Update on CVF Visual Studio slow on XP Pro

[chstoyer]

I decided to start a new thread because I have solved some problems, I have new information and new questions.

Thanks for your help so far.

My questions mainly concern the behavior of the DFDEV.exe, Microsoft Visual Studio that is the environment for CVF. If I should be posting somewhere else, please let me know.

To be brief, moving from Win 98 SE 800 MHz, 768 Mb RAM, 10Gb HDD w/1 Gb free to Win XP Pro Intel P4, 3.2 MHz, 2 Gb RAM, 147 Gb HDD w/125 Gb free.

CVF 6.6c which is the newest one. Winteracter newest version.

New question is I cannot get into debug mode after a crash. System offers debug as an option (or send report) but then another dialog appears and finally I am back in edit mode and the program is shut down. I can run in debug mode (f5) but not get into debug mode from normal run mode after an exception on this new machine.

Continuing old question is:

A particular project with ca. 80 files, ca. 8 of which are "active" (have windows open) total ca. 750 Mb source code opens in 15 sec on Win 98 and 40 sec on Win XP. Running Process Explorer (www.sysinternals.com) I see that in Win 98 DFDEV.exe gets about 95% of the CPU resources during startup and (automatic) project loading. Win XP gets only about 7% of the resources, max. System idle process never drops below 88%. I see a lot of hardware interrupt activity and some DPC's. Running Process Explorer under Win 98 does not show hardware interrupts or DPCs.

Opening a new file (one that does not already have a window assigned) takes forever and there are a lot of hardware interrupts and mostly system idle process. Same with adding or removing a break point.

Is there something wrong with this new XP Pro computer? Or is there an incompatibility between DFDEV and XP Pro?

I did reduce load time from 20 minutes to 40 seconds by either booting safe or clean mode and finally found InCD, a software by Ahead Software AG, was complicating the issue by routing all i/o through itself.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

I'll make this comment - DFDEV.EXE is just a shell for the DevStudio environment - it does no more than put up a splash screen and pass control to DevStudio. So whenever you are running DevStudio through CVF, DFDEV.EXE will show as the process that is running.

CVF is compatible with XP Pro and there are many thousands of users of that combination. Whatever problem you are having, it is not due to an incompatibility of CVF but rather some odd configuration or software issue with the system.

Since CVF is not "my product" anymore, I can't really provide a lot more help. It would be an interesting data point to see if creating a new project entails the same level of high CPU use you are seeing for your older projects.

[chstoyer]

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sblionel wrote:

I'll make this comment - DFDEV.EXE is just a shell for the DevStudio environment - it does no more than put up a splash screen and pass control to DevStudio. So whenever you are running DevStudio through CVF, DFDEV.EXE will show as the process that is running.

I realize that. That is what is shown in the process explorere window, though. DFDEV.EXE is very small, so it is clear there is more behind it.

CVF is compatible with XP Pro and there are many thousands of users of that combination. Whatever problem you are having, it is not due to an incompatibility of CVF but rather some odd configuration or software issue with the system.

We have a Dell 2.4 GHz w/640 Mb RAM, 38 Mb HDD 27 Mb free and it gets a lot more of the CPU (40-50%) share but still loads very slowly and there are a lot of hardware interrupts.

Since CVF is not "my product" anymore, I can't really provide a lot more help. It would be an interesting data point to see if creating a new project entails the same level of high CPU use you are seeing for your older projects.

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I am not seeing high CPU use. I am seeing low cpu use. I am seeing high levels of hardware interupts which I think are taking most of the real time. This is due to loading the project, editing the files. Compile and link are very fast.

Charles.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

It would seem you have some low-level device or disk software that is causing this problem. Do check that your projects are not referencing network shares.

[anthonyrichards]

Have you tried deleting the .NCB and .OPT files? See this link for example

http://public.kitware.com/pipermail/cmake/2001-June/002279.html

Are you using SourceSafe? If so, try disabling it.

[chstoyer]

Thank you Anthony Richards!

That was it!

I deleted the NCB and OPT files and now the thing is like lightnening!

I lost the information about what files were open and what line I was editing the last time they were open, but I can now insert or remove lines and breakpoints with no delay at all!

I wish I would have known about that a long time ago, as things do slow down on the Win 98 system as well.

Now to get JIT debugging to work...

Charles.

[anthonyrichards]

I'm glad to have been of assistance! Steve Lionel has recommended identical deletions in the past, so I thought it worth a try. Good luck!

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Good call, Anthony!