Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Technical Support => Topic started by: BenDover on June 02, 2003, 01:30:33 PM
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I just did a clean install of XP Pro, i've installed AH and now when I alt-tab out, and then back in, AH appears to lock up and the screen flickers like mad.
I've got SP1, and all critical and recomended updates installed (ain't broadband briliant?:) )
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I can ALT TAB in and out of AH on both my rigs using Home and Pro with NP. Some have fixed wierd graphics on return from ALT TAB by checking DISABLE PALETIZED TEXTURES in the AH video setup screeen.
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Still got this problem
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I have this same problem and have posted a number of times and have received 0 responses about it
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Originally posted by icemaw
I have this same problem and have posted a number of times and have received 0 responses about it
has to be vid card related...
i have xp pro and have no problems with alt-tab...
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This was an issue for me with early GeForceII drivers.
Later updates/drivers fixed it.
Are your desktop resolution and in-game resolution different? It's generally preferable to have them the same.
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Same problem Ben, my color depth and res. is the same in the game and on desktop, have tried to disable whatever it was but to no resolve..
XP SP1 also with a Radeon 9500 128 meg
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Ive had no problem with alt-tabing:
My in game res is 1600x1200
My desktop is 1024x768 or 1280x960 depending on what I was doing that day
Ive done it with zero problems on:
Radeon VIVO DDR
Radeon 8500
Gefarce4 4200ti
Radeon 9800 pro
It is either a video card/driver issue, or possibly a mobo issue
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I'm not really interested if you don't have alt-tab probs, I'm the sure the majority don't have them.
Anyway, I've got the latest detonator and via drivers, res and depth are the same.
Btw, is the fan on the geforce 4 MX surposed to spin all the time?
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Mine started when I changed to the plutonium drivers for the radeon. I have since gone back to factory drivers but the problem is still there
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You might try going to an earlier driver. I think I'm using 38. something in the envidea. Had weird video with the later 42. Just a thought.
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I have the same prob Ben. My HD died on me and I reinstalled win xp and new HD. All the rest of my HW is the same. Alt tab worked fine before but since the new upload it flickers like mad and sound is screwy when I try to re-enter the game. I also cant alt tab back out, however the windows key puts me back to desktop and i can exit game that way. I am running a Radeon 9600 so it does seem it maybe a windows setting that we have missed? Any thoughts or help would be appreciated. also "disabled pallette swap" doesnt work for me either. Tried old driver also no help.
Thanks,
RHIN0
Athalon 1300, 512 sd ram,radeon 9600 128DDR, catylist 012924c driver, onboard sound, Win XP Pro, Saitek X-45, CH products Pro Rudder pedals.
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It worked fine in 98, broken in XP. Have Geforce4 and FX, with various driver revisions - All broken.
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It's related IMHO to the Architexture of Windows XP. If you open task manager, you'll see that it's running at 99% utilization and it's running at High priority IIRC.
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i don't alt-tab, i hit the "windows" button on keyboard that's next to the alt button. works fine. have xp.
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Yes your graphics card fan should be running all the time.
And no i dont have any problems alt tabbing in AH with XP Pro.
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i dont alt tab but instead i use alt esc, course i have windows ME os, but my parents have xp ill sometime use that and i never have problem alt tabbing. Might be to little memory.
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Dingbat any suggestions on how to fix it? Like I had mentioned it worked fine for me with this same setup, it was only after I reinstalled the windows xp "same disk and setup" that this started happening. If it is related to the IMHO is there a setting I can change to correct it? It really made me mad yesterday when I had hit a combo on my stick that caused an alt tab to occur "joystick setting problem I have now fixed" 25min into flight just prior to target. Wow I was mad when I couldnt get back into game. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks again.
RHIN0
Athalon 1300, 512 sd ram,radeon 9600 128DDR, catylist 012924c driver, onboard sound, Win XP Pro, Saitek X-45, CH products Pro Rudder pedals.
Dingbat, Also on a side note kickin setup you have there how many FPS with it. I plan on building that exact system in Jan only with 2.8 best bang for buck right now.
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I really don't know why some have this problem, but I really don't think it is XP related. I don't kow what the problem is but here are some things it isn't. I have had XP Home on my Guam box since it came out. It was originally a 1.4 Tbird/Asus VIA mobo with a GF3 and WIN ME. It currently has an Asus Nforce mobo with XP 2100+/gig of Crucial 2100/GF4 4400 w 41.09/SB Live/XP Home SP1.
Both boxes have always been able to ALT/TAB, ESC/TAB, WIN KEY, or launch IE or OE from keybaord to desktop and return to the game with zero problems.
