Rhino keeps crashing

[seunao]

I just got a new laptop and the specs are as follows

HP Pavilion dv7-1135ea Entertainment - Core 2 Duo P8400 / 2.26 GHz - RAM 4 GB - HDD 250 GB + 250 GB - DVD±RW / DVD-RAM / BD-ROM - GF 9600M GT - Gigabit Ethernet - WLAN : Bluetooth, 802.11 a/b/g/n (draft) - fingerprint reader - Vista Home Premium - 17" Widescreen TFT 1440 x 900 ( WXGA+ ) BrightView

I keep having problems with rhino as it keeps crashing my pc when i am working on it, my image is about 450MB.

Firstly would it be better to have a 64bit windows xp sp2 or sp3 as my operating system for rhino secondly can you advice me what I can do about rhino crashing or how i can optimize my system to avoid it from crashing.

Look forward to hearing from you

Regards


Beres

[mc-motorsports]

Originally Posted by seunao Vista Home Premium

Found the problem! It's the Mircosoft Virus...


Honestly, the computer that I use came with a 2.4g processor and 512 RAM. Supposedly upgradeable to 4g of RAM, so I tried, crashed left and right. Ended up with 1.87g of ram and it works perfect, hasn't crashed since, running Windows XP.

Are those problems related? Not sure. Could have been that my processor and or motherboard just didn't like all that RAM, but it did only really give me problems running Rhino, which is the main use for that computer.

I had another computer which is now dedicated to a machine running Mach3. I paid a friend to build it, 3.6g processor and 1g RAM. I've made some VERY complicated parts, and when Rhino would bog down my normal computer, I used to transfer everything over to the 3.6g processor computer because it would run so much smoother. For instance, splitting very complicated surfaces, or generating very complicated tool paths in RhinoCam would take up to 60 seconds on a 2.4g processor, about 10 seconds on the 3.6g, and I wouldn't have to worry about the program crashing either.

Maybe too much RAM and not enough processor? I'm only guessing, but my experiences seem to follow along with yours.

MC

[JCarruthers]

About the only reason for Rhino to randomly crash is a video driver problem, so switching to XP might well have changed that. I have no problem (aside from it being slow) running Rhino on my sister's laptop with I believe only 512MB RAM and Vista Home.

[mc-motorsports]

Originally Posted by JCarruthers About the only reason for Rhino to randomly crash is a video driver problem,

So reducing the screen resolution could help?

I run 1024 X 768 pixels, so 800 X 600 would help?
That may make sense. My 2.4g computer uses an onboard video driver, to where as the 3.6g has a seperate video card installed. Hmmm...

But then again, why does it run so much slower on RhinoCam when I'm generating complicated tool paths? I don't think that would have anything to do with the video card. Although it usually won't crash, only when splitting complicated surfaces.

[chmillman]

@seunao:

I have the same video card on an HP HDX 16, Vista 64 bit Ultimate. You need to go into the video card settings (right click on the desktop, Nvidia settings) and turn off "Threaded Optimisation". This is a known problem with Rhino and Nvidia drivers (the most recent ones may have fixed the problem, but these are not yet available for laptops).

I had this happen on both my Vista systems, even my desktop with a GTX 280.

If you want 64 bit, stay with Vista, XP is a dead duck, they are not developing for it and you will have a hard time finding drivers. Windows 7 is also just around the corner.

I have relatively few problems with my Vista systems - albeit there are a couple I have not been able to solve on the HP laptop - this I attribute to the crappy HP software/drivers loaded on the computer... the last HP product I will ever buy.

@mc
You will not have much luck with Rhino 4 and a cheap integrated video. Your best bet might be to turn off hardware acceleration completely in Options. Rhino 4 makes a lot of demands on your video card (and Rhino 5 will probably more, all the more recent programs do), so it pays to have a "real" card - you don't need a "pro" level, a good consumer level card will do, GT 9800 or something like that...

As far as Rhino(CAM) running slowly to split complex surfaces - does it go faster if you do not have RhinoCAM loaded (just Rhino)? If so, it's because Rhino+RhinoCAM is probably using up all your RAM (you don't have much), you can see this if your HD starts to light up when you run these types of ops. In that case adding RAM usually helps. The difference between an XP system with 1 Gig and 2 Gigs is quite noticeable. In any case XP 32 can't use more than 2Gb per process (without the 3Gb switch which is questionable) and Rhino will usually crash if it uses more than 1.4-1.5 Gb on a 32 bit system.

@JCarruthers
First time I've seen you in here! Welcome! --(...)ch