Bug? Why does Logos work much better on the "power saving" graphics processor?

Maybe someone can help explain a solution I just found to a reoccuring problem that I have had with Logos, particularly since 4.5b beta was introduced. I had been seeing a lot of black panels, particularly when I move a tab from one panel to another. Whenever I open a floating window, the area around the window turned black, and often the window itself did not display any text. I tried "set custom chome to no" but then when I moved one tab to another panel, the whole program would freeze, and nothing would work until I minimized the program and then restored it again. I tried setting Windows 7 display to Basic, and the same freezing would happen.

But this morning I was able to fix the problem but doing something that is totally counter intuitive. Because I have two graphic cards on my computer, I can designate a certain program to use either the "power saving" graphics processor (the Intel integrated graphics card) or the high performance option (discrete AMD Radeon card). When I purchased the computer, I immediately set Logos to use the high performance option. Today, I switched to the power saving graphics processor for Logos and exited from Logos. When I restarted Logos, none of the previous problems with black screens, display freezes, unmoveable tabs, unreadable floating windows reoccurred.

Why does Logos not seem to work with the discrete graphics card?

I have searched the forums on this problem before, and several have suggested updated the graphics driver. My driver is 8.840.7.3000 (5-11-2011) and appears to be the most up to date for my computer.

I have a Win 7 64bit i7, 2.8 Ghz Dell notebook with 6 GB of ram. The 2 graphics cards - a Intel HD Graphics Card and a AMD Radeon HD 6630 M card.

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Kevin Becker

Option 1 - There's something physically wrong with your dedicated graphics. Have you had any problems with video or 3D gaming using the card? I suggest running a stress test on it to see if it falters

Option 2 - The driver doesn't support something properly that Logos does and it hangs on it (bug). Where did you get your graphics driver? Sometimes OEMs will customize drivers to work specifically with their configuration. I might experiment with the current driver from Dell, the original driver from Dell, and the current driver from AMD and see if that makes any difference in the way Logos runs.

Option 2 is probably more likely so I would check out different drivers before running a stress test.

DMB

I've seen that same behavior in the last couple of weeks or so (lack of below frame redraw, leaving black squares), but not with Logos. I'm not sure the reason; I've watched to see which programs etc and so far seems to be related to coming back from multiple 'sleep's (no shutdown for weeks) and what's reloaded. I also have a W7 64K but integrated video, so the behavior is presumably different. But might give you some clues.

Ken Guenther

My graphics driver came with the computer, which I purchased last October. I reinstalled the latest driver from Dell, but the AMD installer says I already have that driver. The reinstallation resulted in no change in Logos performance I can't seem to find a downloadable driver from AMD.

None of the tests that I have done on the video card indicate any problems. I suppose I will do a stress test at some time. Do you have a suggestion for what stress test to use? I have not had problems with any other programs, but I do not play games on the computer. Videos work without any problem.

Is it not possible that the bug is in Logos, in the latest beta?

Kevin Becker

Is it not possible that the bug is in Logos, in the latest beta?

I guess so but that seems unlikely to me.

If you wanted to test that out you could install the regular version under a new user account and see if it behaves the same way as the beta.

EDIT: Rethinking this--The current beta introduced support for video resources so it's possible that the changes that were made in the display portion of the program are responsible for your black boxes. However, that doesn't mean Logos' implementation is necessarily buggy, but it could be. The fact that your integrated graphics handle it better make me think it is the driver for your dedicated graphics.

Hopefully a developer could pipe up with some ideas on how to gather info to see if it is a Logos bug.

Perhaps edit your first post title with BUG?

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

I have searched the forums on this problem before, and several have suggested updated the graphics driver. My driver is 8.840.7.3000 (5-11-2011) and appears to be the most up to date for my computer.

I have a Win 7 64bit i7, 2.8 Ghz Dell notebook with 6 GB of ram. The 2 graphics cards - a Intel HD Graphics Card and a AMD Radeon HD 6630 M card.

AMD graphics driver download => http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

Intel graphics driver download => http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Graphics&ProductLine=Laptop+graphics+controllers&ProductProduct=Intel%C2%AE+HD+Graphics

Intel HD Graphics driver was updated in Jan 2012 while AMD Graphics was updated in Mar 2012.

Keep Smiling [:)]

Ken Guenther

The Intel page says I have the latest driver for my machine. The AMD page will not give me a specific driver to download, and says that the AMD Mobility Radeon Driver Verification tool does not work on machines that have switchable graphics (mine does). But the Dell support center also says that I have the latest graphics driver available. I really do not think that is the problem.

Daniel Lee

There are some issues with updating drivers when you have the combo of Intel integrated + AMD dedicated. You have to wait for a driver update from Dell, or use manually edited installer files (from a site like forum.notebookreview.com). I wouldn't mess with that.

Since you have an i7, the Intel HD graphics are going to be pretty much on par with the AMD for most things except gaming, so I'd probably stick with it for your typical usage.