originally Posted by The Meth
And if that doesn't work, there is the a slightly smaller chance he could completely reverse engineer Vista and make it fail less.
|
So yes, little chance, very very very very very very very to the Nth power, where N= a very very very large number, chance of that happening. Vista's source code (judging from its total installed footprint), is probably 2 billions MSFT Word pages long... I would die before I could read through it all.
I am already using my developer tools on this home installation of Vista, which is totally uncalled for, and I am essentially ripping my installation apart to figure this out. You should see what poor Vista keeps trying to do to stop me from punching through all its barriers and blockades. It is throwing me tons of errors, to which I auto ignore them. Don't try this at home kids. Next step is to mess with hardware recognition on Vista itself if I can crack through the protection files surrounding the damned Device management area.
moriz
give me some of those drivers. i'd do anything to make my fx5500 PCI run a little faster.
fusa
This sounds similar to the problem I've been having with running Neverwinter Nights 1, except I don't ever get above 10 fps. I use to get well over 60 fps at 2048x1536 using my old 7800 card, but after upgrading to 8600 NWN has run at a crawl. The same for 8800 users too, some people have been able to fix it themselves by doing some of the following in the nvidia control panel:
Turning off thread optimization
Multi-display/mixed-gpu acceleration set to single display performance mode
Turn on extension limit
Texture compression is not forced
Texture Filtering - Trilinear optimization off
Triple buffering off
You can probably find more located in the thread here: http://nwn.bioware.com/forums/viewto...&forum=49&sp=0
The problem has been for both XP and Vista and has existed well over a year. NVidia doesn't even recognize it as an issue, and Bioware hasn't done anything to help either.
Turning off thread optimization
Multi-display/mixed-gpu acceleration set to single display performance mode
Turn on extension limit
Texture compression is not forced
Texture Filtering - Trilinear optimization off
Triple buffering off
You can probably find more located in the thread here: http://nwn.bioware.com/forums/viewto...&forum=49&sp=0
The problem has been for both XP and Vista and has existed well over a year. NVidia doesn't even recognize it as an issue, and Bioware hasn't done anything to help either.
Lord Sojar
I just finished tearing apart Vista's graphics support structure, and the only thing I got out of that was a corrupted interface and more headaches. I had to repair it using my Vista DVD image.
Hmm, extension limits eh? I will give that a try. I already had set it to single display performance mode, as the dev drivers default to that. Thread optimization... I don't see where that would cause an issue, but there is no sense in not trying. The odd thing is that no one else has this issue while using Vista, so there must be something specific at work here.
My next step is to bypass the VGA BIOS structure using a custom BIOS, in hopes that I can force the card to constantly 3D accelerate. While it will put more stress on the card, it may prove a theory I have regarding drivers in Vista Ultimate 32bit, which I came up with when I was smashing through its VGA device interface. From what I can tell, the programming Vista uses to put the PC to "sleep" enables deep cycling on the CPU, but it also might be causing the VGA BIOS to go into 2D low power modes, and they may not turned back on except on the initial launch of Guild Wars (I already have a custom BIOS on the cards). Moriz mentioned acceleration earlier, and I didn't really focus on it at a software level... but at a BIOS level it would cause symptoms like I am describing. When I found that Vista Ultimate 32bit (I don't know about the other distro's) was actually using a passive VGA BIOS command chain, it made me wonder if it was not only telling the CPU to go into a C3 or C4 cycle, but perhaps forcing the GPU into a similar state (called a hold state) in order to make your PC appear off, but not truly off. That would explain it. I am going to do the BIOS rewrite and activate EEPROM protection protocols on it, so Vista can't get to it. I will update you guys tomorrow.
Hmm, extension limits eh? I will give that a try. I already had set it to single display performance mode, as the dev drivers default to that. Thread optimization... I don't see where that would cause an issue, but there is no sense in not trying. The odd thing is that no one else has this issue while using Vista, so there must be something specific at work here.
