Why the Poor Run Time Refresh Quality?

[Kahless]

Good day,

I've developed a little piece of software to monitor a small amount of inputs from NI DAQ hardware (4 inputs).  On my developing computer, everything looks fine but this is not the case on the Run Time computer.  Usually the software starts looking fine, but when anything gets redrawn (whether it be from a button press or from another window being placed over it), the image quality is poor.  Kinda looks like the color palet in whatever redrawn area gets dropped to 8-bit.  I notice this only in the Labview application.  Everything else on the PC looks fine when redrawn.  Attached is a little image that compares two buttons, the top one having been redrawn.  Note the quality difference.

Developed in LV 7.1.  Using the RT drivers installed from the NI-DAQmx driver disc (v8.3) (RT 7.1.1)

I've tried rebuilding my app, re-installing my app, re-installing all NI software (on the RT computer), updating video drivers.

Any ideas and help as always will be most appreciated.

--

Sean

[tst]

I can't say that I know what this is, but apparently, you're not the only one.

Anyway, to troubleshoot, I would suggest removing parts of the program\installation until this stops happening and you should hopefully be able to determine the source of the problem.

[Rudi_N]

Kahless:

Have you been able to reproduce this on several instances? Does this also happen when you start a new VI and only have one control on the front panel ?
Please let me know.

Regards,

Rudi N.

[Kahless]

Hey Rudi,

As per your suggestion I created a simple VI: a rocker button in a while loop.  I installed it on the machine that will be the runtime system and get the same issue there. It loads looking fine, but then after the button is clicked, the same quality degradation occurs. Now I have tried installing it on a different machine simply to see how it performs there, and it works fine there too (so that's my development comp & some other comp work fine, the runtime comp does not). I have verified the system requirements outline for Labview 7.1 and the system in question does meet them.

I have updated my video drivers to be thorough, but don't see why that would necessarily be an issue as I do not experience this problem with any other application using the same resolution and colour depth.

I appreciate yoru time and efforts.  Do you have any other ideas?

--
Sean

[Rudi_N]

Sean:

Thank you very much for your prompt reply. Could you please confirm that the computer with the poor image degradation does not meet the LabVIEW 7.1 minimum requirements? If yes, which requirement does it fail?

Thanks,

Rudi N.

[Kahless]

The system DOES meet the listed requirements.  My concern though is the video card that I was given to work with is somewhat old.

P4 1.70 GHz

256 MB

NVidia Vanta (This I think is likely related to the problem, but I can't find any video requirements for LV).

WinXP SP2

[Rudi_N]

Kahless:

Thank you very much for your response. After doing much research on this topic, I have yet to figure out why you are experiencing such a poor image quality. As mentionned, the only other factor that could be causing it is the video card. To verify this, do you have any other video card you can use or do you get the same behaviour on a different computer?
Please let me know what you find.

Regards,

Rudi N.

[Kahless]

Sorry I didn't respond right away.  Got busy on other matters and this issue slipped my mine.  Developements have happened...

On coming back to this project, the HD on my laptop died (development comp).  Never had any display issues on this machine  (was previously posting about issue on computer where app will be run from, where issue still exists).  After re-installing everything on my new HD, I'm now experiencing this problem on my development laptop as well.

I'm using an IBM Thinkpad T30 (P4-M, 2.0GHz, 256MB, ATI 7500 Mobility).  So it used to display fine on this machine, now it doesn't, and I'm experiencing the same symptoms: grainy display from what appears to be a lower resolution colour palette (maybe 256).

Here too, this is only an issue within the development environment.  The startup Labview splash screen looks fine (again LV7.1), the blue bar along the top of all windows transitions from the darker shade of blue to the lighter shade, properly.  This issue is on the toolbar and in the developement area within Labview only.

It's weird how this appears to just come or just go.  I don't remember who, but somebody here mentioned how their problem just stopped as suddenly as it started.  And as this is localized to LV, I'm inclined to think this is not the video card, but perhaps some file/driver/dll that perhaps gets modified/updated without direct visibility.  I briefly had this issue aswell on an older Toshiba laptop about a year ago, but it eventually "fixed" itself aswell (don't remember model/specs of older Toshiba).

Anymore help and research into the issue will be most appreciated. 

--

Sean

[Kahless]

Attached is a screenshot of what the tool bar looks like.  Note the grainy quality and reduced colour depth.  The rest of the development area is the same.

[Rudi_N]

Kahless:

Thank you very much for getting back with me the additional information. I will go back and do more research on this topic and keep you updated of what I find. Also, keep me informed as you come across other information that can help me troubleshoot this.

Regards,

Rudi N.