I run Mac - El Capitan 10.11.6 - main
I have noticed a substantial slow down in client speed for some time now with recent updates.
Therefore I have been using an old one 20160728 -c4d88693d5-osx_x86 - about 2 months old.
Clearly this cannot go on as more updates appear - so today I took a completely fresh client. Once opened, I transferred my All.macro file across.
I also set the general options to match my old client - advanced GUI, no sound options etc.
new client 20161004 - 39881adc28-osx_x86
On this new client I loaded a saved solution of 1293b from the old client, ran blue fuse on it - then ran Tvdl enhanced DRW 2.8.1. all at LPW.
The script chose the first sequence of five segments to work on.
This rebuild took 46 minutes!
Somewhat stunned, I returned to the old client - ran Blue fuse then specified the same section of 5 segments and ran with all the same settings.
This took 16 minutes. So about 1/3rd of the time.
No other applications were running on my machine and the majority of the time the window was minimised. My fans only cut in with the old client. Chat was not affected in the old client whereas the new client lost chat a few times.
If there's any further info I can give, please advise. I hope u can help?
Not seeing this issue with recent clients on Windows.
I'd suspect a low-level disk problem as one probable cause. On Windows, I've had a couple of systems start acting quirky, experiencing unexpected slowdowns and even crashes. In both cases, it turned out there were bad disk sectors. Windows utilities like chkdsk were unable to detect this condition.
Both systems were made by Lenovo. It turns out that Lenovo has a Linux boot disk with a utility to scan and correct this type of problem. Although this disk was listed as being for specific Lenovo models, it didn't seem to care, and ran just fine on a non-listed Lenovo model. Not sure if would work on other Windows systems (or perhaps even on a Mac?).
I was a little surprised by this, I'd previously thought that either the disks were smart enough to fix bad sectors on the fly, or that at least chkdsk could find and fix problems. Apparently this is incorrect.
I've since replaced both disks with SSDs, in an effort to ward off further problems and perhaps improve performance a bit.
Once upon a time, you'd see disks with a listed Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) of over 100 years (expressed in hours). I was told that our company's MTBF calculations included the assumption you would replace the disk every five years. I see that Seagate is now using "Annual Failure Rate" (AFR) instead: http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/174791en?language=en_US
Bottom line, having a good backup is always a good idea.
I doubt the disc issue - old little machine - but pretty new SSD in place of optical - and increased ram….heat sinks replaced about a year ago. Machine works well with everything - except this foldit issue at the moment.
The faster drive still has to access other components, consumer machines are not designed to be thrashed 24x7 for years,, even Macs.
I only run one client if I play, with rare exceptions for a few hours only.
It would be great if the community could work out a cheap Linux or novel or similar set of hardware and software so you could easily set up a dedicated device within a reasonable price range - cheaper than buying gaming level rigs on any platform. i ran a windows cluster blade for a while and it was fantastic apart from the heat and the noise.
Also I doubt if the fabulous code we use for scripts has been optimised particularly well as it is focused on score not minimising wear and tear on hardware.
I have noticed that the clients don't seem to cause fatal crashes any more on my Mac for which I am very grateful, client crashes are ok and often caused by me anyway :)
OK - so back to my original feedback. Nothing to do with age of machine - all to do with different behaviour between clients (on the same machine)
I have tried hard to duplicate the facts that I first listed after doing one thing on my machine. At one point it looked as tho it was to do with copying all.macro across to a fresh client. Again, whilst I saw the issue once, I could not duplicate it.
Prior to this I took the time to look at my Applications folder (this is where I run foldit from on my mac)
Now I'm no IT whizz (u guys all know this) but I have always assumed that an Application with a different name is entirely independent.
So I made another assumption - perhaps there's some 'bleed thro' between these apps. I might add here that I have a copy of every instance of foldit going back 5 years. Yes, I know that's very sad.
Now I also realise that many will immediately say that this is bad housekeeping and it probably is - but like I say, all the copies of foldit on my machine have different names.
So I spent a little time - compressed all the old ones I don't want (leaving 3 for luck) then stuck them in a subfolder. So they are no longer applications - they are archive.
Then I tried to duplicate the results I had had B4 with different all.macro files (the ones b4 GUI went wrong often caused slower speed ) - I could not.
I have downloaded about 8-10 fresh new clients 2day and spent the best part of 8 hours testing - I can say this….
The new client now works pretty close to the old client I was using (speed wise) And I have to assume that keeping old clients in applications (mac) is a bad move however they are named.
I hope this helps anyone else that has the same issue - I also hope that what I have now stays with me and doesn't do a goofy 2morrow! LOL
Frood
might I also add - a big thx to all those in Vet that made suggestions - very much appreciated.
I have 'my' game back. :)
just a note – I did reload my cookbook fairly recently – think late July or early August and from scratch. then had to segregate all the GUI recipes out. But my run speed is bad and I'm on a windows 7. keep having client hang. It is starting to be frustrating instead of fun right now. I add this just as possible diagnostic information.
I'm may take Frood's counsel and get rid of some old client back ups. However, my machine has always had trouble with clients hanging, freezing and not saving. It doesn't always update to server. And it can't do very large puzzles. so please at least keep some of our small ones. those who have worked the redo ones 4-5 times can leave them for those of us on the first or second round LOL
Skippy
Great suggestions for folks with older machines, thanks for following up!
I'm afraid my jubilation was a tad too soon.
I'm back where I started. The current client continuously loses IRC and 'goes to sleep' when minimised.
The old client does neither of these things and still outperforms on speed by some margin.
I know not what else to do - except hope for help. :)
I am running the same OS and have no problems.
