X14 Freezing or stalling

[RobWhite]

My X14 occasional freezes. It doesn't shut down, just seems to stall or freeze for about 2-5 minutes, 5+ times a day. It seems to occur when have the program open but unused with a short period or when I jump to another program. Sometimes when I open another program but not always.

 

I am using Microsoft Book 3 - i7 1065G7 CPU @ 1,3GHz; 32RAM; 1 TB drive about 20% used; Windows 11 Pro; NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 video card.

 

My system was brilliant with X13, and generally good with X14.

 

Any thoughts...anyone had this and resolved it?

[MoeGia]

I also have a Surfacebook 3.  I can't run X14 on battery; it must be plugged in to use the NVidia card.  After working for a few hours, Windows Explorer crashes.  I get those freezes for a while until it eventually locks the computer up and my taskbar disappears.

 

If I close down Chief when I start getting the freezes, the laptop recovers.  There's definitely a relationship between how long the program is running and freezes. I usually turn off Onedrive which seems to help.

[Kbird1]

You are not the only one , there is another Thread on slowness and these lock-ups ...for me it is the Save system,

eg  Auto save , and Auto Archive settings usually, but manual saves also can trigger the same 3 - 11 min lock out,

and occasional full crash in my case.

 

Some have reported a link to the Time Log and have tried disabling it , but I use it for Billing , so can't do that, but I am not sure how the two would be linked, or if that is a separate issue?.

 

more info in this thread.....

 

 

[Dermot]

We have had a number of people report random lockups.  So far we have had a very difficult time trying to reproduce it in any kind of reliable way.  We think it's a timing issue related to some low level system interactions.  We have even added some diagnostic code to our in-house versions to try and help us find this problem but so far we have not had any luck.  

 

If anyone can find a repeatable case where X14 locks up, then please be sure and report this to our tech support team.  If would be very helpful if you could include the plan you are working in and the exact steps that you are using to see the lock up.  We would need to know what windows you have open and how they are configured (a screen capture can help with this).  We will also need some detailed information about your system.  Hopefully, this extra information can help us to determine the cause.

 

When we get a fix for this, we will try to get an update out as soon as we are able.  Please note that we are planning a 14.2 update that should be available in the near future but as of yet we still don't have a fix for this particular problem.

 

You can find information about contacting tech support here:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/

 

[Designers_Ink]

I just had a freeze and noticed when I went to the Task Manager and closed out the Malwarebytes program which runs in the background, it instantly unfroze my Chief file and let me keep working.  It is the first time I have tried this, so I will try it again to try to reproduce it when I get another freeze.  

[stephenbc]

I too struggle with the X14 simply closing down without warning after creating sections, and viewing in perspective view.  I highly suspect that it is due to legacy plans (plans created in earlier versions of the software).  Learning to live with it...autosave function is helpful.

[Designers_Ink]

Just had another freeze.  The last time I was in plan view.  This time I was on camera view.  As soon as it locked up, I immediately shut down Malwarebytes, and it again immediately unfroze and let me continue working.

[DeLayDesign]

Some of our older PCs had issues with this as well.  We have tried a number of things as well.  Try turning off Time Tracker.  The freeze for most of my team happens after Chief idles for 5 mins.  I suspect the pop up is triggering something with MacAfee which is the antivirus we recently switched to (I hate it)  I suspect the antivirus is triggering your issue like you stated.  We had to white list Chief as a non-threat for Microsoft defender.

We installed X14 on someone's PC that didn't have MacAfee yet and Microsoft wouldn't allow the install bc it saw it as a 'Ransomware Threat'

[Kbird1]

15 hours ago, Designers_Ink said:

Just had another freeze.  The last time I was in plan view.  This time I was on camera view.  As soon as it locked up, I immediately shut down Malwarebytes, and it again immediately unfroze and let me continue working.

 

Thanks for the Tip , unfortunately this does not help me, just tried it now with a lockup in the new version from Yest., though I use MB's Free version , so not sure if it is different in some way?

 

* today it is the Layout causing Issues it seems when it Autosaves , and now it has started it seems to trigger ever 15 mins and in this last case lasted for 8 1/4 mins. Note: that neither Autosave or Auto Archive or the Timer are set to 15 mins. but once it starts in a plan , that is it ...time to reboot and try again.

 

  

 

Trying to reboot.......

 

 

 

 

M.

[Smn842]

14 hours ago, Kbird1 said:

today it is the Layout causing Issues it seems when it Autosaves , and now it has started it seems to trigger ever 15 mins and in this last case lasted for 8 1/4 mins. Note: that neither Autosave or Auto Archive or the Timer are set to 15 mins. but once it starts in a plan , that is it ...time to reboot and try again.

