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Screen flicker


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We are trying to track down the source of the "flickering screen" issue.

There seem to be a few different experiences of the flicker, and the information is in various places.

I want to centralize the screen flicker relating information in this thread.

If you are experiencing a screen flicker issue, please respond with the following info with as much specific detail as possible. The more detail we get, the better off we are at discovering (and addressing) the issue.

  • Version of VW
  • Operating System - if on MAC, exact OS version
  • A detailed explanation of what flickers
    (Is it the whole application window, is it just the drawing window, just a palette (if so, which one), does it only happen when zooming (if so, do you have the scroll wheel zoom option disabled in VW prefs?, etc.)
  • When does the flicker happen, specifically
  • What is your screen resolution?

Edited by Katie
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OK let me get this straight...I slightly confused.

Is it?

How much flick would a screen flicker flick if a screen flicker would flick flicker?

I wish I had more time with this...We could all have alot of fun.

Seriously...

With VW 13 I had a very noticable and extremely obvious display flicker when I selected any 3D object. The system would crank and grind while reading the object data and translating it to the screen. Once the 3D object data populated the OIP moving from 3D object to 3D object worked relatively fine until you would change to another object type like a 2D symbol. This same kind of occurance happens to me in 12.5 but to a lessor extent howeve, the size of my machine compensates for any flicking. It appears that 13 requires more flicking compensation than my machine can handle right now so the flickering is very noticable.

Pete

Edited by panthony
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I haven't had the flicker problem yet (human or computer), but the Release Notes with my latest ATI video driver update mentions the following:

"On certain products playing back VC-1 and H.264 content with display resolution set at 1360x768 or higher may result in screen flashing."

Certain Video Cards maybe.

Islandmon, Pete - I guess the subliminal effect of the flicker is working! I suggest 2 hours in a dark closet, no audio or visual stimulation.

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Congrats.....someone at NNA finally got their screen to flicker!

Operating System...WinXP Pro SP2

Software...........VW12.5.2 Fundamentals

Video Card.........nVidia Quatro FX3000 256mb

Screen Resolution...1440x900, dual monitors

Most flicker occurs when selecting items, callouts and or dimensions. Menu bar and OIP flickers intensely and OIP slowly paints in the information. Can be timed in increments of 5 -10 secs, easily at times. Happens on any file size, most of mine are fairly small. New file or existing makes no difference. VW generated info or imported no diference also.

Seems to have gotten worse after upgrading to the original VW12 from 11.5 where minimal flicker was also apparent but no where near 12.5.2

Hope this helps....

Thanks as usual,

Tom in PA

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Katie, when I open a new file in vw2008 and draw a wall, after my second click the blue bar at the top of the application window flashes about 15 or 20 times. When I draw a second wall, same thing. When I draw a thrird wall, just a few flashes. The same thing happens often (talking about 12.5.2 as well here) when: entering a viewport, clicking on a window or door, editing a callout.

I think there are two issues here. One is the actual flashing, which might be triggered by an unnecessary call to redraw the screen. The second is that (my hunch) VW is doing some dynamic loading of resources, and even if you could eliminate the "flicker," you'd still have a program slowdown associated with the dynamic loading.

I'd ask the engineers two things: 1) are loading these resources always necessary? 2) why is VW resorting to dynamic loading (assume to preserve RAM and to make the initial startup faster), and is this the best strategy to solve these problems?

Windows XP boots a lot faster than Win 2000 did, and the reason (I think) is that it gets to functionality faster because it loads some modules when it gets the chance, rather than forcing everything to load into dynamic memory before anything can be done. So, one strategy for VW would be to get to the point where a file can be opened or a new file created really quickly (that's where most users start their session). Then load more stuff as the user is looking for their file - etc.

I'm not clear that saving the RAM has to be a big priority. I have to admit I'm not familiar with the numbers, but it seems that if you have to load resources to draw a wall or deal with a window PIO, you have to load them sooner or later anyway.

My hardware: Intel CoreDuo 3.2 GHz, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA Quadro FX 3450/4000 SDI w/ driver 6.14.11.6218, Dell flatscreen monitor (2007WFP) w/ driver 1.0.0.0.

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I started a new project today with an existing vw12 - working in 2D

Since I want to keep the class and layer structure

I deleted all previous info and purged everything other than classes and layers

I started with a footings and foundations using

styled wall; call out tool; text; gridlines; created groups and symbols

I then duplicated some info for the main floor plan

and THEN I inserted a window from the windows tool

as soom as the window was inserted the flickering started and has became really annoying as windows and doors where added

so the PIO seems to be the culprit

winxppro - 2 LCD monitors on ASUS Nivia GeForce 5400

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Pete,

I ran into this problem years ago when developers were begining to write programs that resided in the windows interface. What was happening was in order to gather data from one window and populate another window they had to make each window active in order to grab the data and then pass it to the other window. So there was an enormous amount of resources being used to switch between windows.

VW appears to be doing something similar in that each time you select an object the main window flashes as if it were losing focus back and forth with the OIP with several occurances during the initial data grab. It is not a very clean transfer of info right now. Hopefully NNA will get it right with the next maintenance release (sooner the better) because 2008 is non-functional under XP at present.

Pete A

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2008 is non-functional under XP at present.

A. Sounds good! The Empire finally Strikes Back!

B. Who cares? XP is ancient history. I'm quite sure VW 2008 is non-functional under MS-DOS, too.

C. What? They say that XP & Service Pack 2 works. Obviously, during three very full & busy days at a Trade Exhibition I've misinformed tens of prospective & existing users!

