I'm addressing anybody who still uses Poser Pro 2014.

Has your sessions become unstable in the last week or so?  For maybe a week now, I swear if I do so much as stare at my screen a bit too intensely, the whole session will simply *POOF* vanish, no alert messages, no "grey washing" of the active window, just *PING* it's gone, leaving an orphaned content library window (because it runs separately via Adobe Air).  I'm just wondering if this may be happening to other users.  My Poser sessions have normally been quite "rock solid", only occasionally "freezing" if it can't readily locate a texture map, hunting for it in some no longer existing download folder or picture gallery.

My computer is still relatively new as I purchased it during December 2021.  It runs Windows 11 and I let it accept the various patches and updates as they arrive.

FWIW I've noticed the same with Poser 11

If your computer recently updated Windows 11 and you are seeing random crashes, the usual suspect is that the update may have also overwritten your graphics driver.  The first thing I usually do after a Windows udpate is go to NVidia's web site and download THEIR most recent drivers. 

So you may want to double-check and update the drivers for your graphics card.

Mine turned out to be a bad memory stick, just tracked it down.  Given that Redfern's behavior is identical to mine, I'd run some diagnostics.

cabled posted at 5:53 PM Tue, 14 March 2023 - #4458459

Mine turned out to be a bad memory stick, just tracked it down.  Given that Redfern's behavior is identical to mine, I'd run some diagnostics.

(Not associated with a potential RAM issue, but I have checked all my drives of errors (none found), ran a defrag on each and I'm currently running a deep virus scan that may take a few more hours.)

Ah, I found the app, but it recommends I restart my machine.  I will let the virus scan complete before doing that.

However, I will check about the video drivers.

Redfern posted at 6:41 PM Tue, 14 March 2023 - #4458462

cabled posted at 5:53 PM Tue, 14 March 2023 - #4458459

Mine turned out to be a bad memory stick, just tracked it down.  Given that Redfern's behavior is identical to mine, I'd run some diagnostics.

Dumb question here...  How do I diagnose the RAM sticks?

(Not associated with a potential RAM issue, but I have checked all my drives of errors (none found), ran a defrag on each and I'm currently running a deep virus scan that may take a few more hours.)

And no: I'm not affiliated, I just know this one from the time  when 1MB sticks of RAM costed something like 90$

Y-Phil posted at 5:51 AM Wed, 15 March 2023 - #4458485

Redfern posted at 6:41 PM Tue, 14 March 2023 - #4458462

cabled posted at 5:53 PM Tue, 14 March 2023 - #4458459

Mine turned out to be a bad memory stick, just tracked it down.  Given that Redfern's behavior is identical to mine, I'd run some diagnostics.

Dumb question here...  How do I diagnose the RAM sticks?

(Not associated with a potential RAM issue, but I have checked all my drives of errors (none found), ran a defrag on each and I'm currently running a deep virus scan that may take a few more hours.)

One of the very best RAM testers can't be found inside Windows, it remains Memtest, the one from memtest dot org, one that you can put on an USB stick for example and boot with. Free and Open Source.

And no: I'm not affiliated, I just know this one from the time  when 1MB sticks of RAM costed something like 90$

Uh...  Which is the correct download icon?!  The page is littered with stuff and I suspect a lot of it is actually adware!

Redfern posted at 6:01 AM Wed, 15 March 2023 - #4458486

It's true that the website seem to come from the past, it looks pretty much like the first websites at the time - lol
Ho and it's in dark mode for me, thanks to a plugin I've installed in all my browsers.

In the lower right part:

Thanks!  My virus scan took most of the night and found my system clean.

First thing this morning I ran the built-in RAM analysis (since I didn't know at the time which of those files to grab) and it came up "clean".

Finally, I installed the NVIDIA drivers.

Just after lunch I risked opening Poser and ran a short session, opening an existing A3 scene from a few month back with just two conforming items.  It seemed stable and I closed Poser (in a controlled fashion) after maybe 10 minutes of minor puttering.  I tweaked a texture map in PaintShop Pro and then launched Poser a second time, loading the clothing item my texture would affect.  Again,  kept it open only for maybe 5 minutes before controllably closing the program because I just couldn't stand to see it just *BLIP* off the screen once again.

So, really, I don't know if my efforts so far have actually helped or not.  I'm just too paranoid to see the problem possibly continue.  Silly of me, I know...

