Hi all,

Just started using MoI 1.1. Looks pretty nice except for one little problem. It keeps crashing on the laptop that I am trying to use it on. Its a Dell XPS M1210. Should have plenty of power with 2 G of memory. I can create a small drawing and usually save it before I get the blue screen but the best way to force it is to try to load a file that I have already created.

I tried to uninstall and reinstall (uninstalled both the 1.1 and the 2 beta and reinstalled the 1.1 only). Same thing right off the bat. Other than MoI, everything else works fine on the computer. Its a new installation of XP with everything up to date.

I used the same 1.1 installation file on another computer that I use for CNC control just to get a file converted to stl and to see if the download could be bad. It worked fine on the other machine.

Did I miss something in the installation as far as updated files that I should be using on the XP machine? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Hi bmabam, a Blue Screen of Death is a sure sign that you're having a graphics driver issue.

Normal programs like MoI run in a kind of restricted area of the machine and aren't allowed to access things that can crash the entire machine like a blue screen of death.

But drivers are special - they run at a privileged level and they do have access to areas of memory that are off limits to normal programs. So when a driver has a bug in it, that's when you can get that more kind of catastrophic full machine failure.

My best advice is to update your graphics drivers to the latest version.

Check first on the graphics chipset manufacturer's web site, like look directly on nvidia.com or ati.com to see if there are drivers for your graphics card available there, rather than just using regular Windows Update.

For some laptops they may not be available there and you may need to get them from Dell instead.

- Michael

Hi there,

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315263

Go there, another link, it is a windows software that can read your minidump file and tell you what is causing the problem.

Thanks Michael but the graphics drivers are up to date.

As far as the dump file. I went out to the site and followed all the instructions and my efforts end with little success.

Hi bmabam,

> Thanks Michael but the graphics drivers are up to date.

Do you know for sure because you installed the most recent one direct from nVidia or ATI yourself, or are you just going off of what Windows Update says?

Drivers do not get updated as frequently through Windows Update, so if you are going by that you may not actually have the most up to date one.


If you do have the most up to date one, then sometimes there is a new problem that was introduced in a new version of the driver and you can actually fix things up by going to a slightly older driver instead of the newest one - that's something that you could try.


> As far as the dump file. I went out to the site and followed all
> the instructions and my efforts end with little success.

If a minidump was created, you can send it to me at moi@moi3d.com and I'll take a look. It will most likely say that the crash occured in the video driver but it can be worth a check.

- Michael

The graphics drivers are the latest from Dell for this computer.

I did finally figure out how to read the dump file. Yep. Says its the graphics driver crashing. I will go ahead and send the dump file to you.

B

Hi bmabam -

> The graphics drivers are the latest from Dell for this computer.

Often times those drivers will not be as up to date as the ones directly from the manufacturer of the video card itself.

So try going to the video hardware manufacturer's web site and getting their driver to see if they have a more recent one than what Dell has posted.

It looks like your laptop has Intel 945GM graphics, which unfortunately is really quite poor at 3D stuff, it has way, way less 3D horsepower than a deciated nVidia or ATI graphics system. But it still should work for basic stuff if you can get a driver installed that will work properly.

Checking at Dell, the latest drivers they seem to have posted there are Release Date: 5/14/2007 , which is not particularly updated (note year = 2007).

Try going direct to the Intel web site and see if a newer driver from them will work better. It looks like the place to go is here:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Chipsets&ProductLine=Laptop+Chipsets&ProductProduct=Mobile+Intel%C2%AE+945+Express+Chipset+Family&ProdId=2300&LineId=1088&FamilyId=40



> I will go ahead and send the dump file to you.

Thanks for sending it - it indicates that the blue screen is happening in igxpdx32.DLL which seems to be part of the Intel video driver.

If you do a Google search for igxpdx32.DLL you can see a lot of people asking about blue screens of death in various games and stuff like that, so it does not seem to be uncommon.


A couple of things you can try are to install the latest drivers from Intel, or to install an older version either from Dell or from the Intel web site.

- Michael

Michael,

It looks like that fixed it. I updated the drivers with the ones from intel and with what testing I've been able to do this morning it works. I can now load drawings that I created without seeing lots of blue.

I guess my main mistake was assuming that dell would have the latest drivers. Oops. Wrong again.

Thanks for your help on solving this.

B

Glad you fixed your problem. Michael's advice is the exact same advice I have given to others for the other 3D software I use.


If you're experiencing blue screens, always look to the installed driver (video drvrs for 3d apps, audio drvrs for music apps etc.)


I'm at the point now where I only buy computers with NVidia graphics in them.

I've had probs with ATIs in the past and I hate to say but Intel is the worst.


We had Dells here at work and they had Intel 82xxx integrated graphics, in my Silo 3D app, every other polygon was transparent when I subdivided my models - ugh!

Fortunately now, we have Dells with NVidia (I screamed and yelled for NVidia when the reqs when out for new boxes!) so everything works fine...

-Will

That's great news bmabam, I'm glad that you are up and running on that laptop now!

Blue screens are no fun...


> I guess my main mistake was assuming that dell would
> have the latest drivers. Oops. Wrong again.

My guess is that they probably don't want to put anything up on their Dell support site unless they have had a chance to test it themselves... But of course that takes time to do so it is easy for it to not get done.

Sometimes newer drivers can actually have new bugs in them as well, although that seems to be getting to be much less common than it used to be.

- Michael