Hello,
I've just got around installing Houdini on my new workstation.
The problem is that it just wont work… None of the tool icons appear and overall the performance is bad. Sometimes it freezes.

The system specs are:
mb: asus p5n-d
cpu: intel e8400
gpu: 2 x nvidia 8800 gt oc (latest video drivers)
ram: 4gb mushkin
os: winxp x64

with houdini v9.1.179, v.9.1.239

I have tried both 32 and 64bit versions and they both behave the same.
What could be the bottleneck, and more important how could it be fixed?

Thank you

You could try to start it from the command line and see what errors houdini gives. I also read that throwing away your houdini9.1 directory in $HOME and then restart houdini might help. Your hardware seems all decent enough.

I have deleted the folder in home with no prevail…
Starting from the command line yield no answer as well…
(if i did it correctly. i've typed “hmaster” in the command line tools, thus starting houdini)

How about installing an older driver? Sometimes the latest doesn't mean it's the best. I remember someone posted a few days ago about not being able to start mplay but after installing an older driver, it works.

Please keep us posted on how it goes.

Cheers!
steven

I have tryed to update the drivers but all the older versions gave me an error that hardware for the particular driver was not found.

I was fed up with it so upgraded to vista… 64bit vista. everything works as expected