AutoCAD 2007 acad.exe gobbling virtual memory

[sinrise]

My company has been using ACAD 2007 for over a year. It's been running great on multiple computers this entire time. Suddenly, 2 computers are taking 10 minutes or more to start ACAD. In Windows Task Manager acad.exe is taking over 1GB of memory while it's loading... before opening any drawings! After it finally loads, it goes back down to a reasonable memory consumption. I've even tried uninstalling and reinstalling but that makes no difference. Before wiping 2 machines and starting with a fresh install of XP, does anyone have any advice or know how to solve this problem? Thanks :)

[RobertB]

Do you have any network changes made recently? Invalid shortcuts in AutoCAD support folders, or bad network printers can cause significant slowdowns.

[sinrise]

We do have one printer that takes a little longer than it should to connect but that happens when selecting that printer from the plot dialog. The slowdown happens while opening ACAD initally and it literally takes at least 10 mins.

[Norton_cad]

Are the two computers clean of CAD junk files such as AC$/DMP/ERR?
Have they been defraged latley?
Do the CAD files that are taking forever to open have extended data, loads of viewports, loads of hatches & fonts, etc?
If okay on the above, and your network is fine, maybe have a tinker with the Virtual memory, before OS re-installation?

[sinrise]

Thanks but again, this isn't happening when opening DWGs. Only when starting ACAD initially. After it's open it runs just fine.

[dgorsman]

What other add-ons, verticals, and object enablers do you have installed?

[sinrise]

The problem still exists after uninstalling and reinstalling ACAD, so there are no add-ons or anything else. Besides, we only install Express Tools. We don't use any other add-ons.

[dgorsman]

The problem still exists after uninstalling and reinstalling ACAD, so there are no add-ons or anything else. Besides, we only install Express Tools. We don't use any other add-ons.

I can uninstall AutoCAD and still have CADWorx, Eagle Point, AutoFLOW, ProSteel, etc., and all of the object enablers as well. Uninstalling AutoCAD doesn't remove them, especially the object enablers. So you are using just plain vanilla AutoCAD, with nothing else loaded?

[Harold Pei Jr]

Are the two computers clean of CAD junk files such as AC$/DMP/ERR?
Have they been defraged latley?
How about looking into this? I noticed you didn't mention if this was done or not. If you're not sure of where to start looking, I'd suggest opening a folder (doesn't matter which) and type %TEMP% into the address bar. Is this folder loaded with junk? How old is the junk? Technically, you can dump anything that is dated before the last time you restarted the computer.

[sinrise]

Thanks Harold. I checked that folder on one of the computers and that folder has nearly a GB of data in it. Could that be the reason? It makes sense but I don't see why ACAD would be accessing all the files in that folder... hmmm. I'll delete some of it and see what happens.

[sinrise]

I restarted, then I deleted all the files before today. Only 400kB now. No effect...

[Harold Pei Jr]

What about Robert's other suggestion? Were there any network folders that changed? Any local folders moved?

[Brian Myers]

Don't just do an uninstall, try a clean uninstall:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=2887771&linkID=9240817

By doing this you basically eliminate AutoCAD all together and your registry will be removed as an issue which will narrow down those potential directions we need to look. If it continues then it's an "outside" issue causing this problem like a bad hub, changed network permissions, or perhaps an updated (but not compatible) driver.. graphics driver being the most likely. By the way, is this a network license or standalone?

[tsigler]

I had a similar problem with my ACA 2009. At various times it was taking forever to load or whould accumulate memory until it ran out and crashed or would take a minute or more to bring up the plot dialog box, etc. Someone on this forum suggested checking all the printers and deleting any that were no longer attached or in use. I deleted several, including ones that windows installs automatically, that I never used and my problem was solved! Could this be your answer?

Tom