December Tech Tip!

What’s Taking So Long!!

Ever wonder what your computer is doing while a program is “Not Responding?”  Well it could be doing lots of things, actually millions.  If you’re like me and use your desktop or laptop to run any CAD heavy programs, you would like it to respond quickly to your changes or activity.  Without having to close down all of your open programs just to get something to move, let’s first take a look at an option that you may be unaware of.  In this Tech Tip of the month I will show you one tip that just might make it better, depending on your system’s configuration.

This unknown tip may be known by your IT staff, if you have any, but even they may not realize it could help the typical CAD staffer.  With today’s technology it’s not imperative to have this set but your “Paging File” size is a factor when it comes to acquiring RAM to run the program needed.  Unless you’re running a massive machine with a massive amount of RAM, you may not have the “virtual space” needed to run, let’s say Revit or Navisworks, smoothly while other RAM heavy programs are running in the background.

What I am about to show you will help speed up your process’ ability to obtain and use the virtual memory space necessary for any activity.  I need to warn you, if you (1) do not have the administrative rights to make changes on your system then contact your IT staff and ask them to check this setting, (2) do not feel comfortable changing this setting on your own, ask your IT staff or (3) call us and we will be happy to assist you.

Now let’s get started!  Note: I am running Windows 7 so some of these settings could be different than yours.

Go to your start menu and select “computer”.

Navigate to the top menu bar and select “System Properties”.

Next to the left of the next window select the “Advanced System Settings” link.

Select the “Advanced” tab at the top and then pick on the “Settings” button under the “Performance” category.

In the “Performance Options” select the “Advanced” tab.  This will allow you access to the virtual memory allocation option at the bottom of the window.  You will see the initial setting that either Windows has set automatically or a setting that the IT personnel has modified.

Your next window will bring up the “Virtual Memory” window which will allow you to change your Initial and Maximum size ranges.  First you will need to uncheck the button that automatically manages the file size.

Now that you have gained control over the file size you can do three different options.  The one that we will be working on is the Custom size ranges, two is the “System managed size” and three is the no paging file option.  There are many resources out there that will tell you to disable your page file, but I agree with a writer that said, “The big problem with disabling your pagefile is that once you've exhausted the available RAM, your apps are going to start crashing, since there's no virtual memory for Windows to allocate—and worst case, your actual system will crash or become very unstable. When that application crashes, it's going down hard—there's no time to save your work or do anything else.  In addition to applications crashing anytime you run up against the memory limit, you'll also come across a lot of applications that simply won't run properly if the pagefile is disabled. For instance, you really won't want to run a virtual machine on a box with no pagefile, and some defrag utilities will also fail. You'll also notice some other strange, indefinable behavior when your pagefile is disabled—in my experience, a lot of things just don't always work right.” (Lowell,2009)

Ok so now that we have cleared that up let’s take my machine for an example.  I run Windows 7 which does a pretty good job of managing this, but let’s say I wanted to change it anyway.  What I had to find out was the total required system RAM pulled during my normal every day activities.  Follow this link to learn how to test your memory usage. Running the 2 method I found that my “Peak” counter hit around the 5GB range.  During the test I ran all my programs that I thought would be needed on any given day to make sure that it was maxed out and worked through a workflow.  The best formula that I have come across is to take the amount of system RAM on the machine and subtract it from the “Peak” amount.  For example a person with only 4GB RAM would subtract that from the 5GB “Peak” and come out with a difference of 1GB.  This number would be the worst case scenario if something were to come along and need all 4GB of RAM.  The initial setting of 1GB will throw the other programs, running in the background, in the paging file so that they won’t crash automatically.  The maximum size of 2GB gives you a buffer incase a RAM hungry program comes along.  Even with my 6GB RAM I still need a paging file and I would most likely go with the minimum settings here or let Windows continue to manage it.  If I start to encounter problems about windows needing more memory I will come in and change this setting, but by that time it will most likely be a physical memory, disk space, issue then.

Once you have completed these steps it is necessary to hit the “Set” button to make the changes take effect.  Once you have done that then select the “OK” button to close the “Virtual Memory” window.  You will get a pop up window stating that you must restart before the changes will take effect.  Pick the “OK” button and then go about your business or close down your running apps and restart the computer.

This process is not complicated as long as you follow the steps and if you ever feel uncomfortable making these changes please make sure you call someone else or please contact me and I will be glad to help you.

We at Sterling Systems can help you with your technical issues and your business needs.  Just give us a call at (480) 719-4599 and we’ll be happy to assist you!

Steve Coburn, Applications Engineer