Inventor 2014 Failing while Idle

[AnchorChain]

I am having an issue with my Inventor 2014 failing, going non-responsive, while idle.  I have the program open on my desktop only.  There are no files open at all.  All of the sudden my Inventor screen will go black leaving the Inventor window bar at the top of the screen with my "I" in the top left but nothing else. At first I can still access other programs I have open such as AutoCAD or Outlook but I soon loose those because my computer locks up.  I am running windows 8 and noticed that I could still get to my Start screen so I did and then that froze too.

My computer is brand new with Windows 8 Pro, 64 bit, 16GB ram, 2GB NVIDIA video card running Inventor 2014 Ultimate package.

The only possible issue is my video card is not certified by Autodesk for use with Inventor.  I have not seen any issues or tileing with my graphics with using inventor at all.  Could this be the culprit?  I have a certified video card that I can install but it's only a 1GB card versus my current 2GB.

[blair]

Make sure you have installed all the SP's and Hotfixes for your product. There is a link at the bottom of the screen to take you to the product support page. Don't rely on the update within Inventor to keep your product up to date.

[AnchorChain]

All up to date now.  Just loaded update 2 for SP1.  Hopefully this does it.  Otherwise, we're going to swap out graphics cards next.

[mcgyvr]

usually a good idea to update your graphics card drivers too.. Even with "new" computers the graphics card driver could be old. 

I always recommend installing the lastest driver from the manufacturers website and to forget about the Inventor certified list..

[blair]

When Autodesk switch Inventor from OpenGL to DirectX, the need for ADSK certified drivers when away to the point that ADSK no longer tests and certifies all drivers and cards for Inventor. All that is required now is Microsoft Certified drivers. So as long as you stick with the Microsoft certified drivers you will be fine.

[AnchorChain]

Ok. I've downloaded the latest driver for my video card, NVIDIA GeForce GT 630.  Going to give this a try and see what happens.

[DeerSpotter]

Try Setting Affinity on the software to a higher setting and see what happens.

PowerShell can do this task for you

Get Affinity:

PowerShell "Get-Process app | Select-Object ProcessorAffinity"
Set Affinity:

PowerShell "$Process = Get-Process app; $Process.ProcessorAffinity=255"
Example: (8 Core Processor)

Core A = 1 = 00000001
Core B = 2 = 00000010
Core C = 4 = 00000100
Core D = 6 = 00001000
Core E = 8 = 00010000
Core F = 16 = 00100000
Core G = 32 = 01000000
Core H = 64 = 10000000
Just add the decimal values together for which core you want to use. 255 = All 8 cores.

Example Output:

C:\>PowerShell "Get-Process notepad++ | Select-Object ProcessorAffinity"

                                                              ProcessorAffinity
                                                              -----------------
                                                                            255



C:\>PowerShell "$Process = Get-Process notepad++; $Process.ProcessorAffinity=13"

C:\>PowerShell "Get-Process notepad++ | Select-Object ProcessorAffinity"

                                                              ProcessorAffinity
                                                              -----------------
                                                                             13



C:\>PowerShell "$Process = Get-Process notepad++; $Process.ProcessorAffinity=255"

C:\>
Source:

Here is a nicely detailed post on how to change a process's affinity: http://www.energizedtech.com/2010/07/powershell-setting-processor-a.html

[AnchorChain]

Yeah, this is a company computer so there will be no tampering with the program code as it seems you are suggesting.  Thanks for the suggestion though, I guess.

[DeerSpotter]

Well if you dont want to Go crazy and do the permenant modification.

Do a temp. one. 

Go to: 

1. Press: Ctrl Shift Esc

2. Right Click on Inventor.

3. Go to Process

4. Right click on process that is highlighted.

5. Set Affinity

6. Make sure all your cores are selected.

7. Right click again

8. Set Priority

9. Set it to above normal or high. (dont do realtime) 

Good Luck!