Accidentally changed a setting ?

Want to see something strange, heres whats going on, the screen shot is how it used to come out and the video is what happening now: http://www.mcd4x4.com/printscreen.htm 

I don't know how it worked before but with Win 2K and XP, you can't capture screens of video using Print Screen. I've seen utilities that will supposedly capture screens but haven't tried any. What I do is capture it, open it in After Effects, export as jpg. Yeah, it's overkill and time consuming but I didn't have to spend any more money or learn more software.

Good Luck!

Hi MCD,

That looks cool and freaky at the same time. I have no idea what could have caused it so I'm throwing some ideas here... Try disabling Active Desktop? Reinstall the TV tuner software?

Hi,

I've tried reinstalling the Tuner software and photoshop. I don't have Active desktop. Did you watch the video? Could it be a system setting that was changed?

Yes, I watched the video. It's definitely not Photoshop doing it. Have you tried using a screen capture software like CorelCapture?

Hi MCD
Can you list the hardware that you are using - is this a quad system (what manufacturer?) -etc...

My system does the same thing - as long as I have whatever program I'm using to paste into. But when I stop the video, the graphic isn't there. If I try to save it, there is just a black box roughly the size of the video.

I looked into it quite a bit and found that using Print Screen won't work. I think it's just some kind of glitch that is copying the window, not a screen.

Hi,

I'm using:

Matrox G200 MMS with TVN
Part Number:  G2+/QUAD-PL/TVN
Serial Number:  AR50937

The motherboard is Asus
The Model is  A7U266/AA
The Chipset is VIA/HYPERON 4IN1's

Creative Sound Card

Keep in mind, it has worked like picture in the above link for years and somehow changes now.

have you updated your tv software or drivers?  typically you need to set these types of programs to low-performance in order to be captured.  what that means is that most video based applications have the ability to use direct draw, which circumvents windows and writes directly to the screen.  while this provides better video, when you try to capture, windows just sees a black box.  it has no idea what's on the screen.  i'm gone through similar issues and the answer was that the newer version of the software I had was optimized for performance, so i when i need to capture video stills, i have to go into the setting for the software and manually "dumb it down" to sending video through windows.

i am assuming here that when you prt-scn now, you get 3 windows and one blank one.  if that is that case, this is the avenue you need to likely pursue.  alternatively, depending upon the way you setup your quad, i.e. extended desktop (task bar only on one monitor) vs. single (task bar across multiple monitors), the video program may behave differently.  I know there were several settings for my nVidia card I needed to change in order to get my dual setup to behave properly.

I was just fooling around with a program called AutoScreenRecorder: http://www.wisdom-soft.com/products/autoscreenrecorder_free.htm Nice program. When the file are saved and I open the folder that there in, I have a similar affect like the Photoshop problem. I saved about 7-8 files. When I open the folder that there in, it's like little pieces of the TV. In other words, if you cut a bunch of say two inch squares in a piece of paper and put it over the TV screens, thats what the folder looks like. Live files. What could be the cause of this??

Something very messed up. Did the problem start after you installed this AutoScreenRecorder? If so I would get rid of it and do a System Restore to a point before its installation.

I've used RiverPast Screen Recorder before and loved it.

No, the problem stated a few weeks ago, someone in another forum suggested trying autoscreenrecorder. that one lead me to see that the problem was also in saved files. What do you thing, it's a windows thing right?

open a video in windows media player on the screen you were trying to capture a TV still.
capture the screen
paste into photoshop

does the video image appear?  
if yes, you have the correct settings to be able to capture motion video in at prt-scn
if no, you will need to locate the setting of the software that disable Direct draw

You can test this "switch" in capturing video in Windows Media Player by...
Open WMP > Tools > Options > Performance > Video Acceleration > slide over to None on the left
try and capture with it on None and at Full.

the results of this test will develop a lead to the issue.

Yeah, some DLL messed up. I'd try the System Restore option, or GoBack (I don't use System Restore.)

the thing is, when it happened I tried going back a week or so and no luck, same problem.

that most likely indicates that it's a setting vs. an installation

Did you uninstall it? Maybe uninstalling and running a Registry cleanup...

I tried uninstalling it and I used RegMichanic.

when you capture trying None and Full in WMP, do you get the same results?

