The DirectX Diagnostic Tool (Dxdiag.exe) is designed to help you troubleshoot DirectX related issues and gives detailed information regarding your computers graphics sound and other devices. It can be a valuable tool in determining things like hardware specifications, DirectX version for determining if your computer meets the system requirements for optimally running SmartSDR for Windows. It can also help determine if the video drivers are up to date or need to be updated.
Running the DirectX Diagnostic Tool (Dxdiag.exe)
1. Click on the Windows "Start" button and either choose "Run" or click into the "Start Search" field depending on which shows up on your menu.
2. Type dxdiag in the text field
3. Click OK
4. If your computer has a 64-bit version of Windows, click the button Run 64-bit DxDiag (see screenshot below) If your computer is running a 32-bit version of Windows, that button will not be available.
Once you have an open DxDiag report, there are several pieces of information that are especially helpful in pinpointing the cause of SmartSDR-Win performance issues:
- The main page of the DxDiag is the System tab. On the System tab, make a note of the DirectX Version. The minimum version for running SmartSDR-Win is 9.0. In the example above, the DirectX version is 11.
- Next, click on the Display tab. If you have multiple displays or video cards, there will be multiple Display tabs. On the Display tab (seen in the screenshot below) please note the information in the DirectX Features section; all of them should be Enabled. If not, see the section below for Enabling DirectX Features for your Video Card
- In the Notes section, if there are no issues with DirectX the text "No problems found" will be displayed.
If you have any trouble reading the DxDiag file yourself, you can click on the Save All Information button to save the DxDiag information in a text file and send it to an FlexRadio Systems support engineer for more assistance.
Enabling DirectX Features for your Video Card
If some or all of the DirectX Features are not enabled, try the following:
1.) Update your video drivers to the latest version for the video card manufacturer. Below are the links to the major video card manufacturers.
NVIDIA: http://www.nvidia.com/content/global/global.php
AMD (ATI): http://support.amd.com
Intel: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/
2.) Make sure Graphics Acceleration is turned on for your graphics cards(s)
Some programs run very slowly or not at all unless Microsoft DirectDraw or Direct3D hardware acceleration is available. To turn on graphics acceleration:
a. Right-click your computer’s Desktop and click Screen Resolution from the menu that appears. The Screen Resolution window will appear. This setting is part of the Control Panel in Windows 7 and can be accessed from the Control Panel as well.
b. Click on Advanced Settings.
c. Click the Troubleshoot tab, and then click Change Settings. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. If the Change Settings button is grayed out, then all hardware acceleration is on by default and can not be changed.
d. Move the Hardware Acceleration slider to Full.
3.) If the above steps do not work, then you may need to upgrade your video graphics adapter to a new version that support DirectX 10 or greater for optimal graphics performance for SmartSDR-Win.