Stability of older Orcad/PSpice combos?

[Charlie E.]

No, you don't owe me

As one SW engineer once said after he helped me out of a pickle, "We are
all here to serve".

Let's just say I would be glad to give you advice then... ;-)

Charlie

 

[Nico Coesel]

Had to work on the weekend because of these dreaded crashes, so no time
for the PC to do that. But I doubt there is a problem. There are only
two programs that notoriously crash: Orcad and Acrobat, and Acrobat got
kicked out which solved that problem. Dozens of other software companies
whose SW is on this PC must have done something right because theirs
does not crash ;-)

Grant's suggestion is a good one. In many cases a memory error
surfaces by using a particular application while the rest seems to run
just fine. I recently used memtest succesfully to find a defective
memory module.

 

[Joerg]

Actually Jeorg, it almost sounds like you have multiple versions
installed, in different locations, and the registrations keep getting
futzed up. You might just try to run each of the applications
individuatlly directly from My Computer, as this will self-register
teh applications. I used to have a batch file that ran each exe with
a registrations keyword, but can't find it now... :-(

There is only on directory that holds the software. Whenever it crashes
I uninstall, wipe what's possible in that directory (some stuff is rite
protected for whatever reason).

 

[Joerg]

Grant's suggestion is a good one. In many cases a memory error
surfaces by using a particular application while the rest seems to run
just fine. I recently used memtest succesfully to find a defective
memory module.

I'll do that when the computer has the required time off but that rarely
happens here

However, I doubt it'll find anything because I often use other software
to the point where it maxes out the RAM and starts using the HD. That
should have crashed if there was bad RAM but it didn't.

 

[Joerg]

Is that Mormon or Catholic or Baptist "rite" protected? It'll make
difference

Lutheran. Of course

 

[[email protected]]

Lutheran. Of course

More like "last".

 

[Joerg]

That's an understatement.

Revo will let you remove all traces of a program from the hard drive,
including things that are buried in the registry. I use it to clean up
donated computers. Some programs have over 3,000 registry entries that
aren't removed by using the uninstall routine that comes with the
software. You load and run Revo, then click on the program you want to
delete. Click 'Uninstall', and the built in unistaller runs the
program's unistall routine. Then click 'next', and 'delete' as prompted
to clean up the registry and remove empty folders. ...

Yup. In my case that would almost be like taking a 9mm and *KABLAM* ...
look, dudes, it's clean now!

Unfortunately that will have also killed the license. Which would be
just great

[...]

 

[Joerg]

Your igonrance is showing.

No, it's a matter of caution. It is not prudent to hose license files
off the disk.

And you have no clue how to recover that first so you keep wasting by
time reinstalling it, over and over. That's called insanity.

This is the method the manufacturer prescribed.

 

[Joerg]

Whatever. It's still a huge waste of time.

You tend to conclude prematurely without knowing the required details.
Getting the license manager back up and running with this software can
be a major waste to time. While my file/directory wipe by hand took,
what, 60 seconds?

 

[josephkk]

I have Sun VirtualMachine on here. But Cadence's license model is IMHO
highly complicated and cumbersome, I doubt this would work.


Had to work on the weekend because of these dreaded crashes, so no time
for the PC to do that. But I doubt there is a problem. There are only
two programs that notoriously crash: Orcad and Acrobat, and Acrobat got
kicked out which solved that problem. Dozens of other software companies
whose SW is on this PC must have done something right because theirs
does not crash ;-)

Looking at this again, i suggest that you have some version of DLL hell. I
do not have any problems with Acrobat on any machine, Windoes or Linux.
This is often the root cause of Flash problems as well.

 

[Joerg]

Times how many hundred reinstalls?

That's got nothing to do with whether I use Revo or not. That's got to
do with the general quality of the code and this is obviously beyond my
influence. Although not quite because my complaints have already
triggered some redesign there. Too late for me but a good thing for
others later.

 

[Joerg]

josephkk wrote:

[...]

Looking at this again, i suggest that you have some version of DLL hell. I
do not have any problems with Acrobat on any machine, Windoes or Linux.
This is often the root cause of Flash problems as well.

Why is Foxit stable then and Acrobat isn't? And Cadsoft Eagle is rock
solid and Orcad isn't? No matter how impatient I am (and with software
and GUIs I am not the most patient guy) I have not managed to bring
Eagle to crash on me. I can bring Foxit to choke and huff and puff, but
not really into a CTRL-ALT-DEL situation.

