All games seem to start then drop to desktop?

growse · 16 May 2007 at 22:15

I've a small problem with a new, up-to-date windows install. If I run any game, it loads, flicks into full screen mode, and then quickly drops back to the desktop. The game process is still running and shown on the taskbar, but if I click on it, the same thing happens.

Currently my hardware is an Nvidia 6800GT on an Iwill DK8N motherboard, using the 91.47 drivers (I think, certainly 91.x). This never was a problem before the re-install.

I also ran the dxdiag tests which would interestingly fail claiming that "A key has been pressed to end the test". Equally interesting, this message only goes away if I quit bother google desktop and my F@H processes. However, whilst the dxdiag tests now run, games still exhibit the same behaviour.

I'm just downloading the latest drivers now, and I'm going to use Spy++ to find out what messages are triggering the dx tests to fail.

Has anyone seen this before and know of a solution?

Azagoth · 16 May 2007 at 22:59

growse said:
Has anyone seen this before and know of a solution?

Yes, I had that happen to me quite a while back. In the end I tracked it down to the multimedia software that came with my keyboard of all things. After I'd nuked the 3rd party keyboard software my games stopped minimising.

Don't know if it's a similar situation, but that's what caused my problem.

growse · 16 May 2007 at 23:33

I'm currently trying to quit everything in turn and try again, to see if it solves the problem.

Azagoth · 17 May 2007 at 02:47

Good luck!

It took me ages to figure out it was the keyboard software.

growse · 17 May 2007 at 11:40

Couldn't find it at all. I was down to about 10 processes with most services stopped and it was still doing it.

Might have to reinstall and see what happens.