Topic: Recurring problem

[Pwilsonscott]

As asked for earlier, here is a list of games i have just tried and how they are running

Rallisport challenge - Runs fine ( this has allways run fine ) but i got a message, which i have seen with this game before which says "The last time you started Rallisport challenge it did not exit succesfully - recommend you run with low graphics detail" (which i allways do)
Curse of Monkey Island - runs fine
Emperor Rise of Middle Kingdom - Sent to taskbar
Dart m Up (free demo)- Runs OK with a double click, but sent to taskbar with a single click(and when i try to restore it from the taskbar the screen seems to be in a different resolution but it wont run)
Tiger Woods PGA 2003 - sent to task bar
Destroyer Command - sent to taskbar
Silent Hunter 2 - sent to taskbar (Control/Alt/Delete says that SH2 screen blanker running)

[Dack]

Firstly - looks like it's not a Spyware related issue. Your logs are clean. (You may want to run Spybot and choose the immunise options however)

Secondly - You are not alone (bet that makes you feel better )

For rise of middle kingdom:
http://forums.belution.com/en/directx/000/002/03s.shtml

For Tiger Woods:
http://www.vapournet.com/~danny/starwraith/viewthread.php?tid=72
and
http://forums.belution.com/en/directx/000/001/72.shtml
etc....

Looks like its a direct X issue with the ATI drivers > Games that use open GL seem unaffected.

I'm guessing that recently you've done a windows update which installed direct X 9 and it's this that is causing the problems.

Solutions:
1. One theory is that it is caused by the ATI keypoller service so you can disable it

Start -> Run -> services.msc

Find the ati hotkey poller service (near the top) right click select properties and in startup type change it to disabled, click apply and reboot.

Or

2. Try and 'rollback' XP until the time before Direct X 9 was installed.

I'd try 1 first and then try the DirectX tests again.

[Dack]

And for a list of other ATI related driver issues:
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33705231

There are other related issues that may need addressing:
1. Shutting down the ATI icon.
Bring up the Display Properties->Advanced dialog, select the Options tab, and uncheck "Enable ATI taskbar icon application". This will automatically disable "Show ATI icon on taskbar". Click Apply/OK

2. Disabling the XP Sticky Keys.
Goto the control panel and open the accessibilty options. There are several things that will need to be configured; for each feature (in XP there are 5 of them), select settings, and deselect "Use Shortcut". Just deselecting the feature is not enough since it watches the keys. Now on the general tab, you'll want to deselect the "Give warning message" option since this causes a dialog to pop up prompting you on if you want to enable the accessibility feature. If that dialog pops up while you are in a full screen game or something, then this dialog will force you to jump to the desktop (which in some games is not a problem, you just go back, but in some it causes the game to hang or even close).

Taken from http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=1332318213

Both of these have been implicated in the minimize problem and the fact you have got two firewall installed may have been enough to start triggering the problem mentioned in 2.

[Pwilsonscott]

Thank-you, i will try each of those in turn and let you know the outcome tomorrow, although with intemittent problems its difficult to know when the problem has been fixed, but if anything it seems to be getting worse. I dont recall installing direct X 9.0 but i have done a windows update, or i think it might have come with the Tiger woods game, though that may have been version 8.0.
Just to clear up something, the earlier link you gave me where someone else had the same problems, including the test direct 3D issue about being cancelled by pressing a key (even though i pressed nothing) pointed to 2 things
1) Uninstalling Norton firewall - i have Norton Internet security, which i think has a firewall as part of it, can i just remove the firewall or the whole thing, and what to replace it with
2) It mentioned msconfig.exe and disactivating gd_chost0000_el - i have run msconfig from the start menu and i cannot find mention of gd_chost_0000el

[Dack]

The earlier link looks as if it was a bit of a red herring - sorry. I'd hazzard a guess that they'd 'fixed' it by rolling back to when the firewall was uninstalled.

This time, knowing some of the software affected and the fact it was a Radeon, I went to rage3d.com which is pretty much the definitive resource for Radeon/Ati issues.

From your earlier posting, with dxdiag information, you have definitely got Direct X 9 installed.

Probably best to do all the 3 suggestions made in the last two posts of mine and then see if the software works correctly. (Shut down Icon, shut down service, stop the sticky keys).