 

I wonder if creating process dumps (used for debugging) during these freezes would help CA find the cause, perhaps @Dermot can confirm?  

 

If they can, then these can be created in various ways, the simplest on Windows is from Task Manager, finding the Chief app and then expanding its entry as it has two processes, and then for each selecting 'Create dump file' for each. This creates a dump of the running application and memory that may be useful for debugging if CA has the matching debug map files from when they built the executables.  The files created are large but compress well.

 

 

I used to add an enhanced version of this into my applications by having a background thread that used it own memory management (to avoid corrupted memory state) and when triggered by a simple utility application shipped with the product it would create a full stack trace using a built in map file and capture other info into a file for sending in.  It did this twice usually 10 seconds apart so I could compare if a thread was stuck in the same place which a single snapshot doesn't.  As this was separate from the main GUI and other threads it would trigger even when GUI or service APIs were deadlocked or waiting on something making the application appear frozen.  For GUI apps I also had this trigger if the UI thread became unresponsive for an extended period.   Some modern Windows features such as ASLR (moves code around on each load) can make debugging harder but this information help me find obscure issues on some very complex systems without the need to provide special diagnostic versions to clients or having to enable logging that slowed down an application.

 

Excuse the technical ramble, but as a developer I feel the pain of trying to find the cause of some issues!

[Kbird1]

3 hours ago, Smn842 said:

Excuse the technical ramble,

 

Thanks for the post Simon , personally I'd be will to try anything at this point as it been going on for months now and kills "production" some days , it took 25 mins yest. to just save and close the 2 plans and the layout yest. to reboot, certasinly I can't pinpoint it at it was okay in the same File after that for a couple of hours.

 

Mick. 

[Designers_Ink]

The saga continues... This lock up was during a camera view.  I tried closing Malwarebytes instead of ending the task in the Task Manager, and it did not work.  Still frozen.  I then went into the task manager and scrolled down to the "Antimalware Service Executable - Microsoft Defender Antivirus Service" which was running as a Background Process and ended it.  Again, my Chief immediately unlocked and allowed me to continue.  

 

Maybe just another piece to the puzzle.

[Kbird1]

Thanks Jeff , wish I had know to try that earlier today , was a day from H*** back in an Early X13 Plan for me, will try that tomorrow as turning off the MWB Tray App , has not helped me at all.

 

Mick. 

[BenMerritt]

On 7/15/2022 at 3:29 AM, Smn842 said:

I wonder if creating process dumps (used for debugging) during these freezes would help CA find the cause, perhaps @Dermot can confirm?  

 

If they can, then these can be created in various ways, the simplest on Windows is from Task Manager, finding the Chief app and then expanding its entry as it has two processes, and then for each selecting 'Create dump file' for each. This creates a dump of the running application and memory that may be useful for debugging if CA has the matching debug map files from when they built the executables.  The files created are large but compress well.

 

We do keep debugging maps on hand for precisely this scenario, and they're often quite helpful for at least narrowing down where to look for the issue.

[Designers_Ink]

Another freeze just as I opened an existing file before doing anything to it.  This time I went to the Task Manager and hit End Task on the Antimalware Service Executable like last time, and again, my Chief immediately unfroze and allowed me to go back to work with no issues.

 

[Kbird1]

On 7/18/2022 at 6:15 PM, Designers_Ink said:

The saga continues... This lock up was during a camera view.  I tried closing Malwarebytes instead of ending the task in the Task Manager, and it did not work.  Still frozen.  I then went into the task manager and scrolled down to the "Antimalware Service Executable - Microsoft Defender Antivirus Service" which was running as a Background Process and ended it.  Again, my Chief immediately unlocked and allowed me to continue.  

 

Maybe just another piece to the puzzle.

 

I have seen others post that this freezing Issue maybe a Virus Scanning Program Issue eg McAfee and the Chief .exe file being labelled Malware by Windows Defender and not even allowing Installation of Chief , which got me thinking Whitelist and with Windows Defender Exclusions , so I have added both Chief's File Types to the Exclusion list to see if this Helps since the plan i am in this week is bad.

 

You can try adding an exclusion to Windows Defender too Jeff ..... for Chief itself (process) or for .plan and .layout File extensions which I am going to try.

 

Mick.

