ZEISS Inspect-Intermittent “Graphics Card” Pop-up Problem

[[ca...]]

Hello all,

We are running ZEISS INSPECT in an automated environment with multiple INSPECT instances, and we occasionally encounter the “Graphics Card” dialog shown in the attached screenshot when an instance starts.

The GPU is detected correctly, Hardware rendering (default) is selected, and the graphics card/driver is reported as compatible with no known problems. However, this dialog still appears intermittently.

This is an issue for us because our INSPECT instances are started and controlled automatically. When this dialog appears, it requires user interaction and therefore interrupts/block the automation workflow.

Could you please clarify:

1.    What can trigger this Graphics Card dialog to appear intermittently?
2.    Is there a way to disable/suppress this dialog permanently without using software rendering?
3.    Can we force ZEISS INSPECT to always start with Hardware Rendering via a configuration file, command-line parameter, environment variable, or Python/script API?

Thanks,

Canset

[[Ma...]]

I would guess to change default GPU for process in Windows to utilize only RTX and not iGPU.

I am sure on knowledge base or in this forum will be shown how to setup for Calypso - same should be for Inspect.

[[ca...]]

Thanks for the suggestion. However, I see the same issue on another workstation that has only an NVIDIA RTX GPU, with no iGPU available. The popup still appears intermittently there as well.

So it seems that, at least in my case, the problem may not be related to Windows selecting the wrong GPU.

I would need some more detailed information from ZEISS about how INSPECT handles GPU initialization and hardware rendering, especially in multi-instance scenarios, and whether there is a supported way to force hardware rendering consistently or assign specific GPU resources to each instance.

[[Na...]]

Hi Canset,

could you reach out to support with reference to this thread? 

Nanno

[[Ra...]]

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Since this appears to be an automation use case, I'd escalate with:

• ZEISS INSPECT version
• Exact startup command line
• Number of concurrent INSPECT instances
• Whether instances run under the same Windows user
• Whether the system is local, RDP, VM, Citrix, or remote session
• GOMSIC from a launch where the dialog appears
• GOMSIC from a launch where it does not appear
• Screenshot of the dialog (the one you attached)

I would specifically ask:

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[[ca...]]

Thank you all for your responses.

The most recent case occurred with GOM Inspect 2022 with an unattended automation use case running on a VM.

We currently run five GOM/ZEISS INSPECT instances concurrently, all under the same Windows user account, with five measurements being processed in parallel.

The issue is intermittent and does not occur at every startup. In the VM environment, we generally encounter the Graphics Card dialog after measurements have been triggered continuously for several hours. Once the dialog appears, it interrupts the unattended automation because manual interaction is required.

However, this behavior does not seem to be limited to the VM environment or to multiple concurrent instances. We have also occasionally observed the same Graphics Card dialog on our scanning workstations, which are not VMs, particularly after long-running scanning sessions.

After reviewing the available logs, I also have the impression that the issue might be related to the Shadow Manager process/component.

It may therefore be useful for the support/development team to check whether there is any connection between the Shadow Manager activity and the Graphics Card dialog being triggered.

I will provide the relevant GOMSIC files through our distributor, including examples from cases where the dialog appears and, if possible, where it does not appear.

Previously, a command was shared with us to start INSPECT automatically using Software Rendering. Is there a similar supported command, startup parameter, configuration option, or scripting method that can be used to force Hardware Rendering automatically?

In particular, we would like to know whether there is a supported way to:

1. suppress the Graphics Card dialog in unattended automation,
2. force Hardware Rendering without requiring user interaction, and
3. prevent this dialog from appearing after several hours of continuous operation.

It would also be helpful to understand what can trigger the Graphics Card selection dialog after the application has already been running successfully with Hardware Rendering for a long period.

I will also share the exact startup command line we currently use below.

 

 process = subprocess.Popen([
            'C:/Program Files/GOM/2022/bin/gom_inspect.exe',
            '-eval', 'gom.script.userscript.Recalculation()'
        ], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE, env=os.environ)
        
 

Thanks,

Canset