# Troubleshooting Tips

This section is a collection of tips for dealing with some of the problems that other people have run into.

## Asking for help/reporting bugs

If you can't find what you're looking for in this Troubleshooting section or elsewhere in the help files, try asking on the vpforums pin cab forum. I regularly monitor that group, so I should be able to help if someone else doesn't get to your question first.

For any problem that's pretty clearly a program bug, you can raise it on the forum, or you can file a bug report using the PinballY issue tracker on GitHub. Before filing a report, please read How to write a good bug report. Following that advice will improve the chances that I can find and fix the problem.

## PinballY isn't finding my tables

The easiest way to figure out what's wrong when PinballY can't find some or all of your tables is to look at the log file. PinballY creates this file each time it runs, writing lots of extra technical details on what it's doing during the session. This can usually pinpoint what's going wrong during table searches.

To get detailed information on table searches:

- Open the Settings dialog
- Go to the Log File page
- Make sure that the checkbox Player system setup and table searches is ticked
- Save settings and exit the program
- Run PinballY again, let it finish starting up, then exit
- Use Notepad to view the file PinballY.log (in your main PinballY install folder)

Now read through the file for an account of where the program is looking for table files and what it's finding.

For a detailed explanation of exactly where PinballY looks for tables, see Files & Folders.

## PinballY isn't showing media for my tables

As with table search problems, the log file is the first place to look when PinballY isn't finding your media files. If you're having trouble getting most or all of your media files displayed, try this:

- Open the Settings dialog
- Go to the Log File page
- Make sure that the checkbox Media file searches is ticked
- Save settings
- Navigate to a game that isn't showing the right media files
- Exit the program
- Use Notepad to view the file PinballY.log (in your main PinballY install folder)

Now read through the file for an account of where the program is looking for media files and what it's finding.

If you're having trouble with media for just a few specific games, try the built-in media list viewer:

- Navigate to the game in question
- Bring up the Operator Menu (press the digit zero "0" key, or whichever other key you've assigned)
- Select Show Media Files

That will display details on where the system is looking for the game's media, the filename(s) it's looking for, and the full names and locations for all of the matching files. You can check the file names that PinballY expects to find against the actual files on your disk, and likewise check the directory paths to make sure that you're placing the files where the program is looking for them.

For a detailed explanation of exactly where PinballY looks for media, see Files & Folders.

## The Windows taskbar pops up every time a VP X game finishes

Try this:

- Open the VP X editor (without a game running)
- Select Video/Graphics Options from the Preferences menu
- Un-check the box for Disable Desktop Composition (in the Fullscreen section)

What's going on: this checkbox makes VP ask Windows to turn off the feature inside Windows that lets it draw partially transparent transparent window frames and elements. VP lets you disable this because it can slow down your video card slightly; if you have a low-end video card, disabling composition might let VP run more smoothly. If VP turns composition off, though, Windows will always turn it back on when VP exits. That makes the Windows desktop want to redraw everything, which can cause the taskbar to pop to the foreground.

If you really need to disable desktop composition: If you have low-end video card that won't perform well enough with composition enabled, it's better to disable it globally across your whole system, so that Windows and VP aren't constantly fighting over whether it's on or off. In the Windows control panel, select System and Security, then System, then Advanced System Settings. Select the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button. In the Performance section, find "Enable desktop composition", and un-check the box.

Note that Microsoft doesn't let applications disable Aero on any Windows version after Windows 7, so the checkbox doesn't actually accomplish anything on Windows 8 or later.