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Why is the start-up time 5 minutes for Version 8?

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 Shannon discussed earlier in this thread, launch times may be slower for LabVIEW users with the NI Volume License Manager (which is based on FlexLM) due to how LabVIEW looks for licensing information on your computer in this case. If you have multiple software packages that use FlexLM for licensing (e.g. LabVIEW and AutoCAD), it takes longer for LabVIEW to identify the correct license server. You can improve this process by shutting down license servers for other products, but you must restart them when you want to use that software package.

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 Instruments
Message 21 of 27
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Sorry, in my last post I should have said LabVIEW is cached on disk, not in memory. I apologize for any confusion.
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Message 22 of 27
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Hi Michael,

 

When I disable the ‘Lookout Citadel Server’ the startup time is not 50 sec. but 75 sec.  Smiley Mad

 

The second startup time is only 10 sec.  Smiley Very Happy

 

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. Smiley Wink

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Message 23 of 27
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Thank you Michael!

Knowing that this is being worked on makes a big difference in my book.

Ben

Retired Senior Automation Systems Architect with Data Science Automation LabVIEW Champion Knight of NI and Prepper LinkedIn Profile YouTube Channel
Message 24 of 27
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Michael,

I seem to be having a different problem with Labview 8 and startup times. I have a 5 MINUTE delay between when the splash screen shows up and when my project VI's begin to load. This doesnt seem to me to be a system performance issue, but more like its waiting for something to happen, and times out after 5 mintues. I could live with 60 seconds.. the 5 minutes is unbearable. None of the suggestions I have seen to date seem to have fixed the problem.

Is this a known problem with a nice, easy solution? Smiley Wink
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Message 25 of 27
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Knowing that the problem is being worked on is also a big plus for me - I tried all of the suggestions, and my initial start time is still 150s, and subsequent starts are around 90s.  It's still far too long!




Copyright © 2004-2024 Christopher G. Relf. Some Rights Reserved. This posting is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
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Message 26 of 27
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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

Retired Senior Automation Systems Architect with Data Science Automation LabVIEW Champion Knight of NI and Prepper LinkedIn Profile YouTube Channel
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