[.805 Crash] DX error

from Elemental Forums

I'm using an external monitor on my laptop.  I had the laptop open, so both the laptop monitor and the external monitor were showing the same Elemental window (playing Elemental windowed, but at max resolution).  I closed the lid of my laptop (action defined to Win7 on closing the lid: do nothing), turned away from my desk, and when I looked back I saw this:

No dump file was produced, but the debug.err does have a message about a DX error.

debug.err is here.

496 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I see this all the time when I alt-tab to the desktop and come back.   Others have suggested playing in window mode to temp overcome this defect/bug.  

Even though your computer is set to do nothing it is probably still turning off your monitor?   This cases a Direct X mode change (pretty sure?).  

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I am playing in windowed mode.  Closing the lid does turn off the laptop monitor, while leaving the external monitor active.  So maybe that is causing the  problem.  Still seems like a bug, though.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I agree that it should not work that way, but I was hoping that windowed mode would help you play in the mean time.

It you do a quick google it looks like several applications battle lid closing if they utilize directx - including VLC.   I did not see any real solutions, just that it appears to be happening to multiple users hanging monitors off of laptops.  I'm guessing that you are cloning your desktop?

You may want to make your external monitor the 2nd monitor (extend the display but set it as primary) and see if that helps.  Maybe if the laptop monitor is the 2nd screen it will not cause the DX error.

It may help the dev team track it down w/o having to replicate themselves.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I get the same issue with ctrl-escp on windows XP - I can't go back into the game as I get the same message.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm guessing that you are cloning your desktop?
End of quote

Yes, I am.  I normally run with the lid closed, using only the external monitor, which is probably why I hadn't noticed this before.