49 replies to this topic

[Jim Belanger]

What I would try first is; as soon as you see the program "slowing down" as you say; try closing out those other two programs that are running, see if RM "speeds up". If it does, open one of those two other programs again, then the other and see which may be causing this problem; if it is one of them. It may not be but that's what I would try. Also, doing a CTL ALT DEL at that time will show you what is running that you may not be aware of.

[Dennis]

I do have other programs open, usually two -- I have had no problem in the past. I use XP Home edition. My memory is 256 This is a recent problem (the last two months) and I haven't changed how I use the app. I don't have a problem with any other programs I use.

256 is very minimal for WinXP; I would recommend at least a gig. Additionally... there are MANY more programs running in the background than what you may be aware of. There is a totally free program called procexp.exe that can show you exactly what is actually running on your system. You can find it at..

http://www.sysintern...ssExplorer.html

You will have to scroll to the bottom of the page to find the download. Additionally... there is another freeware program from Mike Lin called startup.exe that will show you what runs when the system loads. You can easily check / uncheck those items that you don't want to load on post. You can find it at

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

Dennis

[mapleleaf]

For the last month, I have noticed that suddenly RootsMagic "shuts down". This happens during various activities -- adding census sources or changing information on several people. The problem starts with the program running very slowly, then suddenly, usually after information is entered, there is a blank view (no people showing) and then the program shuts down. When I reopen the program, I notice that a source which I had "memorized" is not a current one -- but many sources prior. However, the information I was entering when the program shut down is saved.

I have nearly the same problem as Suzanne described, except there is no slow down before the shutdown. I have RootsMagic version 3.2. The shut down problem happened 3 times in 2 hours yesterday, one time today, and several more times in the last month. I also have Google Desktop Search, but why should I need to uninstall that to get RootsMagic to work?

I had been using RootsMagic at the same time as Google Desktop Search for a long time without any problems. The shut down problem is recent, in the last month or so.

Right before the shutdown, the fact that I am editing disappears. So I exit the person I am editing, and find that all my ancestor's names have temporarily disappeared.

The shut down problem also happened in the previous version of RM, shortly before the latest upgrade.

I guess if the only solution is to uninstall Google Desktop Search, then I'll live with the annoying shut downs. Since the shut downs are so random, it would be hard to prove that Google Desktop Search caused the problem.

[swimboy]

Because it might be Google Desktop Search that is buggy ... did you ever stop to consider that?

.

Not hard to prove at all. Get rid of Google Desktop Search and your shutdowns may go from random to never.

I've been experiencing the "blank data fields"/crash to Windows problem in RM for a couple of years, starting I think with version 2.01 (my first). There have been various proposals in other threads, but nothing which has helped me. Currently I find the RM program unusable, crashing after half a dozen minor edits. Sadly it is my first and only genealogy program, so I'm stuck with it for the time being.

The relevant point here is that I run Windows XP home with all updates, and have NEVER installed the Google Desktop Search.

I think the problem affects only a few people, otherwise RM would have been ridiculed out of existence by now. But, for the poor sufferers, it is a miserable experience.

Some people have suggested it is an XP resource problem. Others a shortage of available memory. Others an interaction with some other program.

I am very disappointed that no-one from the development team appears curious enough to investigate. I, for one, would be happy to conduct tests of possible solutions if I thought the advice was authoritative.

Still suffering after all these years ...
David (swimboy)

[Dennis]

I've been experiencing the "blank data fields"/crash to Windows problem in RM for a couple of years, starting I think with version 2.01 (my first). There have been various proposals in other threads, but nothing which has helped me. Currently I find the RM program unusable, crashing after half a dozen minor edits. Sadly it is my first and only genealogy program, so I'm stuck with it for the time being.

The relevant point here is that I run Windows XP home with all updates, and have NEVER installed the Google Desktop Search.

I think the problem affects only a few people, otherwise RM would have been ridiculed out of existence by now. But, for the poor sufferers, it is a miserable experience.

