SQL Server can’t be added for monitoring due to blank control displays in the ‘Add server’ dialog

Applies to
ApexSQL Monitor

Symptoms
A SQL Server instance can’t be added for monitoring, due to the fact that the Add server dialog buttons are blank and user interaction is not allowed:

Add server dialog buttons are blank

Cause
ApexSQL Monitor utilizes the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a graphical subsystem for GUI rendering. By default, WPF relies on the graphics card hardware acceleration for displaying the graphical elements of user interface and the ApexSQL monitor doesn’t provide an option for using the software rendering. Therefore, it requires that graphic card and drivers support minimum requirements such as DirectX 9.0. This is the quote from Microsoft:

If the user’s graphics card is not capable of supporting DirectX hardware rendering, the application will have an issue with displaying the certain ApexSQL dialogs such as the Add server dialog in ApexSQL Monitor.

Affected versions:
ApexSQL Monitor 2014.02.0061 and earlier.

Resolution
For users that run into this issue, the problem can be solved by upgrading the graphic card driver to the latest version. In most cases, it will solve the issue.

ApexSQL plans to fix this issue in the next release by allowing users to select the WPF software rendering mode, which will bypass the need for using the graphic card hardware rendering. It will allow users with graphics cards that do not support the minimum WPF requirements for hardware rendering to use ApexSQL.

If you experience such issue and need any additional help and/or assistance, please contact ApexSQL Support team. We apologize for any inconvenience.