Hi, I've checked the forum and tried a number of things mentioned but come up against the same problem time and time again. The first time I use a mantra node it seems to work OK, maybe the second. After that, no luck. Mantra process is still open but only using about 26 megs. The scheduler piles up with mantra requests but they never get processed, even for simple scenes (sphere for chrisakes). Mplay sometimes opens, sometimes not but regardless no rendering takes place. The cpu usage for mantra never exceeds 1-2%. At that point Houdini can only be closed using the task manager.
I have tried clearing the scheduler, deleting and recreating the mantra node, deleting .mplay_lock files, making sure mplay is set to ‘listen for renders’, etc. etc.
Any thoughts? As a paying (albeit Apprentice HD) customer I'd like to think I shouldn't be spending half my day getting this to work. No response from SideFX, don't exactly expect one.
My system is a Dell M4400, quadro Fx 770M, 4 gigs, 3.06 extreme core duo, win XP, sp3. using latest build of Houdini 10, although problem persists with every version I've tried.
Thanks for any help.

Any thoughts? As a paying (albeit Apprentice HD) customer I'd like to think I shouldn't be spending half my day getting this to work. No response from SideFX, don't exactly expect one.

I think you should bear in mind your problem points to your system config not Houdini.Has this has happened with every build you have tried ? What have you tried to solve the problem ? Have you turned of all virus protection ? have you turned off any firewall stuff ?.

r

Yes. I have looked at all of the above. Could well be hardware related, although every other program I use (Toxik, XSI) seems to be all right.

Mostly just frustrated.

Do these problems happen all the time? If so, some things to try:

- Turn off any firewall on your computer (eg. Windows firewall)
- Turn off any P2P software on your computer (eg. bittorrent, etc.). Also look for other applications running that might open a lot of network connections.
- Make sure that your firewall and P2P software will NOT start up once rebooted
- Rename your houdini10.0 subdirectory to something else so that it gets regenerated
- Ensure the date/time on your computer clock is correct
- Run the License Administrator and then from the menu, choose File > Change License Server. Make sure that “Use Standalone Mode” is OFF.
- After doing all of the above, reboot before testing again.

Same problem here.

(it used to work in 9.5)

Alter, did these things work for you?

It didn't for me and but it broke the License manager (its gone black)

Do you run an non-english OS by any chance?

Tried all of above and the problem still sporadically persists. Using English Win XP sp3.