20 Replies Latest reply on Apr 30, 2015 2:13 PM by Brad Harding

solidworks crashing

David Morse Apr 7, 2015 8:44 AM

Hi All,

I have Solidworks 2014 Premium installed on a Lenovo Thinkpad W550s running Windows 7 Professional and I've only been using the laptop for a few days. Solidworks continues to crash every 5-10min for no apparent reason. It doesn't seem to be associated with any particular action on my part, and I don't pick up on any patterns that would give me clues to why it's crashing. The files I'm working with are about as simple as you can get, just a few 2D sketches and some basic features. So far the only thing I have thought to try was to install the Solidworks approved drivers for the NVIDIA Quadro K620m video card.

Any ideas?

SWCrashPrtSc.jpg 29.7 KB

Re: solidworks crashing

Andy Sanders Apr 7, 2015 9:46 AM (in response to David Morse)

Try running Solidworks RX to see if anything wrong shows up there.

If you can catch it with the screen capture tool in RX, you can package up the files/settings and send it to your VAR for evaluation.
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- Re: solidworks crashing
  
  David Morse Apr 7, 2015 9:50 AM (in response to Andy Sanders)
  
  Thanks Andy,
  
  I just did exactly that. Fingers crossed while I wait for a response.
  
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  - Re: solidworks crashing
    
    Andy Sanders Apr 7, 2015 9:52 AM (in response to David Morse)
    
    You were able to capture a crash while it happened through Rx?
    
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    - Re: solidworks crashing
      
      David Morse Apr 7, 2015 9:55 AM (in response to Andy Sanders)
      
      Yes, took about 10min, but I was running Rx and recording when I recreated the problem.
      
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      - Re: solidworks crashing
        
        Andy Sanders Apr 7, 2015 9:57 AM (in response to David Morse)
        
        Perfect. They should be able to help using that and your system info.
        
        If they can't figure it out, they send it off to SW for further digging.
        
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Re: solidworks crashing

David Morse Apr 20, 2015 1:53 PM (in response to David Morse)

Update:

SW2014 is still crashing every few minutes. Here is what I've tried;

- Updated to SP5.0
- Running without any add-ins turned on
- Tried SW2014 on a DIFFERENT Lenovo Thinkpad W550s
- Set the GPU to "high performance" when running Solidworks instead of auto-select
- Captured the crash using Solidworks RX, sent the data in to our Solidworks distributor, no success identifying cause or solution.

I still have yet to identify a pattern or cause. Anyone else have any ideas?
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- Re: solidworks crashing
  
  Richard Bremmer Apr 20, 2015 2:51 PM (in response to David Morse)
  
  Can you turn off the intel graphics card? Or only use the nVidia card for all programs?
  
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  - Re: solidworks crashing
    
    David Morse Apr 20, 2015 3:58 PM (in response to Richard Bremmer)
    
    I've tried setting preferences to favor using the NVIDIA graphics card but it doesn't seem to make a difference. I even selected the Dessault Systemes CATIA compatible graphics card global presets. Still crashing within a minute or two.
    
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    - Re: solidworks crashing
      
      Kelvin Lamport Apr 20, 2015 4:10 PM (in response to David Morse)
      
      - Set the GPU to "high performance" when running Solidworks instead of auto-select
      Check the Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Power Options is also set to High Performance.
      
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      - Re: solidworks crashing
        
        David Morse Apr 20, 2015 4:18 PM (in response to Kelvin Lamport)
        
        I set the power options to "maximum performance" and Solidworks still crashed within a minute or two. Thanks for the suggestion, though.
        
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        Re: solidworks crashing
        
        Kelvin Lamport Apr 20, 2015 4:32 PM (in response to David Morse)
        
        Does the Thinkpad have a CPU and /or GPU heat sensor utility? If not, try installing one to check the running temperatures.
        15 Best Free CPU Temperature Monitor Software For Windows
        NVIDIA GPU Temp - Download
        
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- Re: solidworks crashing
  
  R. Vignesh Apr 20, 2015 2:58 PM (in response to David Morse)
  
  Hello,
  
  Is your SolidWorks getting crashed on choosing a plane for sketch or something ?
  
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  - Re: solidworks crashing
    
    David Morse Apr 20, 2015 3:56 PM (in response to R. Vignesh)
    
    I cannot determine a cause or a pattern that leads to Solidworks crashing. It happens seemingly at random, often between actions when I am not doing anything.
    
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- Re: solidworks crashing
  
  Peter Farnham Apr 26, 2015 6:48 AM (in response to David Morse)
  
  Hi David,
  
  Two things, you did not mention, doing a repair on Solidworks.
  The other one is Aeroview needs to be on for Solidworks-under Appearance and Personalization, click Display Aero desktop effects.
  
  Regards
  Pete
  
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Re: solidworks crashing

Shenghong Zhang Apr 25, 2015 11:52 PM (in response to David Morse)

I just bought a W550s.
I've been having the same thing too.
It crashes less if I turn off realtime rendering.
And it didn't crash when I was drawing a sketch for a long time.
It feels like the problem of K620M, because this is the newest graphic card and you can't even find drivers on NVIDIA's own site!
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- Re: solidworks crashing
  
  Peter Farnham Apr 26, 2015 7:19 AM (in response to Shenghong Zhang)
  
  Hi Shenghong,
  
  Did you run the GPU reader on NVidia's web site?
  
  Regards
  Pete
  
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  - Re: solidworks crashing
    
    Shenghong Zhang Apr 26, 2015 1:32 PM (in response to Peter Farnham)
    
    Yes I did. It says "The manufacturer of this system requires that you download the driver for your GPU from their support site."
    Also if you try to look for K620M in the list, it's not there. I am currently using 350.12 for Quadro mobile cards. It recognizes K620M just fine.
    
    It is pretty obvious that this is related to K620M, either the driver or Solidworks. I would suspect it's the driver since all Solidworks works fine on other cards.
    For instance, Solidworks hasn't crashed as long as I'm in sketch (for about 1 hour). It crashes more frequently if I turn on realtime. It crashes less frequently if realtime is off. It didn't crash when I was doing a rending and I wasn't changed the viewing angle during the whole rending period.
    Most of the time it crashes when I was rotating the viewing angle, which obviously uses more resources of the GPU.
    
    Be the way, I also use NX. It works just fine. So I would think it's some 3D feature used in Solidworks that is not supported well by K620M or most likely its drivers.
    
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    - Re: solidworks crashing
      
      Kelvin Lamport Apr 26, 2015 2:45 PM (in response to Shenghong Zhang)
      
      Usually the graphics drivers for brand name computers are written by the manufacturer (Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc), so that's probably why you didn't find the driver on the nVidia site.
      According to the SolidWorks site, the driver you should be using is 340.01
      http://www.solidworks.com/downloads/videocarddriver/lenovo/n11de37w.exe
      
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      - Re: solidworks crashing
        
        Shenghong Zhang Apr 26, 2015 3:53 PM (in response to Kelvin Lamport)
        
        It worked!
        So far no crash.
        Really appreciate your help! Thanks everyone.
        
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        Re: solidworks crashing
        
        Brad Harding Apr 30, 2015 2:13 PM (in response to Shenghong Zhang)
        
        Good rule of thumb: The latest video driver in not always the best one for SolidWorks. Use the on-line tool Kevin showed, or use SolidWorks Rx to select a driver that will work well with SolidWorks.
        Also turn off automatic driver updates for the video card, and ignore the widows update notices that show a newer driver is available.
        
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