03-01-2006 06:20 PM
Hello all,
I want to clear up some misconceptions about the LabVIEW launch time and
recommend ways you can improve it.
I’ll start with the common setup where LabVIEW is running stand-alone on a PC. After you open LabVIEW initially, load time always decreases during the subsequent launches. This occurs because LabVIEW is cached in memory and remains cached even after it is closed unless you open a lot of other software. This may have caused confusion for some you while you were troubleshooting. For example, if you launch LabVIEW once, then unplug your network cable and launch it again, it will definitely be faster, but it’s not because of the unplugged cable.
If you would like to try to improve your LabVIEW 8 launch time, below is the
complete list of recommendations produced with consultation with LabVIEW
R&D.
1. Let your PC settle before launching LabVIEW 8. Otherwise, you are stacking
system launch time with LabVIEW launch time.
2. Disable McAfee Virus Scan (net stop "McAfee Framework Service",
net stop "Network Associates McShield", net stop "Network
Associates Task Manager", net stop "SMS Agent Host"). This is
recommended for Field Sales when visiting a customer.
3. De-fragment your hard drive.
4. If you are not using LabVIEW DSC, you can set the, National Instruments
Citadel service and, MSSQLSERVER service to have a startup type of
"manual" in the Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services manager. This
will cause Citadel and MSDE (the Citadel Alarms and Events portion of the
database) to not load automatically.
5. (LabVIEW DSC Users) You can improve launch time by periodically undeploying
any deployed libraries through the Variable Manager, and periodically
"Detach/Delete" all unused databases from the Historical Data viewer
in MAX.
6. (LabVIEW FPGA Users) Only install FPGA support for hardware you are using.
LabVIEW FPGA 8 loads all FPGA Target resource files it can find on launch. The
impact of this can be 4 seconds per target you have installed support for.
(This will be fixed in the next version of LabVIEW).
As
LabVIEW R&D is aware that launch time is a problem for many LabVIEW users and has begun taking steps to improve launch time in future versions of LabVIEW. Many of these improvements involve changing how and when LabVIEW loads various portions of the environment (e.g. palettes). We will continue to work to make the launch time experience better for LabVIEW users and very much appreciate your feedback.
Best regards,
Mike Neal
LabVIEW Product Manager
National Instruments03-01-2006 09:34 PM
03-02-2006 02:23 AM
When I disable the ‘Lookout Citadel Server’ the startup time is not 50 sec. but 75 sec.
The second startup time is only 10 sec.
During the first startup it takes 15 sec. to get to the ‘Finishing Initialization’ part, the remaining 60 sec. it’s ‘Finishing Initialization’
Well if I drink my morning coffee during the first startup it is all acceptable.
03-02-2006 07:16 AM
Thank you Michael!
Knowing that this is being worked on makes a big difference in my book.
Ben
03-02-2006 07:35 AM
03-02-2006 09:49 AM
03-03-2006 05:47 AM - edited 03-03-2006 05:47 AM
Actual start times do vary.
After cleaning up my disk and doing a defrag over night followed by a re-boot and "let it sit" period (phew) LV 8 start-up took 115 seconds.
Re-starts are about 45 seconds. This is a slight improvement.
Here is a VI were I was plotting start-up time vs LV version.
Ben
Message Edited by Ben on 03-03-2006 05:47 AM