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How often is SW crashing for you this year?

Question asked by Eric Christison on Sep 7, 2010
Latest reply on Sep 8, 2010 by Kelvin Lamport

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Just had another SW crash this afternoon. Don't know why, I'd just cross sectioned an assembly and wanted to spin it round to look inside and my PC froze, completely.

Ctrl Alt Del didn't work, no error message had to switch off the machine and re boot. When I did there was no auto recovery option. The crash has cost me a lot more time than all the productivity improvements added in 2010 save me in a month.

I've been getting this several times a week this year.

Is it just me?

Is it that SW2010 just doesn't work very well with XP Pro?

Does anyone else find that auto recover rarely if ever works?

Are there any other bits of software not to run when SW is running? I suspect Powerpoint is not good for stability.

Are there any particular features in an assy which make SW unstable such as assembly patterns or transparent materials?

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Brian Cayer Sep 7, 2010 11:08 AM
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Eric,

Are you working across a network or locally on your hard drive?

Did you update your vidio driver for 2010?

What are your machine specs?

Are you ending SolidWorks from applications tab in the task manager before resorting to a cold boot?

Is there a black bar at the top of the screen saying SolidWorks not responding when it freezes?

Sorry for all the questions and no answers but to track down your problem there is more information needed.

Regards,
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- Eric Christison @ Brian Cayer on Sep 7, 2010 11:20 AM
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  Are you working across a network or locally on your hard drive?
  
  A bit of both, but most of the time my models are on my C drive. Solidworks is installed there too.
  
  Did you update your video driver for 2010?
  
  Good point! No I didn't, in fact I don't think there was an SW driver available and I've switched to openGL. I'll double check that.
  
  What are your machine specs?
  
  Windows XP Pro SP2
  ell Precision M65
  T2600@2.16 GHz
  2 Gb Ram
  NVidia Quadro FX 350M graphics
  
  Are you ending SolidWorks from applications tab in the task manager before resorting to a cold boot?
  
  Can't get to the task manager. The machine completely freezes. The only thing that works is the on/off button.
  
  Is there a black bar at the top of the screen saying SolidWorks not responding when it freezes?
  
  No, it just sits there doing nothing.
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  - Eric Christison @ Eric Christison on Sep 7, 2010 11:28 AM
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    Got the latest driver which is reported as being fully compatible with SW2010.
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    - Kelvin Lamport @ Eric Christison on Sep 7, 2010 11:33 AM
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      I have very few crashes or freezes, but when I do I use the attached batch file to close all SW processes. I have a shortcut to it in the Quick Launch toolbar for easy access.
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      Kill All SW Processes.bat.zip483 bytes
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      - Eric Christison @ Kelvin Lamport on Sep 7, 2010 11:49 AM
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        Thanks Kelvin, that would save me a few reboots but when I say my laptop freezes I mean it freezes, solid. Nothing works except the on/off button. At least I don't have to yank the plug out of the socket and wait for the battery to drain.
        
        I'll install it anyway in case I get any nice user friendly crashes.
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        Anna Wood @ Eric Christison on Sep 7, 2010 12:18 PM
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        Eric,
        
        Are you sure you are not experiencing some hardware failure on your system? Hardware does go bad and SolidWorks because it pushes your system harder then most software will tend to be the software where you see the problem.
        
        A hard solid lock-up sounds much more like a hardware problem then a software problem.
        
        Is your power supply and battery in good working order? How is the RAM and other hardware components for health?
        
        When was the last time the computer was wiped clean and had everything including the OS system re-installed?
        
        How much junk is on the system? ITunes, streaming video/music, etc is considered junk?
        
        Your computer is a bit old (was introduced in early 2006) and may have accumulated a bunch of space dust that needs to be cleaned from the system. Computer years are like dog years when it comes to performance with CAD software.
        
        Also 2 gigs of memory is a bit light for SolidWorks. Get yourself 4 gigs and turn on the 3Gb switch.
        
        http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Precision%20M65
        
        Cheers,
        
        Anna
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        Eric Christison @ Anna Wood on Sep 7, 2010 1:10 PM
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        Thanks Anna.
        
        Are you sure you are not experiencing some hardware failure on your system? Hardware does go bad and SolidWorks because it pushes your system harder then most software will tend to be the software where you see the problem.
        
        Perhaps.
        
        A hard solid lock-up sounds much more like a hardware problem then a software problem.
        
        Is your power supply and battery in good working order? How is the RAM and other hardware components for health?
        
        Hardware is fine as far as I can tell.
        