As to firewalls I do not have any experience of Norton firewall (I use Kerio as I like twiddling ) so could not tell you how to use Norton internet security or what else it affects. (Just looked at the advertising blurb and seen it includes anti-spam software, anti-virus and a firewall so probably a good idea to just stick with it and remove agnitum).

Remember to do the immunize on Spybot though.

[Pwilsonscott]

Thanks. I will do all the previous suggestions when i get home from work tonight. This thing about NaturalColorload came up again when i started up this morning. The exact message is :

Debug Assertion Failed !
Program : C:\Program Files\SEC\Natural Color\NaturalColorload.exe File : C :\WORK\nc2_20020220\iu1R\NaturalColorload\SystemTray.cpp Line:124
For information on how your program can cause an assertion failure, see the visual C++ documentation on asserts. Press retry to debug the appplication

There are 3 options, Abort,Retry,Ignore
Retry gives NaturalColor load.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close, and something about sending an error report to Microsoft which i have done.
Note : where above says iu1R it should read greek letter u (ie with a tail on the left hand side and in italics) the 1 is small and to the upper right of the u, and the R is in a circle.
I will report back on the other suggestions this evening. Many thanks

[Pwilsonscott]

Just 1 more thing before i go to work, not sure if its connected but but i want to give you all the information that i can. As i am looking at the screen now, there is a light blue bar at the bottom of the window, just above the task bar, that says Done if the left hand corner when a site has been found and a box towards the right corner which say Allowing Pop-Ups with a down arrow, and the number 0 next to it. The bottom portion of this whole bar is masked by the task bar, and if i click on the dark blue bar at the top where it says PC Pals Forum and darg upwards, the whole bar becomes visible but some of the dark blue bar at the top becomes masked by the place where i type in Web site adresses.

[Dack]

IF you right click on Naturalcolor.exe and get the properties on it (date, time) and any extra info e.g. Copyright information etc. then it could be useful. Possibly installed with either a printer or the graphics card.

Not sure about your blue bar but what happens when you right click on that - sound a bit popup stopper/Norton like.

[Simon]

Dack, could it be something to do with AOL, which I believe also has a built in pop up stopper?

[lobo]

Remove Naturalcolor from the PC unless it is essential for your operating system

Brian

[Pwilsonscott]

I have run Spybot and chosen immunize
I have disabled ati hotkey poller service by running services.msc
All games and programmes i have tried this evening are running perfectly !! The Direct X tests (both of them) are fine - no problem with the second test saying i cancelled it by pressing a key as before.

I guess its hard to say the problem is solved as its intermittent but i am so grateful for your help so far.
Is it OK to leaves the ati hotkey poller service disabled ?
Shall i still look at the other issues mentioned -
1) Running Ad Aware
2) Shutting down the ATI icon
3) Disabling the XP sticky keys
4) Rolling back XP until the time before Direct X 9 was installed

Many thanks again for all your help
I will let you know if anything re-occurs
Happy Christmas !

[Dack]

Sounds like thats the problem sorted (for now at least ) so don't really need to do anything else at the moment.

The keyboard service problem is apparently a known bug that has existed from driver version 3.5 onwards - they just haven't fixed it. You should be perfectly safe leaving it disabled.
(Probably worth checking that any further updates to your system don't re-install the ATI keyboard service though )

ATI icon and sticky keys - I wouldn't bother with those at present.

AdAware does a similar job to Spybot but each picks up things the other doesn't. That was the fix in case it was spyware related. Always good to have at least one of those products installed anyways.

Not worth rolling back - would keep that as a last resort if the problem reappears at some point in the future. (And shutting down the keyboard service, icon and sticky keys have failed to fix).

One other thing you may want to consider doing, unrelated to your problem but should improve your internet surfing. If you haven't done so already - run the services.msc again and STOP and then DISABLE the 'Messenger' service. This is not internet messenger but a 'feature' of XP thats intended to be used by network printers etc. for putting alerts on your screen. Unfortunately Microsoft don't check that these messages come from your local network and so spammers have been sending messages using it. These then pop-up on your screen with such great titles as "click here to find out how you can spam thousands of people"  >. Disabling it stops that little exploit.