Colorbar error - how to fix it?

I am currently experiencing problems with the matlab colorbar. In the beginning i thought it was an error with my script, but now i am convinced it is an error with matlab since even the most basic uses yields this error. It must be something interacting with matlab, because the error is unique to this machine and didnt always occur on this machine. I have tried uninstalling and installing the same version of matlab and even a never version to be sure, with no luck.

The error presents itself as many numbers being printed on the colorbar instead of what is expected. For example:

surf(peaks(30))

Gives this figure:

however when i click the colorbar button or use the command

colorbar

I get this figure:

It is very weird to me since it is so basic (i only need two commands to make this error). It should be noted if i try to save the figure as an image it will save the right figure, but with no colorbar or numbers. That is why i took the screenshot for the second figure. Anyone have any idea as to what might be causing this? I am at the point now where i am seriously considering reformatting my computer because of this, but it would be nice to at least have an idea as to what could be causing this, to make sure it doesnt just happen again in the future.

Kind regards, Mikkel Gram

[Yash]

which vesion r u using??

[Jan]

I love your picture! I did not know that the Modern Art Toolbox is available yet. The fact, that the background color is changed is an additional goodie.

[Daniel Shub]

Have you overloaded some key function or set a weird default for your axis?

[Jan]

@Daniel: Overloading built-in function appeared three times today already. You hit a critical point: The more functions are included in Matlab's toolboxes, the more likely is a collision. For a reliable code creation, the programmer needs a tool to detect collisions urgently. There are some mechanisms already, e.g. when you include a new folder to the path a warning appears when a built-in function is shadowed. But this does not work reliably.

[Mikkel]

it is very alternative but i am afraid most journals these days are not ready for this level of artistic expression in their publications :) I know no functions have been overloaded as i tried it from clean install and removed all functions from the path.

Answer 1

[Jan]

This could be cause by the OpenGL driver. Did you install the newest drivers of your graphics cards?

Workaround might be:

set(gcf, 'renderer', 'zbuffer');

or if OpenGL looks nicer:

opengl software

or perhaps:

opengl hardware

Look for "OpenGL" in the documentation to find a bunch of switches to consider a bunch of driver bugs.

[Mikkel]

Thank you soooo much :-) Your suggestion worked!! Both

set(gcf, 'renderer', 'zbuffer');

and

opengl software

Fixed my problem. If I set opengl back to hardware the problem reappears. I guess this suggests that it is a driver problem? My drivers were from windows update, and I tried updating to the newest drivers from intels website (Intel HD Graphics 4000 chip), but with the same results. I doubt i will need hardware acceleration for my applications though, so this solution is good for me. Could be interesting to know what was wrong though, since i cant fix it with a driver update.

At any rate you saved me a lot of work with this simple fix.... thanks a lot :)

[Jeff Parker]

Boy am I glad for this question! I have the same graphics chip and had the same problem. I tried looking for a solution a couple weeks ago but couldn't find anybody with the same problem. Thankfully, the above solutions do the trick.

[Daniel Shub]

@Jeff please submit this as a bug to TMW.

[Jeff Parker]

@Daniel done. They responded by saying they couldn't do anything since it was a hardware bug and related to the hardware driver.

[Chih-Wei]

This works for me! Thanks dude!

[Eowyn Baughman]

That saved me, too! THANKS! My figure was saving great, then when you added a colorbar the saved or printed figure was completely messed up. This fixed it :-D

[Yueyue]

The same problem from my matlab, and this helped me, too, thanks!

[Mukund Rao]

Thank you!

[Syed Ahsan]

Thank you, it worked for me as I was facing the similar issue.

[Mohamed Mansoor Viyathukattuva Mohamed Ali]

Thank you Jan Simon I had same problem and your answer helped me.

[Mike Garrity]

Could you do

opengl info

please and send the output into us at the MathWorks please. It sounds like a driver issue, but it doesn't look like one I've seen before.

You can just send it to the support team .

Thanks