Game keeps minimizing itself

[Blah DTMM]

I'm having a very annoying problem with Battlefield 3. My game will randomly minimize itself and I am unable to maximize the window again. I have to end task to close the game. My specs are:

gtx 570
i5 2500k
windows 7 64
8 gb ram

I have the latest updated drivers as well and it seems to occur completely randomly. I have never had this problem happen with any other games though. Could there be a program stealing focus away from this one game for some reason? How would I determine which one? This computer is only a few months old and I use it exclusively for gaming so I don't think spyware or a virus would be the issue.

 

[rockfordza]

@ mr_dismal u ROCK!

Flashed my Gigabyte GTX 560 ti with the latest bios and have not had a crash for the past 5 hours of solid play!

 

[Blah DTMM]

Updated my bios as well and haven't had the minimizing bug yet! Awesome.

 

[sk8erboob]

I used downloaded Driver Sweeper at the link below and reinstalled the latest driver (285.62) relevant to my machine. It worked perfectly and I have not had any further problems. I also updated my Punk Buster to the latest version as well. I don't think this was related, but I figured it wouldn't hurt.

Game On!

Driver Sweeper: http://phyxion.net/Driver-Sweeper/Driver-Sweeper/
NVIDIA Drivers: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

 

[AxemanACL]

I feel sorry for you poor bastards who reformatted and *** haha.
And don't waste time rolling back drivers. (I'm running the latest).

OK I read on another forum that updating the BIOS firmware on the nvidia card (I've got GTX 560 Ti) would do the trick.

So I went to the gigabyte website downloaded the latest bios pack and it updated automatically.

Rebooted and BOOM! Was able to play the game for hours without a single crash.
You'll want to make love to me for this trust me.

I think I found that same thread. Updating Bios on my Gigabyte 560ti did the trick, no problems since the update.

 

[evangelos]

A lot of cards are clocked to higher speeds (900mhz) - particularly the gigabyte cards. I know this was the cause of my crashes to the dektop because I purchased two GTX 560 Ti Gigabyte cards and they both had the same symptoms while playing BF3. I purchased an ASUS GTX 560 Ti which is clocked at 830 and never crash once. I then decided to download afterburner and adjust the clock speed of my Gigabyte graphic cards to 830 and it stopped the crashes completely. Worth a try.

 

[chico3434]

Hi - I have had problems with the game window minimizing when I click with my mouse. I have a Logitech mouse and it turns out the problem is with the mouse software. Make sure if you have a logitech mouse and you have this problem goto control panel and select Mouse. If Logitech Setpoint software is installed you will see a tab for SetPoint settings. Click it and then find the tab that has a pic of a castle on it- (Mouse game settings) Make sure Game detection is enabled. Go with the defaults. - This solved my BF3 minimizing problems. Although I know it's different than this post it is still relevant.

 

[ICISAZEL]

I am also having this problem. Very, very annoying. Running the driver released on 10.24 as well.

i7-950
GTX 580
12gb ram
Win 7-64bit

me too

SILVERSTONE TJ08-E (BLACK) :: ASUS P67-M PRO :: Intel Core i5 2500K :: @ 3.3Ghz :: Gelid Tranquillo rev.2 Cooler :: 8 GB CORSAIR DDR3 1333 1.5-9-9-9-24-1T :: Antec True Power New 650 :: ASUS 8800 GTS 512 MB :: CREATIVE XFI Titanium Sound :: Win 7 Ultimate 64 -BIT :: Samsung Spinpoint F1 0.5 TB Primary :: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB Secondary

driver 285.62

 

[sk8erboob]

me too

SILVERSTONE TJ08-E (BLACK) :: ASUS P67-M PRO :: Intel Core i5 2500K :: @ 3.3Ghz :: Gelid Tranquillo rev.2 Cooler :: 8 GB CORSAIR DDR3 1333 1.5-9-9-9-24-1T :: Antec True Power New 650 :: ASUS 8800 GTS 512 MB :: CREATIVE XFI Titanium Sound :: Win 7 Ultimate 64 -BIT :: Samsung Spinpoint F1 0.5 TB Primary :: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB Secondary

driver 285.62

ICISAZEL, if you are having the game minimize to desktop crash error try two things. Use driver sweeper to remove all of your Nvidia GPU drivers. After you have done that, go to the Nvidia website to get the latest driver. If that does not solve the problem, make sure your card isn't overclocked to the point where its causing this problem. I noticed my 560-ti overclocked edition was unstable when I adjusted it. I reset the default values (somewhere around 830), and my problem stopped.

Make sure you use driver sweeper when removing your drivers. A simple unison may leave behind problematic files that could conflict with your new driver.

Best of luck to you.

 

[sk8erboob]

Also I forgot to mention these as well.

1. Make sure any GPU overclocking utilities are closed.

2. Your motherboard has power management utlilites for it as well. Try to set your mobo power settings to full power. On my ASUS it is the Airplain setting. This will make sure your motherboard isn't restricting power to your GPU.

 

[CattySaffy]

If you have this problem, try disabling your sound card drivers temporarily. It's a know issue that nvidia drivers collide with certain realtek intergrated mobo drivers and causes BF3 to crash.

 

[Mordecai Walfish]

In the newest versions of avira there are actually *2* different things that it does that can take you out of fullscreen whenever it damn well wants to. Quite invasive. You have control over your computer though, so the solution to this is to simply create software restriction policies for the two offending processes (do not worry, they are only used to spam you messages about how you should buy their stuff)

1.in your start menu, type “local security policy” and hit enter

2. in the left part of the window here, select “software restriction policies” and then “additional rules” below that. Right-click “additional rules” and then select “new path rule”

add the path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Avira\AntiVir Desktop\avnotify.exe

make sure it’s set to “disallow”, below where it asks for the path.

click “Apply” then “ok”

repeat this for the 2nd path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Avira\AntiVir Desktop\ipmgui.exe

Enjoy! (this bothered me to no end until recently too!)