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Chris Wilcock
Senior Member
United Kingdom
26 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 22 2007 : 4:56:16 PM
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I'm running build 1549 in VS6 on my XP-based PC at work and on my Vista PC at home. The PCs are of similar specification (P4 2.6GHz, 1GB RAM), and are running the same Anti-Virus software, etc, but VA is much slower on the Vista PC than it is on the XP machine.
It's slow to the point that after I stop typing, it can take a couple of seconds for all of the characters to appear on the Vista PC. This problem does not occur on the XP system.
The slow-down occurs not only when I'm typing code, but also when I'm typing comments. I've disabled the spell-checker, but it makes no difference. If I temporarily disable VA, then the text appears as soon as I type it.
I've looked at the forum topic that resulted in case 5444 being raised, but I'm not sure if this is the same problem, because it seems to be OS-specific.
The Vista-based PC was previously running XP until a couple of weeks ago, and the slow-down did not occur then. The same problem occured with build 1547.
Thanks for your help! |
Chris Wilcock |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18952 Posts |
Posted - Mar 22 2007 : 4:59:47 PM
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Can you run a CPU meter please, and see if the slow down is associated with the CPU being maxed out?
Can you try turning off VA's enhanced syntax highlighting, and see if this makes any difference? |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Chris Wilcock
Senior Member
United Kingdom
26 Posts |
Posted - Mar 22 2007 : 6:43:06 PM
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Hi Feline, thanks for responding so quickly.
The Vista Sidebar CPU meter shows 2% or so until I start typing, then rapdily swings up to 95% or so. This is happening when typing a single line comment with the spell checking options disabled. As soon as I stop typing, the CPU meter goes back to 2%.
The problem still remains with enhanced syntax highlighting turned off. |
Chris Wilcock |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18952 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2007 : 10:46:58 AM
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Do you see this problem in all projects / files, or only in a few of them?
Theoretically VA should only be re-parsing the current file when you pause typing, not while you are actually typing. When this happens you should see a (brief) CPU spike and the message about file parsing flash by on the IDE status bar.
Are you running VC6 as administrator? If not can you try this, and see if it makes any difference?
I have just tried some typing, of both comments and code, in VC6 using VA 1548 running on Vista Buisness 32bit, and I am not seeing any "odd" CPU usage. Based on task manager, minimised, CPU usage is barely hitting 10%
On VA's quick config screen can you try setting everything to minimum, and see if this makes any difference? |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Chris Wilcock
Senior Member
United Kingdom
26 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2007 : 07:21:54 AM
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Hi Feline
My earlier posts related to quite a large project -- approx 750,000 lines of code. However, the same problem happens with small projects of around 4,000 lines of code.
There's a lag of maybe a second or so between the time you press a key and the time the corresponding character appears on the screen, which is a bit disconcerting if you're looking at the screen rather than the keyboard while typing.
I'm running VC6 as an Administrator, and I've tried your suggestion of setting everything to Minimum on the Quick Config screen, but the problem still occurs.
Out of interest, what is the spec of your PC? How much RAM do you have, and do you have your page file on a USB drive? |
Chris Wilcock |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18952 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2007 : 4:01:58 PM
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I am running Vista inside VMWare workstation 5.5.3, and the machine has been allocated 512meg of ram. The host machine is quite powerful, but I tend to run a lot of software, so this Vista test machine is not going to be a speed demon.
Can you try creating a new, default, C++ console project and see if the same problem occurs there? I am wondering if the projects themselves are an issue.
DO you have any other plugin's installed?
Can you please go to:
VA Options -> About -> Copy Info
and paste the details (from the clipboard) into this thread. This will give us the basic information about your setup. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Chris Wilcock
Senior Member
United Kingdom
26 Posts |
Posted - Mar 25 2007 : 5:58:08 PM
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Hello Feline
I've tried creating an empty console app, with MFC support enabled, and the CPU still goes up to 80% or so as soon as I start typing.
I don't have any other plugins installed.
Here's the details from Copy Info:
VA_X.dll file version 10.3.1549.0 built 2007.03.16
Licensed to:
VA X: (1-user license) Support ends 2008.02.19
VAOpsWin.dll version 1.3.4.8
VATE.dll version 1.0.6.2
MSDev.exe version 6.0.9782.2
Devshl.dll version 6.0.9782.0
Devedit.pkg version 6.0.9782.0
Font: Courier -13(Pixels)
Comctl32.dll version 5.82.6000.16386
Windows Vista 6.0 Build 6000
Single processor
Platform: Win32 (x86)
Stable Includes:
C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\VC98\\INCLUDE;
C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\VC98\\MFC\\INCLUDE;
C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\VC98\\ATL\\INCLUDE;
Library Includes:
C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\VC98\\MFC\\SRC;
C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\VC98\\MFC\\INCLUDE;
C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\VC98\\ATL\\INCLUDE;
C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\VC98\\CRT\\SRC;
Other Includes:
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Chris Wilcock |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18952 Posts |
Posted - Mar 26 2007 : 08:06:30 AM
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I am not seeing anything odd about your system information, so much for that approach.