 

[Joerg]

josephkk wrote:

[...]

Looking at this again, i suggest that you have some version of DLL hell. I
do not have any problems with Acrobat on any machine, Windoes or Linux.
This is often the root cause of Flash problems as well.

Why is Foxit stable then and Acrobat isn't? And Cadsoft Eagle is rock
solid and Orcad isn't? No matter how impatient I am (and with software
and GUIs I am not the most patient guy) I have not managed to bring
Eagle to crash on me. I can bring Foxit to choke and huff and puff, but
not really into a CTRL-ALT-DEL situation.

How come virtually no one else has these problems?

Oh they do. I've heard that from many engineers. Just ask Keith about it ;-)

You ought to cleanse your whole machine, then reinstall everything.

But you won't :-(

No, I won't. Because Cadence support checked it out for about an hour.
They said that it was remarkably clean in comparison to what they find
on average. This remote diagnostics session had become necessary because
there is a recurring licensing discrepancy between the registry and the
software. Neither they nor I could figure out why but they showed me a
(somewhat ugly) way around it. Obviously I can't be the only one if they
knew this registry detour off the top of their heads.

Oh, and there's now a fix-it ticket open, triggered by yours truly

BTW, I recall you letting off some choice words about this software in
this here group ...

 

[Joerg]

josephkk wrote:

[...]

Looking at this again, i suggest that you have some version of DLL hell. I
do not have any problems with Acrobat on any machine, Windoes or Linux.
This is often the root cause of Flash problems as well.
Why is Foxit stable then and Acrobat isn't? And Cadsoft Eagle is rock
solid and Orcad isn't? No matter how impatient I am (and with software
and GUIs I am not the most patient guy) I have not managed to bring
Eagle to crash on me. I can bring Foxit to choke and huff and puff, but
not really into a CTRL-ALT-DEL situation.
How come virtually no one else has these problems?

Oh they do. I've heard that from many engineers. Just ask Keith about it ;-)

That's one ;-)

I know more than one ;-)

Crapture? Certainly! Why do you use it? I already told you how many
times that the native PSpice Schematics is marvelous, plus presents a
trivial few key clicks to produce a Crapture copy if the client
requires.

Well, right now it hangs on and I only need it for this one job. One
trick I learned is not to do things too fast. Such as copying or moving
large parts of a schematic. Put square around, shift-click ... one
Mississippi ... two Mississippi ... wait until black cat has crossed
street ... copy. Else, bad things can happen.

It's simulating right now. Kinda slow but humming. Compared to Eagle and
LTSpice it feels like I stepped from a Porsche into gramp's 70's
Cadillac. Ok, it's BIG

If I need to do more of these jobs I'll probably get PSpice Schematics.

 

[Joerg]

josephkk wrote:

[...]

Looking at this again, i suggest that you have some version of DLL hell. I
do not have any problems with Acrobat on any machine, Windoes or Linux.
This is often the root cause of Flash problems as well.

Why is Foxit stable then and Acrobat isn't? And Cadsoft Eagle is rock
solid and Orcad isn't? No matter how impatient I am (and with software
and GUIs I am not the most patient guy) I have not managed to bring
Eagle to crash on me. I can bring Foxit to choke and huff and puff, but
not really into a CTRL-ALT-DEL situation.

Foxit, CutePDF, Irfanview, PADS sch+pcb, CrimsonEditor, Firefox,
Thunderbird, PowerBasic, LT Spice, Appcad, TXline, RFsim99, all seem
solid.

Even the open source stuff such as gEDA (I ran that under Linux though,
on this same PC) and Kicad never crashed on me. I gave both a pretty
good run but decided they aren't for me, for other reasons. I guess from
a complexity POV Mathcad compares well to CAD software in terms of
complexity. My only gripe with it is its cost, stability is no problem.

We wrote our own parts database program. It's in its third iteration
now. The same database file has run uncorrupted for about 15 years
now. Because it's simple.

Yep. Simplicity is why I use MS-Works for databases. But anything after
version 6.0 seems buggy to me, probably they added too much fluff into it.

 

[Joerg]

[snip]

If I need to do more of these jobs I'll probably get PSpice Schematics.

