Constant constant constant crashes

[des carrga]

I've just upgraded to 12.5 designer/ renderworks at the same time I upgraded my pc, and am running windows xp. I've been using 12.5 for 8 days, it crashes with increasing frequency, with no pattern. Never had these problems with previous versions.

please help.

[Guest]

What error message are you getting?

[des carrga]

No error messages, the screen freezes - in task manager I'm told the program is not responding, I have no option but to end task and shut the program.

[Guest]

What are you doing when the screen freezes?

Do you have other programs running?

How large is the file you are working on?

How long do you let VW sit before ending the program?

[des carrga]

What are you doing when the screen freezes?

--------- Typically I've been in any number of 2D commands, copying, deleting, polygon, without any discernable pattern

Do you have other programs running?

It has varied - I've had Outlook, Excel, Internet browser - cant say for sure if any have been running everytime I've crashed - also at times a media player.

How large is the file you are working on?

Varies - from 4 to 8 mb

How long do you let VW sit before ending the program?

Have let it go for up to 15 minutes or so - recently ie. today, not so long.

[alanmac]

When you say you upgraded your machine, was this a new machine or you upgraded certain components within your existing machine.

Are you experiencing any faults with any other programs.

At this point it could be a problem with your install of Vectorworks or a fault within your machine, its trying to narrow it down at this stage.

Sounds like the file size should not be an issue, but out of interest what is the amount of RAM do you have?

I can sometimes get the "not responding message", but in fact its just that VW is doing something heavy on processing, like a hidden line view or convert copy to lines on a complex 40/60 meg file for example. Eventually it kicks back in.

When you say it freezes do you mean everything stops responding, like the mouse etc. or is it just within VW nothing works?

Check through the tabs in Task Manager, see what your CPU activity is, and check under the Processes tab to see what VW is using.

Alan

Edited January 17, 2007 by alanmac

[Guest]

When was the last time the video driver was updated?

[des carrga]

The pc is 3 weeks old -

Gateway - 2.40 GHz, 1.98GB of RAM

When it freezes and tells me its not responding, it's just within vectorworks - all other programs continue to function.

[Guest]

It's probably likely the computer did not ship with the latest drivers. It has the last windows certified drivers available at factory date. The machine's likely been sitting on a shelf for a decent amount of time.

[G_Hannigan]

Check the video card manufacturer's website for the latest driver, not Gateway. When I updated my driver, the one listed by Dell was not as recent as one from ATI.

George

[des carrga]

I have updated the video card driver and had the program running for a day with out any further crashes. Thanks for all of your advice.

George, The driver available throught the gateway site was not even close to being the most recent release, as you advised it was necessary to go to the manufacturers site.

Thanks.