OK, when I slid it to NONE, with a video playing on screen 4, and the TV on screen 1, in photo shop, there both green.

I noticed in Photoshop that after hitting PrintScreen, than Ctrl V, the gray area in the window with PS7 on it (2), you can't see the cusor on the gray. weird huh?

I just tried something else, with the TV window half on screens 1 and 2, the part on 2 comes out right in the print screen. Maybe it's a screen setting?

that means that your video driver is using direct draw on some monitors but not others.

these settings, if your manufacturer provides them, will be in your video driver's software

i recommend writing down what the current video settings (not res, refresh, but extended settings i.e. extra tabs added to your video settings like OpenGL, etc.) are because if it's anything like mine, there are hundreds of possible configurations.  this way if you get a bad one that garbles the screens or locks up, you can always revert to what you know near-works and search for more combinations.

Hmmm...  you said Active Desktop is disabled?

Ok, things started getting slow so I rebooted, now the print screen, where the TV is, monitor 1, is live, samething when I move it to monitor 2 now. So that changed from befroe the reboot. It worked on Monitor 2 before.  Where is Active Desktop? I'll check.

simkiss, where would I find those setting you talking about? I'll write them down for ya.

Oh, and BTW, when I rebooted, I got the blue screen of death doing a memory dump. that happens sometimes when I shut the TV off with the on screen remote.

have you added any PCI cards to your PC recently?  is your video card PCI or AGP?

settings...

right-click on desktop > click on properties > click settings tab > click advanced.

see all the tabs you have?  there should be extended settings in here.

The Video card is PCI, theres nothing in theAGP slot. The only other card is the Internet card.

Ok.  try this to stop the BSOD.. and potentially get to the bottom of the other issue....

restart
F1 or DEL to enter your BIOS setup
navigate to IRQ settings
WRITE DOWN the IRQ settings for each device (in case you need to restore them)
now try to change the IRQ for your video card while taking note of the devices it's sharing an IRQ number with

if you can isolate your PCI card on its own IRQ number, this is the best option.  if you are unable to isolate the card on its own IRQ, try physically moving the card to another PCI slot which will change the IRQ numbers the card can use.  if you move the card and still cannot get it on its own IRQ, try sharing the card with a USB port's IRQ if you have to.

Active Desktop should be in Control Panels>Folder Options.. under the General Tab

Information:

Grafics hardware:
Model-Matrox G200
serial number AR50937
Grafics memory:
Memory type-SGRAM
Amount of memory-8MB
Maximum RAMDAC speed 250 MHz
Extra Hardware:
Digital flat pannel connector [built in]
Grafics Software [versions]:
Martox driver package: 5.93.009
Display Driver: 6.12.01.1930 (1.93.009)
Kernel driver:6.12.011930 (1.93.009)
DirectDraw/Direct3D driver: 6.12.01.1930 (1.93.1930)
Grafics BIOS: 2.5-19
Microsoft DirectX: 9.0

Options:

X use bus mastering
   use 32 bit Z buffering
   Enlarge mouse pointer
X Use hardware to draw color mouse pointer

Troubleshoot:

Hardware acceleration: Full
X Enable write combining

Adapter:

Chip type- MGA-G200 B8
DAC type: intergrated, 250 MHz
Adapter String- Matrox MMs G200
Bios information-V2.5.019

Monitor:

Screen refresh rate 60 Hertz

General:

DPi settings- Normal size (96 dpi)

after you isolate an IRQ, test out the screen capture

if the screen capture still doesn't work, try changing the troublshooting acceleration setting in your driver's settings and see if one of the options gives you the desired result.

Nothing about Active desktop in there.

OK, I'm on a laptop, On the other one in the BIO's,nder PCI Configuration, it says,

Slot 1/5 [auto]
slot   2  [auto]
slot   3  [auto]
slot   4  [auto]

Than there something else that says "PCI Resourse Exclusion"

IRQ   3 Used By ISA  [No/ICU]
 "      4    "     "   "         "
        5    "     "   "         "
        7    "     "   "         "
        9    "     "   "         "
       10   "     "   "         "
       11   "     "   "         "
       12   "     "   "         "
       14   "     "   "         "
       15   "     "   "         "

Does this tell you anything?

the fact that it says [auto] tells me there is a way to change it to [manual]
see if you can change to manual

The choices for the fist part is..

auto
NA
3
4
5
7
9
10
11
12
14
15
 
and the scond part I mentioned are

No/ICU
Yes


am I in the right place?

you should see your video card and a corresponding IRQ number, or you should see your video card and [auto] next to it.  you want to change the number or change it from [auto] to a number.  this is the number to play with.

