I am having Houdini 9 frozen from time to time on a used HP XW6200 workstation I got recently. Sometimes even simple task like File->New will freeze it up so I am wondering what should I upgrade to avoid the problem.

Based on info from other threads and my experience on the computer, I don't think that my computer is unable to run Houdini but somehow it just freezes up and would not respond at all or giving me any error message. I have installed the latest driver and reinstalled Houdini couple times as well as the latest daily updated version but none of them seems to fix it. Software like Maya, C4D, After Effects are running fine on the computer. Would reinstall my Windows help?

Eventually, I will surely have both of them upgraded but I can only upgrade at this moment. Since I am learning on Apprentice so I am not really getting anywhere complicated yet so I am wondering if anyone can give me a suggestion based on my spec below

Windows XP Media Center Edition
Intel Dual Xeon
1GB RAM
GeForce 7600
Latest NVIDIA driver and Houdini

Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,

david

Add ram.
1gb on Windows is too low.
Are you doing equivalent tasks, meaning are making equally demanding tasks, in the other software?
You should have some type of systems monitor up all the time so you can see what Windows is doing. That will give you a clue as to what resources are being called on.

Do you have service pack 3 for Winxp? You might also want to get the Tweak.mce .

The Media Center edition is somewhat tuned to provide better 2d graphics, showing videos and being used as a pvr.

Your graphics card shouldn't be an issue, I'm using a similar version on a laptop with no problem, although I'm on a real system (Ubuntu)

Thanks, probbins!

Ya, guess RAM is the way to go first. I just realized that RAM on workstation is different from consumer ones? shock So I will have to look around and hopefully at least another GB will help me throughout tutorials. lol

I usually don't like to open up many things at the same time so, besides webpages or downloads, I have nothing running to against Houdini; however, I have no problem running Maya while having other programs on at the same time.

For the Tweak.mce, is it the power toy one you are talking about? I will have it installed. What or which setting do you want me to take a look?

I have been always wanted to work on Ubuntu but the pity thing is most of my apps are on Windows so I just can't make the switch full time….sigh.

Anyhow, I will try and see how it would work out. Thanks again and have a good holiday.

Sincerely,

david

2Gb is an absolute minimum for Houdini on windows, i would say.
Houdini is fairly memory hungry as each node effectively stores a copy of any data passed through it. (although this can be tweaked with unload flags)

Thanks, Simon! Yes, an used 2GB ram kit is on the way so hope my computer will be able to do the job soon. At least for tutorials, really…. wink Happy new year!

Sincerely,

david