Very slow UI text on laptop

[spamagnet]

I recently installed Blender 2.31a on my laptop and it runs fine but the user-interface text takes a very long time to generate -- dropping down the File menu, for example, takes about 5 seconds. The modeling tools themselves seem to work just fine -- I can move the viewport around with no lag at all.

- Compaq Presario 2175US
- Windows XP Pro
- 512MB RAM

Any ideas would be welcome! (And yes, I do plan to try using Linux on the laptop one of these days :-))

Thanks,
Rob

[Koryo]

This sounds like an OpenGL driver problem to me. You can try updating your OpenGL driver. If that does not fix the problem, you can try turning hardware acceleration off; this fixed the problem for me last time I used Blender in Windows. I think you can find the setting for this in Control Panel -> Display -> Adapter (Settings) -> Advanced. (I may be wrong since I don't have a Windows box here to test it).

PS. Welcome to Elysiun!

[z3r0 d]

that laptop has a ATI Mobility Radeon 4X AGP video card
(from what I can tell)

get the new drivers from compaq (hp now I guess)

also try turning off international (antialiased) fonts in the info buttons (pull them down) at the top of the blender window.

Finally, some video cards draw to the front buffer _really_ slow, if you can watch the triangles draw for the menus (and erase) then this is your problem

and there isn't really a fix
(though as Koryo points out doing everything in software is actually faster with the menus, I've personally never tried to in windows)

[spamagnet]

Originally Posted by Koryo This sounds like an OpenGL driver problem to me.

Could be ... I should have checked that before I posted.

Originally Posted by Koryo PS. Welcome to Elysiun!

Thanks! I've been lurking for a while, trying to find time to really learn Blender.

Originally Posted by z3r0 d also try turning off international (antialiased) fonts

Thanks, I'll try that too!

Regards,
Rob

[Dittohead]

First off, you got screwed because you got a compaq. Dell are much better.

Secondly video card drivers directly from nv, and ati don't work on laptop chipsets. They are coded specifically for said laptop, and said laptop screen, so you'll have to grab drivers from compaq directly.

After that pray it works, and pray your compaq lives long enough to tell.

[spamagnet]

Originally Posted by Dittohead First off, you got screwed because you got a compaq. Dell are much better.

Well, at least it was inexpensive

Originally Posted by Dittohead Secondly video card drivers ... are coded specifically for said laptop

I downloaded updated drivers from Compaq but that made no difference.

International antialiased fonts were already off; turning them on made it marginally slower.

I've also noticed some strange behavior that appears related to text; from time to time the various UI buttons get corrupted. Isn't there any area on the Blender site where they are collecting OpenGL issues?

Ah well, I guess I'll just have to live with it ... or just work on my desktop at home.

Thanks!
Rob

[broken]

Originally Posted by spamagnet I've also noticed some strange behavior that appears related to text; from time to time the various UI buttons get corrupted. Isn't there any area on the Blender site where they are collecting OpenGL issues?

Yep, there is here:
http://projects.blender.org/tracker/...=9&func=browse

cheers