Windows 2000 Workstation VFP Slow Down

[majestj]

We are experiencing an interesting problem. We have a rather large VFP 6.0 application that resides (along with the data) on an NT Server 4.0 (SP-6a). The application has been in use for neary three years. Our IT department is starting to upgrade some of the users to new PC's loaded with Windows 2000 and a new problem has resulted.

The first Windows 2000 user to log into the app has no issues and the app functions as expected. However, all subsequent Windows 2000 users that log in see a significant slow down in performance. Operations that would normally take a second or two now require 15, 20 or even 30 seconds. Here a few things we've tried to resolve this slow down:

1. Move the app and data to a new server (no difference)
2. Move the app to the client leaving just the data on the server (no difference)

Keep in mind that the app works fine until two or more Windows 2000 PC's log in. If anyone knows what is happening, please drop me a line.

Thanks

 

[MamaCIG]

We also had slow response after adding new Windows 2000 workstations. MEMLIMIT=10000000 in the CONFIG.FPW helped immensely. Also, maybe saying what you already know, but making sure temporary files are directed to local drives helped also. Hope this helps.

 

[rgbean]

MEMLIMIT isn't used by VFP - it uses SYS(3050) instead. While there was a comment to this effect in the VFP 3.0 help file, this reference was "lost" starting in VFP 5.0.

Rick

 

[DEDMOD]

So how do you determine what a good value for foreground or background memory is? I note that on my system it's like 174 meg and 44 meg respectively, the 174 being more than the free memory according to the task manager.

Dave Dardinger

 

[rgbean]

If you want to know more about this, I made a presentation to our user group back in Oct 2000. The PowerPoint slides, a demo program and notes are available at

http://mmfudg.lansing.com/last0010.htm

(down near the bottom).

It may be more than you want to know, but it'll save you some research. Note: The PP slides list a number of other references to articles on this topic.

Note: The startup value is usually 100% + of the available memory - although it does appear to depend on the OS and the amount of installed memory.

Rick

 

[majestj]

We found a work-around for this problem. The app in question was writing to a shared text file on the server. The data being written to this file was event and error information. I plugged in an error handler from another VFP 7.0 project that writes error logs to a free table abd the problem was resolved.

This does not in any way explain why the Win2K workstations are having problems writing to the shared text file when the Win9x PC's do not. Our corporate network people are reviewing the problem for possible resolution. I will post anything positive that comes out of that effort.

Joe M.