Crash after alt-tab

[jamiechi1]

When I Alt-Tab, the game crashes with a dialog saying my video card has been physically removed. Factorio version 17.66.
my System: Windows 7 Ultimate, 8Gb RAM, MSI GL62 6QF laptop with Intel Graphics, I5 processor, 960M Nvidia card with 2Gb of VRAM.
In the Nvidia Settings, I set the Nvidia card as preferred over the Intel Graphics card.
Note that this is on a recent clean install of Windows 7 on my Laptop with all Windows Updates installed. (And all drivers updated.)
The last time it happened, I selected the option to run with OpenGL.
So far, this seems to work.
I have until recently been running version 17 on a PC with Win7 without having this issue, and no problems after that on that machine after upgrading to Windows 10.
So it seems to me that this problem is specific to my Laptop hardware and Win7 installation.

[Loewchen]

Post the log, see my signature.

[posila]

So it seems to me that this problem is specific to my Laptop hardware and Win7 installation.

Indeed. The dialog you saw is at the moment the best we are able to handle this error state. Moved to Technical help.

EDIT: By the way ... I know your GPU has not been physically removed, it's just me poking fun at this error - the "The video card has been physically removed from the system, or a driver upgrade for the video card has occurred." is copy&paste from DirectX documentation for this error (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... dxgi-error) ... on the other hand ... OS might have actually disabled the dedicated GPU when you tabbed out, for whatever reason.

[Jon8RFC]

I don't know how Windows 7 handles power with regard to dedicated and integrated GPUs, but maybe someone else can shed some light on it with the below. Were you on battery power, by any chance? Maybe it switched from your nvidia to intel and Factorio went kaput...any other game might have as well.

I recently learned that Windows 10 will determine which GPU to use depending on power settings. Low power consumption settings means it will likely use the integrated GPU; high power consumption/performance means it will likely use the dedicated GPU. This has me wondering if your computer shifted power states for some reason, and maybe Win7 does similar functionality to Win10--if you were on battery power or your power cord was temporarily jiggled loose just for a second, it could've gone into the "running on battery" power settings, which could mean shifting the gpu load to the integrated gpu. I never had an integrated GPU when I used Win7, and this is my first system including an integrated GPU in over 15 years, so I'm just becoming familiar with toggling between the two again. Just a thought, but I'd like others to chime in.

[BlueTemplar]

Dual GPU systems are notoriously unstable (especially the ones that try to make both GPUs work at the SAME time for the extra graphic power!) - and AFAIK it's been quite a few years that laptop GPUs have a power throttling mode that makes them power efficient enough at light loads, making integrated GPUs quite pointless ?

[jamiechi1]

Because I have a built in Video card with it's own memory, I always run it with the power cord plugged in. I never run it on battery power. All settings when plugged in are set to maximum performance.
Also the laptop is set to always use the Video Card instead of the built-in graphics processor.
Since I was able to work around my issues by using OpenGL, this is probably a low priority issue.
I just wanted this issue to be noted in the system in case others have the same laptop and to show that there is a work-around.
Thank you everyone for your time in responding to this issue.
Jamie.

[BlueTemplar]

In that case, maybe consider disabling the integrated video card directly in the BIOS ?

[jamiechi1]

I hope you are not talking about my integrated Nvidia card when you said to disable in the Bios. That will not happen even if I could.
I purchased the laptop because of the Nvidia card. This is the first program I have ever had video issues with on this laptop.
If you are talking about the integrated graphics in the CPU, then I would if I could. I don't think that is possible with this laptop.
Thank you, anyway, for your response. Anything constructive is always welcome.

[BlueTemplar]

Intel is the one integrated (directly on or near the CPU).
Nvidia is the dedicated one.
AFAIK, dual-card laptops like these usually have the option of disabling one of the cards in the BIOS (to deal with issues like that...)