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  • chris_j_hunter
    Automated Home Legend
    • Dec 2007
    • 1713

    %cpu

    anyone else getting occasional unresponsiveness from Cortex ?

    our PC (1GHz, 1G RAM) runs Windows XP Pro SP2 & just Cortex (plus the bits & pieces it needs), and every now & then it gets bogged-down & becomes unresponsive, for a while ...

    typically, this is while we're interacting with Cortex, on-screen - to edit settings, or view Behaviours, etc - but also sometimes while it's just running (we notice when we push a button & the response is delayed - for a moment or two, a second or two, even a minute or three) ...

    and only now & then - most of the time it seems fine ...

    opening Task Manager, to see what might be causing this, all but one of the items listed show 0% or near-0% CPU usage - the exception being Cortex, which generally shows something between 25 & 35%, with occasional brief forays into the 40s & 50s, and the odd excursion into the 60s & 70s ... the forays & excursions happening mainly while we interact on-screen ...

    that's when things are behaving normally ...

    when we click to Save the Database, it goes to 98 or 99%, for the duration of the save ...

    and, when things are behaving abnormally - so, delayed responses, and trouble selecting things when clicking icons in PlanView (as when trying to access drop-down lists for an object) - we suspect %CPU will have hit 100% ...

    only suspect, because whenever we try to investigate, we don't have the problem - of course !

    some Googling, shows there was a bug with SP2, involving IsWindow :





    but our problem seems to involve only Cortex, and not all the time, and not only when we're interacting with it ...

    and, of course, it may not be Cortex - another process, normally quiet, could be throwing a fit ...

    when the problem occurs, and persists, if we walk away, to fetch something or write an e-mail or make a cup of tea, things are always back to normal when we get back ...

    NB: the PC is not yet connected to any network or the Internet, and Flash is not involved (or listed by Task Manager) ...

    hmm, any thoughts - please ! ?
    Last edited by chris_j_hunter; 20 May 2012, 04:10 PM.
    Our self-build - going further with HA...
  • katman
    Moderator
    • Jan 2004
    • 247

    #2
    How about connecting it to the internet and installing SP3 ?

    Also if it has the capacity to take more RAM I would upgrade that as well.
    KAT5.tv - affordable high quality AV Distribution
    http://www.kat5.tv

    Comment

    • Karam
      Automated Home Legend
      • Mar 2005
      • 863

      #3
      I don't think the CPU usage figures are too out of the ordinary and the brief forays also not unusual. The symptoms are also rather odd. Not mentioned above is clicking on one object but getting menu for another. Could well be as a result of some major slowing down issue e.g. the mouse location when you click not in fact being where you see the pointer on the screen but perhaps somewhere else due to time lags.

      It is true that it is a somewhat light PC platform combined with one of the bigger installations around (Chris reports 163 physical modules and 906 database objects so far.. ), however as I say, if the task manager readings are anything to go by, doesn't seem to be particularly overworked.

      I think we do need to wait until you get an abnormal period and then check task manager at that point to see if does indicate some processing capacity issue or something else.

      Comment

      • Paul_B
        Automated Home Legend
        • Jul 2006
        • 608

        #4
        Chris,

        What type of disk do you have in the machine? Do you have any anti-virus software running? Whilst CPU and memory are fairly obvious and normal indicators of a perfromance issue in my experience disk perfromance is the root cause of many issues. In addition how much free-space do you have left on it?

        The CPU levels you give aren't that exceptional, at work we aim to run our ESX VMWare machines at 80% CPU to get the densities that make virtualisation so attractive

        Paul

        Comment

        • chris_j_hunter
          Automated Home Legend
          • Dec 2007
          • 1713

          #5
          unfortunately, it'll be a month or two before we can connect the PC to any LAN or WAN (too much dust & no landline or 3G aerial or WiFi) ...

          no anti-virus software or firewalls, yet ...

          Task Manager lists just 25 items - ie: Cortex & associated essentials are all that's on it ...

          adding up the memory usage numbers in Task Manager comes to about 15% ...

          HD usage - need to check, as soon as we can get access to the machine, again - building work - but we're pretty good at clearing Log files away after a loggable installation problem is solved, so it's likely to be pretty empty ...
          Our self-build - going further with HA...

          Comment

          • chris_j_hunter
            Automated Home Legend
            • Dec 2007
            • 1713

            #6
            PS: my feeling is that time-slicing is at the root of it, in some way ... but not if we're the only ones having the problem, which seems to be the case !
            Our self-build - going further with HA...

            Comment

            • achapman
              Automated Home Jr Member
              • Jan 2006
              • 43

              #7
              I wouldn't rule out a networking issue. In my experience hanging is often associated with Windows trying to contact some network resource and failing. This can be if it is looking for a network drive that is no longer there, or trying to resolve an machine address, but unable to contact a DNS server etc.

              Comment

              • katman
                Moderator
                • Jan 2004
                • 247

                #8
                Originally posted by achapman View Post
                I wouldn't rule out a networking issue. In my experience hanging is often associated with Windows trying to contact some network resource and failing.
                Good point. As it doesnt have an internet connection is Windows Automatic Updates turned off ?

                I designed an exhibit for a museum a few years ago that was 3 PCs networked together with no internet connection. Had to disable the updates as the machines kept complaining.
                KAT5.tv - affordable high quality AV Distribution
                http://www.kat5.tv

                Comment

                • chris_j_hunter
                  Automated Home Legend
                  • Dec 2007
                  • 1713

                  #9
                  OK, Windows Automatic Updates was on ...

                  now it's off ...

                  and, immediately, the whole Cortex experience is much much snappier ...

                  what ...

                  that makes no sense, must be imagining it ...

                  'could be the heat ...

                  will look again in the morning ...
                  Our self-build - going further with HA...

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