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/add-an-exclusion-to-windows-security-811816c0-4dfd-af4a-47e4-c301afe13b26

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-add-a-file-type-or-process-exclusion-to-windows-security-e524cbc2-3975-63c2-f9d1-7c2eb5331e53

[cjanderson66]

Well this just happened to me as well.  I have WEbroot but that should not be the problem.  I had to close the program through task manager and opened up the program again only to find that everything I had done this morning was not saved.  Went to open up the auto archive and even that did not save the old info I had done.  Checked my preferences and it is at save every 5 minutes.  This is the first time this has happened just wondering if this is part of the problem with the new update to X14.  Damn all that work I did this morning and now I need to retrace my steps again.  

[Kbird1]

3 minutes ago, cjanderson66 said:

Well this just happened to me as well.  I have WEbroot but that should not be the problem.  I had to close the program through task manager and opened up the program again only to find that everything I had done this morning was not saved.  Went to open up the auto archive and even that did not save the old info I had done.  Checked my preferences and it is at save every 5 minutes.  This is the first time this has happened just wondering if this is part of the problem with the new update to X14.  Damn all that work I did this morning and now I need to retrace my steps again.  

 

No the lockup Issue has been around sometime , some seem to have it some not , it rears it head for me predominantly in Old Plans brought forward, but not sure what the difference is with X14 only Plans, I'm not going to claim success yet but the Whitelisting I mention in my post above yest. seems to be helping today even with Time Tracking On ( another Issue some are having with crashes. but not sure if all are related?)

 

Mick.  

[SHCanada2]

On 7/20/2022 at 2:04 PM, Kbird1 said:

so I have added both Chief's File Types to the Exclusion list to see if this Helps since the plan i am in this week is bad.

I have added entire directories for other applications when the AV seems to want to go looking at running files. You may wish to try excluding CA's entire exe and dll directory as well

[Kbird1]

12 hours ago, jasonn1234 said:

I have added entire directories for other applications when the AV seems to want to go looking at running files. You may wish to try excluding CA's entire exe and dll directory as well

 

Thanks, I try not to add whole Directories if I can to Whitelists, in Windows Defender I have added just .plan and .layout Files as Exclusions.

Malwarebytes Free only allows Applications, so I have added the X13 and X14 .exe Files to it's Allow List too.

 

  

[remodelmyhome]

We're having similar freezing issues with 3 different computers in our office.  2 are on windows 11 and 1 on windows 10.  For us it seems to lock up after idling for a while or navigating away from the program and then trying to get it to come back up.  2 of us start closing down web browsers (edge or chrome) that are open, and most of the time chief starts working again.

We've turned off the time tracker, changed the file directories to our c: drive (instead of network locations), bought a new computer (12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900K, 32GB DDR5/5200MHz Dual Channel Memory, GeForce RTX™ 3070 8GB GDDR6, 1TB WD Black SN770 Series PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD - Seq R/W: Up to 5150/4900 MB/s) ........still freezing. Chief X13 worked no problem - without any modifications......

[CAmichael240114]

Had similar CA X14 lockups and crashes for no reason.

On occasions with CA open I notice the following, if I view photos of the project I am working in Windows Photos, sometimes CA will freeze up and when this happens the power useage for CA is very high. I can not do anything with CA it's frozen. The only choice is to click on any other programs that are open or to end the CA program with the Task Manager.

 

[SHCanada2]

1 hour ago, remodelmyhome said:

2 of us start closing down web browsers

closing down the web browser has worked for me. I think there is another post on this web browser issue if I remember correctly

 

[Kbird1]

On 8/2/2022 at 2:28 PM, CAmichael240114 said:

Had similar CA X14 lockups and crashes for no reason.

On occasions with CA open I notice the following, if I view photos of the project I am working in Windows Photos, sometimes CA will freeze up and when this happens the power useage for CA is very high. I can not do anything with CA it's frozen. The only choice is to click on any other programs that are open or to end the CA program with the Task Manager.

 

 

On 8/2/2022 at 2:57 PM, jasonn1234 said:

closing down the web browser has worked for me. I think there is another post on this web browser issue if I remember correctly

 

 

For me it appears Macrium Reflect was involved too , but  CA released a patch for this if you haven't updated yet ....still testing here.... no real info provided though on the cause.

 

chief-architect-x14-update-notes_V4.24.2.2.1.pdf

 

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/34655-x14-frequent-freezing-anyone-else-having-this-problem/?do=findComment&comment=275131

 

 

Mick.

[parkwest]

I updated chief this morning and didn’t have a freeze yet today .  I was about fed up with this stuff, but life is good again.

 

Anyone else have good results from the last patch update?