Mkay Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 Just got a new XPS 720 from Dell with Nvidia GeForce 8800GT. When I open some dialogue boxes - especially the Material Editor in Max, parts of it disappear from view. Dragging the dialogue box around the edges of the screen will usually bring back the view. Even the Windows task manager disappears partially from view until dragged to the corners! I called Dell Support, they had me reinstall the video card driver. It didn't help. The next piece of advice they had to give me was that I should not have bought the GeForce- that's for gaming only. (Huh?) I should've bought the Quadro! Does that make any bit of sense? Any advice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneis Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 Quadro or GeForce makes no difference. Many users on these forums use the 8800GT and have no problems. The fact that the Task Manager is also dispalying incorrectly after reinstalling the drivers reinforces that it's not a Quadro vs GeForce issue. What type of monitor do you use and at what resolution. Also, what OS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfienoakes Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 Sounds familiar....... http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/2719/ Check out my thread in the viz section as well. Try the link above, see if thats your problem first. Sorry, I am assuming you have Vista...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mkay Posted February 6, 2008 Author Share Posted February 6, 2008 Thanks for replying! Shane: I'm on a Dell Ultrasharp 27" monitor. Resolution- 1920 by 1200. OS: XP Media 32-bit. Andy: Saw your link. I'm on XP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneis Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 Does the monitor come with a drivers disc? If so, have you installed them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mkay Posted February 7, 2008 Author Share Posted February 7, 2008 Does the monitor come with a drivers disc? If so, have you installed them? Yes. Same results after re-installing. Maybe I'll try Autodesk - see if they've come across such an issue... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IceAged Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Ahh, I have exactly the same issue, similar card. It's not just with Max, it often happens with my third party render dialogue boxes. It's fairly intermittent and I've not given it much thought, to be honest, (just do the same as yourself and drag to the bottom of the screen and back). Something similar happens if I am playing a video in Media Player, and I drag it onto another monitor - the video vanishes for a few seconds or is replaced with a green image. That's nonsense what Dell told you. Most likely it's a Windows/graphics card issue. Not sure what the answer is, other than to wait for a hotfix. I wouldn't recommend that you use the drivers that came on the disk with your computer, better to go straight to nVidia's website and download the latest ones from there. I'm on Vista so it's interesting to hear that XP users have the same issue... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mkay Posted February 11, 2008 Author Share Posted February 11, 2008 An update: Called Autodesk to hear if they're familiar with this problem. Believe it or not: Max is NOT compatible with GeForce 8800GT!! They tell me I should have bought the Quadro! Guy at Autodesk recommended I download updated DirectX from Microsoft. I did - no improvement with my problem! Anyone else had this issue - and managed to resolve it?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted February 11, 2008 Share Posted February 11, 2008 The Autodesk guy is just telling him what his database says - which is that Quadros are on the compatible list and Geforces aren't. But the only reason for that is that they test the Quadros because nVidia asks them to, and they don't want to test all the cards that would work because then they'd have to help you instead of saying "looks like your video card's not on the list, have a nice day" - which costs them staff time, which is money. It's not "not compatible" - whatever the problem is there's no guarantee that you wouldn't have the same thing wrong with a Quadro. The fact of the matter is that software has bugs, but as in any other line of work when mistakes happen companies like to blame other companies (usually Microsoft) instead of saying "we ought to nail that one down". If you're using a newer version of Max (what version is it anyway?) it's running Direct3D instead of OpenGL. A Quadro card is meant to run OpenGL well, a Geforce card is meant to run Direct3D. The driver code for the Quadro card running Direct3D is copied from the Geforce driver every few versions (they don't update to every revision of the Geforce Direct3D driver because it's easier to maintain a standard, stable, supportable system when you do fewer updates). This means that when running Direct3D a Quadro is functionally nearly identical to a Geforce. The exception here is if you run the Maxtreme for Direct3D software that adds a custom Direct3D interface to Max when using a Quadro card, but note that Maxtreme is not an Autodesk product and is not a requirement to make your video card supported (and isn't usually updated for new Max versions until some time after their release) so again, that wouldn't be a way to make your Quadro card more Autodesk compliant. In the real world (as opposed to the Autodesk support database) you already have one of the most compatible video cards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneis Posted February 11, 2008 Share Posted February 11, 2008 What Autodesk is saying is that the Quadro cards have been certified for use with Max. Read back on your posts to where you mention that your Windows Task Manager also has display issues. Does that mean that Windows is NOT compatible with the 8800 series as well? No, so we can deduce that the display issue is not caused by Max, but something deeper in the system that can affect applications and OS display...hmmm...what sits between hardware and the OS? Kernel and drivers. If either of those aren't "talking" to your OS properly, you'll have display issues. Follow? If OS and above have display issues, cause must be in OS or below. I have had a similar problem with display drivers in the past and a fresh install of WinXP and latest NVidia drivers fixed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mkay Posted February 11, 2008 Author Share Posted February 11, 2008 If you're using a newer version of Max (what version is it anyway?) Thanks for your input. I'm running Max 2008. Any suggestion on how to proceed? This is more than just a bother, I need to find a quick fix. Who do u think is responsible? Can it possibly be a hardware problem or a bug in Max? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mkay Posted February 11, 2008 Author Share Posted February 11, 2008 ...hmmm...what sits between hardware and the OS? Kernel and drivers. If either of those aren't "talking" to your OS properly, you'll have display issues. Follow? If OS and above have display issues, cause must be in OS or below. You're talking sense. Guess I'll re-install XP (and I avoided Vista because of it's many faults... ha...). If that won't work we'll continue digging deeper!... Thanks for your help!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneis Posted February 11, 2008 Share Posted February 11, 2008 Who do u think is responsible? Can it possibly be a hardware problem or a bug in Max? If I had just bought a new PC from Dell and found that the OS was having display issues, I'd have put it back in the box and sent it back to them or demanded on-site support come and fix it. That's what the warranty is for. Again, countless people are using the same spec graphics card as you with the same version of Max. They have no display issues. Why not just reinstall from OS and up (including drivers). So long as it's not going to void your warranty. If you still have the same problems, get Dell to give you a new PC that works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mkay Posted February 11, 2008 Author Share Posted February 11, 2008 If I had just bought a new PC from Dell and found that the OS was having display issues, I'd have put it back in the box and sent it back to them or demanded on-site support come and fix it. That's what the warranty is for. Again, countless people are using the same spec graphics card as you with the same version of Max. They have no display issues. Why not just reinstall from OS and up (including drivers). So long as it's not going to void your warranty. If you still have the same problems, get Dell to give you a new PC that works. Boy - you're good! This is why I went to Dell in the first place and didn't assemble my own. Now why am I worrying about all the nitty-gritty details that went wrong?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted February 11, 2008 Share Posted February 11, 2008 Also, when you talk to tech support, find other programs that don't work, and mention those and not Max. Like Shane said, having the same problem in Task Manager makes it not a Max problem, but as soon as you mention you're running Max on a Geforce the tech support guy gets sidetracked into how it's all your fault for not buying the Quadro card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mkay Posted February 11, 2008 Author Share Posted February 11, 2008 Just spent 2+ hours with Dell on the line. The technician installed an older version of the nVidia driver. Seems like that did the trick! He also optimized the memory settings - which helped speed up the processor a bit. Thank you all for your input! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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