AutoCAD freezing (not responding) for 30sec -1min every time dialogue box opens

[Anonymous]

Hi guys,

Every time I try a command that opens the dialogue box (ie. open, save as, insert, xref, export, etc) CAD freezes (& becomes not responsive in task manager) for around 30sec to 1 minute, then the window opens.

When I am working in CAD all other processes seem to run perfectly.

This problem has started occurring for me in the last month or two..

I have moved to a different office around the same time, however I have gone through & updated all of my Support file paths, trusted file locations, printers, templates locations, etc to ensure none are referencing the old server location, & I am quite positive I have got them all...

It only seems to be when CAD is trying to communicate with windows to open an 'explorer" type dialogue window...

There seem to be a few people that have had this problem in the past from doing a google search but I have not been able to find a solution.

Tried "REMEMBERFOLDERS" variable, switching between 1 & 0 to no avail...

Some people have mentioned adding a "Project file location path, however, we have never had anything there in the past.... Added one just incase & the problem persisted..

Any assistance would be appreciated... It is still usable, however the accumulated downtime throughout the day is getting the better of me...

Thanks,

Darcy

[paullimapa]

AutoCAD version? Win OS? Hardware specs?

Have you tried disconnecting the computer from the network?

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[Anonymous]

I have not tried disconnecting the computer from the network, as that would make it difficult to open the files on the network.... I will try that as a trouble shooting method however & post if that effected the result.

AutoCAD 2016 - Service Pack 1 Installed

Windows 7 Professional 64 bit

Intel Xeon CPU X5660 @ 2.8GHz

12.0GB Ram

[Anonymous]

Disconnected Network Cable - Similar delay to dialogue box opening

[paullimapa]

It may not be the culprit but what is your graphics driver?  Do you have hardware accelleration turned on?

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[Anonymous]

Graphics is NVIDIA Quadro FX3800...

I have tried with acceleration both switched on & off... It doesn't make a difference either way..

[paullimapa]

Are you running any 3rd party add-ons or just vanilla AutoCAD?

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[Anonymous]

Yeah I am running multiple third party add-ons - However they have not changed since prior when it was running fine..

Also, other people are running the same add-ons & again no speed issues...

The main change that has occurred is the change of office loacations & therefore the changed network mappings.... The fact that it freezes when only when trying to open the dialogue box makes me think the issue is located somehow in the process running to do that...

If i explore for a file in windows explorer & double click to open it, the file opens without delay which also makes me think it is not related to CAD actually "opening the file"...

Hmmmmm...?

[Anonymous]

Our CAD group is having the same problem as Darcy so I am very interested if a solution can be had

[Anonymous]

Has anyone got any other ideas as to what may be causing this..?

Thanks,

Darcy

[stevetamplen]

Hello Darcy;

I do have a couple of suggestions that you can try. These will help narrow down where the problem is hiding.

1. Have you tried resetting AutoCAD to defaults?

How to reset AutoCAD to defaults

The reset will tell us if a clean AutoCAD with no addins or customizations will work correctly or not.

2. Have you tried creating a new Windows user Administrator account, logging in to it, and checking to see if AutoCAD behaves correctly from there?

The new account will tell us if you have some corruption in your Windows user account, which happens far more often than many people realize.

Please post back with those results.

[stevetamplen]

Hello Darcy;

Did any of the posts get your problem resolved? If so, please hit the Accept as Solution button so that more community members can profit from the solution.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I was having a similar problem but it was when I was selecting any of the modify functions in Arch 2016.

I found (2) different help pages from Autodesk.

They cover multiple versions of AutoCAD.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Optimi...

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Cursor...

Maybe one of those will help with your issue too.

Good luck.

Radar

[Anonymous]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the feedback on this... I have not had a chance to try the last couple of suggestions (including the resetting to default settings) but I will endevour to get onto them later this week after a few deadlines are gone..

Thanks agfain for the assistance & I will post up my results once I give them a try..

Cheers...

[stevetamplen]

@Anonymous

I am just checking back to see if any of the solutions posted resolved your issue, or if you were still having problems.

Please accept as solution to the appropriate post if my suggestion (or someone else's) fully resolves your issue, or reply with additional details if the problem persists.

[stevetamplen]

@Anonymous

I am just checking in to see how you are doing.

Did you still need more time? Just let me know and I will push this out and ping you back later.

[Anonymous]

I seemed to have figured it out for us. I read the post from radar696 and links he provided. What did the trick was to switch my Windows 7 desktop theme to Basic Windows. That ....so far and knock on wood...... has sped up our computers and the (AutoCad not responding) message has been elimninated. Thanks for all that replied/posted.

[stevetamplen]

@Anonymous

Excellent! Funny how something as integrated as a Windows theme could wreak that much havoc.

@Anonymous

Since we know it has helped someone with this issue, please make sure you go over @Anonymous's suggested links, reposted here:

Optimizing AutoCAD performance within Windows environments

Cursor is slow or jerky in AutoCAD

BTW: Thanks radar696 for coming up with that!

[Anonymous]

Adding to my reply from yesterday.......I also went to system properties, advanced, finally to visual effects and selected button "adjust for best performance". Doing so unchecks the whole list shown and then you can select individual items that you would want on.

AutoCAD is still running like a champ and haven't encountered any sort of slow down at this point.

Thx.

[paullimapa]

Curious, when you switched offices, did you also change your Windows Desktop theme so that you were no longer using Basic and thus started the probelm?  Or did they issue you another computer which had Windows setup differently and again thus started the problem?

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