Program VERY Slow To Load

[srsherrill]

Release 2005 is just into our office. It seems to be superior to 2004 except for a very slow loading time for the program. It appears to hang up about half way through the initialization for about 30 seconds and then continues normally. This problem occurs on every machine in our office. We had some plotter support files loaded onto our server and specified these files on the support path when we installed, but moved them back locally and removed all network paths thinking this may have been the problem. There was no apparent improvement after these changes. 2004 is still on our computers and does not have this problem. Could the presence 2004 be the problem or is there some known 2005 bug?
The Dinosaur

[mjfarrell]

Try to load a copy to a local machine (temporarilly)
and time the load time compared to the network intstall.
Then start looking at your network paths and ping times
to the server.

[sonjathiede]

I have everything loaded locally and experience the same slow load. Initially, I thought it was the addition of Raster Design but that doesn't load until a RD command is invoked. All my support paths are local...same drive, in fact. Any other ideas on what causes 2005 to load slower than 2004? My machine is the test before I install to our other machines and I know this is one complaint I will get.

[srsherrill]

Thanks for the feedback. I tried a fresh install on a computer independent of the network and have noticed some improvement, but I think it may really be a hardware issue. Our office machines are a bit old now in the 1.0 to 1.3 ghz range with slower and smaller hard drives, while the fresh install was on 1.6 ghz with a new 120 gb Seagate drive. I tried watching a complete startup with task manager running and noted that cpu usage dropped to near zero during the inactivity so I suspect the first action should be addressing the hard drives.
The Dinosaur

[RobertB]

I doubt that hardware is the issue. This sounds like the Communications Center problem many have experienced.

Clear your Internet browser's temporary files cache. This usually clears up the problem. When it occurs again (but this should be less frequently after you clear the cache) simply clear the cache again. You can also end the WSCommCntr1.exe process from the Task Manager when this hang occurs.

[srsherrill]

Interesting . . . none of the CAD systems in our office have access to the internet and when the communications center message first appeared we thought we disabled it by choosing the "on demand" option for checking updates. We have FireFox browser installed as default, but only use it for an internal database of client and project information, hence I don't think there should be a cache problem. I have noticed the status bar indicates that ACAD.DWT is being loaded the entire time the program stalls, but again there is no processor activity. Does the program require some sort of regular internet activity through this command center to operate properly? Can we do anything else to keep the communications center from initalizing when LDD begins loading?
The Dinosaur

[srsherrill]

It appears that if nothing else a switch to higher end processors will solve the slow loading. We upgraded 3 machines to the 2 most recent series of processors by AMD and all are showing significantly better load times than the four machines using chips only one series older. The rest of the hardware and memory in all of the computers is comparable and all of the software and OS are the same. It sounds like good news for the office techie who gets to build all of our new computers and bad for the boss who has to foot the bill.
The Dinosaur

[srsherrill]

OK, I shall eat some crow. There was one common factor we had overlooked on the new installs. All were connected to the internet for some software installation. Loading speeds slowed dramatically after the connection was closed. Additionally, the old machines, when given temporary internet access experienced a corresponding improvement in loading. When the machines were disconnected completely from our local network they experienced the same fast loading. Is this related to the Communications Center bottleneck mentioned earlier?

The Dinosaur