Rhino 6 freezes on notebook

Rhino Windows Hardware
1

One of my pc’s behaves laborious when using Rhino 6. It doesn’t matter what function I use, the pc freezes for a couple of seconds then continues, then freezes again and so on. The same goes for using Grasshopper.

The PC is a Dell Vostro 3560 notebook (core i7-3620QM, 16 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, 1 TB HDD).
I suspect the GPU and it’s drivers are too old: AMD Radeon HD 7670M, but I don’t know if I should just use the non-Dell drivers . I ran SystemInfo:

Rhino 6 SR27 2020-6-24 (Rhino 6, 6.27.20176.05001, Git hash:master @ ba2c30de00be5a8b210bc297715204e941911799)
License type: Educational, build 2020-06-24
License details: Cloud Zoo. In use by: ME_Mark ()

Windows 10.0 SR0.0 or greater (Physical RAM: 16Gb)
Machine name: DESKTOP-ADAMBSF

Non-hybrid graphics.
Primary display and OpenGL: Intel® HD Graphics 4000 (Intel) Memory: 2GB, Driver date: 12-21-2015 (M-D-Y). OpenGL Ver: 4.0.0 - Build 10.18.10.4358

Secondary graphics devices.
AMD Radeon HD 7670M (AMD) Memory: 1GB, Driver date: 8-6-2015 (M-D-Y).

OpenGL Settings
Safe mode: Off
Use accelerated hardware modes: On
Redraw scene when viewports are exposed: On

Anti-alias mode: 4x
Mip Map Filtering: Linear
Anisotropic Filtering Mode: Height

Vendor Name: Intel
Render version: 4.0
Shading Language: 4.00 - Build 10.18.10.4358
Driver Date: 12-21-2015
Driver Version: 10.18.10.4358
Maximum Texture size: 16384 x 16384
Z-Buffer depth: 24 bits
Maximum Viewport size: 16384 x 16384
Total Video Memory: 2112 MB

Rhino plugins
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\Commands.rhp “Commands” 6.27.20176.5001
C:\Users\MJMT Evers\AppData\Roaming\McNeel\Rhinoceros\6.0\Plug-ins\Thea For Rhino (0ab51401-0ca2-45e3-94e0-46d77b129353)\2018.3.18.0\Thea_V2\TheaForRhino.rhp “Thea For Rhino”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\rdk.rhp “Renderer Development Kit”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\Tibidabo\Tibidabo.rhp “Tibidabo”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\RhinoRender.rhp “Rhino Render”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\rdk_etoui.rhp “RDK_EtoUI” 6.27.20176.5001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\rdk_ui.rhp “Renderer Development Kit UI”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\NamedSnapshots.rhp “Snapshots”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\IronPython\RhinoDLR_Python.rhp “IronPython” 6.27.20176.5001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\RhinoCycles.rhp “RhinoCycles” 6.27.20176.5001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\Tibidabo\VisualARQ.rhp “VisualARQ”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\Grasshopper\GrasshopperPlugin.rhp “Grasshopper” 6.27.20176.5001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\Toolbars\Toolbars.rhp “Toolbars” 6.27.20176.5001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\3dxrhino.rhp “3Dconnexion 3D Mouse”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\Displacement.rhp “Displacement”

2

I would guess the most likely candidate is the embarrassingly old display drivers.
That, and the computer is quite old running old display adapters.
Dell isn’t going to be any help with a computer this old.

There are a couple plug-ins and the 3D Mouse could be involved too.

Start with the drivers.
Intel process:


Intel drivers:

AMD drivers:
https://www2.ati.com/drivers/amd-catalyst-15.7.1-win10-64bit.exe

Any better?
If not, next up will be eliminating Thea, Tibidabo, VisualARQ, and the 3D Mouse

1 Like
3

Thanks!
I won’t be buying a Dell Vostro again for this reason. (The Thinkpad I owned before this one did have better driver support).

I have never used a 3D mouse :thinking:

4

There’s nothing wrong with the computer other than it has outlasted it’s functional usefulness.
I’m running on a Dell Precision 3620 tower now.
When my crappy Microsoft Surface dies, I’ll replace it with a Dell Precision laptop.

5

Thank you for your help!

I updated the Intel driver, the AMD driver remains embarrasingly old (the version on the AMD site is not newer for this GPU), and I have disabled the 3D mouse driver.
As a bonus Abaqus also runs a lot better now.

6

I thought I found the right AMD driver:
Here the link to the AMD site:
https://www.amd.com/en/support
Type your full product name into the search tool.
The browser is shite.

7

You did find the latest driver for this GPU, but it’s a week older (07-29-2015) than the one installed. So I decided to keep the one Dell provided.
Rhino runs OK for now.

8

Good to hear.
Start planning on replacing the computer.
It has way outlasted it’s expected functional service life.

9

Yep, but the desktop is first in line, that one is even older. (except for the GPU)