Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Some windows not displaying

Aug 7, 2018 9:59AM PDT

One day I noticed some Steam games were open but not visible. They would show in the taskbar and you can hear the games and see the custom cursor. Tried all kinds of things and gave up. Later found that Photoshop and Krita (similar to PS) would open fine, but when you open a photo, you can see the file name in the title bar but could not see the pic or the little window it pops up in. I found out I could take a screenshot in Steam while in those games, and I could see the game in that picture. Tried it with the Windows screenshot, but that didn't work. Though I didn't try every app, I know many games and apps were working fine. Reloaded programs, didn't work. I finally did a full reset, reinstalled windows and cleared out drives. I reinstalled the problem games and apps (fresh downloads) and problem is still there. I'm wondering if this might be a hardware issue. I hope somebody here has had experience with this, I've been searching for a while and haven't found much.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Clarification Request
Tell more about this PC.
Aug 7, 2018 10:21AM PDT

I have run into this and found the owner had the monitor plugged into the onboard video connection. We shut down, moved the monitor to the graphics card, booted and it was fixed.

Hope it's this simple thing.

- Collapse -
Some windows not displaying
Aug 7, 2018 10:34AM PDT

Predator 17, G9-791 laptop with GTX970M. It's got one HDMI out.

- Collapse -
Ahh
Aug 7, 2018 10:38AM PDT

That has a very special driver install order. FOLLOW the maker's instructions for what drivers to install and in what order. Many of these require a few apps.

Do try some monitor to see if there's output there.

- Collapse -
Some windows not displaying
Aug 7, 2018 11:02AM PDT

Just hooked it to TV. Duplicated screens, I changed it to expand. Opened programs, still the same. Wish I knew exactly when it happened, but I don't think I was messing with drivers at the time. I think an update happened and I moved the large Fallout 4 from C to D to make space, but can't think of anything major. I'll reload the drivers, it may take me a while, and let you know. Thank you very much!

- Collapse -
"reinstalled windows"
Aug 7, 2018 11:09AM PDT

There's much to be done after such an install. Today's PC's rarely work right and I don't own your model which is why I have to tell you to get the post OS install procedure from the laptop maker.