laptop spec is adequate for Sketchup, but it runs too slowly

[opaz]

Hi,

This isn’t a gaming question – I hope that’s ok – but I thought you folks would be best people to ask, as it is about graphics rendering. I’m an assistive technology adviser at a UK university and I’m trying to solve a problem for an architecture student who says that when she uses Sketchup it “runs incredibly slowly and eventually grinds to a halt”. Her machine is only 3 months old and still under warranty. From my preliminary research the spec appears to be ok for what she is trying to do with it, but I just wanted to be sure before I contact the suppliers and tell them there is something wrong with their machine. I’m not expecting a diagnosis, but maybe some pointers as to what it might be or what to check.

Nb she backs up her work onto an external drive so the hard disk has plenty of free space on it. I’m pretty sure she isn’t trying to run a hundred programs at once.

TIA

opaz

The machine:

MiNote 8227DMP Notebook Core 2 Duo T8300 2.4GHz 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, (3.5Kg) DVD-RW, 512Mb NVIDIA 8600MGS 17" WXGA X-GlassTFT

OS: Vista Ultimate

Software loaded on it:

AutoCad

3D Studio Max 2008 Student Version (PC) 2 Year Licence

Dragon Professional V9

Kaspersky Internet Security V7 Antivirus, Firewall and Spyware Protection (OEM)

Sketchup (v7)

(the system requirements for sketchup can be found here: http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=36208)

Adobe Photoshop CS3 extended (v10)

 

[Trotterwatch]

Machine looks good spec wise, though more ram would be helpful (any hard disk thrashing when the problem occurs?).

All I can suggest is to update the graphics driver, perhaps it's doing something silly like running in software GL or something.

One last suggestion, she could try disconnecting her machine from the network (in case worried about viruses) then disable the Firewall/Spyware/Antivirus just to check for any conflicts with them, then of course reenable them afterwards.

 

[opaz]

thanks Trotterwatch. I'm just looking into the GL thing. I found the following on wikipedia, not sure what it means but it seems to imply that there are circumstances where 'extensions' are necessary for full functionality:

Windows Vista provides for three OpenGL implementations. The first maps OpenGL calls to Direct3D ones. This allows for hardware acceleration of OpenGL through version 1.4 from a standard install, but features of versions after 1.4 must be accessed as extensions. The second uses legacy ICDs available for Windows XP. This will disable the Aero desktop but otherwise functions as expected. The third is a full implementation that will work alongside the desktop and still allow access to OpenGL 2 on the GPU.[2]

but it's probably not that at all

I thought of the graphics driver update option, but I was a bit worried about messing up her machine. Is it a relatively safe process?

She's just coming up to her finals and needs her laptop. If I managed to screw it completely it would be disaterous

 

[Trotterwatch]

There used to be ways whereby you could simply download newer drivers, extract them and place the relevant .dll (Nvopengl.dll or something like that) into the application folder, it would then override the default one. Safe and easy.

I'll look to see if that can still be done. Was a while back I did it.

/Edit

Can't find anything about that, but did find this with regards to Sketchup, worth checking to see if it's enabled:

f you have a fairly new video card, make sure you are using hardware acceleration. To enable:

1. In SketchUp, open the "Window" menu.
2. Click "Preferences."
3. In the left pane, click "OpenGL."
4. In the right pane, select "Use hardware acceleration."

Other tips here:
http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=36235

Turning shadows/lighting off should help

 

[opaz]

That's great, thanks Trotterwatch