Tooltips gone haywire, help please!

[Brian Ellis]

I've 2 computers running Ulead MediaStudio Pro 8. The only major difference is the graphics display. In one, I run a G-550 with two monitors at 1280 x 1024, Power Desk 6.93.009. The other has an Intel graphics at the same resolution.

On the Intel one, there is no problem. On the Matrox one, the tooltips do not display correctly. They show either a random tooltip unrelated to the hovered icon or, more often, they show the tooltip relating to the previous hovered icon and not the present one. The other day, I thought I had it sussed out. I went from dual display to single display and it then behaved correctly. I assumed then that there was a fault in the overlay layer with two screens.

However, I started the computer up defaulting to single display and the tooltips were haywire again. Out of devilment, I switched from single to dual display and the damn thing corrected itself again!

I'm really stuck on this one. Both machines run Win XP Pro (the one with Matrox with no service pack)

Anyone got an idea how I can cure this nuisance, please? (or to whom I can address the question?)

[Nowhere]

Install service pack?

[schmosef]

Try turning off the visual effects for tooltips. (control panel->system->advanced->performance settings->visual effects-uncheck "fade or slide tooltips into view")

Also, you might have some registry corruption.

Do a google search for "XP Tooltips registry fix". You'll find info on a few registry settings you can try.

Also, this site: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm has become my "go to" place for finding registry tweaks and fixes. I looked and there are a few items on tool tips but nothing for your specific problem.

[Brian Ellis]

Thanks. I've found the cause. The G-550 card is basically a stupid design. Although it is capable of higher resolutions than 1024 x 768, 16 bit colour, its overlay facilities are limited to this resolution and colour depth! Once again, Matrox have shown me that they are incapable of thinking things through to the end

This also explains a lot of other nuisances I've experienced with it, such as split preview windows on one screen while displaying full screen preview on the other. This never happened when I used it on two 21" CRT monitors, as they were limited to 1024 x 768. Unfortunately, it never clicked on me that the problems started when I got the LCD monitors a couple of years ago and was running them at their recommended resolution of 1280 x 1024.

Unfortunately, finances are currently low so a new dual-head card is out of the question for the moment; I'll just have to live, once again, with the Matroxquirks, as I did with the Marvel, which forced me to stay with WIN98 for video work long after all my other computers had NT4 and, later, W2k. I swore then never Matrox again but, against my better judgement, I fell for the G-550 when I wanted to go to double screen.