I am having a problem when using the editor where everything locks up for a
few seconds in the middle of an editing operation like typing a few
characters or pasting something. This happens about every 10 seconds or so.
Nothing too consistent though, seems to depend on how much I am typing or
how quickly I am trying to paste, delete, etc.

The interesting thing is that I experience this behavior on my work machine
and a home machine, both of which use Windows XP (XP Home at home, XP Pro
at work), while another home machine running Windows ME does not; Editing
is smooth and lag-free as I have experienced for years of using the POV-Ray
editor. I believe all 3 machines are installed with the same, latest
version of Pov-Ray 3.5.

I have made sure the GUI Priority is set to highest and that GUI Extensions
are turned off. The environments of my home and work computers (other
running programs (though I have tried it plenty without any other
applications running at all) and installed programs in general) are quite
different, so I didn't think this was the cause.

Has anyone else noticed a problem like this when using the POV-Ray editor in
XP as opposed to other versions of Windows? Are there any things I am
overlooking like menu settings which could slow down the editor so
drastically? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Post a reply to this message

"Coby" <cob### [at] tubafrogcom> wrote in message
news:web.3f4e7ea7c38846cefc27fe3c0@news.povray.org...
> I am having a problem when using the editor where everything locks up for
a
> few seconds in the middle of an editing operation like typing a few
> characters or pasting something. This happens about every 10 seconds or
so.
> Nothing too consistent though, seems to depend on how much I am typing or
> how quickly I am trying to paste, delete, etc.

Is Render Priority at Normal? You only mentioned GUI Priority being Highest.

I use POV-Ray 3.5 on XP HE too, the only times I had that kind of thing
happen was when a touchpad driver (notebook computer) was set in such a way
that it wouldn't allow typing to regain focus quickly after some mouse
pointer actions, or vice versa. Also if Render Priority is Higher or
Highest.

You could take a look at your XP program priorities by pressing
Ctrl+Alt+Delete then going to the Processes section and right-clicking on
POV-Ray there. I strongly suggest never to use Real Time, only Above Normal
unless you like struggling to get focus elsewhere after doing so.

Another thing, if you haven't heard of the typical suspect of cause for
slowdowns, is the Indexing Service which keeps track of file data for
quicker access (but might slow program usage? Not sure). To get to it you
can right-click on My Computer, select Manage, then under the Services and
Applications part select Indexing Service. If small toolbar player-control
buttons appear under the menu you can click the square to stop it from
running.
Or, to delve deeper into that kind of thing and prevent it from automatic
startup you can select the Services item and make changes (by
double-clicking on item) from the list shown in the right window pane.

This is all a guess, of course, it could be video driver-related too, I
suppose. Any combination of things, such as antivirus checking during file
changes, etc. At least it doesn't sound like you have AutoSave on in POV
since that should be a minimum of 1 minute per save.

Bob H.

Post a reply to this message

I have also got this problem.  I don't think it is a video driver
or system setting because it only happened after I upgraded
to V3.5 from V3.1

"Coby" <cob### [at] tubafrogcom> wrote in message
news:web.3f4e7ea7c38846cefc27fe3c0@news.povray.org...
> I am having a problem when using the editor where everything locks up for
a
> few seconds in the middle of an editing operation like typing a few
> characters or pasting something. This happens about every 10 seconds or
so.
> Nothing too consistent though, seems to depend on how much I am typing or
> how quickly I am trying to paste, delete, etc.
>
> The interesting thing is that I experience this behavior on my work
machine
> and a home machine, both of which use Windows XP (XP Home at home, XP Pro
> at work), while another home machine running Windows ME does not; Editing
> is smooth and lag-free as I have experienced for years of using the
POV-Ray
> editor. I believe all 3 machines are installed with the same, latest
> version of Pov-Ray 3.5.
>
> I have made sure the GUI Priority is set to highest and that GUI
Extensions
> are turned off. The environments of my home and work computers (other
> running programs (though I have tried it plenty without any other
> applications running at all) and installed programs in general) are quite
> different, so I didn't think this was the cause.
>
> Has anyone else noticed a problem like this when using the POV-Ray editor
in
> XP as opposed to other versions of Windows? Are there any things I am
> overlooking like menu settings which could slow down the editor so
> drastically? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>
>
>

Post a reply to this message

"Coby" <cob### [at] tubafrogcom> wrote in message
news:web.3f4e7ea7c38846cefc27fe3c0@news.povray.org...
> I am having a problem when using the editor where everything locks up for
a
> few seconds in the middle of an editing operation like typing a few
> characters or pasting something. This happens about every 10 seconds or
so.
> Nothing too consistent though, seems to depend on how much I am typing or
> how quickly I am trying to paste, delete, etc.
>
> Has anyone else noticed a problem like this when using the POV-Ray editor
in
> XP as opposed to other versions of Windows? Are there any things I am
> overlooking like menu settings which could slow down the editor so
> drastically? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>

I don't think this is a POV-ray problem, but rather a 'feature' of XP. I
believe the solution is to avoid using standby mode, but instead have XP to
hibernate or shut it down totally. I've had it happen at work on machines
that have never even seen POV-ray, but have been on standby overnight,
instead of shut down; it wouldn't go away without rebooting.

