Video Hook Driver is not active / Can't be activated?!

[totoki]

Hey.

I've got the same problem that I've found here before in this forum: My Mirror Driver - or however you wanna call it - is not active! each time i connect to my server it keeps saying everything's okay except for this little "not" standing in front of the ACTIVE. I reinstalled the driver like 50 times and did whatever i could. Not working. Maybe it has somethin to do with the right-management or something like that - no access to registry or something.
But i'm administrator so that's kinda weird.

I'm running UVNC RC20.5 on a windows 2000 server edition

it worked allrighty before with xp pro.... any suggestions ?!

thanks everybody

totoki

[Rudi De Vos]

This a realy strange problem...
For some people the driver just don't want to activate.

Are you using unicode ?
I start guessing that there have to be an error in the driver name lookup...

1) Check the device manager to see if you have only ONE
hookdriver (displays)
2) What does net start vnccom
tell about the service status

If 1) and 2) look OK and still driver is not active
Try

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Hardware Profiles\Current\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\vncdrv\DEVICE0]
"Attach.ToDesktop"=dword:00000001
"DefaultSettings.XResolution"=dword:00000500
"DefaultSettings.YResolution"=dword:00000400
"DefaultSettings.BitsPerPel"=dword:00000020

When you put 1, driver is activated after next resolution switch
(0 desactivated )
Set depth and X,Yresolution correspondend with your real video card.

Check if vnc now find the driver active or not.

[sgt-d]

just an fyi... if you test your own server locally it normally will say that the driver exists and that the communication server exists --- but it will always say that the driver is not active.

you have to connect to a server and then test the remote server's drivers. if both ends are installed correctly, the remote server should report that the driver is active.

in other words... let's say i'm not connected at all - my local server reports that the driver is not active. now i connect to my home pc and run the driver test on the pc at home... it says that the driver is active. even while i am connected, only the pc at home says it is active. my local computer still says the driver is inactive.

does this help any?

-sgt

[totoki]

There is no VNCCOM service, but a vncserver servie. i used to run that one.


so let me try the registry option....



ok this is weird: i did exactly what you said. and it worked! BUT only for 1 connection. i reconnected and had the same slow connection as it's been before.
Here's what i did:

1. closed vnc
2. edited registry
3. changed resolution
4. started vnc
5. connected with my other comp. >> Driver activated
6. disconnected
7. reconnected >> driver not ACTIVE

gosh i have no clue what's goin on here.
What else could i try ?

thx, totoki

[Guest]

just an fyi... if you test your own server locally it normally will say that the driver exists and that the communication server exists --- but it will always say that the driver is not active.

you have to connect to a server and then test the remote server's drivers. if both ends are installed correctly, the remote server should report that the driver is active.

in other words... let's say i'm not connected at all - my local server reports that the driver is not active. now i connect to my home pc and run the driver test on the pc at home... it says that the driver is active. even while i am connected, only the pc at home says it is active. my local computer still says the driver is inactive.

does this help any?

-sgt

sorry, i have 16 computers here on my side and i wouldn't try a loopback connection then it's running on my winxp pro computer - pretty well actually ! but not on my win2k server.

[Guest]

hehe i found a solution for that problem )


i used to run backup copies with my old winxp pro. and so i overwrote the complete c:/winnt/ultravnc/ folder with a working version and now it's freakin workin guys !!


so to help the others - what can i do? try to find out which file it it ?

[davidschlesinger]

I finally got mirror driver working today with rc203 after reading these posts, on win2kserver machine. (Wow - what a difference! ). It's great but I wish it was easier to get it working.

Why do you have to change the video resolution to activate it?
Is this changed in rc205?

Also, not sure, thought I had to net start vnccom manually?
In any event why doesn't vnccom show up in list of services?



Thanks.
David Schlesinger

[Guest]

1) MS implemented a mirror driver activation like this.
+put attached.to.desktop to 1
+change resolution

Why ? No idea, possible some internal resets

2) vnccom is activated on reboot or via net start.
vnccom is a kernel service, (you find it as service in the registry).

Mirror driver activation (put 1 and temp res switch) should all be done automatic by winvnc. Viewer active --> activate mirror,
viewer disconnect->desactivate mirror

[davidschlesinger]

Thanks Guest,

So it what your saying then is that it's just the way MS implemented the mirror driver concept, with these two requirements... as long as I know it will work consistently I guess it's not a problem.
Attached to desktop - I didn't have to set that in the registry manually - it was set correctly. But I did have to reboot.. so, I guess then, you are saying that if I do a net start on vnccom, and change the resolution manually I won't have to do a reboot?

But I think that winvnc should do it automatically, and, default to having it enabled -why wouldn't everyone want it that way?

I think I have seen some posts indicating incompatibilities with game program, etc., even so seems like it should be the default?

1) MS implemented a mirror driver activation like this.
+put attached.to.desktop to 1
+change resolution

Why ? No idea, possible some internal resets

2) vnccom is activated on reboot or via net start.
vnccom is a kernel service, (you find it as service in the registry).

Mirror driver activation (put 1 and temp res switch) should all be done automatic by winvnc. Viewer active --> activate mirror,
viewer disconnect->desactivate mirror

[rik_rs]

For those who comes here from Google, looking for a solution to "Driver not active" the main solution is here (99% of the cases):
[topic=16800][/topic]

Other info here
http://www.uvnc.com/onlinehelp/8.html

[Hyram]

Honestly, I'll be buggered if I know what you guys are doing with the mirror driver, because the only version I've ever got working properly on my remote XPSP2 machine is UltraVNC version 1.0.2 with its associated separate driver installer. I've tried just about every release since then, even on fresh installs, and I get bupkiss. Go back to 1.0.2 and everything works flawlessly.

Judging from a quick browse of the forums, this seems to be the single most common complaint, that the driver is installed but never works or is recognised, unless the user goes back to an earlier version.

Should I keep bothering, stick with v1.0.2, or abandon ship to TightVNC?

[B]

Personally I think UltraVNC should be able to support TightVNC's chosen mirror driver; I can't see why it wouldn't, unless it's because DFMirage granted the rights to Tight but not to Ultra....

[GTA_doum]

Hi,
I have a Windows XP also with a not active video hook driver ! The computer has two monitors, with different resolutions on each of them, could that be why ?

[ericjschroeder]

I am having a similar issue. I got it working once but now can't get the driver Active again on my XP32 machine with multiple monitors and different res. It also has RAdmin which connects just fine. I just installed VNC on my XP64 machine and it ALWAYS Activates the driver, but it only has 1 monitor at present.

Also wondering if this post will have to be approved by a moderator before showing up. My own new topic still hasn't appeared.