More maya problems

# 1 26-11-2012 , 01:01 AM

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Okay I am getting fed up with maya. If I cannot resolve this I am done with it!

I have a new motherboard, processor, fresh install of win 7 x64 pro, new gtx 480 graphics card, latest drivers.

I am running maya 2013 x64 SP2.

I have had this problem now since maya 2010! On at least half a dozen different machines!

I will be working and all of a sudden the screen will stop updating unless I move the camera. The outliner and channel box freeze and / or go blank.

And now as an added bonus in this incarnation I cannot close / exit maya! I have to bring up the task manager and kill the process!

I have pretty much had my fill of this problem with maya. If I cannot get a work-a-round of fix so long and thanks for all the fish. As much as I hate th ui in Max and modo I am switching to one of them because I cannot ****ing work this way! Having to stop, kill the god damn process and restart randomly is just ridiculous!

I keep sending bug reports to autodesk and all I hear back is the sound of crickets. I am not the only one that is having this problem so it is not just me! There is some kind of conflict that is causing it. I have had this problem on EVERY installation of maya since 2010 on every single system I have installed maya on (at least 6 different machines!).

I have uninstalled every plugin as I recently had a problem that I traced back to the maxwell plugin. I am going to do a fresh install of maya 2013 x64 SP2 with no addons. If if hangs again I am done with maya!

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

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# 2 26-11-2012 , 05:36 AM

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I've had the updating issue many times at a few studios. The only way we could "fix" it, is to swap out the video cards. In my experience, ATI's were handled much better than Geforces, but had their own problems. You could try, if you haven't already, running the drivers that Autodesk tested the card out with. They tested it with "Nvidia Driver Release 296.10 [8.17.12.9610]", which can be found here: https://download.autodesk.com/ProdSup...glish-whql.exe

While it passed all the tests, Autodesk did not certify the card.

Here's the full test of the card: https://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...os=8192&hw=251

I was talking to one of the Maya guys a while back, and they simply don't have the time to respond to every ticket. Everything is prioritized, and sadly, the larger studios get the highest priority. It's the new "features" that get added that make people upgrade, and spend their money; not fixing old stuff.

You could also look into tweaking a few of the environment variables in the maya.env file. Take a look here: https://www.toxik.sk/mayaenv-configuration-of-variables/ There are a few Geforce-related ones, as well as other graphics tweaks.

Try setting: MAYA_GEFORCE_SKIP_OVERLAY=1

I know this is a pain, but you could also try running Maya in Linux instead of Windows.

Best of luck.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Last edited by NextDesign; 26-11-2012 at 05:42 AM.

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# 3 26-11-2012 , 06:10 AM

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thanks ND.

I have done all those things many times in fact.

I truely understand the issue with support. I know people inside AD and I still cannot get this issue elevated to any significant level. They have to many other unresolved problems to deal with.

A quick google of variations of "maya stops refreshing or updating" will lead you to dozens of people describing the same problem. Interestingly I found that the earliest report of this problem matches my experience of maya 2010.

However, dozens of reports out of thousands of users clearly implies the problem exists but must require some pretty specific conditions to manifest! It's just maddening when I have used maya with no major stability complaints from version 1.x all the way to 2009 and then after they changed the gui api in 2010 I have experienced this problem on 100% of the machines I have installed maya on!

I have had it on every version of maya starting from maya 2010, 11, 12, and 13 and I have installed every patch and update for all those versions. I have legal licensed version of all my autodesk software but I cannot afford the SAP support package so I am limited to putting in regular support tickets. Since I do not work for a major studio, and I have university instructor licensing on maya I assume my tickets go straight into the trash.

I have maya on a laptop, two home systems that I have updated several times rebuilding with new processors, gpus, and os's. Since maya 2010 I have installed maya on the equivalent of at least 6 personal machines. In that time I have had XP, XP64, VISTA, VISTA64, and WIN7x64.

I have had nvidia gtx 7800, 8800, 9800, 285's and now a pair of 480's.

So in summary - I have had several different systems, different graphics cards (but all nvidia), different operating systems, different system software. I even tried installing nothing but the os, drivers, updates, and maya once to try to eliminate some conflict with software common to all my systems and it still stopped refreshing.

The only other thing that is significant is that I have have no problem like this until maya 2010. I I used every major release of maya from 1.x and I have always used nvidia cards. The earliest I can recall was an FX1000, and I probably used the 7800, 8800, 9800, and even the 285 before 2010 was released and never saw this problem.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 26-11-2012 at 06:25 AM.

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# 4 27-11-2012 , 01:18 AM

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ND - the undocumented maya env variable "MAYA_GEFORCE_SKIP_OVERLAY" iwas removed with the QT api. So from maya 2010 onward it does nothing! Which once again leads me to believe it's something about the Qt API causing the no refresh problem.

