I have this Right-Click Option on my Alienware 17R3 with GTX980M. So I think it's a problem with drivers, not installed as it should be.
Do you have a little Icon in Taskbar that shows when the nVidea GFX is running?

I'm on my MSI right now, but i'll check when I get home (Alienware is there).

Mike

This seems like an odd one. Have you task swapped out of GG and looked at task manager? Is GG or some other program hogging the CPU or HDD resources? You may have already checked and see no issues, but with that spec and 0 FPS on GG, I would suspect something is seriously wrong. If you haven't, it may be worth a look to see if there is something obvious as the culprit, or at least a clue to why it is not running properly.

OK, so I had a bit of time to do some testing.

In safe mode, it works 100%.

Using msconfig.exe, any other booting mode (no startup, so services, etc) it does not work and goes to 0 FPS.

So, what is causing it that safe mode works and no other way to boot doesn't?

I did a F11 in Game Guru when it was working in safe mode and all the same specs were there - using Nvidia GeForce 1070, Direct X 12, 120ghz and 4k resolution. So it's none of those things since it worked in safe mode - and with over 120fps even in the largest and congested of levels.

So brainiacs, what am I missing? What driver is causing this? I tried disallowing everything to load in msconfig, but not in 'safe mode' and then I tried various things to turn on and off - in the end it did not matter. Safe mode was the only way Game Guru is going to work on this machine until I/we find the culprit driver or system service causing this.

Thanks for any help.

Mike

when you run in safe mode windows uses minimum drivers, I think your best bet is to uninstall all NVidia drivers reboot your laptop and let windows 10 setup its drivers for your video don't install anything let windows 10 do it, once it as installed the display driver it will ask for a restart, after restart try GG again

Did what you suggested and uninstalled the Nvidia 3D vision and Geforce drivers, but not the GeForce experience software.

I rebooted and Windows 10 put both right back.

Game Guru still runs at 0 FPS and ceases to function.

Next....

Mike

you need to uninstall everything 'nvidia' the experience software will just put back the original driver, download and run Wagnard Tools "Display driver uninstaller" which I highly recommend and is fully endorsed by many top level tech websites including Guru 3D and Tom's Hardware. Choose the option from the drop box that applies to your platform, Nvidia or Intel, depending on what was previously installed and needs to be eradicated, and when it asks to reboot into safe mode in order to perform the uninstall process, click yes and allow the program to proceed.

then let windows 10 install the WHQL drivers on its own.

The above advice sounds good, although I tend to remove programs and such the manual way myself. If it's running fine in safe mode, it's without doubt a driver issue. The only way to get to the bottom of this is to uninstall or disable each one until you find the culprit. You would think it is down to the video drivers here, but sometime the obvious is not always the case with PC issues.

I wonder does the GameGuru error log output provide any clues at all? That is if it actually makes one here, which it may well not by the sounds. It may give Lee a clue as to what is causing the issue.

Where can the log files be found?

Mike

So I ran wagnard driver get ridder and it certainly did that - right off the face of the earth. Now there's no Nvidia drivers at all and they did not automatically reinstall - they are GONE. I mean, like Nvidia does not show up as a video card alternative now.

On top of that, I ran Game Guru and it was still at 0 FPS and now shows its running Windows 10 software display driver.

Now I have to try and install Nvidia drivers again.

Officially, its NOT the Nvidia drivers.

Mike

So I re-installed the Nvidia drivers to what came with my system at the time, so I am sure they will auto-update at some point. Ran Game-Guru - same thing. No change.

So, other than video drivers, what driver(s) could be causing this that DO NOT run in safe mode?

Mike

windows 10 will install Nvidia drivers (basic ones not the customised drivers) you could download your original drivers from the Dell website, but I would just load basic Nvidia drivers for now and see if they work, Dell would have customised the NVidia inf files for you specific laptop this customisation could be what is causing your issue.

if you got to the NVidia site and let it scan your system for drivers download the drivers from their first before Dell, windows 10 does have 90% of NVidia based GPU's in its HAL so I am surprised it did not install automatically.

I let the computer reboot and sit for a while - no, it was not going to 'automatically' install the Nvidia driver(s) without my help.

I already had the latest and greatest true Nvidia drivers from Nvidia before I started this thread.

This is NOT a Nvidia or graphics driver issue. I had vanilla microsoft windows vga driver installed and Game Guru still was at 0 FPS and doing what it has always done on this laptop.

Mike

when GG is running press CTRL+ALT+DEL (be patient) when the options appear choose 'Task Manager' (again please be patient) the window that pops up choose 'More Details' from the bottom left hand corner, click on the word 'CPU' to make highest value at the top, list all apps running maybe take a screen shot and post it here, from this list we can see what is running on your laptop

I know how frustrating this is for you but with it working well in safe mode it is most definitely a driver or program issue, there must be something running in the background that does not run when you are in safe mode, I am sorry my first suggestion did not work but I think perseverance will pay off for you, we just got to find the offending app/driver

Here it is - with a GTX 1070 and 32GB ram, this thing should be screaming:

Mike

Ok now, run the laptop in safe mode and do the same and post an image of the task manager, i have a sneaky suspicion something loading in your startup might be stopping GG from running.

For example, you have Killer Network Service running, that's a piece of software that is suppose to auto-configure your network and hardware to run games better, it could be something like that is blocking GG.

