Dip Trace release 3.3 problem with Chrome

[JohnPen]

Since updating to Dip trace 3.3 and while using it for a small circuit schematic/pcb design it has twice crashed my Chrome browser such that it would not restart.  Shutting down and restarting Win 10 did not cure the problem so I did a system restore to an earlier automatic restore point,  no programs lost in this case, and all was well again.  However the same thing happened again. It seems to be random when it actually happens and this has only occurred with this latest Dip trace version. I should mention that I had both Chrome and Dip Trace open at the same time but this was not a problem with the previous build of Dip trace.

When the second Chrome fail occurred I tried an alternative recovery route which was quicker than a restore session.  I saved my Chrome bookmarks and uninstalled the Chrome application plus stopping all the Chrome processes using Win 10's task manager.  Then I downloaded and reinstalled Chrome from the internet using the Edge browser which was still working.  Finally I copied across my bookmarks back into Chrome's  C:\Users\(Username)\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default.  Once again Chrome started up as normal.

Has anyone else seen this problem with the latest build or is it just my machine's software mix?

John

[MarkF]

I have not noticed any problems.

   Diptrace  3.3.0.1
   Chrome Browser  70.0.3538.77 (64-bit)
   Windows 10, Core i5, 8 GB memory laptop

I tried running Chrome with several tabs (including a full screen YouTube) with 3 Diptrace PCB windows and 2 DipTrace Schematic windows.  I can't cause a crash.

[HwAoRrDk]

Could be a graphics driver issue, as the use of hardware-accelerated rendering is the only thing I can think of that the two programs have in common.

Try changing the rendering mode in Diptrace. I think the setting is in the View menu somewhere. Change it from DirectX/OpenGL to GDI and see if the problem goes away.

Also worth updating your graphics drivers.

[JohnPen]

Thanks for the responses.  Looking at the Graphics used by Dip trace it is already set on GDI.  I will double check on my ATI graphics card to see if there is a later update just in case.  Otherwise I will wait and see if keeps occurring.  At least I can recover things fairly quickly with my second method.

[MarkF]

I forgot that I changed my Graphics Mode to Direct3D.
I changed it in an older version because something wasn't being displayed properly and DipTrace as retained that setting.  I have never seen it crash the Chrome browser though.

[JohnPen]

Just a quick update the problem, crashing unable to recover Chrome, was not the Dip Trace 3.3.1 upgrade as the same problem has occurred with another mix of open windows on my machine.  It does also seem to relate to several USB ports being in use at the same time however as it is very occasional I am not going to cause more problems trying to pin it down.   The easy cure, if anyone does get any similar problems, is to open the Win 10 Task manager and kill all the Chrome processes.  Chrome then starts up again OK.  Isn't s/w lovely.