Games starting minimized and stay minimized...
Page 1 of 1
Mikey5449
Superdad



Posts: 3401

PostPosted: Fri, 31st Jan 2014 06:25    Post subject: Games starting minimized and stay minimized...
Hey guys, I started having this problem about a month or so ago where I would start games and the screen would go black (switching to fullscreen like usual) and then the desktop would appear again with the game screen minimized. It sounded like the first startup videos would play, and then halt...if I got any sound at all. Some would play, some wouldn't since it would pause from the get-go.

I did some reading and some people said to make sure Firefox was closed so I tried that. No luck. I was making sure I had the minimum of tasks in the background yet still, no avail. I even reloaded my machine just a couple of days ago and still, games start minimized.

I have noticed that a full reboot appears to resolve the issue but only temporarily. What I mean by this is the fact that I could start a game first thing upon boot, play for a while, exit, but the next game I try wouldn't necessarily work, again starting minimized and staying.

Most topics around the net are saying virus or malware, but I reloaded my machine and only have a few things installed; VLC player, Winrar, Ventrilo, Steam, Firefox, and Peerblock. None of these have ever given me an issue before to my knowledge.

I'm currently running the 331.82 drivers from Nvidia. Any suggestions as to what else it could be or what else I could try?

Edit: Just updated drivers to 332.21 and problem still exists.


couleur wrote:
Everything I don't understand is a mental disorder. Laughing

couleur wrote:
If the illegals are drowning its their fault for attempting to cross the river in the first place. Especially the children. /s

russ80 wrote:
Who cares about gameplay. It's one of the few next-gen looking titles out there so BRING IT ON.
Back to top
scaramonga




Posts: 9800

PostPosted: Fri, 31st Jan 2014 08:58    Post subject:
OS?

Steam games, all games?

Checked Event Viewer for any clues?

Shut down running software in background one by one to find culprit?

Run 'msconfig' and try 'selective startup', unticking what's necessary?

Complete removal of Nvidia drivers, along with using DDU to remove all traces, then installing latest (334.67) using 'clean install' option?

Disable unnecessary 'services' one by one to find culprit?

Run a Malwarebytes scan to rule out infection?
Back to top
PumpAction
[Schmadmin]



Posts: 26759

PostPosted: Fri, 31st Jan 2014 10:04    Post subject:
yeah, give us a list of your startup programs and services mikey Smile


=> NFOrce GIF plugin <= - Ryzen 3800X, 16GB DDR4-3200, Sapphire 5700XT Pulse
Back to top
VGAdeadcafe




Posts: 22230
Location: ★ ಠ_ಠ ★
PostPosted: Fri, 31st Jan 2014 11:58    Post subject:
Go to your display settings and make sure your monitor is properly detected, with correct resolution and refresh rate.
Back to top
Mikey5449
Superdad



Posts: 3401

PostPosted: Fri, 31st Jan 2014 14:45    Post subject:
OS? = Win 7 fully updated as of a couple of days ago.

Steam games, all games? All games.

Checked Event Viewer for any clues? Not yet, didn't think of this. Doh on my part.

Shut down running software in background one by one to find culprit? I shut down a few here and there but because it's a "new" load/image, there isn't much beyond the usual MS processes.

Run 'msconfig' and try 'selective startup', unticking what's necessary? I'll give this a shot as well, but like above, I don't think there is anything else there.

Complete removal of Nvidia drivers, along with using DDU to remove all traces, then installing latest (334.67) using 'clean install' option? I used 'clean install' on the update I just did as well thinking similarly. Not familiar with DDU?

Disable unnecessary 'services' one by one to find culprit? I haven't actually gone through this in ages so I'll be rusty/trial and error for sure heh.

Run a Malwarebytes scan to rule out infection? I'll do this as well. Just hard to accept that something has happened on a new image and I haven't really done anything yet except install updates and try to play a couple of games.

I'll give the display settings another look. This was my first thought, thinking it had some bad resolutions ticked in options of various games or something, but for it to just "start" was really odd. I don't use any video card tweaks either.

Edit: I'll have to get back to you guys on the rest. I'm at work now and it's for my home desktop machine.


couleur wrote:
Everything I don't understand is a mental disorder. Laughing

couleur wrote:
If the illegals are drowning its their fault for attempting to cross the river in the first place. Especially the children. /s

russ80 wrote:
Who cares about gameplay. It's one of the few next-gen looking titles out there so BRING IT ON.
Back to top
Przepraszam
VIP Member



Posts: 14470
Location: Poland. New York.
PostPosted: Fri, 31st Jan 2014 14:49    Post subject:
My friend has exact the same issue. I tried to troubleshoot it few times but nothing seemed to work. I kinda gave up on that. Not sure what is causing this at all.


Back to top
Mikey5449
Superdad



Posts: 3401

PostPosted: Sat, 1st Feb 2014 01:11    Post subject:
Here's the processes tab after start up:



and this is my services tab from msconfig, minus the microsoft services per the checkbox.



