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Hi,

I've just "upgraded" to Vista (Home Premium) and have had a few "Unable to create primary surface" errors from VRPC, when switching between full screen and windowed mode. This results in the VRPC display going blank (though the program stays alive) which means that I lose all of my work. Clearly this is a fairly major problem for me. Has anyone else encountered it? Is there a solution?

Thanks,
Adam

Re: "....which means that I lose all of my work. ............. Is there a solution?

I am sure you will have sorted out a work around.
(save your work before changing screen mode)

I have seen the message you are referring to on Red Squirrel after changing the video card and came to the conclusion that the change left something in a bad state. I came to the conclusion that the change (of card) had not completed properly.

I have also seen it on VRPC-SE (can't remember how I provoked it) - but it sorted itself out.

Make sure you have followed the instructions on the Vista page in the PC section of the VirtualAcorn Knowledge Base (follow the links from the support button on the main website). Also make sure that you copy is up to date from the downloads section of the VirtualAcorn website.

Yes, it's the most up-to-date version. I've followed the instructions on the support page, though have UAC active. What bearing could that have on a DirectX error?

I've noticed lots of pairs of these notes in the Vista logs:
Also, VRPC is listed as a compatibility "problem" by Vista.

Presumably both of these are expected?

Thanks,
Adam

Right, so when I said "Make sure you have followed the instructions on the Vista page..." - and you said that you had, that wasn't correct. In fact your answer was actually "No - I read the document, but then ignored what it said..."

Probably quite correct - even the wording is a little harsh.

However, we can see why people want UAC enabled with this quote from Microsoft:
"UAC is a significant focus of Windows Vista and a fundamental component of Microsoft???s overall security vision."

Well, you've also ignored my question: What does UAC have to do with an ActiveX error?

If there is some possible link then I'm more than happy to accept than my "non-standard" set up might be a problem and maybe turn UAC off but if not, what's the point in labouring over whether UAC is on or off?

Thanks,
Adam

P.S. I don't want to make this into a UAC vs no-UAC advocacy thread - perhaps I'll start a self-contained thread about that

Look, just turn UAC off. That should stop the Direct X errors.

I'm sorry, but that is an incredibly unhelpful response with an unreasonable tone to what was a perfectly valid question. Something like,

'We believe that UAC causes some sort of unexpected interaction with ActiveX. Until the problem can be fully traced please turn UAC off.' would have been far more reasonable.

I expect that when someone has a problem and that I refer them to a document that provides the solution, that they will read it and apply the suggested fix. In this case turning off UAC should resolve the DirectX errors. Problem - followed by possible solution. Now in Adam's case this may not resolve the issue, but until UAC is disabled (as per the Vista article) we won't know.

I simply cannot understand why there could be a problem disabling UAC to see if it's the cause of the problem. If it is, then great, if not we need to investigate further. Subject closed.

Your knowledgebase Vista article makes no mention of DirectX errors and the UAC section just talks about VirtualStore - hence why I wasn't sure whether the UAC issue was relevant.

Because I've chosen to have UAC enabled. It's my computer after all, and UAC is an integral part of it. I would be equally careful if you suggested I disable my firewall and virus protection.

In any case, I never said it was a "problem".

I will try turning off UAC and see if the errors happens again. The only trouble is it's intermitant so it's might be hard to nail down. In fact after happening a few times in close succession, the error has not reoccured since I started this thread. I'm not sure if that's good or bad news!

Thanks,
Adam

OK, I found how to make this error 100% repeatable. If VRPC is active when Vista wakes from "sleep", the error happens every time. I have switched off UAC. The exact error is:The number is the same each time.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Adam

Right. So this is the "Hibernate" problem. This showed up quite early on with Vista and a number of users seemed to suffer from it. The fault is caused by Vista not restoring VRPCs frame buffer on the graphics card. XP has no problem with this.

The feedback I have had thus far is that for most people installing Vista SP1 fixes the problem.

SP1 is installed and I'm up to date with all other OS updates.

Adam

OK. Try this test.

Can you 'sleep' the PC with VRPC running in a Window? Does VRPC re-start?
Can you 'sleep' the PC with VRPC running full screen? Again does VRPC start?