My next step is to bypass the VGA BIOS structure using a custom BIOS, in hopes that I can force the card to constantly 3D accelerate. While it will put more stress on the card, it may prove a theory I have regarding drivers in Vista Ultimate 32bit, which I came up with when I was smashing through its VGA device interface. From what I can tell, the programming Vista uses to put the PC to "sleep" enables deep cycling on the CPU, but it also might be causing the VGA BIOS to go into 2D low power modes, and they may not turned back on except on the initial launch of Guild Wars (I already have a custom BIOS on the cards). Moriz mentioned acceleration earlier, and I didn't really focus on it at a software level... but at a BIOS level it would cause symptoms like I am describing. When I found that Vista Ultimate 32bit (I don't know about the other distro's) was actually using a passive VGA BIOS command chain, it made me wonder if it was not only telling the CPU to go into a C3 or C4 cycle, but perhaps forcing the GPU into a similar state (called a hold state) in order to make your PC appear off, but not truly off. That would explain it. I am going to do the BIOS rewrite and activate EEPROM protection protocols on it, so Vista can't get to it. I will update you guys tomorrow.
LoneReaction
Best of luck!
dreary79
I'm having the same issue on both of my vista pc's. The game runs great with wonderful fps. But if I minimize and restore I get super low frame rates. I have had both of these computers on XP and never had this problem.
I was going to post this problem myself, but I saw that it was already posted. I've been pulling hairs out with this problem for about a month now.
I've tried everyone's recommendations here and none have fixed the problem. I do not get this problem with other games.
I was going to post this problem myself, but I saw that it was already posted. I've been pulling hairs out with this problem for about a month now.
I've tried everyone's recommendations here and none have fixed the problem. I do not get this problem with other games.
Brianna
That's good knowing you're not the only one, that might be comforting to Rahja's case.
What is both of your computer's exact specs?
What is both of your computer's exact specs?
Lord Sojar
Damn this issue... I can't lock Vista out of the VGA BIOS, not without putting total EEPROM protection protocols on it, which essentially makes it work on the level of Intel integrated graphics, and causes constant instability. It must be something completely odd, something I just haven't thought of. I am almost glad you are having the same issue dreary, because at least I have some base to work off of.
Post your PC specs, including CPU, Mainboard, RAM, GPU(s), PSU, HDDs, Optical drives, sound card (if you have one), and version of Vista you are running. Let's see if I can make heads or tails of this issue.
Post your PC specs, including CPU, Mainboard, RAM, GPU(s), PSU, HDDs, Optical drives, sound card (if you have one), and version of Vista you are running. Let's see if I can make heads or tails of this issue.
fusa
I've noticed that when you minimize GW Vista sets the priority of GW to low. Could this have something to do with it? Vista not setting priority back to normal correctly? I was going to mention this but think you said that just changing video settings lowered frame rates also.
Blackhearted
Quote:
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Originally Posted by fusa
I've noticed that when you minimize GW Vista sets the priority of GW to low. Could this have something to do with it? Vista not setting priority back to normal correctly? I was going to mention this but think you said that just changing video settings lowered frame rates also.
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Snograt
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jen-Hsun Huang
(RE:Intel's proposed move into the graphics card arena) "We're going to open a can of whoop-ass"
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Jen-Hsun Huang
(RE: Integrated graphics) "You already have the right machine to run Excel. You bought it four years ago. How much faster can you render the blue screen of death?"
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by nVidia
(RE:Intel's DX10-enabled integrated graphics) "Company of Heroes @ 1280x1024, no AA, no AF - 3.6fps"
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fusa
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Blackhearted
GW puts itself to 'Low" when out of focus like that. When it's back in focus it goes back up to normal just fine.
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dreary79
Here are my specs, I have another Vista box for home theater that I'll put GW on and test.