Here's results from MalwareBytes, too:

Scan options enabled: Memory | Startup | Registry | File System | Heuristics/Extra | Heuristics/Shuriken | PUP | PUM
Scan options disabled: P2P
Objects scanned: 311234
Time elapsed: 7 minute(s), 31 second(s)

Memory Processes Detected: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Memory Modules Detected: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Keys Detected: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Values Detected: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Data Items Detected: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Folders Detected: 0
(No malicious items detected)

Files Detected: 0
(No malicious items detected)

(end)


couleur wrote:
Everything I don't understand is a mental disorder. Laughing

couleur wrote:
If the illegals are drowning its their fault for attempting to cross the river in the first place. Especially the children. /s

russ80 wrote:
Who cares about gameplay. It's one of the few next-gen looking titles out there so BRING IT ON.
Back to top
VGAdeadcafe




Posts: 22230
Location: ★ ಠ_ಠ ★
PostPosted: Sat, 1st Feb 2014 02:27    Post subject:
1) Try disabling Aero.
2) Run the DirectX web installer.
3) Install win 8.1 + Classic Shell

Laughing

Does everything work fine in windowed mode ?
Back to top
scaramonga




Posts: 9800

PostPosted: Sat, 1st Feb 2014 03:12    Post subject:
PnkBstrA <- Get rid of that crap, or set it to 'manual' if you must have it.

VCDDaemon <- With Windows 8 you don't need to run virtual disks Wink, still, it need not be auto

igfxpers <- Hmm.

But nothing there to suggest your problem arises from any of those. Tried for any BIOS updates for your board?

Steam Client Service can be set to 'manual' also by the way Wink

I know this is drastic, but have you tried connecting another monitor (if you have one) to see if same happens?, or trying another DVI/HDMI connection on GPU, or, another Video card.
Back to top
Mikey5449
Superdad



Posts: 3401

PostPosted: Sat, 1st Feb 2014 05:59    Post subject:
Thank you for the addtional eyes! I think I might have resolved it. So weird, but for some reason the onboard video was turned back on, hence the igfxpers.exe process that was pointed out. I was looking around and around for the driver install for Intel, and no avail in the uninstall stuff so I went to device manager and low and behold I found the bastard in there and told it to uninstall and delete the drivers and everything.

It's been so long since I've had to deal with this that I totally forgot to check that. After finding the intel graphics driver installed, I launched a game and while it got to the menu/startup screen just fine, it did error with saying the Intel driver was out of date which is what really got me digging around for that.

Like I said, I haven't had to deal with that in ages and I've no idea how or why it would have been re-enabled all of a sudden. I'll keep an eye out for anything else that's similar. Thanks again guys!


couleur wrote:
Everything I don't understand is a mental disorder. Laughing

couleur wrote:
If the illegals are drowning its their fault for attempting to cross the river in the first place. Especially the children. /s

russ80 wrote:
Who cares about gameplay. It's one of the few next-gen looking titles out there so BRING IT ON.
Back to top
VGAdeadcafe




Posts: 22230
Location: ★ ಠ_ಠ ★
PostPosted: Sat, 1st Feb 2014 15:54    Post subject:
You can disable the onboard video in the BIOS, can't you ?
Back to top
Mikey5449
Superdad



Posts: 3401

PostPosted: Sat, 1st Feb 2014 17:42    Post subject:
VGAdeadcafe wrote:
You can disable the onboard video in the BIOS, can't you ?
Yep, and I swear that it was in the past. I've had this particular build for almost two years now I think and have never had this problem before since I was certain I had it disabled.

For whatever reason, it was re-enabled in the BIOS and so I turned it back off and so far so good.


couleur wrote:
Everything I don't understand is a mental disorder. Laughing

couleur wrote:
If the illegals are drowning its their fault for attempting to cross the river in the first place. Especially the children. /s

russ80 wrote:
Who cares about gameplay. It's one of the few next-gen looking titles out there so BRING IT ON.
Back to top
PumpAction
[Schmadmin]



Posts: 26759

PostPosted: Sun, 2nd Feb 2014 01:39    Post subject:


=> NFOrce GIF plugin <= - Ryzen 3800X, 16GB DDR4-3200, Sapphire 5700XT Pulse
Back to top
scaramonga




Posts: 9800

PostPosted: Sun, 2nd Feb 2014 03:58    Post subject:
Knew it was that lol, why I said 'hmm' Razz Wink

Glad its all sorted now buddy Very Happy
Back to top
Mikey5449
Superdad



Posts: 3401

PostPosted: Sun, 2nd Feb 2014 16:31    Post subject:
Yep, things are going well so far now. Still makes me wonder how it got re-enabled but I'm not gonna put too much into it. I'm good for now Smile. Thanks again everyone.


couleur wrote:
Everything I don't understand is a mental disorder. Laughing

couleur wrote:
If the illegals are drowning its their fault for attempting to cross the river in the first place. Especially the children. /s

russ80 wrote:
Who cares about gameplay. It's one of the few next-gen looking titles out there so BRING IT ON.
Back to top
Photish




Posts: 1186

PostPosted: Wed, 19th Feb 2014 19:06    Post subject:
Next time. Just close Samsung Magician. Thats what caused the problem.
Back to top
Page 1 of 1 All times are GMT + 1 Hour
NFOHump.com Forum Index - PC Games - Technical
Signature/Avatar nuking: none (can be changed in your profile)  


Display posts from previous:   

Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB 2.0.8 © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group