Page swap, or maybe auto-save?

[lmhundley]

My IT department upgraded my system (faster/more memory/64-bit) and ever since I started using it (about 2 weeks) I have this issue where I will be editing a Flare document (WebHelp) and Flare periodically 'freezes'. It reminds me of the '90s where a systems used paging and memory swapping. Also, I guess it could be an auto-save.

I looked in Help, and the KB, but I don't find any discussion or text on this issue.

My questions are:
Does this issue sound familiar, and if so, how do I address it?
If not,
Does Flare have a property for auto-saving or a requirement for pageing or swapping?
if not,
Any ideas?

I am also persuing this with my IT department, in case it is a system issue. However, I only experience this with the Flare app.

Tks in advance,
Lew

[Andrew]

For it to be paging during normal "typing" type use, you'd have to either have very little RAM (less than 1GB), or a very large topic/project. I'd be surprised if that were the problem.

How long does it freeze? How often? I assume if you'd divined a pattern, you would have mentioned that, so I'm guessing it seems random?

[lmhundley]

It freezes FOREVER! Just kidding (stress relief). The length varies, but I would guess anywhere from 20 - 60 seconds (which can seem like forever). I can't move the cursor or tab anywhere. However, the keyboard caching is working because when it 'comes back' it executes what it can of my random clicking and tabbing.

As far as a pattern, it does seem to be a regular span of time, but then again it doesn't. If I had to guess, it would be about 5 or 10 minute intervals. The reason I am vauge on this is because I tend to type, then research, then get coffee, etc. So there isn't a span of 10 or 20 minutes of nothing but typing. And I tend to notice when I am typing and it doesn't accept the keystrokes.

Last Friday, I was doing some intense copy/paste in the XML editor, and I was having a b***h of a time pasting between the proper tags, so I spent more time than usual in the editor. That is where I came up with the 5 - 10 minute guess.

[LTinker68]

Does your project reside on your local computer or on a network shared drive? If it's on a network drive then network traffic may be slowing you down. And if you're running a program like Photoshop where you can specify the amount of RAM is claims, then you may need to lower the default amount.

I have 1GB RAM and I usually have MS Outlook, Flare, IE or a local app (depending on what I'm taking screenshots of), Photoshop, SnagIT, SnagIT Editor, and StarTeam. I've never seen Flare "freeze", but there have been a couple of times where it seems to hiccup and take a little bit to catch up with my typing. But it happens rarely enough that it hasn't annoyed me to the point of submitting a bug report. Or even being able to track what causes it. However, my projects are all on my local computer, so there's no network latency.

[lmhundley]

Yes, my project folders reside on a network drive, and have for a while, even before my new system setup.

In my original post, I tried to keep things to the point and simple (I tend to be too verbose, according to my manager). But perhaps I could fill in some blanks.

I am working on the XP OS on a 64 bit machine.
I am running Flare 3.0.
I ran 3.0 on my previous system (XP, 32 bit) and did not experience this issue.
When my new system was put in place, I had to re-install Flare 3.0, and looked for updates and installed any that were found (I don't remember this step, but I usually update if anything is found).
I run Flare on my local system, but keep the projects on the network.
I am not experiencing this issue with any of the other apps I use, such as Word and TestTrack Client, which run on my system, but keep the work on the network drive.

I probably forgot something. I hope this fills in some blanks.

Lew

[SteveS]

...and TestTrack Client, which run on my system, but keep the work on the network drive....Lew

Pardon my ignorance, but what is TestTrack?

It sounds as if something is competing for network bandwidth - I was going to ask if you were using source control and that can cause symptons like you describe.

If you were using Vista I'd look at the drive indexing but maybe something else is catalouging your network locations.

Not that I think it would make any difference but do all the network locations referenced in your Flare project (targets, destinations, and so on) still exist?

HTH

[lmhundley]

TestTrack is a product of Seapine Software, the same organization that makes Surround, an SCM (Source Control Management) application, that we also use. A bit better than MS SourceSafe.

TestTrack is an issue (we don't like the word 'bug', cuz our clients are 99% internal, and we try to keep a positive spin on the application issues) report/tracker and it works with Surround to manage our software releases. The developers have a tab where they log in the source file changes, and TestTrack pushes them to Surround. Really has helped reduce our manual labor.

I am not yet using Surround to maintain documentation, but it has been posed as a possibility. So, to answer your question, no, I am not using any source control right now.

And, yes, as far as I know, all my pathing is still valid. I will, however, double check and see if I missed something during Flare setup.

[SteveS]

Forgot to add "Welcome to the Forums!".

