ChemStation Rev. B is UNBEARABLY slow

[psychemist]

I apologize for the caps in the headline, but seriously this thing is excruciatingly slow.

Computer is a Dell Optiplex GX620, Intel Core 2 Duo 3.4 GHz (yes, that old), with 4 GB RAM, running Windows 7 32-bit. The LC talks to the computer via the mfr.'s LAN card. Network settings for each LC and PC/ChemStation pair are analogous. I'm using the problem comp to post this, and it runs most programs fine.

But ChemStation is a whole other story. The software takes quite the time to load, versus the other LC next to me (similarly old motherboard, but Pentium 4 HT and half the ram running Windows XP) which is very speedy to load both online and offline modes. The fast LC computer works most functions in ChemStation almost instantly, but runs Firefox at the speed that a Pentium 4 with 2 GB (max) RAM should - just slow enough to make you hate yourself.

The slow ChemStation literally takes 3 minutes to load the sequence table. Try to change something? Insert a line in the table and you can watch it count down (about one line per 2 seconds) as it updates the line numbers below; then usually it flashes the screen white a couple times and the sequence table vanishes until you minimize and reopen the window. Insert/fill down wizard? Takes at least 2 minutes if you add more than 20 lines. Click to scroll down?... You get the picture. At the end of some long days, I have spent the wait time fantasizing about punting the tower into the street during rush hour.

I would put up with it except that today, whilst running DAD diags -- or should I say trying to run? -- the system hung (Not Responding) for 5+ minutes at a time, and couldn't communicate with the Holmium Oxide filter motor (even the simple stuff too???), causing a false negative failure for that part. A system restart fixed the diagnostics issues (time for a new D2 lamp), but it still takes more than 30 minutes to build a sequence table with 50 lines. Not kidding.

Then there was the one time, months ago, where it started working as fast as it should, equally quick as the other LC's ChemStation which works fine. Then another day, about 3 weeks later, it went back to its old antics. It does this whether or not the comp is on a network, whether or not other programs are open, though it is slightly faster after a fresh restart sometimes. I've not tried it in safe mode (w/ networking), but that's about the only thing I can think to try, and I'm about to do that now.

You guys have any ideas on why ChemStation moves like a glacier?

[psychemist]

Just tried safe mode, the LC will not talk to ChemStation (says the components had a power failure, and won't connect with them when opening), and ChemStation is still slow.

[Csaba]

Hi,
You don't mention the hard drive?
1 At lest 20% of the hard drive capacity should be free.
2 When did you do a defragmentation of the harddisk? (Note: if the disk is full, defragmentation will not work or take very very long time)
3 Replace the hard disk with an SSD; <$100 and will do magic!!!
4 specially of you have the old harddisk, it is time to clone and replace it BEFORE it breaks. Save the old disk as backup!
Hope it helps.
/Csaba

[Forse]

Hi Psy

We run B 4.01 and B 4.03 and have a mild variation of the same problem on both computers. 4.03 is the worst thou.

Agilent can't/won't help us solve this problem, so we have learned to live with somewhat cripeled computer systems.

Both computers have been changed and ChemStation reinstalled.

[Steve Reimer]

Was your hard drive portioned into C: and D: ?
We used to have problems with that when the C: (program section) would fill up with windows updates and crash the system. Re-partitioning the hard drive fixed it.

[DR]

Chemstation PCs have to be REGULARLY defragged. It also helps if you go through and backup/delete data that will no longer be used, especially if you use a PDA with high sampling rates over broad swaths of the spectrum.

[psychemist]

Rev. B 04.03 as well, Forse. Bummer that you guys have tried Agilent with no luck, a coworker had a similar brief experience and decided not to waste any extra effort on it. At least I know we're not alone over here!

Csaba, hard drive usage is about 60% on the suspect computer, and if it's a page file thing I don't notice when using Chrome, a much bigger user of memory. As far as imminent drive failure, I'm not so sure, and we do have a backed up image from a year ago so we can reinstall if needed.

When I check the log file, it seems like an error entry is made quite frequently, but various errors. I will try to dig up some codes when I have a bit more time.

Since we're waiting on a new D2 lamp, I will take the time to defrag. Why not? I don't think its been done in a while, and we do acquire a full spectrum (~6 MB per line) on every sample for now, although we had the issue long before we started full spectrum acquisition. There's still plenty of space on the C: partition that ChemStation runs from.

[psychemist]

I just discovered the system is set to auto-defrag every week. Fragmentation is 0%.

[Himar]

You can try to defrag, run chkdsk, delete temp files, etc...From my experience the quickest route is to back up data and methods, re-image entire pc and reinstall chemstation.

[pacerlaser]

We use Rev B.04.03 and I've made the computer a bit faster by increasing the virtual memory on the computer. By default I believe Windows chooses some small amount. I usually increase it to 15000 or 20000. Basically, you right click on Computer then choose Properties. Then click "Advanced System Settings" on the left hand side. Choose the "Advanced" tab and click settings. Then choose "Advanced" again and under the virtual memory section, choose "Change." Enter a custom size and turn off "automatic managing of page file. Afterwards, reboot the computer and it should perform better.

[Simon Wicks]

We've experienced issues with MSD chemstation where it slows down incredibly if its trying to access a network printer that it can get at - usually due to an issue where the main server goes down. The whole lot just drags terribly slow. Check your networking aswell to make sure that isnt hindering you.