Webex client hangs when host shares screen

[PetrosTavridis68263]

Hi. This problem did not exist until recently. No upgrades or any kind of change took place on the PC, connection good (constantly pinging the outside world with pretty fast responses), so I don't know what started causing it. The notable effect of the problem is that webex client hangs (tried both desktop client and web client on Chrome, same behavior), usually with a grey screen, when the host shares their screen. We use webex for my child's classes everyday, no particular problems recorded, for months now. But yesterday all of a sudden this problem appeared for no particular reason.

Got to admit it is an old PC but still within specs: dual core 64-bit, win 7, nvidia Gforce graphics card. Has been running webex smoothly throughout the Covid-19 quarantine...until yesterday.

I read something about uninstalling some particular KB windows updates but didn't find them installed. I also set the ActiveX service to auto-start but I am waiting to see if this is going to have any effect, in today's classes.

Any ideas?

[roel-tutor]

I have the same problem. My machine is brand new (OK, half year old), and also a very new type.

I have windows 10 (fully up-to-date), updated nvidia driver a few weeks ago (had many webex meetings since then without problems), but now the problem suddenly appears!

I made no changes to any settings.

It did not happen until recently.

it now happens EVERY TIME at the end of my webex meetings.

Please solve the problem!

[kndskelton]

I had this same problem and opened an incident. Once the presenter stopped sharing I have control of my Desktop App. I was able to replicate this easily for support team. The easiest fix, as Fritz mentioned.. upgrade to Win 10. One would think that the updates for WebEx would look at the OS and not update if it's not compatible.

[Fritz_H]

@PetrosTavridis68263 
quick ideas:
- consider updating to Windows 10 (or at least 8.1)
- update nvidia-Driver
- if webex-meetings is used: try to disable HW-acceleration
- change the performance-settings of the nvidia-driver (was posted as a successful hint in this forum recently)

[PetrosTavridis68263]

@Fritz_H  thanks for the reply. Most of the options you mention (or the ones found in the posts you refer to) are not available to me. I guess an upgrade to win10 would solve that. I just don't understand why this problem suddenly came up...

[Fritz_H]

@PetrosTavridis68263 
Why?
Of course I don´t know why, but we can do some analytics :--)  :

- Windows 7 is not supported any more my MS -> its very unlikely, that any Windows-Updates caused this.
- AntiVirus-Software? does automatic updates, but it seems very unlikely to me that such a software allows "everything" but suddenly blocks certain screen-content..
- nvidia-GFX-driver: If you have the "real" driver installed (not just the OEM-Stuff that comes with Windows..) you get options to adjust the performance-settings; either individually (lots of buttons and sliders) or one slider to switch between predefined configs:
(below the rotating logo..)

- Webex: does update itself automatically. Perhaps something broke or is no longer supported?
based in this info, your Computer seems to be ok: https://help.webex.com/en-us/nw5p67g/Webex-Installation-and-Automatic-Upgrade#Cisco_Reference.dita_de900cc1-f16e-40c3-86d6-f65e4ad28c8c
In rare cases the automatic Update causes issues: You may try to un-install, reboot, and re-install the Webex-Client.

- Webex-Meetings: the HW-Acceleration-Option is shown here: https://help.webex.com/en-us/n3t9lrab/Select-Advanced-Video-Settings-for-Webex-Meetings

[PetrosTavridis68263]

Thanks for the reply, just upgraded to Win 10, found the GeForce control panel (it wasn't available on win 7) and changed the settings accordingly. We'll see today how it performs and will update this post

[Fritz_H]

@PetrosTavridis68263 
Thanks for the Update - although I would have changed the nvidia-settings after the issue did re-occur on W10.
(changing multiple parameters at once makes it harder to find out which setting originally caused the issue...)