I don't see the Martox card or Video mentioned any where. How about thisIn ADVANCED/Onboard Peripheral Resource Control

Onboard FDC Swap A&B           [No Swap]

onboard Serial port 1                [3F8H/IRQ4]
onboard Serial port 2                [2F8H/IRQ3]
UART2 Use as                          [COM Port]

Onboard Parallel Port               [378H/IRQ7]
Parallel Port Mode                    [ECP+EPP]

Onboard Peripheral Resourse Control:
onboard CIR                            [Disabled]

it could be there.  it's hard to say because every BIOS is different.  It would likely say VGA card or Video Card (matrox) or (unknown manufacturer).

Na, nothing like that. But how could anything in the BIO's have changed. I never go in there.

the BIOS issue is mostly just to stop the BSOD.  XP should just about never crash and you shouldn't be able to reproduce a crash on demand like that.  This is a common issue with PCI graphics cards.  Theoretically, this was all worked out in a meeting room somewhere; making all PCI devices friendly with the introduction of PCI 2.1.  In practice however, PCI graphics cards are often elephants in room a bit undersized.  They are better run with a dedicated slot such as AGP.  One of my PCs has PCI video and I went through similar issues regarding the crashing, so I wanted to fix that and rule it out as the source of any issues with the screen capture.  It's got somewhat of a chance in being involved.  Sometimes a simple unplugging of a USB device and plugging it back into a different USB port will spark an IRQ battle.

I got the blue screen today 3 times at the point of exiting the PC-VCR software, which I've uninstalled and reinstalled a few times. I don't know. I'm pretty good with the PC but this one is kicken my ass. What do you think I need to do next to figure this one? I have everything worked out but the Photoshop thing and the crashing, lol. I tried moving the PCI card too. So you think the blue screen first?

i think it's important to get that out of the way just in case.  if you tell me your BIOS manufacturer and the version, I might be able to find its manual.  then i could point you exactly to the place you need to go.  if it turns out that you don't have the ability to manually set your IRQs for some reason, we can try to update your BIOS if there's a newer version available and hope they added the ability to the updated version, or another thing you can try is rearranging your PCI cards to make differnt IRQ combinations.  This is essentially what the IRQ part of the BIOS does by reassigning the PCI slots a new IRQ number.  Instead, you'd be doing the reverse and blindly since this way we can't see which slots share resources with which devices.  It's a last resort, but can work.

I think this is it?

The motherboard is Asus
The Model is  A7U266/AA
The Chipset is VIA/HYPERON 4IN1's

it's funny.  i looked up A7U266/AA and it listed this forum thread only. :o)  actually the motherboard won't tell me the BIOS version or manuf.  The BIOS will flash on the screen for a second or two when you power-up the PC and say something like "Dell BIOS v.3.121321 008"  or "Phoenix BIOS 5.99 000" etc.

If you have a logo instead, somewhere in the BIOS settings you can turn off "quick boot" and "skip tests" etc.  essentially you want to display all the tests and data when the PC starts up.  see if you can turn off the quick boot stuff and write down what BIOS manuf and version you have.

Award medallion BIOs V.6.0
An Energy Star Ally
Copyright (c) 1984 - 2000
Award Software inc

ASUS A7U266- E/AA NCPI BIOs REV 1006

that's what i need.  lemme look

I looked up some info on your BIOS and I found "And now a little about the BIOS which is based on Award Medallion BIOS v6.0. All other things are present including manual setting of IRQ on each PCI slot."  which means it can be done.  I'm not having any luck finding the manual in .PDF format.  Many people say that with the motherboard comes a CD that has the manual for the BIOS in a .PDF file on the disc.  You wouldn't happen to have the disc would you? I looked up ASUS A7U266 on the ASUS website but it says your model doesn't exist.  The do however have the manuals for all the motherboards that "they say exist."  

