I often leave Poser running overnight on my computer, generally without difficulty, as i am working on a scene.  During this time, my computer is disconnected from the internet.

This morning I resumed work and was moving a figure around when the display window blanked white and the program became unresponsive, displaying that obnoxious swirling cursor thing. Nothing I did was able to get the program to respond.

In task manager I went to the details display and clicked on "analyze wait chain" , it indicated it waiting for some kind of network connection.  Well that wasn't going to happen, I was disconnected from the internet.  So I connected to the internet, not joy.

Eventually I stopped the program via Task manager.

I would like to know:

1. Why does Poser blank the display window sometimes while one is moving items around?

2. Why does Poser need the network at all after the initial start up?   What could it have been doing?

3, Is this a known issue that is addresses by a specific version?

My version is 12.0.340

What I know of Windows and sockets connections: if it is not specifically and correctly programmed, a connection through using socket may stall the calling program if that connection is closed or goes nuts before the exchange is ended.

If this happens each night, then it's difficult to explain, but if it happens from time to time, this could be because of Poser calling home regularly

That being said: is there any reason why you haven't updated to the 12.0.703 version?

I only upgrade occasionally, the time I have to create images is pretty limiited.  The last few upgrades I did required me to go rediscover all my runtimes (I’ve been a user since Poser 2), hence my reluctance.

Random phone homes that have the potential to disrupt the user’s work flow are not a good thing.  Vendors shouldn’t expect users to keep connected to the internet in these days of ransomware, etc,

I generally connect when I start Poser ( and Vue )  but disconnect  after that. I think it’s reasonable for a program to check during start up.

I often leave Poser running overnight on my computer, generally without difficulty, as i am working on a scene.  During this time, my computer is disconnected from the internet.

This morning I resumed work and was moving a figure around when the display window blanked white and the program became unresponsive, displaying that obnoxious swirling cursor thing. Nothing I did was able to get the program to respond.

In task manager I went to the details display and clicked on "analyze wait chain" , it indicated it waiting for some kind of network connection.  Well that wasn't going to happen, I was disconnected from the internet.  So I connected to the internet, not joy.

Eventually I stopped the program via Task manager.

I would like to know:

1. Why does Poser blank the display window sometimes while one is moving items around?

I don't have this problem. Maybe check your video card drivers.

2. Why does Poser need the network at all after the initial start up?   What could it have been doing?

I don't think it does. I don't know how often it phones home in a session, but I've used Poser during internet outages without issue. Others only connect occasionally to satisfy the phone home feature.

3, Is this a known issue that is addresses by a specific version?

My version is 12.0.340

While it may have been trying to connect to a network, that it still didn't work once you connected makes me think that wasn't the problem. I recommend updating and seeing if that helps. When it asks, tell it to keep all your old settings. Make a copy of your library beforehand You can find it here C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Poser\12. It's called LibraryPrefs.xml. You can also find your UI prefs, and preferred state scene file if you want to back them up just in case.

If you still have problems, you might want to contact support at posersoftware.com

This may not be relevant to your current problem, but it  is good to bear in mind:

Poser needs network permission because Poser, the render engine (FFRender64,) and Queue Manager are separate EXEs;  even though they are communicating within your computer, Windows considers that as a network connection.

Very tangential: For several years, until they got better diagnostics etc and could spot the perps, my ISP would 'churn' cable-modem addresses once or twice a fortnight. The reason was to dissuade people from running pop-up file-servers on home accounts: Technically 'business usage', and certainly bandwidth hogging.

Note ISP did not just churn high-usage modems, they churned all the domestic lines. So, in the morning, PC has lost its network access and, being Windows, needs a re-boot. 

IIRC, it still happens from time to time. And, being Windows, still needs a re-boot...