I have been using signlab for 5-6 years now and I did not know this...I'm unable to find it any where in any manuals...or printed stuff I have received from cadlink...but according to one of signlab's sales managers...who told me he knows signlab better than just about anyone...because there are leaks in the program you should close your signlab...and reboot your computer every 3.5-4 hours to keep signlab running at its optimum...I'm hoping I wasn't the only one that didn't get this memo...and this info helps you have a more productive and harmonious designing experience.
For those of you not stupid enough to get hooked into using one of the doggle based..."hey we're better" design programs...DON'T.
Have a good day...if you want to. Jeff Posted by Rick Chavez (Member # 2146) on :
I don't thinks it's just Signlab...when I work on my PC I find it better to reboot halfway in the day as a routine, and it rarely crashes.
My older Mac...I have had it on for weeks with no crashing...
My G5 Mac, I just had a major crash that needed a complete system redo....Computers baaaah!!!!!
Posted by Jeff Green (Member # 3508) on :
What do you mean by leaks in the system? Does it leave information on the ram, or virtual memory, needing that reboot? I have only run Signlab for a couple of months, and would like to know more about this?
Thanks!
Posted by Jeff Spradling (Member # 1615) on :
Jeff...I'm am not a computerologist...I know he said something about leaking memory...I'll have to ask my puter guy that was here when cadlink told me that and get back to you.
What version of signlab are you running?
Jeff Posted by BrianTheBrush (Member # 1298) on :
I've been a SignLab user since it was a DOS program, and still love it.
It's always been my understanding that it's best to not leave any program minimized for prolonged times when not in use; and I was taught, perhaps wrongly, that it's not a bad idea to reboot a couple of times a day anyways. I'm not even remotely sure what a memory leak is..but I do remember being told at some point years ago, that all programs have them...something to do with math coprocessing or some such thing.
I run SignLab all day, and do a lot of esigning in it, most of my scanning and vectorizing, with nary a problem...but again, I usually reboot around lunchtime to optimize my system.
Posted by Jeff Green (Member # 3508) on :
Jeff - currently using signlab 7, and loving it. It is a great little program.
The only thing that i can think of, which is true on many programs, is the constant writting to virtual memory. This eventually (depending on how much ram you have) fills up with nonsense, requiring a reboot. Thougth I could be wrong, let me know if I am! At first whan I read it, I thought that Signlab was prone to attacks from the web, and your dongle was at risk somehow. Had me worried there for a bit.
Love to here more!
Thanks, Jeff
Posted by William DeBekker (Member # 3848) on :
WOW I never heard of that on Signlab. I have know about Memory leaks. I hope you didnt jinx me as I maybe reboot once or twice a week if that. Running Win2000 Pro. and Signlab 5 Version 6.3 Alway been solid as a rock.
Posted by E. Balch (Member # 3545) on :
Crashing software not anymore!!
We have used Casmate for 10 years. All versions have been crash prone, it got so bad that we would save after every couple of operations.
Now it doesn't crash at all. The secret... We put Casmate on it's own computer, nothing else on it. No virus checking, no firewall, just windows and Casmate on an old 500 MHz Dell. It runs perfectly well on Win98.
I set up a single Keyboard, Monitor and Mouse to share 2 computers. I use a KVM switch and a network cross over cable so Casmate can be used for vectorizing, then the file is saved on my Win2000 system for Omega or Signlab to take it from there.
I must say the all the programs are rock solid on Win2000 and most of the problems were related to Win98 trying to do too much.
Also, I keep the internet is completely separate from my work computers, that helps stability as well.
ernie
Posted by Peter Schuttinga (Member # 2821) on :
Memory leaks, get out the bucket to catch them all as they pour out of your PC... lol
A memory leak is is best described as temporary memory space (RAM or virtual) that a software program uses (allocates), but does not release when it is finished with it. Take for example, you are in a program and you select a pull down menu. The contents of that pull down menu need to be stored in RAM so you the user can interact with it. When you are finished with it the program may clean up that memory and make it available for another function. In a lot of instances there is no clean up done while the program is running, because you the user may use this list again, and the program will simply respond faster the next time. When you close the program itself is when it is supposed to 'clean up' after itself, releasing all that allocated memory. Unfortunately this does not always happen, remembering that humans write software. A worse case scenario is that every time you select a pull down menu, the program grabs a new chunk of memory available to store the contents of the same list (it's unaware that it is already stored). If you use this list often you can quickly chew up a lot of memory, causing an eventual slowdown or crash if there is not enough memory to carry out required functions for the operating system. As a failsafe your Operatng System will clean up this area when you shut down you machine, hence a re-boot is a viable solution to slow-down. Posted by Curtis hammond (Member # 2170) on :
Good answer.
Corel draw was a memory leaker itself. Especially if you had the "undo" level set to its default of 99. It would use up memory with undo's until it would simply use up all the memory and crash.
Corel was not the only memory leaker though. Lots of software out there was written with memory leaks. The blue screen of death (with page fault) was usually a good indication of some crash caused by memory leaks.
Late model computers would have so much memory that you would not see a crash until late in the day.
Posted by Hubert Furey (Member # 3951) on :
Hello All,
Jeff S. - Memory Leaks are some pretty nasty problems for a piece of software. A memory leak will usually present itself in the form of an error message from Windows, to (more drastically) a complete crash of the OS. If you are experincing crashes with older versions of Signlab, ensure that you are using the latest revision for your particular version. Many of these problems have already been corrected in the past. For those version 7 customers out there, we have tested EXTENSIVELY this aspect and are confident that there are no such problems. Please contact myself if you feel that you are experiencing a problem with Version 7. If you want, you can contact me and provide me with more details of your conversation. I can verify if there are problems or not.
There are other general comments about having to reboot to keep the system "fresh". Rebooting will not hurt your computer and can only help in some cases.
Jeff G - Signlab will only write to virtual memory if the OS deems it necessary. Signlab, per se, does not recognize the difference between virtual and physical memory. Signlab will request, for example, 50 MB of memory. Your computer only has 25 MB of physical memory remaining. It assigns the 50 MB of memory to the application, but gets 25 MB from physical memory and 25 from virtual (or harddrive) memory. If anything is left behind in the virtual memory, it is a result of the OS. Again, rebooting the computer will easily correct many memory related problems.
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