Check out this page and see if you can locate a manual for your mobo.  It might be listed under another model that you will recognize...  http://www.asus.com/support/support.aspx

Waht number seems to be no good? the guy I got the PC from built it for himself. He might have that info. Could I have read a number wrong when I wrote it down.

i don't think so because there's nothing listed close to your model number so I am guessing that there's another model number somewhere.  on the site though, it lists all their models on one page.  I'm hoping you may see one under motherboards that looks familiar to a number you've seen.  if not, it looks like that guy may have the disc?  

sorry i can't connect remotely and just do it... it would be much easier if it were in windows.

OK, I'll get in touch with him tonight and see what I can find out. Talk to ya than.

ok

The guy I got the machine from thinks your looking for this link:  

http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A7V266-E/AA&Type=Latest 

Excellent. That was exactly what I needed.  Keep this PDF for future reference: http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socka/kt266a/a7v266-e/a7v266e-100.pdf

First, make sure that your video card is not in Slot 1 or Slot 5, use 2, 3, or 4 (3 middle slots on mobo).

Start up computer and enter BIOS setup.  (looks like what you were talking about finding.  it was just unfamiliar to me because they all look different)

in BIOS menu, goto: Advanced > PCI Configuration (page 67 of PDF)>

Try changing slots 2, 3, and 4 to manual settings (3,4,5,7,9,10,11,12,14, or 15) in different combinations, save settings, and start-up Windows.  See if you can reproduce the BSOD until you find a combination that does not crash.  If your system locks-up, which it will with some IRQ combinations, just hold in the power button for 10 seconds until your PC powers down, wait 10 seconds, power-up, then go back into the BIOS and try another combination.  

Eventually, if not right away, you should be able to find a combination that allows you to operate the TV's software without crashing.  It's time-consuming but it's the only way to fix IRQ conflicts with semi-non-PCI 2.1-compliant PCI video cards.

Do this first or update the BIO's first?

OK, no more crashing. Whats the next plan for the printscreen thing?

good news.

for printscrn, does the issue occur if the TV is displayed on each of the other 3 monitors or only on this one?

It's the same on all screens. Check this out, I went into my Recycle bin to go threw it and empty it out. I have some video files in there and there live feed too. You believe that? File that were saved and deleted.

that's curious.  maybe time-shifting / tivo functions of the software?


For capture, have you tried this:

Video snapshots
Click the Video Snapshot button ( ) on the Matrox PC-VCR
remote to save a digital still image (“frame capture”) of the current PC-VCR video window.
Video snapshots can be saved as bitmap (*.bmp) or JPEG (*.jpg) files. You can adjust the
quality, and as a result the file size of JPEG video snapshots.

check out pages 33 and 34 of your manual and see if you see something you recognize that you may have changed...

http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/user_manuals/g200_mms/mms2_eng.pdf

I printed that out, I don't know that I have anything called "VidCap" I did a search for it and came up with a vidcap.ax and there are three. One in C:\Windows\ServicepackFiles\i386, C:\Windows\system32 and C:\Windows\system321\dllcache. I would think it would be an exe file no? Is this anoth program I need to download?

Here's what my remote looks like: http://www.mcd4x4.com/PC-VCR.htm 

I am wondering.  It's hard to tell because I don't know what you had/have in terms of package, files, etc.

If you go into your video card's advanced settings, do you see anything about Overlays or Overlay mode?
Essentially what we're looking for is some way to disable the overlay for the purpose of capturing the screen.

I found something called "PDESK" These are some of the choices in it,
Multi-Display Controls, Matrox Hybird Display. The picture on Pge 34 that you see. I don't know how to bring that up.

I wish I could see what you see, but it looks like you're on the right track with Multi-Display Controls and Matrox Hybird Display.  That would be where I'd look for overlay controls.

Can't find anything like that.

Is it possible that you have a slightly different version?  I cannot find anything about the overlays for your menu either.  Are you outside North America?  I wonder if you are then do you have a modified version.  it's strange that the menus you have don't match the manual.  

I'm useing the driver at the top of this page: http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/previous/prv_rr.cfm
Maybe theres a better one there. I used the top one because one of the Matrox tecs gave me the link and said thats the one I should use. After going back and forth with him a few times I'm not sure he was the sharpest tool in the shed. BTW, I'm in New York