Scientists and ther PCs
-
Add to the list: check the anti-virus software. Where I work, the IT dept has the Macaffe virus software set to such a high priority, that when even when I edit a file, it starts running. This slows the computer to a crawl. I had to call IT several times to disable it. (Yes, we users cannot disable the anti-virus software on our own computers. It does stifle productivity.) Try lowering its priority to the lowest possible.
Yup. I recall one place I worked where once a month the farging antivirus would run a full scan on your machine at high priority. All the drives. You couldn't get squat done until it was done. I used to spend my time while it was running figuring out ways to thwart it.
_____________________________ Give a man a mug, he drinks for a day. Teach a man to mug...
-
I write software for scientists. They sit in front of fat (but not necessarily high spec, although of decent spec) PCs connected to heavy duty analytical instruments that spit out tonnes of data every day. And they all seem to have a knack for wrecking PCs. I don't know how they manage it, but many a scientists that I have to visit to get opinions from or dig them out of a sticky situation have PCs that are practically grinding to a halt at every command that is issued. From what I can tell, they tend to have weird software launching at them from all corners, like Adobe Photoshop and MSN messenger. (Those kind of rogue software seem to creep in when they blindly accept update offers from various sources.) They also have a tendency to stick everything on their desktop (OK, I know enough developers that do that too...) How they manage to find anything is beyond me. They also have no regards for the naming of their files so the names are either very long or contain spaces and hyphens. True, most programs can cope with that these days, but I still get the urge to hide under the table when I see horrible file namings. OK, I'm digressing, but the point is, apart from having more rogue software knocking about than I would like to, I can't see anything obviously wrong with their PCs but they are still going at snail pace. I use my work PC quite heavily and I'm not all that kind to it (stick it in endless loops and shut it down with brute force, etc... :doh: ) but I've never had that much trouble with my PC slowing down beyond my level of patience. Any guesses as to what's going wrong!? PS In my experience, these scientists end up in similar situations with their home PCs as well, only worse.
Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike... me...
PaulowniaK wrote:
connected to heavy duty analytical instruments
There you have it. Drivers and/or background data collection services for that hardware. Think about the sales volumes for that kind of hardware - virtually nil compared to, say, a printer. Then think about the code coverage they get during beta testing - nil, because they don't do external beta testing. Then think about the number of users using the drivers and discover bugs - virtually nil. Result? Utter crap, in most cases. What does a crappy driver do? Undermine the OS. By definition, a driver is the only piece of software (except the OS kernel) that is permitted to really mess the OS up. Running at IPL, a badly chosen algorithm in an interrupt handler can slow down a computer almost to a halt. I work a lot with computers hooked up to industrial control systems - I write PC software for higher-level control. This is a constant problem - the drivers very often have inefficient polling loops that absolutely cripple the machines. The only thing that helps is chasing the suppliers with a torch - and it only helps sometimes. It is also very time-consuming. *sigh* Second "usual suspect", like many have said - antivirus software. For much the same reasons, actually. Just my two cents... :) EDIT: A printer was a bad example. They often suffer the exact same problems. Let's say a popular graphics card instead (yes, they are sometimes buggy too, but the high volume cards usually get stable drivers eventually).