Re: Machine very sluggish while compiling

[Mike <mcf@chariot.net.au>]

Hi Andrew,

Andrew Schulman wrote:
>> Lately I've noticed that running make -j4 on my quad-core win7-x64 
>> machine causes it to become sluggish or even unresponsive. For example, 
>> compiling a large package makes the mouse jumpy, delays keystrokes, adds 
>> stutter to my music, and makes task switching painfully slow (though, 
>> oddly, if I manage to switch to the mintty that runs make the machine 
>> "comes back"). The sluggishness always hits when I'm using a native 
>> windows app with the compile running in the background. This starts to 
>> sound oddly like the recently-reported issue where X was causing native 
>> windows apps to freeze [1].
> 
> I'm glad to hear it's not just me.  I've been struggling with this for a few
> months, on my WinXP SP3 (32-bit, dual-core) host.  I avoid compiling on it,
> because after a few minutes CPU goes to 100% even after I exit all Cygwin
> processes, and once that happens the only solution is to reboot... which I
> usually do with the reset button, because by that point everything is so slow
> that even rebooting takes 15 minutes.
> 
> There's no PCA or Superfetch service on my host.  I'll try shutting down other
> services to see if that helps.

Look for the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) as described at:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294895
removing it helps some computers a lot.

Another program that causes problems on some computers is the MS Office 
2010 Click-to-Run system. It's usually associated with the trial 
version. With this system, software is downloaded and installed 
dynamically as it is used. Hangs and slowdowns when logging off or 
rebooting were noted. Removing this will help. If MSO is needed, the DVD 
version can be installed.

Also removing .NET and re-installing it can help some computers.

-- 

Regards,
        Mike

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