However, when you consider the number of people other then me using geforce cards just on the simply maya site alone I find it hard to believe that it's a nvidia geforce issue. I doubt I am the only peerson on this site using a GTX 480 and the latest geforce drivers 306.97.

If it was a geforce issue I have to believe more people would be seeing the problem. it's pissing me off because this issue has been plaguing me for the last four releases of maya! It occurs on every installation of maya I have made. That is at least 4 fresh installs, if you add in updates that require a complete uninstall and reinstall that's now at least 10 installations of various versions and updates to maya. I have a laptop and two primary systems, which have had different hardware, os's, and software and I just rebuilt a brand new system and all of them, that is every installation of maya since 2010, have this problem with the display no longer refreshing!

Now on this latest build not only does the display stop refreshing and the outliner and the channel box go blank and stop updating but now I cannot exit maya and have to kill the process from the task manager! I SIMPLY CANNOT WORK THIS WAY!

What makes it more maddening is it can take anywhere from instantly to infinately for the problem to manifest! I cannot force the problem so it is impossible for me to try and determine any specific sequence of things that is causing it.

I have 20+ years experience as a senior systems manager so I know how to install and debug software issues. I use dozens of applications on my primary systems. All legally licensed and all working just fine! Maya is the only application I have any issue with and unfortunately it's one of the applications that I really need to work! I have submitted countless tickets to Autodesk about this problem since maya 2010! I have used maya since version 1 and until maya 2009 never had any complaints beyond the lack of development or even maintenance of the poly, nurbs, and subd modeling tools. I had occasional niggling display driver issues but never something that rendered maya practically unusable as this problem!

I cannot work when I have to keep closing and reopening maya and now I have to freaking kill the process from the task manager! Something that severe happening consistently for every versions and update of maya since 2010 deserves at least some attention from support!

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 27-11-2012 at 01:33 AM.

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# 5 27-11-2012 , 03:59 AM

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Have you tried running a trial on Linux to see if you still have the problem?

I've actually had this problem with Maya 7, through 2009; so I don't think it's a QT problem, but they've sure caused a bunch of problems in the transition, so I wouldn't be too surprised.

You could try a refresh-rate forcer. That might help, but I have no idea; just guessing here.

Another silly question, but here goes... If most of the stuff that you do is modeling, and the modeling toolset hasn't changed very much in the past few releases, why not move back to a previous version? I still have Maya 7 and 2009 installed on my machine, as well as 2011. Maya 7 is still my favorite by far.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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# 6 27-11-2012 , 04:22 AM

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Thanks ND. I have given a lot of thought about rolling back to 2009 or earlier but there are a couple features that were added to modeling that would be lost and I also do more then just model. If I was to roll back just to get rid of this issue I'd just assume stop using maya and start transitioning to another 3D application.

I have really been hoping that in four releases enough people would have complained about this that AD got off their asses and fixed it by now.

I am curious that you say you have seen this before 2010? I use maya quite a bit and for a very long time and I have never seen this problem of the display, outliner and channel box no longer updating.

In fact when it first started occurring I thought maya had just locked up. I'd make an edit and nothing would happen so I'd press the z-key. When nothing happens what do you do next? Why press the z-button again, and again, and again. Then you orbit, pan, or dolly the camera and the screen refreshes and you find you have just undone 6 hours of work! It took me quite a while to train myself to recognize this immediately and not destroy hours of work. But honestly it never happened to me until version 2010.

I had been using the gtx 285 FTW 2GB DDR3 board for quite some time up to that point. I did have am FX1000 for a while with a GB of DD2 but that board truely was terrible if I tried to do anything with directx. That is why I really do not want to be forced into a Quadro. They simply suck as an all around hraphics card. I run a lot of 3D apps including solid works, inventor, modo, blender, c4d (mostly for body paint), plus a lot of other graphics intensive apps like all the adobe suite, several video editing apps etc and none of them have an issue with my geforce cards.

It was sad that the 285 that recently died had better performance then the 480 evga replaced it with and although I can still use alias and have not had any noticeable anomalies I do now get a nasty gram every time I launch it saying the gtx 480 does not meet the graphic specification blah blah blah. not really a surprise since both maya and alias and AD aquisitions from sgi.

I have been wanting to capture a video of it when it occurs to see if it matched the behavior you have seen and show others what I have been having to deal with but I always seem to be in the middle of propriatary work and cannot record it.

I think I will open something else tomorrow and see if I can get it to happen so I can post a video. I think you will all agree that if this was happening every time you tried to model something you'd be very upset.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 27-11-2012 at 04:33 AM.

