PCLink G5 UI graphical bugs

[jdniss]

Hi,

I've had a few weird instances of UI graphical bugs within PCLink G5 where random tables overlap with each other, some resulted in Runtime crashes as well.

Unsure if unique to my usage/hardware configuration, or a common issue worth investigating.

Win10 Pro 22H2, AMD Ryzen CPU, AMD GPU.
Machine still has PCLink G4+ and PCLink G4X software installed due to various ECU's being tuned.

PCLink G5 - v7.2.3411
PCLink G4x - v6.23.15
PCLink G4+ - v5.6.8.3669
 

Thanks

 

[JMP]

I've experienced similar

Dell XPS15 running Win11 home build 22621, Intel Core i7-12700H, Intel Iris Xe Graphics and also GeForce RTX 3050 Ti mobile GPU

Also on an older Win10 i5 Microsoft Surface Laptop

[2.0L_turbo]

Can confirm I have had the same issue, at times even needing to close tables and re open them to get it to show properly.

[essb00]

That is because Windows scaling (when you have selected other than 100%) is trying so hard to scale PCLink which is running on OpenGL.
Put it to 100%, restart. It should solve that issue.

[jdniss]

13 hours ago, essb00 said:

That is because Windows scaling (when you have selected other than 100%) is trying so hard to scale PCLink which is running on OpenGL.
Put it to 100%, restart. It should solve that issue.

Scaling is already at 100% unfortunately.

Never experienced the issue on PCLink G4+ or G4X on the same system - leads me to believe the issue is solely related to PCLink G5 software.

[dx4picco]

I did get the same graphical mess with 100% scaling today. Had to restart pc link

[JMP]

it's not scaling on any of my systems either they're all set to 100% 

[Timboj]

Yeah I've got the same issue:

[MiniModBlue]

Yeah... No scaling issue here..(set 100)

However these graphical bugs have just randomly started popping up..

Mine seems to be triggered if the laptop goes into standby... And goes back into active with the software still running in the background...

Restarting the software seems to correct this.

 

Since this issue exists between Windows 10 and Windows 11..

Starting to think it might actually be an actual glitch.. not necessarily a user created issue

[ThreeTrees]

I have graphical issues as well.  Although they differ from those above, they seem to have showed up around the same time. 

Software was working fine a few weeks ago, hadn't touched it over the Christmas holidays, and go to open a map up today and it works mostly fine, but switching between Surface and Grid view is now glitched with the 3D surface view staying overlayed unless a close the Table and reopen it.

 

Example:

Fresh program and map open, everything's fine and works normally:

 

Flip table over to surface view, works fine, can rotate the surface as normal.  Header bar indicates I'm in surface view:

 

Flip table back into grid view, header bar indicates it's switched back to grid view, but the surface view remains.  It seems like the surface view stays as an overlay on top of the grid, because I can still edit cells, but the surface view remains frozen in place.  I have to delete the table view and reopen to get it to go back to grid.

 

Have confirmed I'm at 100% display scaling.  Tried updating to newest PCLink version, updating graphics drivers, rolling back graphics drivers, no luck.  Even tried rolling back PCLink to an older version and the problem persists.

 

Hopefully there's some actionable advice forthcoming because this seriously breaks my workflow...  Any advice hugely appreciated.

 

[ThreeTrees]

Ok so I solved my issue.

My problem stemmed from the fact that this laptop has two graphics cards in it.  One is an ATI Radeon card that's integrated with the motherboard (Display 1), and the other is the NVIDIA Geforce card with the gaming horsepower (Display 2).

Somehow windows decided that it was going to use the ATI card for PCLink and that is ultimately what caused my issue.  I was able to go to Settings > System > Display > Graphics in windows and force it to run PCLink using the NVIDIA card, and that has solved my problem.  Everything is working correctly again.

What clued me into the graphics card thing was clicking Help > About in PCLink:

(Incidentally it won't tell you what renderer it's using unless you have a 3D surface table selected.)

[Timboj]

Hi guys, is this something being looked into for an update?

[MiniModBlue]

 

4 hours ago, Timboj said:

Hi guys, is this something being looked into for an update?