    'J.R.R'

Post a reply to this message

I shut down my computer every weekend and turn it off.
It still has this problem on Monday morning.  There are
no other applications ( WORD, MSVC++, etc. ) that
show this problem.

"J.Random Raytracer" <wyr### [at] hotmailcom> wrote in message
news:3f4facbe$1@news.povray.org...
>
> I don't think this is a POV-ray problem, but rather a 'feature' of XP. I
> believe the solution is to avoid using standby mode, but instead have XP
to
> hibernate or shut it down totally. I've had it happen at work on machines
> that have never even seen POV-ray, but have been on standby overnight,
> instead of shut down; it wouldn't go away without rebooting.
>
>     'J.R.R'
>
>
>

Post a reply to this message

Bob, thank you for responding quickly and offering a few ideas that I had
not considered. Unforunately, I have checked the items you mentioned and
the problem still exists.


Hughes, B. wrote:
>Is Render Priority at Normal? You only mentioned GUI Priority being Highest.
>

Render priority is at Lowest. Rendering runs fine, the lockups only occur in
the editing part. (Strange thing to say for a ray-tracing program... ;) )


>I use POV-Ray 3.5 on XP HE too, the only times I had that kind of thing
>happen was when a touchpad driver (notebook computer) was set in such a way
>that it wouldn't allow typing to regain focus quickly after some mouse

Well, it's good (for the general population) to hear that others are not
having problems when using XP.
My home XP computer is a laptop with touchpad, but at work is a regular USB
mouse.


>You could take a look at your XP program priorities by pressing
>Ctrl+Alt+Delete then going to the Processes section and right-clicking on
>POV-Ray there. I strongly suggest never to use Real Time, only Above Normal
>unless you like struggling to get focus elsewhere after doing so.

Set to Normal.

A weird thing: when I press ctrl-alt-delete in the middle of a seizure, the
computer has to wait until the freeze is overwith before bringing up the
new window; It seems like whatever's causing the lockup has a pretty good
grip on the system.


>Another thing, if you haven't heard of the typical suspect of cause for
>slowdowns, is the Indexing Service which keeps track of file data for
>...
>Or, to delve deeper into that kind of thing and prevent it from automatic
>startup you can select the Services item and make changes (by
>double-clicking on item) from the list shown in the right window pane.

 I did not see anything suspicious here, but I'll look further into it.
There shouldn't be any strange services that I don't know about, but more
importantly they have never caused problems for any other applications.


>This is all a guess, of course, it could be video driver-related too, I
>suppose. Any combination of things, such as antivirus checking during file
>changes, etc. At least it doesn't sound like you have AutoSave on in POV
>since that should be a minimum of 1 minute per save.

   This was my initial guess, but autosave is off so there shouldn't be any
file changes.

   Well, thanks for the tips, I appreciate the help. I'll keep poking at it.

Post a reply to this message

On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 17:09:11 EDT, "Coby" <cob### [at] tubafrogcom> wrote:

>
>A weird thing: when I press ctrl-alt-delete in the middle of a seizure, the
>computer has to wait until the freeze is overwith before bringing up the
>new window; It seems like whatever's causing the lockup has a pretty good
>grip on the system.

This reminds me, a couple of months ago I had a similar symptom. Can you keep
the task manager on top and see what is taking up your CPU time? I found that
vsmon.exe was running amok and I had to reinstall my anti virus programme
(AntiVir Guard). 
Regards
        Stephen

Post a reply to this message

S McAvoy wrote:
>On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 17:09:11 EDT, "Coby" <cob### [at] tubafrogcom> wrote:
>
>>
>>A weird thing: when I press ctrl-alt-delete in the middle of a seizure, the
>>computer has to wait until the freeze is overwith before bringing up the
>>new window; It seems like whatever's causing the lockup has a pretty good
>>grip on the system.
>
>This reminds me, a couple of months ago I had a similar symptom. Can you keep
>the task manager on top and see what is taking up your CPU time? I found that
>vsmon.exe was running amok and I had to reinstall my anti virus programme
>(AntiVir Guard).
>Regards
>        Stephen
>


pvengine.exe:  99% CPU

Post a reply to this message

On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 18:40:42 EDT, "Coby" <cob### [at] tubafrogcom> wrote:

>pvengine.exe:  99% CPU

What when you are editing? That does not seem right.
I just checked my system and when I am editing it is between 0% and 3%. It is
only when rendering does it get to 99%.


Regards
        Stephen

Post a reply to this message

S McAvoy wrote:
>On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 18:40:42 EDT, "Coby" <cob### [at] tubafrogcom> wrote:
>
>>pvengine.exe:  99% CPU
>
>What when you are editing? That does not seem right.
>I just checked my system and when I am editing it is between 0% and 3%. It is
>only when rendering does it get to 99%.

   Yep, that's why I've posted my problem.



From: Edward Handrich
>  I have also got this problem.  I don't think it is a video driver
>  or system setting because it only happened after I upgraded
>  to V3.5 from V3.1

Edward, any luck in solving this problem?


It has been suggested that I should re-install my system. I tried
re-installing POV-Ray but the problem persists. So I assume that
re-installing Windows is the next step. But is there any way to re-install
Windows without having to also re-install all of my applications?

Post a reply to this message