The Zune software is not displayed correctly on the computer

The Zune software may not be displayed correctly on the computer. You may experience one or more of the following symptoms:

• When you restore the Zune software window, the Zune software window is not displayed correctly.
• When you resize the Zune software window, artifacts from other windows are visible in the Zune software window.
• Artifacts from one view in the Zune software are visible when you switch to another view.
• The display resolution on the computer unexpectedly changes to a lower resolution. Additionally, you receive an error message that resembles the following:
  The display driver has stopped working normally.
• When you resume the computer from hibernation, the Zune software window appears as a gray box. No content is visible in the Zune software window.
• The Close button is not visible in the Zune software window. However, you can right-click the Zune icon on the status bar, and then click Close to close the Zune software window.
• Picture thumbnails and videos are not displayed correctly in the Zune software. For example, picture thumbnails and videos may be distorted.
• When you view a video clip in the Zune software on a Windows XP-based computer, the video clip is distorted.

This problem may occur if one or more of the following conditions are true:

• The video card in the computer cannot correctly display the on-screen animation or the other graphical effects in the Zune software.
• The drivers for the video card are outdated.

To resolve this problem, use these methods in the order in which they appear.

Turn off video enhancement in the Zune software

To workaround this problem, turn off video enhancement in the Zune software.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start the Zune software.
2. Click Settings, click Software, and then click Display.
3. Under the screen graphics heading, move the slider bar to “Basic graphics rendering," and then click OK.
4. Exit the Zune software, and then start the Zune software.

If you cannot see the Zune interface well enough to navigate the menus, start the Zune software with a special shortcut to disable the video enhancements. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Locate and right-click the Zune shortcut, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Shortcut tab.
3. In the Target box, press END, press the SPACEBAR, and then type –gdi. This string should appear like the following:
   "C:\Program Files\Zune\Zune.exe" -gdi
   Note Parameters are not case sensitive.
4. Click OK.

Make video enhancement off by default in the Zune software

Windows XP

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then press ENTER.
2. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
   cd c:\Program Files\Zune
3. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
   Zune.exe /switchtogdi

Windows Vista

1. Click Start
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   , type cmd in the Start Search box, and then right-click cmd under Programs.
2. Click Run as administrator.
3. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
   cd c:\Program Files\Zune
4. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
   Zune.exe /switchtogdi

Update the drivers for the video card

If starting the Zune software with the video enhancements disabled resolves the issue, you may be able to resolve this problem if you obtain and install the latest drivers for the video card. Visit the following Microsoft Update Web site to see whether there are new drivers available for the hardware or contact the hardware manufacturer: For information about how to contact computer hardware vendors, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information.

With the latest release of the Zune software, we introduce a new slider bar that you can use to enable animation within the Zune software. To enable animation, you must have a video card installed. You can make the following settings by using the new slider bar.