Faulty graphic card error

Every now ad then I get this message when trying to start SketchUp. When it appears i can’t start SketchUp again until I restart Windows. It happens maybe once or twice a month.

What is the point of this check? Obviously my machine runs SketchUp perfectly fine, and I already have a SketchUp session open. It seems to be a false positive in a check only carried out at arbitrary times.

Can we have this fixed so I don’t need to restart Windows and lose my open windows, my music/pod and my flow?

2020-03-12_13h15_00

recent driver is surely installed.

I updates my drivers some time around late 2018/early 2019. Since then the computer actually works worse. Whenever I start a really old SU version now, Windows switches to a theme with no transparency in the title bars and the screen flashes. Not a huge deal but kind of annoying when you want to compare how a behavior has changed or test extension compatibility.

Regardless of that, SketchUp works perfectly fine 99% of the time, so the question is why this test fails.

I’d really be looking at updating or even rolling back your driver.
There have been quite a few updates since early 2019.
This is the current crop.

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Since the graphic card works perfectly fine I’d rather not poke at it too much. The only thing that doesn’t work is the graphic card check saying my graphic card doesn’t work, despite it working perfectly fine.

claiming a malfunction but refusing a concerning driver update doesn’t make much sense not only because of the bug fixes already (see above) but also because of the closed security holes… as recently.

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I would hardly say it’s working perfectly fine.
I have to agree with @SketchUp3D_de
It’s a bit like someone complaining your 2018 and newer extension won’t work on their system, but they have 2013 and since 2013 does everything else they need you need to fix your extension.

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I believe it’s every startup and a log file is also written [at least on a mac]…

if the graphics card is busy then a second instance may be blocked from running the test and fail…

john

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latest driver version for Windows 7/10 x64 is 442.59 (WHQL) from 10.03.2020 here. I do prefer a custom installation by deactivating all the fun stuff options not required.

If an OpenGL-based application is not compatible with the visual designs (W7: Aero) resp. desktop composition (especially) of Windows (7), Windows does a fallback to a compatibility mode by deactivating visual designs and activating a basic color scheme (see “r-click > Properties > Compatibility”).

probably the OpenGL driver capabilities are queried and evaluated… which normally should lead to the same result every time.

Windows 10 has so many issues with Win7 Aero themes that I abandoned using Aero themes on my machine. Then I switched to Win10 dark mode and found that it is totally incompatible with Aero themes and that sealed Aero theme fate for me. (There was a major annoyance with some display aspect of the Windows File Explorer that would not display in dark mode when an Aero theme was enabled. Can’t remember exactly what it was though.)

Thought that M$ has abandoned the Aero design (and widget apps sniff) for W10, thus probably the incompatibilites.

… yes, and I don’t think MS intends to fix an issues with Aero themes under Win10.

The weird thing about this message is how extremely rarely it shows up, and in between that there is no issue at all. None.

Either the test runs on each startup, but is broken as it reports different results different times. I’m not changing my setup in between.

The other possibility is that the test runts every 30 day or something. I have a vague memory about previously getting a warning that my graphic card wasn’t supported but with an option to be reminded in 30 days. This is why I think this is the most likely cause. In such case, it is extremely badly designed as there are currently no clues of why the message appears when it does, it is completely hidden. Also, even in this scenario the test has a faulty result as SketchUp runs perfectly fine when the test isn’t being made.

In any cause, the graphic card obviously does work with SketchUp. It is the test that is the issue, not any driver. Updating the driver may get around the test, but the test would still be broken.

And this is not like an extension not being supported by a certain SketchUp version. It’s like an extension working perfectly fine until when day when you try to use it and it for no apparent reasons shows a message saying it doesn’t work in that SketchUp version, only to work perfectly fine after a SketchUp restart. The issue in such case would not be that the extension isn’t supported by a certain version, but that it wrongly thinks it isn’t supported by a certain version, and carries out the testing inconsistently.

Have you perhaps used some other OpenGL application before opening SketchUp? To me it sounds like the driver is crashing.
I am with @SketchUp3D_de and recommend updating the driver. It only takes a moment.

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Just today, I had to install SketchUp on some brand new Acer concept D machines ( basically game laptops without the screaming game design options) and that message popped up.
The class before had Adobe Dimension running…

would be nice if the OGL test which has failed would be denoted too, even if just for information.

I once had a graphics card failure, and it started with SketchUp occasionally failing, but progressed into crashes in other software too. In the end, the screen remained black.

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