Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Windows task-switching issue

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-03-2007, 10:08 AM:

I'm having an annoying computer problem.

If I switch from a non-windows program (BASIC, actually) running in a window, back to the regular Windows environment using ALT-tab or just by clicking the other window, there is about a 7 second delay before "regular" Windows will respond. I assume there's some setting in the window running BASIC that needs to be fixed, but what is it? Any ideas?

I'm running Windows XP Pro if that makes any difference.

[ 12-03-2007, 11:12 AM: Message edited by: Mike Blakesley ]

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 12-03-2007, 01:13 PM:

"Basically", you're using DOS if doing BASIC since DOS is still at the core of XP, but barely enough there since Windows needs a fraction of old MSDOS to operate.

Microsoft really would love to dump DOS all-together like APPLE did with their text based DOS, but still shows loyalty to their customers by keeping enough MSDOS in there to make them happy .. like yourself when you play with BASIC.

Take a peek at this site if you still love playing with MS-DOS programs, including BASIC.

I still play with a bunch of DOS programs in my laptop here (and I have XPproSP2 as well), including an old copy of Lotus 2.3 which I've created an icon for that program on my desktop.

Good luck - Monte

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 12-03-2007, 03:04 PM:

I don't know the answer to your specific problem, but if you like playing in DOS within XP, I would suggest VMWare. You'd probably get a much cleaner experience that way.

We have an old accounting system that only works under DOS (or Windows 95), but since you can't buy hardware to run either of those anymore, we use VMWare on XP. The XP user boots up the virtual 95 PC, logs in to the accounting system, and voila.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-03-2007, 03:29 PM:

The only thing I use BASIC for is -- we run a little UPS shipping service on the side here, and the Basic program is one I wrote about a 15 years ago that prints the receipts for the customers and keeps a file on how much we charge vs how much we're paying UPS. For some dumb reason, the UPS software we use doesn't have a facility for making customer receipts, so I built my own deal. I've been wanting to create an Excel file to do the receipts. I've got it to where it does the math OK, but I can't figure out how to make it "accumulate" the transactions from one to the next for the end-of-day balancing.

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 12-03-2007, 03:38 PM:

Nothing runs DOS anymore? I thought all computer would still run DOS if you could boot from a small FAT file system. All systems still seem to have the old text-modes built in, and even recent Windows boxes still come up in that for the BIOS stuff before booting.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-03-2007, 05:02 PM:

The ol' DOS program runs fine - its the switching back to Windows that's the problem. I'll click in some other window and the system just hangs there with an hourglass for 6 or 7 seconds....as if it has taken everything in its power to run this stupid little DOS (BASIC) program. That pause is what I'm trying to solve.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 12-03-2007, 06:19 PM:

Is the disk activity light on the entire time you're waiting for the switchover? How much RAM does the machine have?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-03-2007, 06:28 PM:

No, the activity light doesn't come on at all during the process. I don't always get the hourglass either -- just the delay, sometimes. This is a 2-year old Dell machine with lotsa memory, 2 GB I think, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 12-03-2007, 06:30 PM:

New systems will run DOS, but finding drivers for new hardware is difficult. Virtual machines make it much easier to get a new system up and running with 95 and all of the network drivers and what not. It's also very easy to pick the virtual PC up and move it to another physical PC. Much easier than trying to keep older pieces of hardware running.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 12-04-2007, 04:33 PM:

If you first open a shell (run-> "cmd.exe") and then try to start NTVDM with "command.com" does it bitch at you about being broken?

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 12-04-2007, 06:16 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
No, the activity light doesn't come on at all during the process. I don't always get the hourglass either -- just the delay, sometimes. This is a 2-year old Dell machine with lotsa memory, 2 GB I think, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Have you scanned for malware/spyware lately?
Running Norton IS? It's a freakin, trouble makin resource hog. [puke]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-04-2007, 07:16 PM:

Brad - This computer used to have McAfee on it, but it conflicted with the UPS software which has to talk to UPS every day, so we took the McAfee off and all has been well since then. It's currently running without any security software except Windows firewall. Might be worth a try to reinstall something and give it a scan, but it's working 100% perfect in every other way except this thing.

Daryl: Excuse my ignorance here, but what do you mean by "try to start NTVDM with "command.com" "?

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 12-04-2007, 08:27 PM:

You can start the NT Virtual DOS Machine (NTVDM) by typing the command "command.com" and hitting enter from within the text mode shell (run "cmd.exe" from the Start->Run dialog).

Has this machine always been slow switching between this basic program and other windows? What version number of basic? Which incarnation of basic, QBasic?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-04-2007, 10:59 PM:

OK, I'll try that tomorrow when I'm near that computer.

I'm not sure how long it's been doing this, but it didn't do it when new. It's a 2-year old machine, give or take a few months.

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 12-07-2007, 05:32 PM:

Mike, you can download and install Ad-Aware for free. It does a fair job of finding and removing crap/ad/spy ware that gets downloaded without your knowledge.
Download Adaware here

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 12-08-2007, 03:52 AM:

I like Spybot - Search and Destroy tons better .. I had problems with Adaware and uninstalled it for Spybot.

-Monte

Posted by Tao Yue (Member # 836) on 12-09-2007, 10:46 AM:

It is a good idea to have spyware protection anyway. But it is rather unlikely that spyware is the cause. As Mike says, he only has this problem when running a BASIC program that he wrote fifteen years ago.

quote: Mike Blakesley

I'll click in some other window and the system just hangs there with an hourglass for 6 or 7 seconds....as if it has taken everything in its power to run this stupid little DOS (BASIC) program.

This is actually a very likely candidate. Older DOS programs tend to perform loops which occupy the full processing power of the CPU. It might very well take Windows 7 seconds to suspend the program and regain control of the processor. This page describes a different problem, but see section "DOS CPU usage" for diagnostic steps and explanation:
http://www.printfil.com/article/slow-dos-printing-in-windows.htm#dos-cpu-usage

Another way of testing -- run your program on a machine with a modern dual-core processor, and see if the delay goes away. On a system with multiple cores, the DOS program would only occupy one core, leaving the other core free for other programs.