Vectorworks 12.5 crashing on XP machine

[Natasha]

Dear All

I have a user running Vectorworks 12.5 on an XP machine. She started complaining about a month ago that Vectorworks was crashing 6-7 times a day. I installed more memory bringing her dual processor machine up to 4GB RAM, formatted and re-installed the operating system and programs and she still has the same problem. At the time of the crash she can be doing something as simple as moving the mouse from one side of the screen to another, and she can have either Vectorworks alone running, or she can have Outlook, Photoshop and Word running. The application still freezes and the only way to kill the freeze is to reboot, not even task manager kills the process. She has the highest spec pc in my office so I cant replicate the problem on another computer of the same spec. Also it doesnt matter if the files are being opened from the server or locally as the problem still presents

Can you please advise what I can do to help her? No-one else in my company uses Vectorworks, and I personally have never supported it before. Many thanks in advance for your help

[Guest]

Check to see if the latest video driver is installed. If it's not, update the video driver. Most crashing issues are directly related to out of date video drivers.

If that does not resole the issue, please include the error message.

[brudgers]

What do you mean by "out of date video drivers?"

The latest video driver for my HP laptop is 2004.

And openGL rendering crashes it.

Is VW using some new extension?

[Guest]

If the video driver date is 2004, there's a good chance a newer version driver is available. These drivers are updated about every 6-10 months.

Especially since OpenGL is crashing, this is indicative of a video driver issue.

You can go to HP's website to located drivers for your laptop and update the drivers from there.

If you need assistance with this, please contact Tech Support directly.

[david2800]

down.............

[brudgers]

If the video driver date is 2004, there's a good chance a newer version driver is available. These drivers are updated about every 6-10 months.

Especially since OpenGL is crashing, this is indicative of a video driver issue.

You can go to HP's website to located drivers for your laptop and update the drivers from there.

If you need assistance with this, please contact Tech Support directly.

I'm only new to VW not to computers or CAD. Nemetchek labled me a "greenhorn." I didn't pick it. I kinda' liked "stranger" better since it lacked a prejorative connotation.

There's not an updated driver.

I checked the HP website before posting.

I tried downloading the chipset driver from the manufacturer.

It doesn't recognize any upgradeable devices.

[font:Microsoft Sans Serif] [/font] HP requires that you download the driver for your GPU from their support site.

You can find more information at: http://www.hp.com.

The GeForce Go mobile GPU use drivers that have been customized to support hot key functions, power management functions, lid close and suspend/resume behavior that are normally found in notebooks. The reference desktop graphic drivers that are provided by NVIDIA on our driver downloads page do not include these custom features. For this reason, the NVIDIA Forceware NVIDIA graphics display drivers will not install on most Geforce and Quadro family of mobile GPU's. Some newer laptops have been designed to work with our drivers. For more information click here.

Edited December 12, 2007 by brudgers

[Guest]

What HP model is your laptop?

[brudgers]

Pavillion ZD7140us

2 gigs ram (max)

[Guest]

Brudgers,

We are aware of a few video cards incompatible with VW 2008, mainly on older laptops. I've forwarded your computer specs to the engineer to further examine. I'll keep you updated.

[brudgers]

I sent the windows crash reports to bug submitt yesterday.

[Natasha]

Many thanks for the replies. I've now updated to the latest video driver but Vectorworks is still freezing up the computer. It doesn't give an error message on the screen but I found this is the Event Viewer at the time of the crash

Hanging application VectorWorks.exe, version 12.5.3.14996, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

[Guest]

What version of QuickTime is installed?

What is the user doing when the program hangs?

[Natasha]

Hi there, she's just moving the mouse from one side of the screen to another, and it happens both when she has nothing else open and also if she's got Outlook open, which doesnt make a lot of sense. She's got Quicktime 7 installed which I believe is the latest one

[jnr]

Wireless mouse? If so, try a hardwired one to eliminate variables. In my experience the culprit is usually the video driver. You can also try turning down the hardware acceleration to see if you get better performance and fewer freezes. Been there, felt your pain.

Not sure if it helps but, Outlook can cause problems with other applications, especially if it is opened prior to opening the problematic application. Check msconfig to see how much stuff is in startup. HP is notorious for dumping a lot of utilities in here that can also cause problems. Un-check all unnecessary stuff. If you are running Norton anti-virus, TURN IT OFF and uninstall it. Purchase some other anti-virus software, like NOD 32.

For what its worth, with as many conflicts that can occur with software, I have reverted to a dedicated workstation that has only Adobe products and Vectorworks installed. Basically it is for graphics only. E-mail and all Microsoft products are on a cheap, inexpensive separate machine. With as much time as you may be spending diagnosing the issue, it might be cheaper to by a new machine just for non-CAD work. Hardware is cheaper than software these days. Good Luck.

[Guest]

What version of QuickTime 7?

Try disabling the mouse driver in the Processes tab of the Task Manager to see if the problem persists.

And JNR has excellent suggestions, as well.