My only guess is that it is video driver or driver installation issue.
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Win XP pro....NO PROBS ALT TABBING
HOWEVER, when i had old direct x drivers and vid card drivers after a fresh install....I could have a "see thru" plane with crappy graphics after the alt tab.....
I attribute this to the DRIVERS...not the OS or the card...
just a thought
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I have XP Home and had a 9000pro ati card, I used to be able to alt tab out and back into the game without problems. I have since upgraded my video driver and directx a few times and have the problem now. Unfortunately I can't say exactly when it started for the first time.
Had to dump a 262 recently because of it. Wasn't pretty :-)
Acetnt
I currently have dirextx 9b and cat3.10
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This problem is more than likely a video driver related problem. I have an ATI 8500 using the Cat 3.7 drivers in this system, and Alt-tab many, many times a day without any problems.
The problem is, if you use certain video drivers, then change them, the Windows registry may still have all the previous hacks from the last driver.
If you do not remove the old drivers before changing to newer drivers, then the newer drivers could be affected.
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Skuzzy could this also be the problem with lost vox? Old drivers in the registry?
Sorry about hijacking the thread.
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It could be Easycor. Anything is possible. I never really have any VOX problems, but then I am also very meticulous about my computer and keeping it cleaned up and not installing intrusive software on it.
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Possible solution.....
I see your in England....
Dav is running in Hawaii without any problems...
Try going to Hawaii and see if it works there!
That's what I would do.....
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I did some stuff to try to fix my alt-tabbing problems given Scuzy's advice.
First note: The problem is somewhat sporradic for me. Sometimes if I start another app while I'm in windows, I'll go back fine. Other times: no dice. Also, I believe that I had the problem on my initial windows install - before installing any updated drivers. Thus, I can't really put too much faith in the results.
This time around, I uninstalled my nvidia drivers, rebooted, and installed them (53.03). Alt-tab works fine.
When I turn on fsaa, alt-tab is broken. It appears I can turn on aniso and alt-tab works but Nvidia+AH+aniso=feces frame rate.
Now that alt-tab works (I hope permanently), it's a nuisance that the frame rate limiter isn't available at higher rates, as windows crawls with AH in the background even on a rather perky box, and the limits available are too slow when used with non-flickering refresh rates. Even just a 150fps global cap would fix this for any newer machines.
- SG
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OK ive never had this prob. if i did it was long ago!
I got a WD raptor and did a freash reinstall of Win XP pro and every thing else .............
System in AMDxp 2500
ASUS A7N8X - Delux
9700 pro AIW
Been running game for years w/O any prob..........
i installed AH1 and was gettin the alt tab flickers.............said F-it
DLed and installed AH2 1.99,...........newest one
works fine!
I didnt change a thing between either
I just dont understand all windows is upto date every driver is new and cool (ATI cat. 3.10)
same stuff i was using on old HD but its not working on this one for AH 1?????????????????????
*********fixed refreash rate was the reason was at 85 should be at 100 ************
thats the missing link im sure of it!:aok
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Ok - I had this problem. Then I installed new omega drivers for the radeon card I have - yet again (had uninstalled a prev version due to problems) and the problem went completely away.
The only other thing I did is to switch off a few services that I had running on my machine - have 27 running on xp home now before playing game - dont know if this fixed that annoying alt tab flicker.
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Thought I'd post this here because I too had the flickering graphics when I Alt-Tabbed out of AH. It NEVER did that until I reinstalled XP. I didn't change any hardware...and installed the same Radeon Cat 3.7 drivers I used before.
So here's what worked for me. I have a Radeon 9700 Pro and an Asus A7N8X deluxe m/b (NForce 2 chipset). I went to Nvidia's site and upgraded the m/b chipset software (not BIOS). Then I completely uninstalled my video card drivers and reinstalled them. Now it works like a champ and solved an issue in another game I play called Morrowind. You never know, it might work for you too.
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The problem is definately related to the video drivers. I changed from Cat 3.10 to 4.2 and the problem cropped up. On ATI cards, I think it relates to failure to uninstall all of the old drivers and the ATI control panel prior to updating. I have two computers with ATI cards both doing the exact same thing. I know I didn't uninstall the control panel and may have upgraded without a driver uninstall at some point in the past on each of them.
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Always uninstall video drivers before installing new ones. It goes a long ways to keeping a system stable.
I just upgraded to Cat 4.2's and am not having any issues with alt-tabs, but I uninstalled the previous ones first.
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For those ATI folks who may have done what I did and installed new over old drivers (or have windows load old drivers from cab files), instructions for wiping out all the video drivers and starting fresh, and thus perhaps fixing the alt-tab problem can be found on the Rage3D Catalyst Forum (http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33738545) .
