First of all, make sure you have the latest version of Holiday Lights. Some versions prior to version 4.0.2 conflicted with certain video drivers. (The links at the bottom of this page will help you find out which version you're using.)

Assuming you have the latest version, most of the problems like this that we hear about are caused by bugs in certain video drivers. These problems often occur only when your monitor is set to a particular color depth setting, such as "16 Bit (High Color)". Changing to a different color setting often fixes the problem.

To do this:

1. Click the Start button
2. Choose Settings
3. Choose Control Panel
4. Open Display
5. Click the Settings tab
6. Choose a different setting in the Colors section
7. Exit and reopen Holiday Lights

If this does not solve the problem, you may still be able to fix it by lowering the hardware acceleration of the video driver:

1. Click the Start button
2. Choose Settings
3. Choose Control Panel
4. Open System
5. Click the Performance tab
6. Click the Graphics button
7. Slide the Hardware Acceleration slider to the second setting (not "None", but the next one; the text below will probably read "Basic Acceleration").
8. Restart Windows

This bypasses any bugs in the video driver (instead, your computer will use the built-in Windows drawing commands, which are more reliable). If it fixes the problem, it means the cause is, in fact, a buggy video driver.

Many people don't notice any actual slowdown with this setting, and are happy to keep it that way. If it bothers you, though, you may be able to truly fix the problem (and be able to leave it set to full acceleration) by downloading the latest version of the drivers for your video card.

If you were having this problem, and the solutions on this page solve it on your computer, please let us know by dropping a quick note to support@tigertech.com. We are interested in knowing which video drivers have this bug so we can investigate the problem more thoroughly.

 
See also:
How do I know what version I'm using?
How do I upgrade if I'm using a previous version?