LDD doesn't start

[Commander_Rob]

Since Lego's own online support and help for LDD is not particularly extensive and partially outdated, I decided to ask for help here. I would be grateful for any help.

First and foremost, I've got LDD 4 installed on a Windows computer.

My problem is that upon clicking the LDD shortcut on the desktop or LDD.exe itself , absolutely nothing happens. The "loading" cursor (hourglass) appears for a second or so, then the cursor goes back to normal and that's all.

The obvious answer would be upgrading the video card drivers, but that's the strangest thing. After I had a new video card fitted a while ago (ATI Radeon HD 3650), LDD worked just fine. Since I upgraded the drivers to the newest version recently, the aforementioned problem occurs. I have tried some older driver versions, but on those LDD runs only with some major, mostly graphical, issues (very slow, flashing screen, etc...) and is virtually unusable.

My question is then, does anybody have an idea why this problem occurs or even how it can be solved?

Thank you in advance.

[Superkalle]

Hi Commander

Welcome to the LDD forum.

Regarding your problem, try this and see if it works (specially "Part2).

[Commander_Rob]

Hey Superkalle, thanks for the quick answer.

I checked the preferences.ini and set setUseShadersInScene and UseShadersInPalette both to "no", the problem still occurs.

Also, what I forgot in the first post: Tried uninstalling and reinstalling, no change.

[Superkalle]

It does seems that the problems is connected to the graphics card then? What puzzles me is that LDD shuts down so quickly (after only a few seconds of showing the hourglass).

Can you enter the following in the preferences.ini and try to start LDD again:

CompatibilityModeLevel=100

(Note: you must exit LDD first, then edit the ini-file, and then re-start LDD)

[Commander_Rob]

Added that line in, same thing happens.

I'm also guessing towards a card and/or driver problem, since it did work before but not since the update. I might try to work through all the remaining driver versions to see if one works, so far I started with the oldest available version and worked my way upwards from there, up to the first one where LDD stopped working. Maybe one of the newer ones will do the trick.

EDIT: Found a driver version where LDD works with Compatibility Mode on 100.

Edited January 2, 2011 by Commander_Rob

[Superkalle]

Could you provide some more detailed specs of your computer (brand, operating system, specs, graphics card manufacturer). Also what graphics card driver version you are using would be good (you can use the ATI Catalyst Control Center on your computer to find those). Also, where did you download the drivers from? Did you go directly to http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx ?

[Commander_Rob]

Yeah, I got the drivers from that page, the previous versions from here, LDD worked with major issues on 8.10, 8.11 and 8.12 of those.

Driver information from Catalyst Control Center:

Driver Packaging Version: 8.801-101125a-109805C-ATI

Catalyst™ Version: 10.12

Provider: ATI Technologies Inc.

2D Driver Version: 6.14.10.7149

2D Driver File Path: System/CurrentControlSet/Control/Video/{0C02B7C7-490C-4A84-AB1F-16F6FB1E79BA}/0000

Direct3D Version: 6.14.10.0798

OpenGL Version: 6.14.10.10362

Catalyst™ Control Center Version: 2010.1125.2142.38865

AIW/VIVO WDM Driver Version: 6.14.10.6238

AIW/VIVO WDM SP Driver Version: 6.14.10.6238

The operating system is Windows XP Home Edition, with the latest Service Pack (SP 3). Since my computer is custom built, here's the system information from DxDiag:

System Manufacturer: NVIDIA

System Model: AWRDACPI

BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.8GHz

Memory: 1024MB RAM

Card name: ATI Radeon HD 3600 Series

Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.

Chip type: ATI Radeon Graphics Processor AGP (0x9598)

DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)

Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9598&SUBSYS_95981002&REV_00

Display Memory: 512.0 MB

Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)

Monitor: Plug und Play-Monitor

Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200

Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll

Driver Version: 6.14.0010.7149 (English)

DDI Version: 9 (or higher)

Driver Attributes: Final Retail

Driver Date/Size: 11/26/2010 03:54:36, 302080 bytes

Is there any more information I should post?

[Superkalle]

Well, it seems you are using the most recent drivers, and I can't see anything problematic in the computer spec.

One last thing, perhaps you can try to upgrade to the latest DirectX drivers. If I don't recall incorrectly, I think that helped another user. It's a long shot, but it's worth a try.

If that doesn't work, I don't know what the problem can be. It's very, very strange that LDD will not run correctly with the latest drivers, but will run with older drivers.

Does anyone here on the forum know what the problem can be?