Woo and I thought my glitches were bad

[Mitchell]

Hi All,

We're looking into what could cause this issue at the moment, thus far we haven't been able to replicate it in-house.
To help us troubleshoot the issue, could I ask anyone who is having graphics issues in PCLink to do a dxdiag dump and post it in this thread.

To do a dxdiag dump:

1. Open command prompt
2. Type "dxdiag"
3. Select "No" when prompted about driver verification
4. Select "Save All Information"
5. Upload the saved txt file

This will help us understand the systems these issues are occurring on and any common trends they have. No identifiable information is collected during a dxdiag dump.

Until we can get the issue resolved, what ThreeTrees discovered below could potentially help some people.

On 1/10/2024 at 1:55 PM, ThreeTrees said:

Ok so I solved my issue.

My problem stemmed from the fact that this laptop has two graphics cards in it.  One is an ATI Radeon card that's integrated with the motherboard (Display 1), and the other is the NVIDIA Geforce card with the gaming horsepower (Display 2).

Somehow windows decided that it was going to use the ATI card for PCLink and that is ultimately what caused my issue.  I was able to go to Settings > System > Display > Graphics in windows and force it to run PCLink using the NVIDIA card, and that has solved my problem.  Everything is working correctly again.

 

[MiniModBlue]

1 minute ago, Mitchell said:

Hi All,

We're looking into what could cause this issue at the moment, thus far we haven't been able to replicate it in-house.
To help us troubleshoot the issue, could I ask anyone who is having graphics issues in PCLink to do a dxdiag dump and post it in this thread.

To do a dxdiag dump:

1. Open command prompt
2. Type "dxdiag"
3. Select "No" when prompted about driver verification
4. Select "Save All Information"
5. Upload the saved txt file

This will help us understand the systems these issues are occurring on and any common trends they have. No identifiable information is collected during a dxdiag dump.

Until we can get the issue resolved, what ThreeTrees discovered below could potentially help some people.

 

If it helps what almost absolutely reproduces the issue... At least for me... Is whenever I close the lid to my laptop with the software still on... Come back in about an hour (laptop is in standby at this point)

Resume the laptops operation... Software is still open and glitches can be seen.

However, the next time it comes up I will do as instructed

[JMP]

4 hours ago, Mitchell said:

Hi All,

We're looking into what could cause this issue at the moment, thus far we haven't been able to replicate it in-house.
To help us troubleshoot the issue, could I ask anyone who is having graphics issues in PCLink to do a dxdiag dump and post it in this thread.

To do a dxdiag dump:

1. Open command prompt
2. Type "dxdiag"
3. Select "No" when prompted about driver verification
4. Select "Save All Information"
5. Upload the saved txt file

This will help us understand the systems these issues are occurring on and any common trends they have. No identifiable information is collected during a dxdiag dump.

Until we can get the issue resolved, what ThreeTrees discovered below could potentially help some people.

 

Here's mine from a few of the systems I've experienced the glitches on

DxDiag_surfacelaptop.txt DxDiag_X1Carbon.txt DxDiag_XPS15.txt

[jdniss]

It seems to be related to the "Search for ECU" overlay that pops up after an ungraceful USB disconnect.

If I power the car onto IGN - connect laptop - load up G5 software - search, connect to ECU and read map data - gracefully 'Offline' the ECU via the toggle in the top right, it's all happy..
I can do this until the cows come home, no issues.

If i repeat the same process but forcefully rip out the USB cable instead of using the 'Offline' toggle - the software panics, throws the 1019 LINK_NOT_RESPONDING error - then on on re-connection the graphical bugs start.
Which would likely hold true for instances where I'm PC logging and stop in a parking lot - shut car off - return to car and start again.
G5 PCLink always wants to "Search for ECU" in this scenario, as I'm pretty unlikely to gracefully 'Offline' the USB connection manually in PCLink prior to shutting the car off - the graphical bugs are immediate ~ which kind of defeats the purpose of "Auto-Connect" currently.

In the G4X world - likely where there wasn't provision for upcoming WiFi connections - the "Search for ECU" overlay wasn't a thing, you could shut the car off / on again during a single logging session, and the log would continue endlessly until you manually stopped it;
In the G4+ Software a new log would start from ECU power on, but at least the "Auto Connect" function held true.