Some people have suggested it is an XP resource problem. Others a shortage of available memory. Others an interaction with some other program.

I am very disappointed that no-one from the development team appears curious enough to investigate. I, for one, would be happy to conduct tests of possible solutions if I thought the advice was authoritative.

Still suffering after all these years ...
David (swimboy)

David...

It is not that no one is uninterested in the problem... but you have to be able to duplicate a problem in order to be able to try to correct it. There are many here who run RM on a WinXP machine with no problems (me included). True, I don't run the google desktop. I launch google only when needed. I believe in taking a minimalist approach in what loads on startup. Leaves more resources for my system. You didn't say whether you had tried any of the suggestions that others have given you. Did you turn off the google search bar? Did you add more RAM? Did you try those programs to see what was really loading on startup?

Dennis

[swimboy]

Thank you for your comments, Dennis. I fully accept that the majority of RM users using XP Home with 'adequate' RAM have never seen this problem. I note also that some people have been able (apparently) to solve the problem by one or other of the varied suggestions made here from time to time.

What is very clear to me is that all the sufferers are describing a form of collapse of RM that is remarkably consistent in appearance, whatever the cause. As a former programmer/debugger from an ancient era, I had a gut feeling that someone at RM would be asking themselves "What kind of malfunction would cause RM to 'present' these symptoms?" By sharing any thoughts that resulted, it might have given us poor sufferers something to experiment with. Just my two pennyworth !

ANYWAY ... I decided to try the advice offered. I don't use Google Desktop, so that wasn't a factor, but I do have other programs/processes running alongside RM.
Opera web browser (for access to Ancestry)
Screensaver (my pictures slideshow) (not usually kicking in while I'm editing in RM)
Mailwasher (keeping my dial-up alive while checking for email every 5 minutes)
Desktop Wizard Pro, which changes the wallpaper every half hour
Autosave, a utility which routinely makes backups of all files being changed.

SO ... I tried removing or disabling these ancillary programs before running RM.

AND ... Disabling Autosave seems to have fixed the problem in my case.



I would suggest that anyone reporting the RM crash problem could be asked if they are running any 'incremental backup' processes such as AutoSave. I am currently experimenting to see if I can continue to use AutoSave safely by excluding RM files from the scope of its activities. I'm also intending to try upgrading it from vs 1.09 to version 2.0, but their website is 'broken' when I try to pay.


I hope this information is useful out there.

David.

David...

It is not that no one is uninterested in the problem... but you have to be able to duplicate a problem in order to be able to try to correct it. There are many here who run RM on a WinXP machine with no problems (me included). True, I don't run the google desktop. I launch google only when needed. I believe in taking a minimalist approach in what loads on startup. Leaves more resources for my system. You didn't say whether you had tried any of the suggestions that others have given you. Did you turn off the google search bar? Did you add more RAM? Did you try those programs to see what was really loading on startup?

Dennis

[Geniebug]

Go to the RootsMagic.ini file and edit as follows:
Mine in WinXP Pro is in C:\Documents and Settings\Don\Application Data\RootsMagic
and edit it with WordPad or NotePad, changing the line:
LastOpen=1
to:
LastOpen=0

BE SURE TO SAVE IT AS A PLAIN TEXT (.txt) FILE.

This should allow the program to open without opening the database. If, when you try to open the database, the program shuts down again you may have a corrupted database. If this is the case try to restore an earlier backup or import a recent saved GEDCOM. The "flicker" you mention sounds like the program is shutting down as it tries to open a database. Let us know if this helps.

Thank you so much for your help. I think the problem is solved although I don't know if it's fixed so that it won't happen again. I ruled out a memory shortage, another program interfering, and a bad database. I did what I said I was going to try in my latest post, and I had nothing else open but the new RM, I then restored my zip file that I had tucked away in my other hard drive. It seems to be fine, and opening and closing, opening, and closing. Could it have initialized something wrong by closing the program from the task bar? I think I recall doing that because I was closing other screens that way before restarting. It did ask me for backups on both files I had open. I just like to know every little why and what for. Thank you again.