[Zerobricks]

I heard ATI has bad driver support. Maybe rollback to older drivers which worked for you?

[Commander_Rob]

I updated DirectX, but it brings no change. With the newest drivers, LDD works as long as compatibility mode is on 100, but is accordingly slow.

As for older driver versions: I sadly don't know what driver version the card was running before I first updated it, else I would try that one. I tried some on this list, starting at the oldest one available (8.10), on which LDD started with major issues, but was pretty much unusable. Same thing on the next two (8.11 and 8.12). On version 9.1 stops working. I haven't tried the remaining versions (9.2 through to 10.11), but I assume they will produce the same result.

[Rach]

Same thing here. I click on the ldd.exe icon or in the shortcut and nothing happens. Deinstall and reinstall...idem

CompatibilityModeLevel=100 in preferneces.ini (C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\preferences.ini)....idem

Set UseShadersInScene and UseShadersInPalette both to "no", the problem still occurs.

My system specs:

Amd athlon dualcore 4200+

Motherboard Asus m2n-sli deluxe

2 gb ram

Graphic card: Asus nvidia Geforce 9600 GT with the lastest drivers of the nvidia website (260.99)

Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bits

I dont got any error message when I click on the .exe, but in the events viewer of windows 7 appear this:

Nombre de la aplicación con errores: LDD.exe, versión: 4.0.20.0, marca de tiempo: 0x4cb85916

Nombre del módulo con errores: unknown, versión: 0.0.0.0, marca de tiempo: 0x00000000

Código de excepción: 0xc0000005

Desplazamiento de errores: 0x0206bab3

Id. del proceso con errores: 0xd4c

Hora de inicio de la aplicación con errores: 0x01cbab95ccd48e30

Ruta de acceso de la aplicación con errores: C:\Program Files\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\LDD.exe

Ruta de acceso del módulo con errores: unknown

Id. del informe: 0c182fe8-1789-11e0-9221-0018f364b181

More information:

I install ldd4 in another laptop with another geforce graphic card (a poor model) and the same nvidia drivers (260.99) and run without problems :¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?

HELP!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PD: sorry for my english...spanish man!

[AndyC]

Does anyone here on the forum know what the problem can be?

It happens from time to time that a driver introduces a weird bug not previously present, if you have to roll back drivers I'd try getting the last couple of releases rather than the oldest ones you can find though. It might be worht contacting ATi support and indicating that the problem seems to arise with more recent drivers, they may well be able to issue an update that resolves it.

[Rach]

It happens from time to time that a driver introduces a weird bug not previously present, if you have to roll back drivers I'd try getting the last couple of releases rather than the oldest ones you can find though. It might be worht contacting ATi support and indicating that the problem seems to arise with more recent drivers, they may well be able to issue an update that resolves it.

But Commander Rob have an ATI card and I have a nvidia geforce card! WE have the same and identical PROBLEM! (i don't thik that two different companys have the same bug in their lastest drivers!)

More ideas?

[Superkalle]

Just to make 100% sure

1) You have followed the info here

2) You have between each uninstall/install of LDD deleted all the info the the two folders C:\program files\LEGO...LDD and either C:\Users\UserName\Roaming...LEGO...LDD or C:\Docs and settings\UserName....(depending on OS)?

Right? And still doesn't work.

EDIT: Our member Bojan mailed me something he found: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=77256

Could be something?

[Bojan Pavsic]

Our member Bojan mailed me something he found: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=77256

Sadly after a while 4.0 stopped working again. So that's no answer... But what puzzles me is why LDD works for quite some hours after reinstall then suddenly stops working. I created a checksum of all the files right after reinstall and checked them when it stopped working (my theme switch problem) and the files were the same. So nothing changed in LDD.

It's a bit offtopic, but it could be something connected to this. While installing and using Win7, i have this problem:

http://www.sevenforums.com/themes-styles/123845-theme-issues.html

During Win7 installation (had to install them "blindly") and UAC window, the screen is unreadable, but if u print screen it, it's ok :D So basicly the graphics card puts out a different screen on the monitor that it has in memory. The only thing to get it work in Win7 is with 5+ years old vista drivers (version below 92 or something) - but LDD 4.0 doesn't support them, so it's a no-go. Switching back to XP and everything (except LDD until a couple of hours after reinstall) works flawlessly.

Well, anyways, i stopped finding a solution (the obvious one is buying a new computer) and installed 4.0 and 3.1 at the same time so i can use 4.0 in DbM mode and 3.1 for everything else (placing bricks, recoloring, changing theme to DbM to open in 4.0 again).