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Pete R. states....."The same thing happens often (talking about 12.5.2 as well here) when: entering a viewport, clicking on a window or door, editing a callout."

Pete A. states....."VW appears to be doing something similar in that each time you select an object the main window flashes.."

This is exactly the behaviour I have been experiencing over the last year since upgrading to VW12, as attested to my numerous posts concerning screen flicker, weird Callout happenings etc.

It still gripes me that now that NNA has finally admitted to actual having an internal problem within VW that I will be forced to pony up and upgrade to VW2008, when VW12.5 suits our business just fine, in order to eliminate an inherent that was duly noted in VW12 and was not looked at or addressed in VW12.5 or subsequent updates. It just doesn't seem right......

I even remeber a post by Mr Anderson stating that these types of issues were hardware related and not VW related. So much for that thinking.

I just got a call from the sales staff at NNA offering me the current upgrade as they always do and ever other time I just upgrade immediately. Yesterday I said 'NO' just due to all the issues that have come up with VW12.5 and VW2008.

We are now going back to 11.5 which exhibited none of the above. When, and if, NNA gets all this sorted out. we may upgrade. Until then we will go backwards...sometimes change is not for the better.

Thanks,

Tom in PA

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Tom, to be fair, I didn't experience the problem when I first installed 12.5.2. Something has happened in the meantime, and it may well have been something in a Windows or driver update that conflicts or interacts badly with VW. Not to say that NNA is off the hook, but I myself know how hard it is to deal with a moving target.

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Im just yer average guy with a normal everyday computer purchased within my budget that choked with the installation of 2008. Now that may not be a bad thing if it uncovered the flicking problem. Maybe the need for more power has finally reared its ugly head. Heck I'm not one for poo-pooing any new thing and I've seen a bunch of software in my time...by the way VW is the best by far....real far....really really far. Did I say really really really far.

Lets just get to work. Right now 12.5 works and Pete R. you are probably the most correct when you state that MS probably had an upgrade that brought the boils of VW to head....sick.

Nothing like a little OS salve to bring out the gunk.

Petri...if you have actually talked with ten people who believed you...you are quite the salesman...wow ten people. You know I'm picking.

Gotta luv the honesty of these forums.

Pete A.

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Pete R.

I agree with the 'moving target' scenario. Things can be more easily solved if they just up and die, so to speak. I agree that something else may be in play here but is the software makers responsibiliy to insure that it us compatible on all platforms that it sells. They can get the updates just as you and I can.

I may sound harsh at times but I am still a staunch supporter just as I have been since the first MiniCad days. I am still here so that speaks for itself. My gripe is that more than one person has complained about these issues over the years and it should have deserved some attention then. Instead it was just shrugged off as a hardware problem and a fix was never in place.

Now that the latest and greatest VW2008 is out and it too has the same issues, now it gets addressed. Why....because future sales and upgrades are now on the edge. You gotta love it!

Thanks for the support,

Tom in PA

VW 12.5.2 and falling......

WinXP Pro SP2

nVidia FX3000

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After rereading the various posts regarding VW2008 problems (screen flicker, crashes,etc), many are using nVidia cards. Unfortunately, many posts do not list their hardware configurations. If those having problems could provide this information as well as a description of the problem a clearer pattern may emerge. I am still using VW 12.5, ATI card, but have never had any of the screen flicker issues.

Katie often recommends updating video drivers, but some nVidia users report having done this and are still having problems.

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Pete,

I have had my desktop manager disabled for quite awhile now and I still get flickering and the slow fill-in of the OIP. Don't know if it was worse when I had it on but I'll give it a shot and check it out.

I have the same video card that I was using in 11.5 which exhibited none of these problems.

I'll play around a little,

Thanks,

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Tom,

I see you have dual monitors. Do you have the same video card supporting both monitors, or do you have two video cards?

If you have two, are they identical?

Have you tried reducing the screen resolution to see if that makes a change?

What is the refresh rate set to?

What version driver is installed for the one (or both if you have two) video cards?

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Katie,

Yes, it's dual head card supporting both. Screen resolution has been played with and seems to make no difference. I am running one (1) 22" wide screen and I have to keep the resolution in a small area to keep screen items in proportion.

Monitor refresh is set to 60hz. This has been set to 75 with no change.

The FX3000 driver is set currently at 9.1.3.6. We updated it a few weeks ago and rolled it back due to some other issues.

The system was running with the older nVidia FX500/600 dual head card for years and the problems arose after VW11.5.

Hope any of this helps..........

Thanks

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  • 4 weeks later...

If you are experiencing screen flickering, please try the following:

Go to the Task Manager (Control + Alt + Del and choose Task Manager)

Click on the Processes tab

If you have ipoint.exe, disable it

Please report whether or not you see this and if you do, if disabling this addresses the screen flicker problem.

If you still experience the problem, please list the video card, driver version, mouse type and mouse driver version.

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Hi Katie, looks like we have 2 screen flicker threads now!

As reported in the other thread, I have two computers, one a laptop, and neither has the ipoint.exe process. Both have nearly identical flickering problems (blue bar at top of window flickers at ~4 cps, number of flickers varies from 0 - 30). One computer (Dell 690) has the NVIDIA Quadro 3450/4000 SDI video card with the driver supplied by Dell tech support (v 9.1.3.6) and a Dell optical mouse with MS driver 5.2.3790.1830. The other (HP ZD8000) has the ATI Mobility Radeon X600 video card with driver v 6.14.10.6483 and both Synaptics touchpad (driver 7.11.14.0) and MS Intellipoint bluetooth mouse with driver v 5.1.2600.0.

HTH!

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