My suspicion is still TestTrack, maybe in conjunction with Flare. Are your Flare source files read only? (If source control is involved that may be an indication).

HTH

[KevinDAmery]

Is anything else different with the machine than the last one? For example, we recently "upgraded" our virus scanner to Norton's enterprise package, and I find performance of every app on my system is abysmal while it's doing it's automated checking every morning. Once it finishes, everything is normal.

Also, if Flare the only app that's affected, or does everything freeze the same way?

[lmhundley]

I am not yet using Surround to maintain documentation, but it has been posed as a possibility. So, to answer your question, no, I am not using any source control right now.

Since TestTrack and Surround are running independent of Flare, and the files are not under source control, the only way I see TestTrack being an issue is if it is competing for memory or disk space. I will look into it with my IT department, but I think it is a long shot.

[lmhundley]

Also, if Flare the only app that's affected, or does everything freeze the same way?

I am not experiencing this issue with any of the other apps I use, such as Word and TestTrack Client, which run on my system, but keep the work on the network drive.

I don't believe that any additions or upgrades by IT were performed on my new system, however I can check. But since it is only Flare that appears to have the issue, unless there is direct competition by an upgraded app, I would suspect Flare has the issue.

[lmhundley]

I am very grateful to all that have replied to my post, and it does give me other things to look at and think about as to what may be causing my issue. However, I still wonder (as I posed in my original entry); does Flare have a swapping requirement or an auto-save property? Perhaps I should direct this question to Support?

And, again, many thanks for the suggestions.

[RamonS]

Flare doesn't have auto save (why not? even DOS editors had autosave) and the swapping is something done by the OS. I use Flare on XP 64bit as well and haven't encountered any issues so far.
I'd have the process list of the task manager up and see what exactly spikes in CPU usage when the freeze occurs. It may not necessarily be Flare, but can be other applications. For example, here at work we have TrendMicro as antivirus system. I do not know if it is a configuration issue or a characteristic of TrendMicro, but after a reboot I basically can't use the system for 20 minutes as the virus scanner is hogging all resources and only allows for network connections to come alive after that process is done. In the past I've come across other applications that were apparently badly coded and for whatever reason started to spike in CPU cycles. It also may just be some service that dies regularly and is set to be restarted when it goes down.
It may be beneficial to find out if Flare is really the culprit or if it is just the application that you use most and thus notice the system problem in.

[AlanFisk]

Yesterday we set the paging file to 0Mb, but Flare is still taking 40 minutes to compile, and throwing page faults (1,494,494 when I just looked), even though it isn't doing anything at all. For Flare to be paging even when there's no paging file to use is a remarkable feat.

[KevinDAmery]

Who suggested putting the paging file to 0? That is never recommended for Windows, let alone Flare. Windows itself won't work properly without it no matter how much ram you have in the PC.

Error messages when it's set to 0 don't surprise me in the slightest.

[AlanFisk]

Someone with a high level of technical expertise and qualifications suggested it. Furthermore, there is no greater a number of error messages without the paging file than with it. It didn't correct the problem, anyway. The next step is to run the project on a virtual machine so that it can't access the network, which it keeps doing even though all the files are on my local machine.

[RamonS]

How do you know that Flare is the application accessing the network? When I turn Wireshark on and capture the packets going in and out there is a flurry of activity going on at any time. You can take Flare off the network and it will work except for the license check that is conducted during startup. As far as I know you can close the notification message and continue working.
In regards to the page file size and the given recommendation I'd question anything that "high level of technical expertise and qualifications" person said, even if it is just talk about the weather. It sounds like one of those folks who have their office plastered with certificates of all the major vendors and programs, but still have no clue how things really work.

[trent the thief]

Yesterday we set the paging file to 0Mb, but Flare is still taking 40 minutes to compile, and throwing page faults (1,494,494 when I just looked), even though it isn't doing anything at all. For Flare to be paging even when there's no paging file to use is a remarkable feat.

Snag a copy of the sysinternals tools from Microsoft (they're free) and use procexp to monitor your system instead of task manager. The sysinternals tools are better than the one that shipped with windows.

[Andrew]

Yesterday we set the paging file to 0Mb, but Flare is still taking 40 minutes to compile, and throwing page faults (1,494,494 when I just looked), even though it isn't doing anything at all. For Flare to be paging even when there's no paging file to use is a remarkable feat.

Actually, that is perfectly normal. The page file is only one of the ways one might see page faults...there are disk-backed pages of various kinds (as I understand it, especially things like DLLs). If you turn off the page file, it does not turn off all disk paging.

As for compile times: lots and lots of things affect that time. I'd do what trent suggests and profile the compiles to see where your bottlenecks are.