Oh and I may have missed something: what kind of nVidia drivers did you installed? Even though you're playing games, I think that their Studio series is more stable, and from what I remember have been read online that the Studio lines has no really noticeable loss of performance, compared to the... "classic" series.

Yeah, what Y-Phil said...try the studio drivers and always install with the "clean install" option.  (It's under the non-automatic choice in the driver installer).  They're usually more stable, though I could not get them to play nicely with some Greyscalegorilla plugins and had to revert to the game ready drivers, so YMMV.  But try them both and use the more stable one, the studio drivers will only cost you 1-2% game performance if any, it's worth it if they're stable.

cabled posted at 4:31 PM Thu, 16 March 2023 - #4458751

...the studio drivers will only cost you 1-2% game performance if any, it's worth it if they're stable.

Something just dawned upon me.

Poser Pro 2014 does not make use of the Graphics Processor Unit, right?  That feature was not integrated until Poser 12.  So, rendering functions for PP2014 are totally driven by the Central Processor Unit.  Given those caveats, would updating the video drivers really have any effect upon "pre SuperFly" versions of the program?

I will confess I'm still too scared to open scenes or load any items that were present when I first really observed the problem.  It's like I don't want to jinx myself.  But i know I eventually must risk it, kinda' like returning to the saddle after being thrown from a horse.

Graphics drivers won't have any effect on your rendering performance because yes that's all CPU in poser 2014, but your graphics card drivers are how *everytthing* gets from your computer to your screen.  It's a cheap and easy thing to test.  But really, when you get this behavior where a program simply "goes away"...no real errors, no real weird behavior before that- it just vanishes, it's a memory addressing issue.  Could be your physical RAM, could be the memory on the video card, could be hardware on the motherboard that sits between the memory and the rest of the system.  Could be driver issues or even a windows update.  Unfortunately, memory issues can be maddening to try and track down.

...when you get this behavior where a program simply "goes away"...no real errors, no real weird behavior before that- it just vanishes, it's a memory addressing issue.  Could be your physical RAM, could be the memory on the video card, could be hardware on the motherboard that sits between the memory and the rest of the system.  Could be driver issues or even a windows update.  Unfortunately, memory issues can be maddening to try and track down.

Have you tried rolling back the last Windows update? Since the problem is very recent.

Have you tried rolling back the last Windows update? Since the problem is very recent.

Rolling back a Windows update will affect your Poser licensing and it would need to reset.  Given the situation, starting and restarting the program stabilizes it, that's the purpose of restarting your computer every once in a while just to clear out your memory and reset your all programs.

One thing to keep an eye out for is... old laptops. The battery in a 10-yr old laptop will start expanding eventually. If it starts doing that, then carefully take the battery out before it starts to bend the MB or other parts.

They say don't use your phone while it's charging. That's because the phone's battery wasn't designed to handle the heat from both, charging and having an intensive task running at the same time.

Hope this helps.

Rolling back a Windows update will affect your Poser licensing and it would need to reset.  Given the situation, starting and restarting the program stabilizes it, that's the purpose of restarting your computer every once in a while just to clear out your memory and reset your all programs.

One thing to keep an eye out for is... old laptops. The battery in a 10-yr old laptop will start expanding eventually. If it starts doing that, then carefully take the battery out before it starts to bend the MB or other parts.

There's also this option:

I fear I may jinx myself just by posting this, but I think (read: HOPE) I have corrected the issue of my silently crashing Poser sessions. Today after lunch I bit the bullet and ran the program, opening the project that initially demonstrated the problem. I kept the program open only 30, maybe 45 minutes as I made considerable progress, going so far as to place the dressed figure into an actual environment. (When I experienced the program crashes last weekend, "Melody for A3" stood within a blank void; I got no further than that.) Today, however, I was able to place her within a dojo. Paranoid from my experiences last week, I saved several times during that short session and closed the application (thankfully in a controlled fashion) before opening a browser so I can post this message.

Oh, the caption that goes with this piece reads, "Mzzkiti is Puma Thurman in 'Kill Bill the Cat'!"

(Rest of forum members groan in chorus!)

