minimizing during a game, why problems?

so we all like to multi task and check out a webpage or email or aim when we are dead in a game sometimes, not often but sometimes or while something is loading or because you forgot to do something, so you minimize. not always, but why sometimes does this cause the game to crash to the desktop and give you some error either if xfire is open itll give me a hl2 source internal error or a direct x 9 error, and if xfire isnt open itll give me a vid card error, of course there are no errors, it happens to everyone, why so? especially if you have a dual core?minimizing during a game, why problems?
[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]minimizing during a game, why problems?
[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]
it happend to me once but it turns out it was a bad nvidia driver from back when i had my 6600
im just wondering why this happens, a dual core should be able to handle multitasking
Just because you can do it, doesn't mean the game is expecting it. Most games are designed to take all the resources they can get (no surprise) and aren't multitask friendly. So when you try it and the game doesn't like it, you get a crash.
so everyone experiences this?
Pausing out to a menu of some sorts allieviates this sometimes. At least halt the current process when you switch windows.Sometimes the alt-tab mini-window that pops up can cause DirectX errors. Use Windows+D or Windows+M instead if you can.
what is window m and windows d? the windows button minimizes alone
That's why you pause a game before minimizing. It won't crash if you pause it. I always minimize COH and I get no error, because I remember to pause the game. If you don't pause then you will get an error
[QUOTE=''ncderek'']what is window m and windows d? the windows button minimizes alone[/QUOTE]



I use ALT + TAB it always works for me.
i do alt tab too, and you cant pause an online game
Well dont do it then idk :? have you tryed doing a memtest? That usually helps :P
its not a hardware issue, ive had this on all my computers in the past 3 years. ive also had hardware issues and have replaced eveyr part in my pc in the last few months, and i did memtest haha. so its not hardware. i was looking for a software issue, or if it happens to everyone. at 1st i thought it was xfire, but it wasnt
Hmmm. I have problems doing it with online games too but stuff like WoW and NeverWinter I have no probs with. I think its just the online :?
[QUOTE=''LouieV13''][QUOTE=''ncderek'']what is window m and windows d? the windows button minimizes alone[/QUOTE] I use ALT + TAB it always works for me.[/QUOTE]The little key that looks like the windows symbol next to left-alt. Hold that and hit either d or m.
oh wow, thats exactly what i was looking for, it minimizes my widgets too, which is a problem i had in another thread, thanks!