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Caleb Mundati
Caleb Mundati

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Fix Loggy3 Stuck on "Starting Recording" on Windows — DirectX Error 0x887A0004

#loggy3 #debugging #microsoft

I recently installed Loggy3 on my Windows laptop, but couldn't get past the first recording setup.

Every time I clicked Start Recording, the app would show Starting... and remain stuck there. The recording timer never appeared, and clicking Stop just took me back to the Record your first recording screen.

After quite a bit of troubleshooting, I managed to identify the issue and fix it. I'm sharing the steps in case anyone else runs into the same problem.

The problem

The symptoms were pretty consistent:

  • Clicking Start Recording showed a recording/starting status, but no timer.
  • The recording never became active.
  • Clicking Stop returned me to the onboarding screen.
  • Running the app as administrator didn't help.
  • Restarting Windows, clearing application files and changing internet connections made no difference.

Windows' built-in screen recording worked perfectly using Win + Alt + R, so the computer wasn't completely unable to record its screen.

My system

Component Details
OS Windows
Application Loggy3 v0.10.0
CPU Intel Core i5-8250U
Integrated GPU Intel UHD Graphics 620
Dedicated GPU NVIDIA GeForce MX150
Display 1920 × 1080

This is a hybrid-GPU laptop, where the integrated Intel GPU drives the display while NVIDIA is available for applications requiring additional graphics performance.

Finding the actual error

After trying the usual fixes without success, I decided to check Loggy3's logs.

On Windows, Loggy3 stores diagnostic logs under:

%USERPROFILE%\.loggy3\logs
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The files I found were:

app-log.jsonl
kernel-log.jsonl
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The interesting one was kernel-log.jsonl.

You can inspect the most recent recording-related errors using PowerShell:

$path = "$env:USERPROFILE\.loggy3\logs\kernel-log.jsonl"

Get-Content $path -Tail 100 |
ForEach-Object {
    try {
        $entry = $_ | ConvertFrom-Json

        if ($entry.severity -in @("warn", "error", "fatal")) {
            [PSCustomObject]@{
                Severity = $entry.severity
                Event    = $entry.event
                Message  = $entry.message
            }
        }
    } catch {}
} | Format-List
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The error

The logs repeatedly showed:

IDXGIOutput1::DuplicateOutput is temporarily unavailable

The specified device interface or feature level
is not supported on this system. (0x887A0004)
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Followed by:

input capture failed:
input capture stopped before screen capture became ready
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Another log entry confirmed:

capture_became_ready: false
session_complete: false
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These messages explained why the timer wasn't starting.

Loggy3 was failing to initialize screen capture through the DirectX Desktop Duplication API.

The application was also repeatedly retrying the recording initialization, roughly every five seconds.

Why changing the GPU initially didn't work

My laptop has two graphics adapters:

  • Intel UHD Graphics 620
  • NVIDIA GeForce MX150

I first went into Windows Graphics Settings and changed Loggy3 to use Intel integrated graphics.

That didn't solve it.

I also tried selecting the dedicated NVIDIA GPU. Still nothing.

The missing piece was that Loggy3 uses a separate executable for its recording engine.

Inspecting the installation directory revealed:

Loggy3/
├── loggy3-gui.exe
├── loggy3-kernel.exe
├── replay_windows.exe
└── uninstall.exe
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The GUI and the recording kernel are separate programs.

I had only changed the GPU preference for loggy3-gui.exe, while the DirectX failure was occurring in the recording kernel.

The fix that worked

The solution was to explicitly configure both Loggy3's interface and recording kernel to use the integrated Intel GPU.

Step 1: Close Loggy3

Make sure the application is completely closed.

You can also use PowerShell:

Get-Process loggy3-gui, loggy3-kernel -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
Stop-Process -Force
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Step 2: Open Windows Graphics Settings

Navigate to:

Settings → System → Display → Graphics

Choose the option to add a desktop application.

Step 3: Add the recording kernel

Browse to your Loggy3 installation directory.

In my case, it was:

%USERPROFILE%\Loggy3\loggy3-kernel.exe
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Select the executable, open Options, and choose:

Power saving — Intel UHD Graphics 620

Click Save.

Step 4: Configure the GUI as well

Repeat the process for:

%USERPROFILE%\Loggy3\loggy3-gui.exe
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Assign it to:

Power saving — Intel UHD Graphics 620

The resulting configuration should look like this:

Executable GPU preference
loggy3-gui.exe Power saving (Intel)
loggy3-kernel.exe Power saving (Intel)

Step 5: Restart Loggy3

Launch Loggy3 normally, then click Start Recording.

That was it. The recording started successfully and the timer finally appeared.

No driver reinstall, Windows reset or application reinstall was necessary.

What's actually happening?

Loggy3's recording kernel uses Windows' DirectX Desktop Duplication functionality to capture the screen.

On hybrid-GPU systems, desktop duplication can fail with 0x887A0004 when the application's graphics configuration isn't compatible with the display being captured.

In my case, the laptop display was driven by Intel UHD Graphics 620, and explicitly assigning Loggy3's recording kernel to Intel resolved the failure.

I can't confirm exactly which adapter the kernel was selecting before the change, but the GPU preference configuration was the difference between repeated capture failures and successful recording.

Also, other screen recording tools working doesn't necessarily rule out a DirectX Desktop Duplication issue. Different applications can use different capture APIs.

Quick takeaway

If you're using Loggy3 on Windows and clicking Start Recording leaves it stuck on Starting without a timer:

  1. Check %USERPROFILE%\.loggy3\logs\kernel-log.jsonl.
  2. Look for IDXGIOutput1::DuplicateOutput and 0x887A0004.
  3. Check whether your laptop has both integrated and dedicated graphics.
  4. In Windows Graphics Settings, assign both loggy3-gui.exe and loggy3-kernel.exe to the integrated GPU.
  5. Restart Loggy3 and test again.

The most important part is configuring loggy3-kernel.exe, not just the main application.

This fixed the problem on my Intel UHD 620 / NVIDIA MX150 laptop running Loggy3 v0.10.0. Other hardware or software configurations may behave differently.

Hopefully this saves someone else the time I spent figuring it out!

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