Odd Video Problem Occurs When MA is Running

[BigScreen]

I am having a strange issue where my monitors are acting oddly, necessitating a reboot to fix the issue. I'll attempt to attach an image of the problem since describing it just won't do the trick.

It happens sporadically, and only when MA2 is running. I am hoping that others have seen this, and can point me in the right direction. Unfortunately, I think I upgraded to MA2, DirectX 9.0b, and added a second monitor to my existing Matrox G450 card all within a couple of weeks. It was after this time period that I began experiencing this problem.

I suspect that it is related to DirectX in some way, as I was able to get the problem to happen just once while experimenting with other screen savers. It happened once when I hit "Preview" with the "3D Text" screen saver selected, but never again.

Upgrading video drivers did not solve the problem, and upgrading to MA2MD didn't solve it either. I don't think there is a way to back out of a DirectX upgrade...

[BigScreen]

Here is the photo of the monitors when they go bad:

[feldon34]

Going back to an earlier version of DirectX is *possible*, but tricky. Be prepared for the slight chance that Windows might completely implode on you! There are several shareware programs out there that'll do it. I had success with:

https://www.feldoncentral.com/Sachs/...uster21b4e.exe

[Jim Sachs]

Bigscreen - are you using the 2.01 version of the Aquarium? There were many code changes between v2 and v2.01, especially multi-monitor support.

[Socrates]

If it's XP, you might be able to roll back to a restore point prior to installing the dx9.

But many, many people are using dx9 with MA with no problems. So it's not "just" dx causing a problem.

[patscarr]

Ouch! That photo hurts! I hope you get things worked out. Going back to an earlier DX doesn't seem like the best idea to me. It has to be something else.

[BigScreen]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs
Bigscreen - are you using the 2.01 version of the Aquarium? There were many code changes between v2 and v2.01, especially multi-monitor support.

Jim,

Yes, I'm using v2.01, but it was happening before on v2.0 as well.

Like I said, it's really frustrating because so many things changed in very close proximity to the time the problem cropped up, so it's difficult to know what exactly started the issue. It almost seems as though the video driver upgrade I did a few months ago helped the situation a little, but I don't have any numbers to back that up.

I suspect that the problem is most likely the fact that the G450 isn't handling the second monitor well (both monitors are ViewSonic VP171b LCD's) when it comes to 3-D applications. Seeing how badly other screensavers like Flurry, etc. perform when both monitors are engaged makes me believe that this video card was only built to do standard 2-D well on dual monitors.

I was able to see the glitch begin once. MA was running just fine, and a fish appeared from the left side of the screen, and then the monitors went bad. That led me to think that it might be something to do with when a new object is created and the DirectX library yakking on itself.

(It's really interesting to try and shut down the computer when everything is so garbled. I've now written down the keystrokes to perform a shutdown mouse-free.)

My first thought was that it was a video sync problem with the monitors, but since both monitors go bad at the same time, the input frequency is valid, and resetting the monitors from their OSD doesn't fix the problem, it's gotta be something down the chain.

I've been considering upgrading to a Matrox P750 to get full dual-monitor support (w/ dual overlays) plus TV-out for doing video editing. That would be changing quite a bit (DVI vs. analog VGA, different driver family, different chipset), but if it fixed this problem, improved 3-D performance to an acceptable level (don't play games a lot, so I don't need a bleeding edge 3-D card), and got me some additional functionality (TV out for video editing/DVD authoring), that would be cool.

I will also post a message over in the Matrox support forums as well to see if anyone there has seen this glitch.

Since it happened to me once while engaging the 3-D Text screensaver from Microsoft, I don't believe that this is a problem with MA, per se, but I would imagine that it has something to do with 3-D objects and how well the video card is handling those operations.

Is MA DirectX only, or does it also use any OpenGL? (Are they mutually exclusive?) I thought that the 3-D Text SS was an OpenGL SS, but it would probably make more sense for it to be DirectX, as there would be little reason for Microsoft to develop in OpenGL...

[Jim Sachs]

The PC version of the Aquarium is 100% DirectX. The Mac version is OpenGL.