Slow machine/formatting?

[prateekvishwa]

Hello All!
need your suggestion guys.. from past 1-2 months i am feeling as if my PC has became very slow.Few problem which i am facing-
- long time to open 3ds max ( i am using 3dsmax 2011 & vray 2.0 )
- long time to load file ( file size around 80 to 100 mb with reasonable number of proxies)
- Lots of PF usage in task manager after file is loaded & pc almost freezes ( shows 2gb even with small file but with some files it goes even upto 6 gb!)
- long time to close max. Even after closing max it shows in taskmanager process list as active & takes time to completely get off
- Even when 3dsmax is closed, windows explorer takes some time to browse.

PC Config- PC age is 2 years, i7, 4GB ram, 1 GB nvidia GCard ,Windows XP 64 bit , sufficient space in C drive

My QUERIES-
-Is PC slows down after being used extensively for 2 years ( on an average 4-5 hours of rendering per day )?
-Do i need to format & reinstall windows to make is work like earlier?
-Do i need to adjust virtual memory/ pagefile ? right now it is system managed.
-I generally use vray proxy for trees, i use 7-8 types of trees as proxy & spread them in my scene. Is PF usage dependent of how many different types of proxies i am using in my scene?

I am fedup.. i dont want to unnecessarily format my machine.. reinstalling everything again is a pain in a** i am about to start on a big projects.. will be difficult to work with machin in current condition.. Help guys!

[vlado]

Windows tends to get slower with time indeed. One reason I have found for this is the fragmentation of the disk space; usually running the Windows defragmenter may return some of the speed back. I found also that with time, Windows need more and more memory (I don't know why). For example, our build machine (which runs nightly builds of V-Ray every day) worked fine and fast with Windows 7 and 2 GB of RAM just fine. After a year or so I noticed that it swaps constantly to disk (without any additional programs installed in the meantime, and regular disk defragmentation). Adding 2 more GB solved this problem for the time being.

All in all, most people I have talked to agree that Windows machines just need to be reinstalled after a while In your case, if you have never defragmented the disks of your machine, it might be worth trying that first.

Best regards,
Vlado

[plastic_]

It also helps to use a SSD for the system disk. It helps greatly. I love my SSD.
I'm sick when I'm using someone else's computer and programs take forever to start, even the internet browser.

[prateekvishwa]

Thanks a lot Vlado! yes i have never done disk defragmentation I am happy to see there is nothing wrong with my hardware.. replacing machine so quick is not in my budget. Will start formatting now! 3dsmax should come for mac soon.. i have never faced any OS related issue on my macbook. Also are you suggesting i should switch to windows 7?

Marc Lorenz@ What is SSD?

[vlado]

i have never faced any OS related issue on my macbook. Also are you suggesting i should switch to windows 7?

This is not my experience sadly Our Mac mini, which did some of the nightly builds for Mac OS X for V-Ray for Maya, also got progressively worse with time. It may have been disk fragmentation though - I've never actually run a defragmenter on it.

Best regards,
Vlado

[prateekvishwa]

This is not my experience sadly Our Mac mini, which did some of the nightly builds for Mac OS X for V-Ray for Maya, also got progressively worse with time. It may have been disk fragmentation though - I've never actually run a defragmenter on it.

Best regards,
Vlado

WOW! may be my poor macbook giving me full support bcoz m using it only for my presentations to clients.. all hard work is done by my PC boy one last thing, is there any advantage of switching to windows 7 over xp in regards of vray performance? Thanks once again Vlado! Ciao

[vlado]

one last thing, is there any advantage of switching to windows 7 over xp in regards of vray performance?

With regards to actual rendering performance, there is negligible difference. However Windows 7 tends to look somewhat more responsive and smooth than XP in general.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Morbid Angel]

no bid deal. just reimage the machine. I tend to create image of a new machine once all the apps installed on it. I think the reason windows gets slow (personal opinion) is all the registry it accumulates over the years. Also windows 7 is more hungry for ram then windows xp, so keep that in mind. Your 4GB might not do you much good if you are working on large scenes.

[prateekvishwa]

no bid deal. just reimage the machine. I tend to create image of a new machine once all the apps installed on it. I think the reason windows gets slow (personal opinion) is all the registry it accumulates over the years. Also windows 7 is more hungry for ram then windows xp, so keep that in mind. Your 4GB might not do you much good if you are working on large scenes.

Ahh i see, thanks for the tip, i may not upgrade to windows7 but m thinking of adding more RAM