Thanks for the suggestions (from Greg Couch, Elaine Meng, Greg Pintilie). It sounds like a graphics driver bug or hardware bug (I already had the A05 version of the BIOS). My graphics card is an 'ATI Mobility Radeon X300' and I found a slightly later driver on the Dell website (Sept 2005 rather than March 2005); and I've tried it but unfortunately the problem has not gone away. There don't seem to be any later drivers recommended by Dell for the Inspiron 9300; so perhaps I should contact Dell for advice. I haven't yet tried the other suggestions in the 'Graphics Driver Bugs' document, but will do so, as it looks likely I will have to live with this problem as well as possible. Thanks again for the help and suggestions. At least I know what sort of problem it is now. Peter Girard. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Greg Couch" <gregc@cgl.ucsf.edu> To: "Peter Girard" <pmg7@lineone.net> Cc: <chimera-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 6:17 PM Subject: Re: [Chimera-users] Problem with Chimera under Windows XP
On Sun, 16 Dec 2007, Peter Girard wrote:
I am running release 2304 of Chimera under Windows XP with service pack 2 on a Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop. The image disappears from the screen for no apparent reason. With the structures I am currently working on, this has become frequent and often occurs after just a few seconds when I click anywhere in the Chimera window.
I have found that if I use Model Panel, I can get the picture back by clicking the 'Shown' box to remove the tick mark, then clicking it again to re-insert the tick. But the picture soon disappears again. Occasionally, it doesn't disappear completely, but part of it collapses, or spurious long lines appear.
I had the same problem with a previous release, 2184, and was disappointed that upgrading didn't fix it. I can find no mention of anything similar in the documentation or email archive. Can anyone suggest a possible cause?
Peter Girard (University of Nottingham, UK)
I am 99.99999% sure that this is not a chimera bug. This is most likely a graphics driver bug, but it could also be a hardware bug or a BIOS bug. So you should first update the graphics driver. There is also a newer BIOS, A05, that "addresses some NMI and blue screen issues seen by some customers using intensive 3D applications and games." And please update your chimera as well to 1.2470.
Good luck,
Greg Couch UCSF Computer Graphics Lab