If you run in safe mode and somethings not on the list in safe mode but is on the list in normal mode, it's a good chance it might be that.

Also, Avast is funny with some software, i used to use it, but it became too much bloatware for me, i had so many issues, i now just running MS security built into windows 10 and have no issues, apparently MS security is really good in WIn10 and it's not so necessary to run a separate security software any more.

There have been a lot of reported issues with GameGuru being flagged as a false positive by Avast too. Try creating an exception in Avast for GameGuru.

as Belidos suggested, most definatley get rid of Avast and use windows 10 AV it is less taxing on the system and runs very well, the other thing I noticed was tobi eyex tray for eye tracking this will possibly interfere with GG

And here is the similar screenshot in safe mode.

Notice the FPS is nice and high and the specs are identical. The only difference is safe mode.

I did try Game Guru with Avast unloaded and the Tobii Eye tracker off (as in I quit the application and made sure it was not running) - the results were the same - 0 FPS and it would not run. It's not Avast nor Tobii.

Mike

Here is something you might try...

Invoke task manager > select startup > disable everything listed in the startup file. Reboot the system. If gg runs now with proper FPS then your problem
is in the startup file. (I believe this is almost like safe mode but not as stripped down)

If by some small chance this solves the problem then you need to go through the time consuming process of enabling startup files one by one until the offending file(s) is found.

NOTE: Perhaps you might want to hold off on this procedure until others weigh in as to the safety of the suggested procedure. I have tracked down problems in the past doing this with out causing operational problems.

Unbelievable.

It actually worked. HOWEVER, I spent most of the day turning on and off each startup item to see which one was the offender.

None were, or, should I say, all were. Only when I disabled ALL startup items in the task manager did Game Guru work.

Not sure why, but if I turn on just about anything Game Guru stops working.

Any suggestions?

Mike

Does this mean you found some items that when enabled GG would still run? If so just leave those items enabled and disable everything else.

The start up file is just an area usually full of software to be loaded automatically for the convenience of the user. It does not appear to be a requirement .
It has been my experience that if Microsoft has stuck files in the start up then I leave them enabled but I disable all other stuff.
If you can get the start up file to a point that GG will work, I suggest you then check that the rest of the software on the computer to confirm that none of it needs any thing in the startup file that has been disabled. In other words does everything including GG works with out any reliance on the start up files.

Some times combination of files in the start up, not just one single call, can be the problem (much harder to find)
You can run your computer with all files disabled if that's what it takes.

Hopefully other forum users may offer suggestions, now that the start up appears to be the location of conflict.
Remember everything in the start up file is put there by someone supplying you with software you can't usually add files to the start up yourself thus potential conflicts.

Edit:

Tip: This is from a web search: As a general rule, it is safe to remove any startup program. Typically, most programs automatically start because they are monitoring the computer (e.g. antivirus) or give a hardware device additional features (e.g. printer software). After a program has been removed or disabled, if it needs anything that used to load at startup, it will not load until the program is executed.

Would it be possible for you to give us an attachment showing the files in your start up file...



Just a review of the process for disabling and checking for the offending file:
Pretend you have 5 files in the startup, and you disable all 5 files and reboot and gg works then that will indicate one of the 5 files is in conflict.
next step would be to enable file 1 and then reboot, if gg still works then file 1 is ok, leave it enabled. Then disable file two and then reboot...Etc. , Etc.
It is important to reboot after each file enable to give computer the opportunity to use the latest startup file. Very time consuming ...

Was this an upgrade to Windows 10 or purchased with it ?
The reason I ask is that if it was an upgrade from W7 or 8 there could still be some older OS contamination that have caused me problems like this before with other apps.

If its been purchased with it then perhaps there is something preinstalled with the Alienware version that could be causing the issue ... If it was me .... I think I would lean towards a fresh install of W10 using an iso ....Its now obvious GG can work well on it but something is definitely giving it grief and trying to locate the one thing is turning out to be a nightmare. I personally don't like manufacturers pre installed versions of windows and usually always install fresh on my units.

Just my thoughts ..

Not an upgrade. Windows 10 was installed fresh. I am leaving the startup items off (all of them) - no single one could be disabled without Game Guru going to 0 FPS - it's all very, very weird. I could not find a single startup item that was causing this.

I wonder if there are hidden startup items and when disabling all, they are disabled as well?

I have folders set to show hidden items, so they should show up, but not sure about the Task Manager or msconfig.exe?

Either way, the computer is actually running even faster and nothing seems to be disabled, so i'll leave it this way.

Thank you for everyone's help. This is a GREAT community and I am glad to be using Game Guru / AGK2 with GG loader for our game projects.

Mike

Do you mean enabled?

So is it running okay now and what were the offending startup programs? It may help anyone else who encounters this issue.

I would suggest running an Anti-Malware Tool. There are several places to launch autostart tasks. The Task Manager shows one of them but not all.
The MS Freeware AutoRuns can show you all of them: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

Perhaps the problem is a background service. Many "Tuning Tools" do in real slow down the system or parts of this. If you use something like TuneUp Utilities (or something like this) it could cause it too.

Do you use Win10 with the Creators Update? There is a GameMode in it that can pause most of the Backgound Tasks while running. When a Game is open simply press Win+G and configure it to use the GameMode for this software. This could help.