10 replies to this topic

[mlnewton]

Anyone having an issue with Pole Master screen refresh lagging two or three seconds behind physical adjustments? My previous laptop died after less than a year (HP running Windows 10).  Polemaster worked fine on it. My replacement is an ASUS gaming laptop with USB 3.0 ports and SSD + SATA drives. This new laptop runs all my astrophotography and sky chart programs well... except Pole Master. I have seen similar issues going back to late 2016. It may have something to do with DirectX but that is all I have seen. I am a Mac guy so much of that is voodoo to me.

 

HELP!

 

Louis in Winston-Salem, NC

[chadrian84]

Yes... I have the same problem with my new Acer laptop with Windows 10 Pro, hex core i7-8750H, GTX1060, 16gb Ram, 1TB SSD.  The PM works fine on my other slightly older Windows 10 Pro laptop.  I started a thread on the QHY forum about this.  I've spent many hours trying everything I can think of with no luck.  QHY's latest recommendation is to try "playing a song in the background when running polemaster" because this may somehow help it.  I haven't had a clear night to test this potential trick yet.  

 

If you get this figured out please post the solution here.  It wouldn't hurt to join the QHY forum and let them know you're also having the problem (maybe then they'll actually get it fixed).

[ShortLobster]

I had this issue and resolved it by playing a video in Windows Media Player on repeat. I believe it is somehow related to power saving settings interfering with USB traffic, and others have solved it by modifying those settings. 

[mlnewton]

Chad, I saw a QHY forum post where a QHYtech recommended the song or video trick. The poster said it made little difference to their performance in PM. I looked at the DirectX control panel and saw nothing that would affect PM performance. I wonder if there is still a “run in compatibility mode” setting in Windows. Years ago that used to cure a bunch of ills.

[mlnewton]

Shortlobster, I have located the power settings that regulate power to usb devices and modified them to keep power on all the time. The settings are buried pretty deep in the control panel but this may be the key. Playing a song or video may force power manager to remain on continually. How that controls power to USB ports I have no idea. When we get some clear skies in a couple of days, I will report back. I also put PM into compatibility mode. Bad science doing two things at one time but if it works...

[mlnewton]

The lagging screen redraw may be related to screen resolution? I will test at a lower resolution when skies clear and report back. My new laptop defaults to a very high definition/resolution screen unlike my dead laptop that used a lower resolution by default. 

[chadrian84]

I think I tried compatibility modes and it wasn’t helping. The resolution on my laptop #1 where it works is the same as laptop #2, where PM lags, so I don’t think that’s the issue. Both are 1920x1080.

[mlnewton]

In my exchanges with QHY, the best they have to offer is to run a video or music in a loop or to download their newest QHYccd.dll file from the Developer link. On my own I am trying the battery conservation settings to make sure usb devices are not turned off while not in use. I will see if any of this works tomorrow night when we are finally clear here.

[mlnewton]

Here is the latest on Pole Master screen lagging from QHY. Have not tested their recommendation yet but here it is. Go to their site and locate the Development tab at the top right. Select the SDK download and open that. After it unpacks, locate the qhyccd.dll file and use it to replace the same file in the Pole Master directory. It will require a restart to take effect. The old file is several years old and the new one is recent. Additionally, running a looped video while using PM also stops the lagging but I feel this is a less than desirable “fix”.

 

Note:  Tested out the replacement .dll file last night and it was totally ineffective. My out of the box new imaging laptop is also afflicted with this bothersome lagging. Running a short video in an endless loop does “correct” the issue.

Edited by mlnewton, 26 January 2019 - 10:01 AM.

[mlnewton]

Latest indications are that something called “hyperthreading” may be the root problem. The latest versions of Windows has excluded the ability to edit or change this BIOS component. Perhaps this is why QHY has been slow in correcting this issue...

[DuncanM]

I wonder if it would help to assign the Polemaster thread to a specific processor core?