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Topic: Long program loading time (Read 4336 times) previous topic - next topic

Long program loading time

I have the latest NWC2 on a Windows2000 SP4 machine.  When I first fire up NWC, it takes forever (actually about one minute) to load.  The drive light is on all this time so some serious disk activity is taking place.  Several previous versions of NWC2 also did this.

I have 512Meg of memory so I doubt one program is being swapped out to make room for NWC.  Even if there is swapping going on, it shouldn't take one minute.

If I exit NWC and then re-load the program, this delay doesn't happen a second time.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can get around this.  Thanks in advance.

Robert

Re: Long program loading time

Reply #1 –
Quote
Does anyone have any ideas how I can get around this.


Well I can't resist this comment because I don't like Windows 2000 -  How about getting a windows XP machine.

Seriously though - it might be a fragmentation of the disk drive problem - and this may effect swapping - also check the size of the swap file.

HAve you tried defragging
Rich.

Re: Long program loading time

Reply #2 –
On my system, there is almost no delay from the time I click the icon to the time the NWC2 screen is active.  Perhaps a second at most. I use XP Pro and I have an ASUS motherboard, if that means anything.

The program is small, only about 4.6 megs when running, so I doubt it's a defrag issue. 
I wonder if your system is running some sort of security routine. 

Can you check to see what else is running?  Task Manager should tell you.

Another thing to consider - how are you opening the program - from your desktop, from clicking a file that is associated with it, from the quicklaunch bar, from the start menu?  Maybe another way in would work better.

Re: Long program loading time

Reply #3 –
You might also consider some other factors:

1)  When hard drives start to fail, they can have a very hard time reading certain locations as the error correction routines try to correct the data.  If it is only Noteworthy that has the problem loading, there is a possibility that the program is located in a portion of the disk that is bad.  If you want to pursue diagnosis of this type of problem, I would suggest looking at a program called SpinRite written by Steve Gibson.  You could look at their site and decide whether this product would interest you:  http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm  As with any system maintenance software, there is some risk to using it.  Make sure that you back up your system, etc.

2)  I have seen cases in which there was a process running on Windows, unknown to the user, that was taking up nearly 100% of the CPU time, thus causing the machine to be overloaded...thus when trying to start a program, it would load very slowly.  You could look at what is running using the Windows Task Manager.  Right Click on the task bar, and select Task Manager.  You can see what applications and processes are running and how much CPU time each is consuming.  That may give you some insight into some other things to look into.

3)  Virus activity can cause strange loads on machines and other strange behavior.  If you are not using any anti-virus software there might be something hiding in your system.  If you have recently changed your anti-virus software, there may be some conflict it is having with your system which is causing the slowness.

...Just some ideas of other things to think about as you go about determining what is really going on in your system.

Re: Long program loading time

Reply #4 –
I had the same thing happen with NWC2 on XP until I drastically reduced the size my soundfonts were using. Are you using soundfonts? If so, how big are they compared to your 512 memory?

RE: soundfont loading.

Reply #5 –
Bingo!

Yes I'm loading large soundfonts (102Meg).  I fired up my Audigy soundfont manager program and, whadayaknow, it took about a minute to load the soundfonts.

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

By the way, one of the soundfonts I'm using is the Equinox Steinway D font.  It's free and it's the best piano font I've ever heard.  It alone is about 48Meg.  The other font I'm loading is one I seldom use, so out it goes.

Robert
 

Re: Long program loading time

Reply #6 –
A bit off-topic:

What is the connection between loading Soundfonts into your Soundcard and starting NWC?  my experience with soundfonts and other samplers later nwc will not load them directly, it will just send midi to the port.

So why loading time?

Re: Long program loading time

Reply #7 –
I don't know what's going on under the hood.  However, in my case, when I first fire up NWC, it definitely is loading the sound font(s) and thus the delay.

Robert

Re: Long program loading time

Reply #8 –
The sound font load probably happens the device is opened. This is controlled by your setting for Port Usage in Tools, Options, Midi. If the load takes a long time, you probably want to use Always.