VS2008 IDE performance

[BigBrett]

My Visual Studio 2008 crashed yesterday (it wasn't doing anything, just open when I opened an Internet Explorer window from the Start menu) and since then the IDE has become unacceptably slow.

The symptom I am experiencing is that it takes 5 to 10 seconds for the caret to display when clicking on an open file in the IDE editor. It also takes 5 to 10 seconds to swop between any open window in the IDE (selecting different files in the solution tree is taking just as long) and upward of 20 seconds to save any edited file no matter how small. I was getting extremely frustrated when changing four occurrences of a string in three different files took about 5 minutes to complete. Any change runs my CPU at about 25% during which the IDE or editor is unresponsive.

This occurs in a solution of 40 projects with about 5000 files, all under source control. If I switch the Fortress client to offline mode, or work with a non-controlled solution or file, then these delays all disappear. I can also see that the delays are not present (when swopping between windows) if no controlled file is open in the editor.

I am running VS2008 SP1 with Fortress VS Enhanced Client 2.0.4.18845 on Windows 7 32 bit.

So far I have repaired VS2008, repaired Fortress, cleared the Fortress cache, uninstalled and reinstalled Fortress, uninstalled and reinstalled both VS2008 and Fortress. Nothing has made any difference at all.

I am at my wits end so, short of reinstalling Windows and starting from scratch again, I hope you can suggest ways to get the IDE performance back to its pre-crash performance level.

Cheers,
Brett

[Beth]

It's possible that the crash happened while your cache was trying to update which can leave it missing some data. Here's would I'd like you to try.

1) Close all instances of Fortress and Visual Studio.
2) Rename your client-side cache. Instructions for finding the cache you need are posted here: http://support.sourcegear.com/viewtopic ... 13&t=11513. I'm having you rename it instead of deleting it for now in case there's some information we need to grab from it. When the issue is resolved, you can delete the old one.
3) Open the solution that you are working on, or open VS and use the recent solutions function to open it. This will take a little longer than normal to open because the cache will be rebuilt. One way to tell where it's at in checking the statuses will be to open the Pending Changes window from the View menu. You should see it countdown through the number of files.
4) Now check that you either have locks or green circles with white checks next to each item. Are they present? Are there items to check in?

Try to check out, edit, and check in an item. What are the results?

[BigBrett]

Hi Beth,

When I open the solution after renaming the cache folder I get every file with an Unknown status. Checking out a file takes about 45 seconds (was normally under 1 second) and the editing syptom is still there.

[Beth]

I get every file with an Unknown status.

From inside Visual Studio? If so, can you show me what you are seeing?

[BigBrett]

I've got a screen capture of the IDE projects list which shows lots of blue flags against the files, but I don't see any way to attach it to a post.

[Beth]

Below the text area when you are posting, there is a darker-colored area with two tabs; Options and Upload Attachment. Click Upload Attachment, then Choose File, select your file, click Open, then click Add the File.

If you prefer, you can feel free to send an email to support at sourcegear.com (attn: Beth) with a link to this forum thread and the screenshot.

[BigBrett]

I can only see the Options tab, no Upload Attachment tab at all.

[lbauer]

The other option is to send an email to support at sourcegear.com (attn: Beth) with a link to this forum thread and the screenshot.

[Beth]

UPDATE: We discussed the issue offline. The steps taken were:

• -Uninstall Fortress
  -Remove the remaining cache files or any files/ folders pertaining to Fortress that may remain
  -Backup the registry, then search the registry for entries of SourceGear. There was one remaining entry we cleared out.
  -Perform a repair of VS 2008
  -Install Fortress.

The integration appears to be more responsive. The user is now monitoring it for any further symptoms.

HS: 221565

[BigBrett]

The procedures carried out have virtually eliminated the waits I was experiencing in the IDE. There is still a slight hesitation in editing actions from time to time which I can live with as it does not seriously affect production.

After ascertaining that my problem had been sorted out to my satisfaction, I upgraded server and client to Vault Pro. The IDE performance is the same as it was under Fortress.

The problem has however now moved to the GUI Client.

In the GUI Client with one particular repository (the one that used to give problems in the IDE), the process of opening the repository, setting a working folder for one folder and doing a recursive Get Latest on that folder took 45 minutes to get through.

The client application spends an inordinate amount of time refreshing itself and is mostly in an unresponsive state. Simply moving to another repository folder, or switching to another application and back again, entails a wait of about 7 to 8 minutes before I can do anything which, of course, then generates another wait period and so on.

I have deleted the cache folder so that the client can regenerate it, deleted the cache folder so that the IDE Enhanced Client can regenerate it, nothing makes any difference.

This is the only repository showing this behaviour (others appear to work normally), it only happens on my computer (other developers are not having this problem) and it only happens in my 32 bit Win7 (I have a dual-boot for 64 bit Win7 which is working correctly).

Cheers,
Brett

[lbauer]

That's strange.

Let's take a look at the logs.

First, enable debug server logging in the Admin Web Client under Server Settings->Logging->Log Level.

Then enable logging for all events in the user's GUI Client. Open the Vault GUI Client and hold down the following keys on your keyboard: Control-Alt Shift F12.

Reproduce the problem, then send me copies of the logs. Let me know your VaultPro username and what time the error occurred so I know where to look for in the logs.

Send the logs zipped up to support at sourcegear.com, Attn: Linda. Please include a link to this forum post.

[BigBrett]

Thanks to Linda for mentioning that I find out how many files I had checked out.

I had checked out an entire project, some 4500 files, for patch integration, and that was the cause of my problems in the GUI. Once those files were checked in my performance problem disappeared.

Cheers,
Brett

[lbauer]

Thanks for the update. Let me know if we can be of assistance in the future.