2.6a freeze, conflict with Word? 1

[teresas]

Has anyone noticed any problems with FoxPro 2.6a hanging (freezing) upon start-up, especially after several other apps have been started (and possibly closed)? How about specifically Microsoft Word?

I mostly work in Visual FP now, but occasionally have to return to 2.6a and I cross my fingers everytime I double-click on the icon. I may see the splash screen and nothing more happens. If I'm lucky, I can ctrl-alt-del, End Task, to get out of it. If I have a Word document open, very often Word locks up and ctrl-alt-del says it is Not repsonding.

I read faq182-7 about the patches for fast machines and large hard drives. I was aware of the fast machine one and have applied it. I hadn't heard about the large hard drive one, and I couldn't find anything specific about it on the Microsoft site.

Other notes: I have Windows 98, 8 GB hard drive, Microsoft Word 2000.

Any ideas?

Teresa

 

[Scott24x7]

Teresa,
Well, I haven't experienced this behaviour with Word, I have certainly experienced it with Internet Explorer... Typically, FoxPro will run fine, but if you have run a lot of complex "Stuff" in your application, or in a Fox interactive session, I suspect there is a Memory Leak somewhere in Fox 2.6 main application, since it has historically not been very good at managing memory. Then, when I run IE5, or IE5.5, *somtimes*, and I would agree it's always after a lot of activity, my machine may do one of 3 things:

1) Freeze
2) Genereal Protection Fault, and dump 2.6 when I try to open it again.
3) Freeze in a REALLY ugly way, like cause my video to "Freak Out"... and what I mean by that is, my machine tanks, my video dislplay litterally looks as though it has lost sync with the monitor, and I must do a hard RESET to recover.

Differnce in behaviours could be expalined by differing hardware, such as video card, mother board, memory type, etc. All of which, I know of no way to completely elminiate. If it plagues you, I suggest 2 things: 1) Save OFTEN. 2) Reboot from time to time, proactively, to prevent the "Dump" effect, which can cause DBF corruption, or Index corruption, should you have tables open during a session "Barf".

Wish there was more I could do for you. Please let me know if this helps.
-Scott

 

[teresas]

Scott,

Thanks for your reply. It is, though, kind of what I didn't want to hear! If I have been working for several hours with various applications, and then I go to start 2.6, this little voice in my head says, "Don't do it! Reboot first!" (And "Save your Word document!&quot But of course, I don't always want to take the time, and sometimes I'm lucky and FP starts, but many times, it freezes.

I would guess one other difference between what you and I have experienced is that you have problems in the middle of a Fox session, either running an app or doing development work. My problem with freeze-ups is primarily upon starting FoxPro. Does 2.6 need a large amount of memory just to get started?

Is dgrewe, the author of FAQ182-7, out there?

Teresa

 

[ChetN]

I too cannot run Foxprow2.6 after having run any large program, especially IE5.0 or Word2000. What I have learned is that FPW2.6 does not handle graphics memory very well and it always expects to find space in a certain area of the video allocation. If this space is being used, or was used previously, FPW2.6 pouts and won't work.

What I did is a typically novice approach. I put FPW2.6 in my startup routine. It seems to work Ok. If I need to do any work, it is there. If I do not need it, I close it.

Once FPW2.6 is activated, the other programs (IE5.0, etc) work fine and so does FPW. Even now, I have FPW in the background with no hiccups.

 

[Scott24x7]

ChetN,
Nice analysis... however, I find that even running FPW2.6 only, over a long period of time, especially when using General fields with OLE files, tends to cause problems as well. Fox2.6 does not deal well with memory, and regardless of what you do, will bomb in a Win9x or NT environment (that includes 2000, and XP), eventually. The best bet is to Save before starting.
Also, Teresa, I've experienced both... Starting Fox, and during usage of Fox applications. More often than not, I would agree... it's most common when I'm starting either FOXPROW.EXE, or a compiled FOX2.6 application. Wish there was more I could offer...
Cheers,
-Scott

 

[sharder]

I experience the same 'barf' on a Fox 2.6 application. Running it right after a reboot seems to work, but it will often hang after several apps have already been used, especially 16-bit apps. I, too, suspect video compliance, and the expectation that certain specific memory ranges are available.

 

[ramani]

Hi,
The experience of freeze will be heavily reduced to almost nil, if you use the following lines in your config.fp or config.fpw accordingly in your application directory or foxpro directory where the foxuser.* is created.

Config.fp or config.fpw
***********************
memlimit=40,16000,16000

The 40,16000 can be changed to your liking and on the memory available. The above line means to limit the foxpro memory to 40% of the available memory and use a minimum in any case of 16000 K and a maximum of 16000 k. (40%,Min,Max)
The idea is to protect foxpro from straying into all the memory which other programe could freely float. This will be the case, if you use W2K computers specificaly.

Hope this helps

ramani :-9
(Subramanian.G)
FoxAcc
ramani_g@yahoo.com
LET KNOW IF THIS HELPED. ENOUGH EXPERTS ARE HERE TO HELP YOU OUT! BEST OF LUCK