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I absolutely cleaned out all traces of old drivers, using the methods in the links aboveand installed Catalyst 4.2 drivers and still have the alt-tab problem. Same thing happens, flashing white screen on return from desktop, if you use the Windows key. Have to look for something esle that changed when I installed drivers.
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I have the same issue but mine is not vid card related and I'll tell you why. I used to be able to alt-tab in and out of the game just fine. Then one day, instead of left clicking or alt-tabbing back, I right clicked and chose 'maximize'. Since then installing/reinstalling AH doesn't work, nor does thoroughly cleaning out my registry. I tried looking for a setting that would change the default window the game started in to no avail. After that I tried creating a new shortcut and setting the properties to full screen, still no go.
I hope this gives some more insight to the issue and, of course, someone finds a fix :)
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Well I stand corrected, partially. I reinstalled my drivers after ripping them out and that seemed to work. I can duplicate the issue with the aforementioned 'right clicking on the task bar and choosing maximize' action. I can also refix it by reinstalling the drivers again. I'm not sure if this is what caused anyone elses issue but just a precaution I suppose.
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I absolutely cleaned out all traces of old drivers, using the methods in the links aboveand installed Catalyst 4.2 drivers and still have the alt-tab problem.
I had same issue still following complete removal/reinstall of drivers. After having more accidents where I return to desktop and not able to re-enter the game I decided FR is less important. I removed my Radeon 9600 and went back to my GF2 ti400. The graphics are not as nice and FR goes way down when It gets crowed, but I can now Alt tab all I want.
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After realizing how much better the graphis were with my ATI 9600 vs the GF2 I went back to the 9600. When I did I installed the latest drivers from ATI. I can now Alt tab all I want with the 9600!! Not sure what is happening here but maybe for a frustrated few, to uninstall card install old card and re-install original card may be worth a try and get the Alt tab working.
RHIN0
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On my signature computer (#1) I had no problem for a while but around the time I upgraded to Cat 4.2, Alt-tab problem started. I uninstalled the drivers cleaned the registry, cabs, all ATi related files and reinstalled but it didn't fix the problem. I tried omega drivers but no joy. I did a fresh install of XP Pro w/SP1 with a fresh install of new at the time Cat 4.3 drivers. Problem persisted. Changed the motherboard from Abit IC7-Max3 to Asus P4C800E-Deluxe and CPU to 2.8C P4, did another fresh install of XP and fresh install of ATi drivers and problem went away. Then the promise SATA controller died on the ASUS and I had to RMA it. I was building another computer (#2) with the old Abit and P4c 3.0 so I put it into service as my AH computer using vid card from #1, fresh install on new WD Raptor of XP Home fully updated, fresh install of Cat 4.4. Problem returned. I've done so many fresh installs with so many different drivers that I can't determine cause and effect.
I've had the Alt-Tab problem on my sons old Gateway 1.5GHz computer since installing an Asus Radeon 9600XT.
Setting in bios? setting on card? fast-writes issue? bios/vid driver issue?, overclocking issue (can't be the Gateway is stock)? If any body see's the common thread, let me know.
Don't have the problem with AH2.
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Your video card settings are defaulting back to desktop configurations. When you try to go back to the game, the card gets screwed trying reset to game settings. Solution, change your settings. Worked for me.
Oz
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Desktop and game are both running @ 1280 x 1024 x 32bit. What setting are you refering to?
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Well I had the same problem after changing to ATI from nVidia. I went through the System Purge of all old drivers as per the Rage3d.com instructions and the problem still persisted.
But I said had....
I was running the game at the same res as my desktop (1280x1024) and I always got the white flickering when I tried to go back to the game.
So for kicks... I set my desktop to 1024x768 and tried again, leaving AH at 1280x1024
I can alt tab so long as the game res is set higher than my desktop. I really don't want to run my desktop at 1024, so I have raised it to 1280x960 and I can still alt tab
not much of a difference between 1280x1024 and 1280x960, try it.
SKurj
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SKurg,
That did it. For me the desktop and game resolution just have to be different. Desktop is now @ 1280 x 1024 and game at 1024 x 768 and I can ALT-TAB fine. Thanks. Mystery of how to fix it is solved, why it happens may never be solved since it doesn't happen in AH2.
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Update to above post. After changing the game video settings and the desktop settings to various values, I can now set them both to 1280 x 1024 and have no problem alt-tabbing. Problem solved. Must be something in the AH settings folder?
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Hmm I'll have to try restoring back to 1280x1024 and see what happens (desktop)
SKurj