Blinking screen

[john9210]

I'm using FM 11 Advanced on Windows Vista. The screen frequently "blinks" while in layout mode. That is the picture (screen) goes blank and instantly refreshes. This happens even when I'm not doing anything. It's quite annoying.

[jamesducker]

Are there other users connected to the database?

Frequent unnecessary redrawing of the screen has always been a minor irritation in multi-user environments...

James

[Søren Dyhr]

Portals based on some sort of calc' dependent key fields and those with sorting tied to the rendering are the worse here!

Unstored calc's and summary fields should be avoided by and large in any of the layouts supposed a users frequent interaction.

But here you're talking of being in layout mode, the throughput is based either networked or some sort of inferior harddrive cacheing. Most of which could be read here:

http://help.filemaker.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5874/~/optimizing-network-performance-for-shared-databases

--sd

[john9210]

No, no one else is using the database. It's on a stand alone desktop computer.

[Søren Dyhr]

Thats strange since you are on a version which actualy works with Vista:

http://www.filemaker.com/downloads/pdf/filemaker_versions.pdf

But it's also known as a pretty fat cat to swing, with lots of going ons not fully catered for by the user, unless you seriously have sat down a day or so and trimmed all the bell and whistels down to a more decent level, the people in Redmond Washington have a "One size fits all" approach to the services they might think is needed.

One of the best sites to obtain guidance for this trimming process, which I only can urge you to perform is:

http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm

If you have been there, done that - is a purchase of more ram the next thing I would think of.

--sd

[bcooney]

"pretty fat cat to swing", lol! What? That's a new one for me. Then again, my jazz knowledge is wanting.

[Søren Dyhr]

By the (it's) tail I mean :

--sd

[comment]

I guess it ain't over until the fat cat swings?

[Søren Dyhr]

NIce one! What I actually paraphrased was the british expression ...

Hardly room to swing a cat

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=463941

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8201900.stm

--sd

[Vaughan]

I'm using FM 11 Advanced on Windows Vista. The screen frequently "blinks" while in layout mode. That is the picture (screen) goes blank and instantly refreshes. This happens even when I'm not doing anything. It's quite annoying.

These glitches are often associated with the video card acceleration. Try updating the driver or adjusting the acceleration down a bit.

[TheTominator]

NIce one! What I actually paraphrased was the british expression ...

I am reminded of this usage of the expression (by a British author).

There was a sort of gallery structure in the roof space which held a bed and also a bathroom which, Fenchurch explained, you could actually swing a cat in, "But", she added, "only if it was a reasonably patient cat and didn't mind a few nasty cracks about the head []."

[Søren Dyhr]

:waytogo:

--sd

[john9210]

I checked the driver. It is up to date

[Søren Dyhr]

I wondered if it would be possible to make a symbolic link between host and guest OS in a VirtualBox session (should be possible) ... if it is? Would I try to install Windows 7 in the guest OS department pulling filemaker from the host. Startup and see if the flickering has gone ... and you have BTW scrutinized all services in Vista for their irrelevance to you use?

--sd

[john9210]

I thought I would add some more info.

The refresh problem is not unique to FM 11 Adv. I had the same problem for sometime with FM 9 Adv running on Vista Home Basic. It happens on both my laptop and desktop computers (either version of FM, running on Vista Home Basic). So, I suspect a Vista issue?

When a file opens to the browse mode, after 5 seconds or so it screen refreshes (what I call “blink”). If I switch to layout, the screen frequently refreshes while I am working and is very annoying.

I’ve increased the cache to 100Mb (from the default 64) with no apparent effect.

I tried removing a calculation field from the layout with no apparent effect. There are no summary fields on the layout.

I haven’t tried to trim services ala Blackviper yet. I wonder if it is really worth the effort to try this. Anyone have thoughts or suggestions on this?

john9210

[Søren Dyhr]

I have no way to verify the info give here, but it certianly makes you think:

http://www.crn.com/software/198702242;jsessionid=5KEUZJAELGCXRQE1GHRSKHWATMY32JVN?pgno=1

--sd

[bcooney]

Soren,

Last night watching Marx brother's Monkey Business, Groucho says, "that's a fat cat to swing." Funny, huh?

Barbara

[Søren Dyhr]

I've just seen that entire movie is on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPoEHDQZqcQ

I'll poke into it later!

--sd