I'll try and replicate the problem on the desktop from my initial post and come back with any findings.
EDIT: It just happened on the Desktop..
The action of clicking the "Offline / Online" button - letting the "Search for ECU" overlay pop up and hitting "Cancel" - started the graphical issues on a pre-loaded .pclr file.

To reproduce on a Desktop:
Load G5 Software - press Cancel on "Search for ECU" prompt overload - Open an existing PCLX file - press Offline in top right corner - press Cancel to "Search for ECU" prompt - graphical issues start.

Thanks

[Adamw]

@jdniss, that doesnt cause any issues on any PC I have tried.  Can you provide the dxdiag for the PC's that you can reproduce the error on.  

[SchuKingR]

On 1/24/2024 at 8:00 AM, jdniss said:

To reproduce on a Desktop:
Load G5 Software - press Cancel on "Search for ECU" prompt overload - Open an existing PCLX file - press Offline in top right corner - press Cancel to "Search for ECU" prompt - graphical issues start.

Thanks

Just did that and got the issues started.

DxDiagDesktop.txt

[jdniss]

22 hours ago, Adamw said:

@jdniss, that doesnt cause any issues on any PC I have tried.  Can you provide the dxdiag for the PC's that you can reproduce the error on.  

Hey Adam, see attached.

Desktop - reproduced issue during manual  "Search for ECU" open/close with a loaded pclx file

Laptop - reproduced issue during USB disconnect/reconnect & "Search for ECU" auto open/close

DxDiag_Desktop.txtDxDiag_Laptop.txt

[Timboj]

DxDiag.txt

Like others have said, my issues seem to relate to disconnecting from the ECU and possibly waking the laptop after being put to sleep. I'll try and find a circumstance that is reproduceable.

Edit- Can consistently reproduce without being physically connected to ECU, by having a map/log open and then selecting 'Connect to ECU'. Either while the prompt window is open or after closing the prompt, one or more windows/tables will glitch.

[jdniss]

On 1/26/2024 at 4:12 PM, Adamw said:

@jdniss, that doesnt cause any issues on any PC I have tried.  Can you provide the dxdiag for the PC's that you can reproduce the error on.  

@Adamw, could the issue be machine resource headroom related?
The issue occurs far more frequently if I wind up RAM / Memory usage past 80% prior to opening the PCLink software - as soon as a map is loaded and 'Offline' is clicked - the graphical issues are immediate if the RAM usage is already at or past 80% - I don't even need to close the overlay before the issue occurs, unlike prior occurrences (below).

On 1/24/2024 at 6:00 PM, jdniss said:

To reproduce on a Desktop:
Load G5 Software - press Cancel on "Search for ECU" prompt overload - Open an existing PCLX file - press Offline in top right corner - press Cancel to "Search for ECU" prompt - graphical issues start.

Repeating the same process under 40% RAM Usage, the issue occurs far less frequently - in some instances I have to repeat the process multiple times in order for the graphical issues to occur.

There's 32Gb of RAM on this Desktop machine - so depending on daily usage, there may always be a fairly large buffer of RAM in reserve for PCLink to remain stable;
Whereas the Laptop only has 8Gb of RAM, so it's fairly constrained in comparison, even before PCLink is loaded - possibly leading to the issue occurring more frequently than would be on the Desktop.
 

While these errors may not be exactly what you are looking for, maybe they'll help one of the Devs at Link:



Thanks

[0x33]

Just to add to this. 

Maybe the option to connect to other ECU's/devices should be relagated to a drop down menu option, rather than prompting you when connecting to ECU. Really slows down workflow. 

Maybe its just coincidence, but since running the latest release it seems like the entire software is running so bloody slow, its infuriating. I'll have to try the steps outlined above to see if I get same behavior, but I've had a crash or two and couple tables bug out on me, as I'm constantly connecting/disconnecting from the ECU.  Normally Link software is bulletproof so this is not great. Please fix!

[jdniss]

Hi @Adamw, any news on this issue from the Devs at Link?

Thanks

[Laminar]

Add me to the list of people that don't need the Search for ECU dialog popping up.

Also odd behavior noted - if I open up a tune and am not connected to my ECU, if I go Options > Units > Options and change, say, Imperial pressure from kPa to psi, when I hit Okay in that window, the Search for ECU dialog pops up again. It seems to only do it once per session, but it does it every time the first time I make that change.