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Every time I start a game or application that uses DirectX (specifically Direct3D) in any way shape or form, the screen freezes for about 30-40 seconds. Everything then seems to work normally. The same thing will happen again when I quit the game.

This does not happen for OpenGL-based applications - only DirectX ones.

I am using Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 and my video card is an NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS. I have the latest driver from NVIDIA (7.15.11.7432 A).

The PC itself is an HP Pavillion dv6757ca.

What could be causing this?

Update: I tried running Windows 8 (the developer preview) on the very same machine and... it works! The issue completely disappears. So I can only conclude that the problem was with Vista or the drivers since everything works fine now.

Nathan Osman
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  • do you know, specifically, if all or just some versions of DirectX are having the issues? (such as, is it only DX9 or DX10 etc) hve you tried updating all versions of DirectX on your system (most likely just DX9 and DX10/10.1 in Vista) – Xantec Dec 10 '10 at 22:19
  • @Xantec: Seems to be a problem with all versions of DirectX. I can try running the DirectX update tool to see if that helps at all. – Nathan Osman Dec 10 '10 at 22:21
  • Which version of drivers ? – Sathyajith Bhat Dec 10 '10 at 22:25
  • @Sathya: The video card drivers? 7.15.11.7432 A - according to HP's website. I have no idea where they get that number from :) – Nathan Osman Dec 10 '10 at 22:29
  • @GeorgeEdison Try the latest drivers http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook-win7-winvista-260.99-whql-driver.html – Sathyajith Bhat Dec 10 '10 at 22:42
  • @Xantec: Actually, I just tried one of the Direct3D 9 samples from the SDK and it worked fine. Weird... – Nathan Osman Dec 10 '10 at 22:44
  • @Sathya: But then I get [this](http://superuser.com/questions/219561/black-screen-after-logging-in-to-windows-vista). – Nathan Osman Dec 10 '10 at 22:45
  • @GeorgeEdison Weird. Have you been getting the freezes since day one ? – Sathyajith Bhat Dec 10 '10 at 22:56
  • @Sathya: As far as I can remember... this was a 'feature' that came with the notebook. But it really hasn't been a problem until now. – Nathan Osman Dec 10 '10 at 23:01
  • @GeorgeEdison Try removing existing drivers by using [Driver Sweeper](http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/) and re-install HP provided drivers. Wondering if this is hardware problem than a software one, – Sathyajith Bhat Dec 10 '10 at 23:04
  • @Sathya: Don't forget that the card works just fine for OpenGL-based games. Also, the samples from the DirectX SDK seem to work fine. It's just every other commercial game that's doing this. – Nathan Osman Dec 10 '10 at 23:14
  • @GeorgeEdison Yes I've read that - try running 3DMark '06 - does it give the same result ? – Sathyajith Bhat Dec 10 '10 at 23:16
  • @Sathya: I'll try that - actually, is there something smaller I can download? The file is >500 MB. – Nathan Osman Dec 10 '10 at 23:36
  • @GeorgeEdison try [rthdribl (DX9)](http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/) / [FurMark (OpenGL)](http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/) – Sathyajith Bhat Dec 12 '10 at 21:38
  • @Sathya: I tried `rthdribl` and as expected, it froze for about 30 seconds when I started it and for about 15 seconds when exiting. (It got about 30 FPS while running.) – Nathan Osman Dec 13 '10 at 17:47
  • @George and FurMark runs fine, I suppose. Did you have any success with updating DX ? I'm sorry to say but I've no clue what's causing this. – Sathyajith Bhat Dec 13 '10 at 17:52
  • @Sathya: Thanks for trying. I updated DirectX to the newest available version but still no luck. – Nathan Osman Dec 13 '10 at 19:21
  • @George Last ditch effort from my side: Rightclick on the desktop, click on Personalize , Display Settings, Advanced Settings,Troubleshoot tab -> Reduce h/w acceleration slider one notch at a time and see if that changes anything – Sathyajith Bhat Dec 13 '10 at 19:41
  • @Sathya: I thought of that, but the troubleshoot tool is disabled thanks to the nVidia driver providing its own tool... and I already tried adjusting things in there. – Nathan Osman Dec 13 '10 at 19:52
  • @Sathya: This actually works on Win8 now - see my update. – Nathan Osman Sep 19 '11 at 18:24

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