The fact it happens in a default project eliminates nasty template code, unless you have modified the files inside these stable include directories somehow?
Are you opening this project from your local C drive, or from some other location? You mentioned having your page file on a USB drive, is this how your machine is configured?
I am wondering if there is some utility or program running on your machine that is causing problems. Can you try disabling your anti-virus, or excluding the IDE and VA? Very occasionally we see problems with anti-virus programs interacting with VA.
When you upgraded this machine to Vista did you do a format and clean install, or did you upgrade the existing OS? If you did some form of upgrade have you reinstalled VA since then? If not can you try un-installing and re-installing VA to see if this makes any difference? |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Chris Wilcock
Senior Member
United Kingdom
26 Posts |
Posted - Mar 26 2007 : 3:02:32 PM
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Hello Feline
I might have muddied the waters a bit with talking about having my page file on a USB drive. I don't have my page file on a USB drive, I was just wondering if you did.
My system is a clean and unmodified install of Vista and VC6 on a brand new hard disk, rather than an upgrade from XP. I'm using Nod32 anti-virus on both my PC at home and at work (same version of Nod32), and disabling it does not make any difference to the CPU hit when I start typing.
Thanks for your persistence on this, I appreciate it. |
Chris Wilcock |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18952 Posts |
Posted - Mar 26 2007 : 4:12:33 PM
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Which version of Vista are you using? Is it a 64bit version?
If you open the Run dialog, and run %USERPROFILE% are you taken to a directory on C drive, or somewhere else?
On paper my test system should be the same as yours, and I am not seeing this problem. So what is different about these two machines?
Are there any installed utilities that might be a factor? |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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nickda
New Member
2 Posts |
Posted - Mar 28 2007 : 06:32:37 AM
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I also have this problem. I can type 2-3 times faster than text appears on the screen and selecting text with the mouse uses near 100% of one CPU. Turning all settings down to a minimum speeds things up to an acceptable level (but not as fast as if VA is uninstalled).
I am using VA 1549 on VS2005 SP + Vista Update. Machine is a dual Opteron 2GHz with 2GB. Running VS as admin. Code is in C++. OS is Vista Enterprise 32-bit
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18952 Posts |
Posted - Mar 28 2007 : 07:41:11 AM
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nickda can you try disabling your anti-virus, or any other programs that might be a factor here?
Log files are going to be next at this rate. We have quite a few users working on Vista, I know this from the various posts about getting VA installed under Vista, so this slow down problem is quite rare. It would be nice if there was something "special" about your two machines, something that would explain this.
Can both of you run filemon from sysinternals http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/Filemon.mspx
and check for activity with the file "expansionsxml.xml", someone reported problems due to the IDE writing to this file in this thread:
http://forum.wholetomato.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5934
I am wondering if you are seeing the same problem. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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nickda
New Member
2 Posts |
Posted - Mar 28 2007 : 07:59:05 AM
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There is no virus checker running.
The file you mentioned is not accessed at all in my quick test. The 3 most accessed files are:-
1. startup.log, 2. CPP\\mod.dt 3. proj_num\\mod.dt
While drag selecting text no files or reg keys seem to be accessed but it is still very slow.
The tests above were run with all maximum settings in VA |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18952 Posts |
Posted - Mar 28 2007 : 10:06:51 AM
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nickda can you try pressing the button:
VA Options -> Performance -> General -> Rebuild symbol databases
and then restarting your IDE please? There is a small chance that VA's symbol databases are corrupt, or somehow damaged. If they are then this should fix the problem.
If this does not help can you please see this FAQ for details of turning on VA's logging, and sending us the log files
http://docs.wholetomato.com?W305
Hopefully they will offer some clues. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Chris Wilcock
Senior Member
United Kingdom
26 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2007 : 12:33:44 PM
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I'm afraid I have had to revert back to XP for now, as VA was proving to be pretty much unusable for me under Vista. I backed up my Vista installation and then re-formatted the hard disk and installed XP, and everything is now back to normal.
Before I gave up, I had been watching VC6+VA under Process Monitor from SysInternals/Microsoft, and it seemed to be hammering the cpp.tpl file most of the time, along with the file in which I was currently typing. Don't know if that helps?
I suppose it's a testament of sorts to VA, that I decided to go back to XP rather than give up the ability to use Visual Assist...!
Thanks very much Feline, for all of your help over the last week or so. |
Chris Wilcock |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
18952 Posts |
Posted - Mar 29 2007 : 2:12:05 PM
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Do you still have the logs / traces from process monitor?
Do you remember how you configured the filtering in process monitor?
I have loaded process monitor on my Vista test machine, and added the filtering rule:
Process Name is MSDEV.EXE - Include
When I load a solution in VC6, using VA 1548, this is certainly showing me activity from VA. But on an initial scan of the log I am not even seeing "cpp.tpl", certainly it is not being read much at all.
The fact I am seeing something different makes sense, since I am not seeing the CPU usage problems you are, but I would still like to find the cause of your problem.
I am wondering if some form of permissions / access rights problem is at work here, but that is just a wild guess to be honest. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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Topic |
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1549: Sluggish on Vista, fine on XP