Computer 1
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Ultimate x64 (6.0, Build 6001)
Service Pack 1 (6001.longhorn_rtm.080118-1840)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: 965P-DS3
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6400 @ 2.13GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.1GHz
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Page File: 1184MB used, 4898MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 64bit Unicode
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS
Display Memory: 1016 MB
Dedicated Memory: 248 MB
Shared Memory: 767 MB
Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Description: Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Computer 2
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Ultimate (6.0, Build 6001)
Service Pack 1 (6001.longhorn_rtm.080118-1840)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: VIAK8T
System Model: AWRDACPI
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+, ~2.0GHz
Memory: 1534MB RAM
Page File: 1111MB used, 4474MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 LE
Display Memory: 615 MB
Dedicated Memory: 248 MB
Shared Memory: 367 MB
Current Mode: 1440 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Driver Version: 7.15.0011.6925 (English)
Description: Digital Output (C-Media PCI Audio Device)
(Update) THIS COMPUTER DOES NOT HAVE THE MINIMIZE PROBLEM
Computer 3
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Ultimate (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.longhorn_rtm.080118-1840)
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ (2 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Page File: 789MB used, 5294MB available
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
Display Memory: 1264 MB
Dedicated Memory: 497 MB
Shared Memory: 767 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Driver Version: 7.15.0011.7474 (English)
Description: Digital Output Device (SPDIF) (High Definition Audio Device)
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0883&SUBSYS_10438232& REV_1000
Computer 1
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Ultimate x64 (6.0, Build 6001)
Service Pack 1 (6001.longhorn_rtm.080118-1840)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: 965P-DS3
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6400 @ 2.13GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.1GHz
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Page File: 1184MB used, 4898MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 64bit Unicode
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS
Display Memory: 1016 MB
Dedicated Memory: 248 MB
Shared Memory: 767 MB
Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Description: Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Computer 2
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Ultimate (6.0, Build 6001)
Service Pack 1 (6001.longhorn_rtm.080118-1840)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: VIAK8T
System Model: AWRDACPI
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+, ~2.0GHz
Memory: 1534MB RAM
Page File: 1111MB used, 4474MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 LE
Display Memory: 615 MB
Dedicated Memory: 248 MB
Shared Memory: 367 MB
Current Mode: 1440 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Driver Version: 7.15.0011.6925 (English)
Description: Digital Output (C-Media PCI Audio Device)
(Update) THIS COMPUTER DOES NOT HAVE THE MINIMIZE PROBLEM
Computer 3
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Ultimate (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.longhorn_rtm.080118-1840)
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ (2 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Page File: 789MB used, 5294MB available
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
Display Memory: 1264 MB
Dedicated Memory: 497 MB
Shared Memory: 767 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Driver Version: 7.15.0011.7474 (English)
Description: Digital Output Device (SPDIF) (High Definition Audio Device)
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0883&SUBSYS_10438232& REV_1000
Lord Sojar
Hmmm... the only thing I notice is the pagefile difference as being significant between the 2 above, and the HTPC setup you have. Why that would cause BIOS interface issues is totally beyond me.
I am going to put in a phone call to one of the driver engineers and open a development ticket with them on the matter. I will see if they can pinpoint if this is driver write/read related, or something else. I don't have the tools nor the knowledge needed to diagnose severe issues within a driver buildup. I will figure this out for you dreary and myself, one way or another.
If they can't turn up any results, I will pull the protocols on your cards and compare them to mine.
Who manufactured your cards on the machines with the issue? And, in addition, what BIOS revision are they using?
Really though, this must be Vista... it has to be. I can try a corporate communiqué to Microsoft's Vista development center in reference to driver interaction (if I even have permissions to do it... I don't know how far my position can take me before I hit red tape that I cannot cut through)
I am going to put in a phone call to one of the driver engineers and open a development ticket with them on the matter. I will see if they can pinpoint if this is driver write/read related, or something else. I don't have the tools nor the knowledge needed to diagnose severe issues within a driver buildup. I will figure this out for you dreary and myself, one way or another.
If they can't turn up any results, I will pull the protocols on your cards and compare them to mine.
Who manufactured your cards on the machines with the issue? And, in addition, what BIOS revision are they using?
Really though, this must be Vista... it has to be. I can try a corporate communiqué to Microsoft's Vista development center in reference to driver interaction (if I even have permissions to do it... I don't know how far my position can take me before I hit red tape that I cannot cut through)