Problems with Win2k and HD.

[ProfessorM@ss]

Okay...

All sorts of weirdness abounds. I'm using HeroDesigner on Windows 2000, SP3. I've got a buff machine; 512 MB RAM, 128 MB graphics card, 1.2 ghz processor, and 80 gigs of hard drive.

When I used HD on my friend's Windows98 machine, I was amazed! It fairly flew!

On my machine, it's all different. The GUI is choppy, and doesn't react well to mouse clicks. For example, when I click in the left pane on the Powers tab, it rarely actually selects the power. Instead, I end up scrolling up and down until the power I want eventually lights up.

Any change made takes from 1 to 3 seconds to show up. Switching between active characters takes from 4 to 8 seconds.

Is anybody else encountering similar issues? My friend has zero problems on Windows98. I can't see any logical reason why HD works so goddawfully slow on my machine.

--->M@ss

[Simon]

Hrrmmm....odd.

Well, a few questions to get us started out here:

1. What other applications are you running? Pay particular attention to things like VPN, voice recognition software, virus scanners, etc.

2. Before you start HD, what is the <i>available</i> RAM on your system (check this with the Task Manager)?

3. When HD is acting slow, what is the CPU usage on your system (again, check with the Task Manager)?

4. When HD is acting slow, what is the reported memory usage (overall) on your system?

5. What version of HD are you running?

[ProfessorM@ss]

Originally posted by dsimon
Hrrmmm....odd.

1. What other applications are you running? Pay particular attention to things like VPN, voice recognition software, virus scanners, etc.


The only thing I'm running is the PGP SDK service, and your typical Win2k background services (svchost.exe, etc.).



2. Before you start HD, what is the <i>available</i> RAM on your system (check this with the Task Manager)?


Total: About 523k
Available: About 347k
System Cache: About 341k

So, about 170 MB are being used.



3. When HD is acting slow, what is the CPU usage on your system (again, check with the Task Manager)?


When I'm idle, it's about 2%. When I take any action, it ranges from 81% to 100%.



4. When HD is acting slow, what is the reported memory usage (overall) on your system?


Anywhere from 190 MB on up to 210 MB or more...

But here's the weird bit. Right now, with three active characters, and the HD window minimized, it's taking about 3 MB of memory. As soon as I maximize the HD window, it jumps to 45 MB. I've looked in the Processes window on the Task Manager after using HD for 45 minutes, with one active character, and it's jumping up around 140 MB!

If I didn't know better, I'd say there was a memory leak somewhere. This doesn't happen with any other program on my machine.



5. What version of HD are you running?

1.20. This slowness has occurred since the beta tests, on both this Win2k machine and my old one, which was significantly less powerful. Upon until I saw HD whizzing along my buddy's Win98 box, I had assumed it was HD.

--->M@ss

[Simon]

Well, first off, don't take the reported memory usage of HD too seriously. I've commented on this in the past, but Java and Windows have somewhat odd ways of handling memory usage between the two of them, Particularly on machines with high amounts of available RAM, Java will be given a large chunk to play with.

A more accurate view of Java's actual memory usage can be found in the file "trace.log" where I've put periodic usage summaries. HD does use a fair bit of memory, but that is (by and large) a necessary evil in order to accomodate the customization via XML. DOM parsers are reknowned for their high RAM requirements.

Anyway, onto your problem...

It doesn't sound like memory is an issue, so we can ignore that for the moment.

I'm curious about the PGP SDK service, however.

I used to run PGP myself....I quite like the service. But I ran into a LARGE number of issues with the SDK service and was forced to uninstall. This was when I was on a Win2K box. Since I switched over to XP, I haven't run PGP (actually, I installed it once and completely horked my box, and haven't run it since).

Would it be possible for you to try shutting down that service and then seeing how HD behaves?

[ProfessorM@ss]

Originally posted by dsimon

A more accurate view of Java's actual memory usage can be found in the file "trace.log" where I've put periodic usage summaries. HD does use a fair bit of memory, but that is (by and large) a necessary evil in order to accomodate the customization via XML. DOM parsers are reknowned for their high RAM requirements.



I've attached two trace logs to this message, combined into one text file; the log before I stopped the PGP SDK service, and the one after.




Would it be possible for you to try shutting down that service and then seeing how HD behaves?

There didn't appear to be any significant change in the response time. I should note that I had similar issues on my old Win2k box, which did not have the PGP SDK installed. It's marginally better on this machine, which is far more powerful, but not much.

I should note that my system reported a 20 MB jump in memory usage over a 15 minute period, with HD sitting in the background. I wasn't even using it, and no other applications were opened or closed. It may be unrelated, and didn't seem to affect the lag I'm experiencing.

--->M@ss

--->M@ss

[Simon]

Hrmm....ok. Well, sounds like PGP is safe, then ;)

Do you have this problem with all Java apps on your box?

What applications (which are typically running) are the same between your two Win2K machines?

This isn't a problem with Win2K in particular....HD has run fine on other Win2K boxes....there's something "special" about your setup that we need to determine....

[ProfessorM@ss]

Originally posted by dsimon
Do you have this problem with all Java apps on your box?



I have noticed that some Java apps with GUIs are a wee bit slow, yes.

I have the 1.4 JDK installed, the J2EE JDK, and a bunch of others loaded to support my own programming, but I don't imagine HD is referencing any of them. I assume the classpath to it's own JRE is hardcoded in there.




What applications (which are typically running) are the same between your two Win2K machines?


Eudora 5.2, IE 6.0, MS Word XP, and TextPad 4.6.

Uniquely to this machine, I have a persistent connection to the net via a wireless router (DLink) and from there to my ISP. But that's only on this machine, and I only bring it up because you mentioned VPN issues in a previous message.

If you'd like, I can do a system snapshot and send it to you.

--->M@ss

PS: This is the 666th post to this board. No doubt, my posts have brought about some sort of HD apocalypse, and now all the users will storm the boards, complaining at you. ;)