I can't restore games from my desktop after minimizing

ladygray · 03-20-2009, 07:46 PM

It's a brand new Lenovo Idea Pad running Vista and I've had this problem since I bought it.

I play World of Warcraft and when I minimize the game using the windows key I cannot bring the game back up by using the restore option on the toolbar.

The sound comes back and so does the cursor which cannot move outside of an invisible box on the desktop. I've tried waiting but the only thing I can do is to just close the program using the toolbar, and I always get the Program is Not Responding error message.

I've tried looking online for help and looking to see if maybe there is a setting I can change, but to no avail.

Thank you all for your help and for this wonderful service you provide!

Sonti · 03-20-2009, 08:03 PM

Your cpu, ram or videocard may not be able to handle restoring all the details in enough time which ends up with resulting a timeout aka "program not responding".

Games especially on full screen use quite a lot of cpu, ram and videocard power. And in games like WoW there are quite a few details happening in real-time which means the computer has to redraw/rerender quite a few details, and if your computer is not capable enough, it will not be able to respond in time and "crash".

Just to test, or if you really must multitask, you can try switching to windowed WoW and see if it can maximize/restore back up. It should be able to as in windowed mode games tend to use a lot less power. Maybe not in raids or crowded cities though (more crowd, more details, more polygons for computer to draw).

W00DR0W · 03-20-2009, 08:20 PM

Same thing'll happen to me when my laptop is running in "low power" mode.

But if that aint it, may I suggest that until someone comes up with a fix (which'll probably be 'update your drivers') try using ALT+TAB to switch to or from your game instead of the toolbar. Sometimes just mixing up what you do works.

03-20-2009, 07:46 PM	#1 (permalink)
ladygray Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 1 OS: Vista	I can't restore games from my desktop after minimizing It's a brand new Lenovo Idea Pad running Vista and I've had this problem since I bought it. I play World of Warcraft and when I minimize the game using the windows key I cannot bring the game back up by using the restore option on the toolbar. The sound comes back and so does the cursor which cannot move outside of an invisible box on the desktop. I've tried waiting but the only thing I can do is to just close the program using the toolbar, and I always get the Program is Not Responding error message. I've tried looking online for help and looking to see if maybe there is a setting I can change, but to no avail. Thank you all for your help and for this wonderful service you provide!

03-20-2009, 08:03 PM	#2 (permalink)
Sonti Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 56 OS: XP 64bit My System	Re: I can't restore games from my desktop after minimizing Your cpu, ram or videocard may not be able to handle restoring all the details in enough time which ends up with resulting a timeout aka "program not responding". Games especially on full screen use quite a lot of cpu, ram and videocard power. And in games like WoW there are quite a few details happening in real-time which means the computer has to redraw/rerender quite a few details, and if your computer is not capable enough, it will not be able to respond in time and "crash". Just to test, or if you really must multitask, you can try switching to windowed WoW and see if it can maximize/restore back up. It should be able to as in windowed mode games tend to use a lot less power. Maybe not in raids or crowded cities though (more crowd, more details, more polygons for computer to draw). Last edited by Sonti; 03-20-2009 at 08:06 PM.

03-20-2009, 08:20 PM	#3 (permalink)
W00DR0W Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 80 OS: vista	Re: I can't restore games from my desktop after minimizing Same thing'll happen to me when my laptop is running in "low power" mode. But if that aint it, may I suggest that until someone comes up with a fix (which'll probably be 'update your drivers') try using ALT+TAB to switch to or from your game instead of the toolbar. Sometimes just mixing up what you do works.