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Susan Moore

TMG 8.08 Loads my project very slowly

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My problems actually started in 8.06 with TMG starting quickly but then when I clicked last on the Welcome Window to load my project it started taking 10 minutes to load. This was 35 minutes at the highest point. I rebuilt my computer from the backup partition and then again from the DVD recovery disks. I reloaded 8.06 and it was taking about 13 minutes to load my project. Dorothy insisted that I go back to 8.08 so that she could help me and then suggested that I restore my last 8.04 backup. This solved everything after I restored about a month's worth of changes which took several days at least.

 

At this point I only have Windows 7 Home Premium, Vipre Anti-Virus, Malwarebytes, TMG, Belarc Advisor, Adobe Reader, Adobe Digital Editions and FrontPage loaded on my computer.

 

Now after a couple of weeks, I am back to taking 13-14 minutes to load my project. At least at this point, unlike when I was running 8.06, it is not slow once the data is loaded. I have run the maintenance and refreshed the relationships. I run Malwarebytes regularly and Vipre Antivirus does a deep scan every night. I defragment automatically every week. I am only using 13% of the 678 GB available to the C drive and have 8 GB of memory available on a quad-core hyper-threaded 2.6 GHz computer.

 

Suggestions?

 

Susan Moore

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Since this is not normal...

 

1) The most likely issue is that something running on your system is interfering with TMG (or Visual FoxPro).

 

That is easy to check. Eliminate background programs one-by-one and see what effect this has on opening your project.

 

2) The alternative is that there is some issue with your project doing this but that is much less likely.

 

If the above provides no answer, then I can check your project.

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I am trying to determine the offending program which would be the best solution rather than a problem with the project.

 

What kind of programs do you consider background programs?

 

Are you meaning the programs I included in my email or something more obscure under the processes and services tabs of the Task Manager?

 

Are there some programs that are more likely to cause a problem?

 

Thanks for the offer to help.

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I would agree with Jim that some other program is likely interfering with TMG. It could be one of the programs you mentioned, or any other program you are actually running at the time. Among the ones you mentioned I would first suspect, in order, Belarc Advisor, Vipre Anti-Virus, and Malwarebytes, since they are constantly monitoring and affecting all other programs, like TMG, which are running on your system. It may not be one of these, but I would try them first. It has to be some program which is actually running at the same time you are opening your project. You don't mention it, but do you have any disk monitoring program or disk backup program constantly running, like DropBox? While all of these programs can be useful, they also can have side-effects on other programs.

 

As Jim suggests, eliminate or turn off these programs one-by-one and see what effect this has on opening your project.

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Here are my efforts to find the problem:

While restarting my computer in between each of the changes,

I deleted Belarc Advisor

I disabled the Wireless Network and then VIPRE Anti-Virus

Malwarebytes is the free version so it does not run in the background. I manually update and run it.

I ran it in safe mode and it did not find any malicious items.

I do not have a disk monitoring program or a disk backup program running.

I do not have DropBox since I restored the computer.

I also disabled Adobe Acrobat Update Service and Skype Updater

I also disabled Adobe Reader and Acrobat Manager and Task Manager.

I deleted HP SimplePass, since I did not want it anyway and it was an extra process in Task Manager.

None of this made any difference in loading my project; it still takes 13-14 minutes to load.

 

My Systray contains: Controls Beals Audio Settings, HP CoolSense - On, NVIDIA GeForce Experience, Solve PC Issues (Backup), VIPRE, Battery Level, Wireless Network, Speakers and Headphones Muted.

 

I compared the Services Tab of Task Manager with my sister who has an identical computer although not the same programs and is not having any trouble with hers.

The differences were that she has Kaspersky and I have VIPRE.

Her printer files were included in the list and mine were not.

She also has Windows Mobile.

I have Machine Debug Manager. I do not know if I can disable this safely.

 

Comparing the Processes Tab of Task Manager there are more differences.

I have nvvsvc.exe (NVIDIA), SBAMTray Application (VIPRE) and Print driver host for 32 bit applications.

She also has a number of extra applications.

 

Are there any issues with Internet Explorer 10?

Is there a process or service that I should have deleted?

 

Susan

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Hmmm....

 

Something is very different about your computer configuration. If we could only figure out what.

 

Where are all your project files stored? Are then on your local hard disk? or on some external drive? or on a network drive?

 

Grasping at straws here...

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No, it still took 13 minutes to load from Select instead of last.

 

My files are stored on the hard drive under C:TMGv8 just like they have been for years. Everyone else in our group also stores files in the same place so that when I give them my reports they do not need to change the output destination and can find their reports.

