Alt-Enter and more causing black screens

**northridge** · 08-17-2006, 01:16 PM

I had tacked this onto my other post but it sems to have slipped the net, so here it is again.

Using the Asus 7900GTX with the XTreme-G 91(1).45 driver I'm having major problems with Alt/Entering in and out, which I need to do at the beginning to get RC4 running and use fuel calculators. I Alt/Enter to a slightly minimised windowed screen, do the business and Alt/Enter out - and get a black screen with a flickering cursor, with my desktop slightly visible at the bottom edge. Nothing will shift it so I have to quit FS9. Which means at the moment I can't use RC4 or fuel!
If I select, whilst in the cockpit, a dropdown menu - say the LDS767 Ground Call, the panel bitmap disapears: I keep the exterior view and the dropdown dialogue and lose the panel. When I close the dialogue the panel comes back.
Desktop and FS9 res is 1280x1024.

I'm also getting black screen areas where an image WAS: for example, I opened a text doc as FS9 was loading and closed it, leaving a black rectangle where it was, over the FS9 splashscreen, which doesn't fill in completely.

And there's manic flashing whenever there's black on the screen: for example the Create a Flight screen.
So something's not working right.

**noell** · 08-17-2006, 05:01 PM

I really don't understand what you have going on there. Perhaps I'm not reading your post correctly but all Alt-Enter does on my system is toggle back and forth between windowed mode and full scrreen mode.

I run in windowed mode and multi-monitor mode and I can minimize FS9 if need be to run anything else with no problems.

If you run in windowed mode, do you have problems then?
Do you have the problem with all aircraft or just the LDS767?

....Noell

AMD Athlon 4000+ (San Diego) @ 2750MHz
CoolerMaster 'Aquagate 120' Liquid Cooling
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
2GB Corsair TwinX2048-3500LLPro @ DDR500 (2.5-3-3-6&1T)
BFG 7900GTX OC (512MB) @ 670/1640MHz (Driver: XG91.45)
2 X 36GB WD Raptor (RAID 0)
74GB WD Raptor
120GB WD Caviar
SB Audigy Gamer
OCZ GameXStream 700W
Antec P180B case

**northridge** · 08-18-2006, 01:04 AM

I run in non-windowed mode but need to 'window' it to, for example, start up RC4. Whether I minimize the windowed screen or not, when I Alt/Enter to get out of windowed mode, the FS screen goes black.
This also happens if I were to 'window' FS and open anything else - say a document: the FS window goes black, I click the document to close it and everything hangs.
The 767 dialogue box was an example: other dialogue boxes or popups will cause screen anomalies. But not the aircrafts' main popup panels: so far they're ok.

**noell** · 08-18-2006, 09:06 AM

Strange behavior for sure. As I said, I can do anything with my 7900 GTX (XG91.45 driver) and I cannot trip it up. I'm sorry but I don't know what to suggest. Hopefully someone else can help.

....Noell

AMD Athlon 4000+ (San Diego) @ 2750MHz
CoolerMaster 'Aquagate 120' Liquid Cooling
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
2GB Corsair TwinX2048-3500LLPro @ DDR500 (2.5-3-3-6&1T)
BFG 7900GTX OC (512MB) @ 670/1640MHz (Driver: XG91.45)
2 X 36GB WD Raptor (RAID 0)
74GB WD Raptor
120GB WD Caviar
SB Audigy Gamer
OCZ GameXStream 700W
Antec P180B case

**northridge** · 08-18-2006, 01:53 PM

I'm beginning to think that the black screen is a symptom of something else - less grafix and more processor-based.
I sat there and tried all manner of things after 'windowing' and before trying to 'unwindow', and on one occasion I didn't lose the image but the pc did hang.
At the moment it looks like my AMD64 4200+ is incapable of rendering FS9 and doing anything else at the same time, like opening a small application (fuel planner) or a simple text document.
The machine was built in a hurry as the guy's boss changed his hours around without warning, so Monday morning will see a trip to the clinic.

Thanks for your interest Noell; you are a mine of information and your posts are always worth reading.
Next week I'll be back here complaining about ground textures popping in and out of focus - just as they did on my old machine before the 1000€ upgrade.
Watch this space. :-)

**noell** · 08-18-2006, 03:54 PM

I'm sure your 4200 should perform better than that. My 4000 has no prob running fuel planners or anything else while running FS9. How about your RAM? How much do you have? Are you sure its OK? Just something you may want the "clinic" to check.

And thanks for the compliment, BTW. I truly do enjoy my participation in this forum. Its a lot of fun, I'm always learning something new and, hopefully, now and then I'm able to help others.

....Noell

AMD Athlon 4000+ (San Diego) @ 2750MHz
CoolerMaster 'Aquagate 120' Liquid Cooling
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
2GB Corsair TwinX2048-3500LLPro @ DDR500 (2.5-3-3-6&1T)
BFG 7900GTX OC (512MB) @ 670/1640MHz (Driver: XG91.45)
2 X 36GB WD Raptor (RAID 0)
74GB WD Raptor
120GB WD Caviar
SB Audigy Gamer
OCZ GameXStream 700W
Antec P180B case

**northridge** · 08-19-2006, 03:47 AM

You're going to love this - my latest 1000€ pc upgrade trick:
Start from the Create a Flight screen (no aircaft shown today) in 'windowed' mode and voilá - a black screen - but with a twist: run the mouse around the screen and see the panel tooltips!
And there's more: alt/enter to 'unwindow' and - there's the rotating Cessna from the Create a Flight screen. Nothing else - just the little window with the pretty airplane.
Start FS in unwindowed (normal for me) mode, click on 'minimize' whilst in the Create screen (no aircraft showing) - and I get the black screen with that pesky Cessna again.
Alt/enter and it minimizes, and won't come back when I click on the taskbar. Nothing.

2Gb of Kingston, BTW.

If more folks read this over the weekend I'd be very grateful to hear opinions on where to start looking for the cause; grafix, chipset or wherever.

**rgerdes** · 08-20-2006, 03:53 AM

I guess I'm experiencing the same thing with the new system I just put together:
Motherboard: DFI Lanparty nF4 SLI-DR
CPU: FX-55
Graphics: XFX Geforce 7950 GX2; 91.45 TweaksRUs
Ram: 1G Corsair

When I Alt-Ent I get the black screen and eventually have to exit the flight sim cause can't alt-ent back to full screen.
Did notice I can bring up the Ultimate Traffic palmspotter with no problem.

Think it's probably graphics driver related

Bob

**northridge** · 08-20-2006, 02:07 PM

I posted at the TweaksRus forum and have yet to have a conclusive reply.
I'm going to try the .36 driver.

**baddadnv** · 08-21-2006, 02:12 AM

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I'd feel 90% confident, that it is a Driver issue also.

Be sure to unistall ALL remnants of the old drivers before installing the new.

One other possibility, is that the PSU is under-powered.

Randy Burton