        When was the last time the computer was wiped clean and had everything including the OS system re-installed?
        
        I've never done that. Not on this machine or any other machine that I've ever run SW on. I've been using SW since 1995 and generally I run PCs until they're ready to throw away.
        
        How much junk is on the system? ITunes, streaming video/music, etc is considered junk?
        
        Very little bloatware. I switch all that rubbish off.
        
        Your computer is a bit old (was introduced in early 2006) and may have accumulated a bunch of space dust that needs to be cleaned from the system. Computer years are like dog years when it comes to performance with CAD software.
        
        Perhaps although I'm quite careful about cleaning out crap and regularily defragging and running registry cleans (not that I think reg clean SW does much).
        
        Also 2 gigs of memory is a bit light for SolidWorks. Get yourself 4 gigs and turn on the 3Gb switch.
        
        Well perhaps but if I'm running out of memory why don't I see my hard drive light come on as my PC uses virtual memory? The assemblies I work with are never more than 10 parts.
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  - Brian Cayer @ Eric Christison on Sep 7, 2010 11:34 AM
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    Solidworks recomends driver 6.14.11.5619 & 6.14.11.7991 for 2009 but only 6.14.11.7991 for 2010 on your box.
    
    What are you running?
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    - Eric Christison @ Brian Cayer on Sep 7, 2010 11:44 AM
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      I'm running 6.14.11.7991
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      - Brian Cayer @ Eric Christison on Sep 7, 2010 11:51 AM
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        Have you tried the 3 Gb switch?
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        Brian Lindahl @ Brian Cayer on Sep 8, 2010 4:17 PM
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        His system only has 2GB installed. Can you set the 3GB switch when working with 2GB?
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        Anna Wood @ Brian Lindahl on Sep 8, 2010 4:21 PM
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        Brian Lindahl wrote:
        
        His system only has 2GB installed. Can you set the 3GB switch when working with 2GB?
        
        Yes......
        
        Cheers,
        
        Anna
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        Brian Cayer @ Brian Lindahl on Sep 8, 2010 4:23 PM
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        Well I'm not sure how much good it does but I did on an old box I had with 2 Gb and it seemed to help. Maby it was just a placebo.
        
        Regards,
        
        Edit: Or not
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        Kelvin Lamport @ Brian Lindahl on Sep 8, 2010 11:16 PM
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        The use of the /3GB switch is not dependent upon (or even related to) the amount of physical memory (RAM) is installed.
        
        I have used it successfully on a machine (circa 2005) with only 512MB of RAM.
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Matt Lombard Sep 7, 2010 11:35 AM
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I don't usually have a lot of crashes, but in the past couple of days, I've had a setback fillet feature (which must have become corrupt somehow) crash every time I edited it, I've had sketch relations crash me half a dozen times in a day or so, and even opening assemblies has caused SW to hang. I try to keep my system up to date and relatively clean, but I'm not sure what the source of the errors is. It could be installing SW beta has messed with something.
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Mark Larson Sep 7, 2010 11:43 AM
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"Is it that SW2010 just doesn't work very well with XP Pro?"

it aint the OS
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Scott McFadden Sep 7, 2010 3:42 PM
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When I was on 2010 SP 2.1 on average about 4-6 crashes/day. As high as 9-11 times a few days.

When I upgraded to 3.1 it went to about 3 lockups per week.
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Glenn Schroeder Sep 7, 2010 3:59 PM
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SW 2009 crashed once or twice a day for me, SW 2010 once or twice a week.
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- Eric Christison @ Glenn Schroeder on Sep 8, 2010 5:46 AM
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  SW 2009 crashed once or twice a day for me, SW 2010 once or twice a week.
  
  and does auto recover work for you?
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  - Glenn Schroeder @ Eric Christison on Sep 8, 2010 7:54 AM
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    Not very well.
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  - Anna Wood @ Eric Christison on Sep 8, 2010 3:24 PM
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    Auto Recover does not work well. I turn it off along with backups on all of our computers. Do not want to have the guys depending on it. They just save early and often.
    
    There is a saying my Dad had from back in the very early days of 3D CAD (mid seventies)....... If You Love It, Hug It.
    
    Good advice I have always heeded to.
    
    Cheers,
    
    Anna
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Derek Bishop Sep 8, 2010 6:13 AM
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I'd like to see SW introduce a system where every time the software crashes or everytime someone reports a bug they get a credit. The credit could be used to offset the cost of future software and or upgrades and maintenance. The credit should reflect the hours that designers and engineers waste as a result of these problems.

Just dreaming again.
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