There are free copies in circulation. Take it for a spin.

Have to look for one later. Right now I must run one sim after the other
to make up for the time these crashes have cost.

But I must say that I like LTSpice a lot better than PSpice. The only
downside is that some IC models appear to be vendor-locked (only PSpice
models and not ASCII) and that there is no integration between LTSpice
and my CAD. This can easily cause a transcription error in the
schematic. Then again, the sheer speed of LTSpice makes up for all that.

 

[josephkk]

josephkk wrote:

[...]

Looking at this again, i suggest that you have some version of DLL hell. I
do not have any problems with Acrobat on any machine, Windoes or Linux.
This is often the root cause of Flash problems as well.

Why is Foxit stable then and Acrobat isn't? And Cadsoft Eagle is rock
solid and Orcad isn't? No matter how impatient I am (and with software
and GUIs I am not the most patient guy) I have not managed to bring
Eagle to crash on me. I can bring Foxit to choke and huff and puff, but
not really into a CTRL-ALT-DEL situation.

I should think that's obvious. Neither Foxit nor Eagle have DLLs with
conflicts. In fact, this points to conflicts between Orcad and Acrobat.

 

[[email protected]]

josephkk wrote:

[...]

Looking at this again, i suggest that you have some version of DLL hell. I
do not have any problems with Acrobat on any machine, Windoes or Linux.
This is often the root cause of Flash problems as well.

Why is Foxit stable then and Acrobat isn't? And Cadsoft Eagle is rock
solid and Orcad isn't? No matter how impatient I am (and with software
and GUIs I am not the most patient guy) I have not managed to bring
Eagle to crash on me. I can bring Foxit to choke and huff and puff, but
not really into a CTRL-ALT-DEL situation.

I should think that's obvious. Neither Foxit nor Eagle have DLLs with
conflicts. In fact, this points to conflicts between Orcad and Acrobat.

No Acrobat, here, and I can get OrCAD crashes quite consistently. Fewer with
16.3 than 15.7 but it'll still crash. When it does, it's more often without a
save, now.

 

[[email protected]]

josephkk wrote:

[...]

Looking at this again, i suggest that you have some version of DLL hell. I
do not have any problems with Acrobat on any machine, Windoes or Linux.
This is often the root cause of Flash problems as well.


Why is Foxit stable then and Acrobat isn't? And Cadsoft Eagle is rock
solid and Orcad isn't? No matter how impatient I am (and with software
and GUIs I am not the most patient guy) I have not managed to bring
Eagle to crash on me. I can bring Foxit to choke and huff and puff, but
not really into a CTRL-ALT-DEL situation.

I should think that's obvious. Neither Foxit nor Eagle have DLLs with
conflicts. In fact, this points to conflicts between Orcad and Acrobat.

No Acrobat, here, and I can get OrCAD crashes quite consistently. Fewer with
16.3 than 15.7 but it'll still crash. When it does, it's more often without a
save, now.

Does it have periodic autosave? PADS does.

It causes crashes.

 

[Joerg]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:00:29 -0500, "[email protected]"

josephkk wrote:

[...]

Looking at this again, i suggest that you have some version of DLL hell. I
do not have any problems with Acrobat on any machine, Windoes or Linux.
This is often the root cause of Flash problems as well.

Why is Foxit stable then and Acrobat isn't? And Cadsoft Eagle is rock
solid and Orcad isn't? No matter how impatient I am (and with software
and GUIs I am not the most patient guy) I have not managed to bring
Eagle to crash on me. I can bring Foxit to choke and huff and puff, but
not really into a CTRL-ALT-DEL situation.
I should think that's obvious. Neither Foxit nor Eagle have DLLs with
conflicts. In fact, this points to conflicts between Orcad and Acrobat.
No Acrobat, here, and I can get OrCAD crashes quite consistently. Fewer with
16.3 than 15.7 but it'll still crash. When it does, it's more often without a
save, now.
Does it have periodic autosave? PADS does.

It causes crashes.

Oh.

Yep. Found that out the hard way. Now that I have set auto-backup to 300
minutes (essentially meaning never because by then I am on the next
schematic) the number of crashes is lower. I also learned to smell
wooziness and do a quick shut-down. For example when placed probes
refuse to turn from gray to some bonbon color.