(Archived) Not responding/netbook

[Richard Beddard 6]

Hi there. Evernote has been experiencing 'seizures' on my netbook for a long time, through many iterations of the software. It has frequent twenty-second or so periods where it freezes. The title bar of the window says 'not responding' and the swirly icon (used to be an egg timer on earlier versions of windows) replaces the cursor.

The problem is most evident in the note editor, and so I haven't been using it, preferring to draft notes in Google docs, Word, notepad or Evernote web and then paste/send/synch them with Evernote for Windows.

I've now decided I'd rather be using the Evernote note editor!

I'm running Evernote on a Samsung N210 netbook with Windows 7 Starter edition, and have been through the following steps with Evernote support, none of which have worked:

1. Shutting down other programmes like Chrome and Skype which I tend to run simultaneously with Evernote.

2. Changing the priority of Evernote.exe in Task Manager to high priority.

3. Installing the latest pre-release version of Evernote.

4. Moving my database (it's big, over 10,000 records, over 16GB) and resynching Evernote for Windows with the web.

The conclusion from Evernote is there's a bug, which goes into a queue of bugs to be fixed and I'm stuck with my situation for now.

So... I'm wondering if anyone else in the community is in a similar position. I haven't found any problems like mine from searching but I wonder if other people are either living with it, as I have for a long time, or better still have found better workarounds. I'm also wondering whether to buy a more powerful netbook or (shudder) a laptop. The thing holding me back is that my netbook is otherwise perfect. I love the size, and the fact the battery lasts most of the day, it does everything else I ask of it, and there's always the risk the bug will still affect me.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

IME, Evernote may hang for a while when it's syncing. Other apps do this as well, when they are trying to do something and don't have a lot of resources available either b/c many other apps are running at the same time or if the computer is a bit under powered for the task. IME, you just have to ride it out. When the app finishes the task it's doing (sync'ing?), you can continue with your note.

[Richard Beddard 6]

Just to be clear, this is not related to synching (well it might be a bit worse during synching) but frequently Evernote hangs when it's not synching for say 20 secs, then it's OK for a minute, then it hangs for 20 secs again. Sometimes I can use it for three or four minutes before it hangs but that's about the best I get out of it.

[Owyn 457]

I frequently see slowdowns during edits. Rich and/or long notes are most likely to see the problem.

I turned off automatic sync a long time ago to help with this problem and to avoid reported conflicts with sync while editing.

In your case you should also minimize your use of watched folders.

....

Checked the specs on your Samsung N210 netbook

http://www.samsung.c...10-JA02US-specs

And the Atom N450

http://ark.intel.com/products/42503

The N450 supports up to 2GB DDR2 and the stock netbook has 1GB DDR2.

An upgrade to 2GB would speed up your system in general and might help a lot with Evernote & your 10,000+ note database.

http://www.netbookus...ete-guide/?wap2

Kingston stocks the memory upgrade.

http://www.ec.kingst...&submit1=Search

[Richard Beddard 6]

Thanks Owyn, Unfortunately I already have 2GB of RAM and I don't have watched folders. As a result of your and Burgers' comments I have switched off synching just to make sure it's not synching more than I thought and most of the problems relate to that. I noticed that when I installed the pre-release version it had switched to every half hour.

[Owyn 457]

Let us know if Not Responding persists with sync at manual.

Only other workarounds I can think of are:

- Turn off Evernote ads (Premium feature)

Tools -> Options -> General -> Uncheck "Show Advertisements"

- Optimize your database

Start Evernote.exe with "/DebugMenu" command line switch

En -> [debug] -> Optimize Database

[Richard Beddard 6]

Thanks for your help. I have been using it today with automatic syncing switched off, and it's still not repsponding - far too frequently to be usable as an editor.

I have ads turned off.

Since I've just resynced my entire database wouldn't it be optimised already?

[Owyn 457]

Not necessarily. There could be problems with the FTS index which optimize will fix. Low probability, but, possible.

Looking ahead, do you have Process Explorer installed on your system?

[Richard Beddard 6]

Hi Owyn, thanks for the suggestion. I'm kind of assuming there is a bug, since that's what the Evernote support people say, and whatever I do to my own setup will have little or no affect (certainly closing down other applications and shutting of sync have minimal impact). I am in the process of optimising the database as you suggested though - just in case, so I'll let you know...

I don't have process installer. In fact I have no idea what it is. What do you have in mind?

[Owyn 457]

Yeah. I run EN Windows in a 512MB XP SP3 Virtual Machine with little problems. Occasional slow downs, but, no Not Responding. The VM is restricted to a single core so a pretty good analog to your Samsung Atom cpu.

Process Explorer is a replacement for Windows Task Manager. It can be used to identify more exactly where Evernote is locking up when you have Not Responding.

e.g.

[Richard Beddard 6]

Owyn. I'm afraid to say this for fear of jinxing it, but Evernote is a completely different experience today. I did your debug suggestion yesterday evening. It took hours. After about two, I gave up and went to bed, but left the computer on overnight optimising the database. Today the prolonged freezes are gone. All that remains are occasional stutters, possibly at the same frequency as the freezes but lasting less than a second instead of half a minute. This I can live with. It's like the application can't quite keep up with my typing so every paragraph or two it pauses momentarily to take a breather and then four or five letters come in a hurry, all at once. If I didn't look at the screen, I wouldn't know it was happening. Before, I was spending a third of my time staring at a frozen screen, or a blue swirly icon and the infuriating 'not responding' in the title bar. Those things *appear* to be in the past. And I'm running Chrome simultaneously :-)

Thank you very much.

[Owyn 457]

Great.

I should have mentioned that optimize can be a lengthy process.

[dlu 628]

Phew, thanks Owyn!

[Mike_Claiborne 0]

I also have had a really bad problem with the Not Responding issue. I use EN to take notes in meetings throughout the day, so this issue pertains to text-based notes. For some notes, this sometimes happens any time I attempt to edit the note. If I highlight a word, type a word, or even move my cursor within the note, the note will freeze up from 5-20 seconds. It seems to happen with larger notes, e.g. from 1-4MB. These have nothing but text with formatting (bullets, underline, bold)

I used the Debug -> Optimize Database option and this improved it greatly for a couple of days; delays were reduced to 1-2 seconds. However, after about a week the delays are now large enough again that I have to write and edit content outside of EN and then copy/paste it into EN. Extremely frustrating.

Comments:

- EN Premium account

- EN 4.5.7.7146

- Not a syncing issue; I only sync every 15 mins and this happens every time I interact with a note - multiple times a minute

- No watched folders

- Windows 7, Dell Laptop with 4GB RAM, Intel Core Duo 2.5GHz

[moshner 4]

I've been having this same problem on all of my computers (4) for the entirerty of my time with Evernote. I've completed the database optimization process and noticed a small improvement, but the thing is I expect my text entry process to be rock solid. If I'm typing a note, I expect to be able to just do that, without having to wait for all of evernote to start responding again.

 

I believe there is something fundamental wrong with they way the application has been coded. Maybe it's trying to run too many processes behind the scenes while I'm typing. Maybe the rich text editor needs to be tweaked. I don't know the problem but as a long time premium client (and now buisness client) I sort of expect to be able to enter my notes, without long pauses to wait for the application to load.

 

Thanks for reading, Nick