It’s interesting to read this thread and to know that I am not alone. I’ve been struggling with these same issues ever since I installed 2011. My machine does not lack for horsepower:
Win7 64 Pro
Dual Hexcore 5600 Xeons @ 2.44 GHz
24 Gigs of RAM
FX1800 Graphics (with 197.59)
8 Drive 1.5T RAID 10
Supermicro X8 MB
I’ve tried most of what has been written here. I tried installing 2011 on my old 32 bit XP SP3, Dual Xeon (Single core HT) box and get the same crash as reported here. The same memory creep, etc. What is massively frustrating is that it works sometimes, maybe one out of 6 or 8 times. It’s addictive – like pulling the handle on a slot machine. And, like a slot machine the odds on it working go down as the complexity (jackpot) goes up. One time it rendered a dozen or more renderings successfully in a row until the memory usage creeped up and it ran out. Why? I have no idea. It hasn’t worked at all since. I am trying the single core work-around now. It seems to be working. It’s stupidly slow. What would take 15-20 minutes (when it worked of course) has taken 2 hours so far and it is not yet half way!
I, like other who have written to this thread, am pretty ticked-off at AutoDesk for shipping a product as crappy as 2011. It may date me, but this reminds of the AutoCAD Release 13 debacle. I too have had to make excuses to my clients for my inability to deliver renderings on time, ifat all, and it has cost me thousands in lost revenue given that I cannot charge for time spent experimenting and doing things over and over in an attempt to get something out. Now these same blockheads are grinding on me for a subscription renewal! Some chutzpah! I also had huge crashing issues initially with 2010 that was eventually linked to a 3Dconnexion driver issue that was eventually resolved. At least that episode taught me religious use of CTRL-S and I could get it done. With this defect, we are just torpedoed with a direct hit to the mid-ship magazine. August is surely a long way off….