I fear I may jinx myself just by posting this, but I think (read: HOPE) I have corrected the issue of my silently crashing Poser sessions. Today after lunch I bit the bullet and ran the program, opening the project that initially demonstrated the problem. I kept the program open only 30, maybe 45 minutes as I made considerable progress, going so far as to place the dressed figure into an actual environment. (When I experienced the program crashes last weekend, "Melody for A3" stood within a blank void; I got no further than that.) Today, however, I was able to place her within a dojo. Paranoid from my experiences last week, I saved several times during that short session and closed the application (thankfully in a controlled fashion) before opening a browser so I can post this message.

Oh, the caption that goes with this piece reads, "Mzzkiti is Puma Thurman in 'Kill Bill the Cat'!"

(Rest of forum members groan in chorus!)

Redfern posted at 6:04 PM Fri, 17 March 2023 - #4458892

TwiztidKidd posted at 5:47 PM Fri, 17 March 2023 - #4458890

One thing to keep an eye out for is... old laptops. The battery in a 10-yr old laptop will start expanding eventually. If it starts doing that, then carefully take the battery out before it starts to bend the MB or other parts.

Mine is an AC powered tower unit I purchased in December of 2021, so the issue you've described wouldn't affect me.  Still, it's something to consider for lithium cell powered devices.

Let me give you a real example. I work in a company in which we provide custom-based solutions of an ERP. Like most ERP's, it's working using one of the worst programs that can exist on each computer, whatever the operating system: the browser (they are all absolute nightmares in terms of resources, the difference being made by the OS itself)

That being said, one day the IT of one of my customers called me: all PCs were running the application fine, except one.
Upon talking with the user, I understood that yes: she turns off her computer correctly.
"Launch the task manager in advanced mode, look near the bottom of the Performances tab, and tell me how long it has been working?"

A few seconds later... "178 days"

I almost fall down of my chair, laughing... Win10 still running more or less correctly after that interval of time? wow...

Microsoft is efficient at one and only thing: marketing. I'm a long-time Windows user and I pretty much know that resources are a weak point since day one, version 1.0...
The only thing you must not forget with Windows: restart each 3 to 6 days depending on how much resources you've used. I've the same Win10 installation since 4 years (in July) and I remark that when Windows or even Poser starts to behave weirdly or starts to take an abnormally long time to loaf things, it means that I need to reboot the poor Windows.
And no, for personal reasons, Apple's machines aren't going to be a solution any soon, and Linux not more as long as I can't use Poser+OS+nVidia correctly and straightforwardly 

Redfern posted at 6:04 PM Fri, 17 March 2023 - #4458892

TwiztidKidd posted at 5:47 PM Fri, 17 March 2023 - #4458890

One thing to keep an eye out for is... old laptops. The battery in a 10-yr old laptop will start expanding eventually. If it starts doing that, then carefully take the battery out before it starts to bend the MB or other parts.

Mine is an AC powered tower unit I purchased in December of 2021, so the issue you've described wouldn't affect me.  Still, it's something to consider for lithium cell powered devices.

If you are not aware of this, you have an excuse: many people ignores the fact that since Win10 on, turning off the computer does not turns it really off, it's a kind of deep hibernation in which the power unit is really off, but your Windows, when it's restarted, is rebooted with most programs off but the resources not refreshed. If Windows was overloaded, it's still  there.

So, are things truly refreshed when I power down my machine AND unplug the hardware from the wall socket?  Because that's what i do when things seem to get really squirrely...or if threatening weather is approaching.  (In the latter case, yes, I will also disconnect the computer from the ISP hardware so that is fully separated from any possible electrical input.0  Of does the machine continue to "purr" while in the deepest of "comas" using the onboard battery?  If so...DANG!!!

Redfern posted at 6:48 AM Tue, 21 March 2023 - #4459163

Y-Phil posted at 2:43 AM Tue, 21 March 2023 - #4459158 

So, are things truly refreshed when I power down my machine AND unplug the hardware from the wall socket?  Because that's what i do when things seem to get really squirrely...or if threatening weather is approaching.  (In the latter case, yes, I will also disconnect the computer from the ISP hardware so that is fully separated from any possible electrical input.0  Of does the machine continue to "purr" while in the deepest of "comas" using the onboard battery?  If so...DANG!!!

So that a good mix of both is the best solution: each 3 to 6 days reboot your Windows, for example while getting a coffee/tee/whatever, and later: shut it down daily.