Help me solve a mystery....?

[TheGreatSatan]

This has always been a problem, but I never really cared till now. My Alienware laptop has 1GB graphics, but I don't really game on it. Well, except for Peggle. I play at home on the battery and while plugged in. Here's the mystery.

If I play any game on my laptop while not at home it will not work. :? I've only ever tried it while on the battery, but like I said, I play at home on the battery all the time with no problems. When I'm out and I start the game it immediately minimizes itself to my taskbar. If I click to restore it, it just re-minimizes itself to the taskbar.

The only thing different from playing at home on the battery and playing elsewhere on the battery is my internet connection. While at home, it's connected to my wireless network. Peggle is on my hard drive and not internet driven like Steam, so not being connected to my wifi shouldn't make any difference.

To try to work around the problem, I've connected to the local wifi of McDonalds or wherever I am to see if having an internet connection makes a difference, but it does not.

I go home and while still not plugged in, the game works fine.:think:

What could be my problem?

The genious who solves this while get mad rep points.

[mDust]

Could it be running partly off your home network? As in some of the files it needs are stored on another home computer or NAS.

[TheGreatSatan]

It was installed directly to my hard drive from a flash drive

[mDust]

How many times has it occurred? Does it auto-minimize all the time when not at home or just occasionally? If it's occasional it could just be a coincidence.

[Technochicken]

Could it be something to do with your internet security? Try disabling your antivirus/firewall before you launch the game.

[mDust]

Could it be something to do with your internet security? Try disabling your antivirus/firewall before you launch the game.

Definitely. Security would be much more lax on a trusted home network...and vice versa.

[TheGreatSatan]

It always happens when I'm not at home. Also, I don't have any Anti-Virus installed, not even Windows Defender is running.

[mDust]

All games do the same thing? Auto-minimize?

[farlo]

could be due to popcap trying to callhome.(which the wifi connect may be blocking the site) which version of peggle?

cd-rom version doesnt require an internet connection, free version does require internet, but the digital purchase should not.

[farlo]

also probably not related since it works at home, but my fiance's laptop was minimizing games on load

-run this program in compatibility mode
(select windows xp)
-Disable visual themes
-Disable desktop composition
-Disable display scaling on high DPI settings

and that worked for hers, but like i said probably not related.

[diluzio91]

try deleting the config files? that would force everything to run on stock settings. i know it fixed 90% of problems i had on my m11x

[TheGreatSatan]

uh, how?

[diluzio91]

lol, last time i had to change them was for grid, so it was C:/documents/grid/hardwaresettings...
just deleted them and the game ran fine

[crenn]

Would FF happen to be open when you're trying to play the game?

[Diamon]

I'd say you should close every single program that is not required for windows to function and try again. Ditch the non-essential services too for the test.

[TheGreatSatan]

What's FF?

[msmrx57]

FireFox

[TheGreatSatan]

No, I'm one of those computer guys who actually loves IE and hates Firefox. Yep, there's still some of us left.

[dr.walrus]

one of those computer guys who actually loves IE and hates Firefox.

Someone who doesn't do much web development, then :glasses:

[Snowman]

Someone who doesn't do much web development, then :glasses:

REDACTED FOR THE SAKE OF THE THREAD

As to the minimizing issue, are you running steam in offline mode when this happens?

[dr.walrus]

That's funny considering a large portion of people still use internet explorer and it is one of the hardest to dev for because the engine is retarded. I had a friend that I had to completely tear down his code because internet explorer generating erroneous color bars due to it not reading the style sheet properly but the site was perfect in every other browser I tested with it. If your doing web development you shouldn't do it specifically for one browser.

As to the minimizing issue, are you running steam in offline mode when this happens?

Of course you test for at bare minimum for half a dozen different browsers - FF3, ie6, 7, 8 and 9, chrome, and safari and FF on a mac. You fix problems in your code first, and browser compatibility issues later. Recently we've even had jobs with iPad compatibility on the spec.

The problem is, you do your initial dev in the most W3C compliant browsers - FF and chrome, and then work outwards. Both have a wealth of debugging tools, and are not only very fast but also between them they have a similar % total following to IE. I have so many add-ons on firefox, it looks like a swiss army knife, and chrome has all the debug stuff built in...

Thing is, cross-browser testing is just that - testing. You need to know if it works, but you certainly never want to use IE at home...

Please bear in mind I'm not a hobbyist - I do this for a living!

[Snowman]

REDACTED FOR THE SAKE OF THE THREAD

TGS sometimes when I was running in offline mode I had the exact same issue you are having. Try defragging game files if that is an option, beyond that I am not absolutely sure.

[Luke122]

This thread:

http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/train_derail.jpg

TGS: When you are at home, try running the games with your wifi off, and see if the problem persists.

[diluzio91]

guys..... http://www.ussoccer.com/~/media/60AE11FBFFA74D90A0774A69CE34483E.ashx?w=401&h=301

did you try contacting their support department TGS?

[TheGreatSatan]

1. It's not Steam, because I don't have it installed on my lappy.

2. This thread has gone crazy, but that's OK.

3. People are still using IE6??

4. I'll try disconnecting my wifi later...

[Snowman]

1. It's not Steam, because I don't have it installed on my lappy.

2. This thread has gone crazy, but that's OK.

3. People are still using IE6??

4. I'll try disconnecting my wifi later...

My mistake I could have sworn steam was in the mix there, I am going to jump on the wifi bandwagon now..

[dr.walrus]

People are still using IE6??

Default browser shipped with Windows XP, last version of IE that doesn't prompt you to upgrade automatically.

It's still the official browser of the UK government (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/pda/2010/jul/30/internet-explorer-6-uk-government)

It's also used by a number of our corporate clients, and a good rule of thumb is that if a client has public sector customers, we have to test for it.

Estimates of IE6 usage range from about 4% (http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php) to 21% (http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/02/internet-explorer-losing-users-as-other-browsers-set-share-recor/)

[OvRiDe]

My mistake I could have sworn steam was in the mix there, I am going to jump on the wifi bandwagon now..

I was thinking the same thing until I went back and re-read the original post.


Peggle is on my hard drive and not internet driven like Steam, so not being connected to my wifi shouldn't make any difference.

I am puzzled.. it does sound like there is something that Popcap is doing with some sort of phone home, but that goes out the window with it happening even when he is connected to a different wifi source.

As for browser share...

http://s26.sitemeter.com/rpc/v6/server.php?a=GetChart&n=9&p1=s26capello&p2=&p3=13&p4=0&p5=12%2E129%2E246%2E4&p6=HTML&p7=1&p8=%2E%3Fa%3Dstatistics&p9=&rnd=32575

Here is how it shakes out for our group... I can see some flaws with this chart, but I think it gives a general representation of FF vs IE vs Others. So don't bother posting.. No one uses FF 1.x anymore.. etc etc.. I just figured you guys might find it interesting.

[dr.walrus]

That is interesting, thanks for posting. Out of curiosity, what time period was this measured over?

The two flaws are almost certainly FF versions not being taken, and that Safari figure will probably include Chrome...

[OvRiDe]

This set of charts doesn't specify but I am going to venture a guess of last 12 months.