 

Susan

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In Windows Explorer I have the following directory structure:

C:

C:TMGv8

C:TMGv8Backups

C:TMGv8Configuration_files

C:TMGv8Exhibits

C:TMGv8ExhibitsFamily8

C:TMGv8ExhibitsNewer-TMG-8

C:TMGv8ExhibitsNew-Ver8

C:TMGv8Export

C:TMGv8Projects

C:TMGv8ProjectsFamily8

C:TMGv8ProjectsNewer-TMG-8

C:TMGv8ProjectsNew-TMG-8

C:TMGv8ProjectsNew-Ver8-Transition

C:TMGv8Repet_files

C:TMGv8Report_output

C:TMGv8Slideshow

C:TMGv8Timelines

 

C:UsersSusanMy DocumentsThe Master Genealogist v8 …

This includes …ProjectsSample

And also …Logs which is actually used by the projects in C:TMGv8Projects and will not work if moved to C:TMGv8Logs

 

This data structure is almost 3 years old and we started using it when one of our members was using different names for himself on different computers and we had to help him rebuild it. Also our members were having trouble finding their reports since the file destinations were not consistent.

 

Yes, the Sample data loads quickly.

 

As a result of that test, I now know that I can open TMG, click sample, wait for it to load, click File Close Project, click File 2 (for my project) and it will all load within 3 minutes. This reduces the loading time for my data by 10 minutes.

Susan

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Susan,

 

you could try to have a look on the Task Manager during the startup of TMG. You may start it by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del and select Task Manager. Dos it show heavy disk usage or CPU usage?

 

But I am not that it helps. Because I am experiencing a similar problem with another piece of software (for specialists: Netbeans IDE and Netbeans Platform Applications), I have it installed on a desktop computer with Windows8. Since a certain point in time, the startup is extremely slow (a few minutes, which had not been the case before), When fully started, the speed seems to be normal. The task manager does not show disk traffic, no CPU usage, no errors in the Windows error log.

I have the same installation (i.e. same Windows, same Netbeans, same plugins, same configuration, same virus scanner, ...) on a slower notebook. Here it starts up fast without any problem. I have not been able to find the cause yet and I am running out of ideas. One of the Windows mysteries.

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I tried the Performance Tab of Task Manager and CPU Usage was very constant at 12% and Memory at 2.23-2.24 GB for opening the Project once TMG had already been opened with a project and then the project (not TMG) had been closed.

 

Susan

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Susan -

 

If you temporarily move your project to the default project folder, does it make any difference?

 

Virginia

Sorry, I missed your post while trying to respond to another one. It takes the same amount of time to load the project if it is moved to the default project folder.

 

Susan

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I tried the Performance Tab of Task Manager and CPU Usage was very constant at 12% and Memory at 2.23-2.24 GB for opening the Project once TMG had already been opened with a project and then the project (not TMG) had been closed.

 

Susan

 

Do you have an 8-CPU PC? Are the 12% CPU usage from TMG? This would mean that TMG is eating up one CPU by internal computing for whatever strange reason. In this case probably removing or stopping other applications like virus scanner etc. won't help.

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Susan,

 

TMG (i.e. Visual Foxpro) can only use one processor. Therefor you see 12 percent of usage when TMG is running "full speed".

 

I assume you have already run TMG's

File / Maintenance / Validate File Integrity and

File / Maintenance / Optimize

 

How large is your project? Do you have a possibiity to upload a backup (without external exhibits) to the Internet (like Dropbox or similar) ?

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TMG (i.e. Visual Foxpro) can only use one processor.

Helmut,

 

That's not what I see - most operations in TMG use four processors according to the CPU monitoring tool I use.

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Terry,

 

this is not my experience. I have a 4-CPU system and TMG never uses more than 25 % of total CPU. It may be that it does change CPU's, but I don't think it does (or is able to) use more than one CPU at a time.

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Terry,

 

if you are right, then Susan's problem might be a problem of thread synchronisation within TMG. What I mean s that one process/thread could be too fast for another one. (something like thread A is started, thread B should wait for the termination if thread A or should be informed b A. But A has already terminated before B is ready for waiting/accepting the termination message). I remember some rare cases I and some others have experienced when starting TMG where it ran into error messages (I think it was some variables not found or similar) when the project was opened automatically. It could be avoided by passing via the welcome screen and clicking Last.

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Yes, I run Optimize, Validate File Integrity, Optimize because I read on the Forum someplace that you should always run Optimize after Validate File Integrity. No, I do not have DropBox. I can email my project since it is not large with only 774 people.

 

Should I email just the backup of the project or do you want some of my other files excluding the exhibits?

 

Susan

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Terry,

 

if you are right, then Susan's problem might be a problem of thread synchronisation within TMG. What I mean s that one process/thread could be too fast for another one. (something like thread A is started, thread B should wait for the termination if thread A or should be informed b A. But A has already terminated before B is ready for waiting/accepting the termination message). I remember some rare cases I and some others have experienced when starting TMG where it ran into error messages (I think it was some variables not found or similar) when the project was opened automatically. It could be avoided by passing via the welcome screen and clicking Last.

When I open TMG to the Welcome screen and click Last to load my project it takes 13-14 minutes to load my project.

When I open TMG to the Welcome screen and click Sample, wait for it to load, File Close Project, File 2 (my project) it takes 3-4 minutes thus saving 10 minutes. I have only been loading my project from the Welcome screen.

 

Susan

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