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# 7 27-11-2012 , 04:52 AM

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Yes, it sounds exactly what I have experienced before. And as I said in a previous thread, it was very machine-dependent. Another machine with the exact same specs, image, etc; could act very differently. It was usually fixed by putting in a new video card. In our case, it seemed to be more prolific on the Geforces, than Radeons.

However, I would never bet on a software company to change. The problem is that if it's been around for a while, it must be either difficult to fix, track, or maybe even goes under-reported. I see a lot of people just closing the error report window, and then complaining on forums instead. Autodesk employees are very smart people (I know quite a few of them), and the developers want to make the best product they can. However, money speaks more than words in a business; and the ones with the money must not be running into this problem. Or if they are, perhaps not a large enough percentage of the time. When you're in production, it's just faster to pop a new card in, and let them go.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Last edited by NextDesign; 27-11-2012 at 04:57 AM.

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# 8 27-11-2012 , 04:57 AM

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ah crap so you have seen the behavior on both radeon and geforce cards? Are you replacing the graphics cards with a different model? I'd be totally depressed if you are saying you can replace the graphics with the same model card or have machines with the same model card that both manifest and do not manifest the problem.

That would be most disheartening as it implies out of the last 4 graphics cards I have purchased all four have some maya specific glitch? Seriously? What is the probability of that?

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

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# 9 27-11-2012 , 04:44 PM

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We usually swapped the cards with a different model. If it was a Geforce, we usually switched them with Radeons; or if there was one available, a Quadro. Yes, I've seen the behaviour on both manufacturers. And yes, some machines that were identical would have the problem, and some would not.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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# 10 27-11-2012 , 06:22 PM

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And yes, some machines that were identical would have the problem, and some would not.

Originally Posted by

So what you are saying is I can spend money and buy a new card and it does not even matter if it's a gefroce or a radeon and I can see the exact same problem. Do you see the dilemma there and why I am kind of pissed that AD is not addressing this issue?

It is really giving me no choice at all!

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 27-11-2012 at 06:44 PM.

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# 11 27-11-2012 , 08:46 PM

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You have a choice... Between Quadros that is :/

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# 12 28-11-2012 , 12:18 AM

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That is not an acceptable choice and it's unfortunate if that is Autodesk's position!

Fortunately, I have other choices for 3D applications and Autodesk does not own all of them yet!

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 29-11-2012 at 08:45 AM.

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# 13 28-11-2012 , 08:02 PM

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Okay just got off the line with evga and they are willing to swap the 480 for a 570 to see if this fixes the refresh problem.

I have to admit that in all of this I am very impressed with the degree to which evga has been willing to help me resolve this issue.

First the 285's were 4 years old but did come with lifetime warranties. So the gtx 480 was affectively an upgrade but I lost half a GB of memory (the 285 had 2GB of DDR3 and was a factory overclocked while the model 480 had 1.5GB of DDR5).

The 570HD will have slightly less performance but does have 2.5GB of DDR5 memory. It has the same number of cuda cores as the 480 and a bit less power consumption.

We are going to swap them out one at a time so I still have one 480 while I am waiting for the replacement. Unfortunately they do not cross ship so it will take a week for them to get my 480 and then another week for me to get the replacement.

PS - I also called in some favors with some old friends I know at AD that came over from SGI / Alias and spoke for more then an hour with a couple high level techs.

I was left a bit more deflated though as from what I was told they have seen this issue on every type graphics card - geforce, radeon, quadro, and firepro! They confirmed what ND said in that they have seen machines with exactly the same hardware and some have the problem and some do not. So there is still no gauranty the 570 will fix the problem.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 29-11-2012 at 08:46 AM.

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# 14 28-11-2012 , 08:18 PM

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I still using maya 2009, I would have moved up by now if there warnt so meny techical issues still bugging maya, wish you luck with that card Rick................dave

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# 15 28-11-2012 , 08:24 PM

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Thanks Dave because it's been killing me. I cannot get any work done and it's frustrating as hell because I cannot predict when it will stop refreshing. And now with 2013 I have to kill the maya process which corrupts the preferences. So it's just a bloody nightmare.

It's made even more frustrating by the fact that is is supposedly a very rare problem but yet I have had it with every version of maya since 2010. I never saw this issue before 2010 but I really do not want to roll all the way back to 2009. In fact I would gladly take back every bug I have EVER experienced with maya if I could just make this one bug GO AWAY! It's unbearable!

I certainly would blow a major gasket if I dumped money on a quadro and this problem still persisted! Not that I could afford a decent quadro or would be willing to gimp my systems DX11 / game performance just to get Maya working.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 28-11-2012 at 08:26 PM.

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