Solved: Problem with VS 2019 freezing

Having trouble installing or compiling FreeCAD? Get help here.
Forum rules
Be nice to others! Respect the FreeCAD code of conduct!
Post Reply
falviani
Posts: 250
Joined: Tue May 07, 2019 8:49 pm

Solved: Problem with VS 2019 freezing

Post by falviani »

Hi All,

I suddenly have a major problem compiling with VS2019. I did a pull this morning on master and started the build in VS2019 as usual. I have made no changes to VS2019 other than installing regular updates for months. There have been no hardware or system changes either. Now it starts processing and after a few minutes (it varies) the machine basically freezes and I have to reset it - even the task manager is unresponsive. It's as if CPU utilization is pinned at 100%, although I can't document that since I can't bring up the task manager. Has anybody else encountered this? And if so, what did you do to clear up the situation?

Thanks in advance,
Frank Alviani
Last edited by falviani on Wed Jan 26, 2022 3:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
chennes
Veteran
Posts: 3881
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2016 3:38 pm
Location: Norman, OK, USA
Contact:

Re: Problem with VS 2019 freezing

Post by chennes »

Are you able to update to VS2022 to see if that resolves the issue? I've been using it for a few months without any FreeCAD problems.
Chris Hennes
Pioneer Library System
GitHub profile, LinkedIn profile, chrishennes.com
falviani
Posts: 250
Joined: Tue May 07, 2019 8:49 pm

Re: Problem with VS 2019 freezing

Post by falviani »

Chennes -

I can give that a try, of course. WIll that have any impact on a freecad workbench I've been working on? I assume I don't need to update my CMake installation.

However, do you have any idea what might cause the sudden change in behavior?

Thanks,
-Frank
User avatar
chennes
Veteran
Posts: 3881
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2016 3:38 pm
Location: Norman, OK, USA
Contact:

Re: Problem with VS 2019 freezing

Post by chennes »

I don't expect it to impact anything, there's not really much difference between 2019 and 2022. I don't have any reasonable explanation for why it would break suddenly.
Chris Hennes
Pioneer Library System
GitHub profile, LinkedIn profile, chrishennes.com
falviani
Posts: 250
Joined: Tue May 07, 2019 8:49 pm

Re: Problem with VS 2019 freezing

Post by falviani »

Hi Chris,

1) While it seemed to be doing nothing, I installed the waiting feature update to Windows. This was quick and I suspect it was not part of the problem.
2) After doing a pull this morning, I did my usual CMake - VS2019 process. However, I kept the Task Manager window open so I could monitor what was happening.
3) In the lower left corner of the GUI is a tiny animated button, that brings up a progress bar of background tasks that are still running. I have been in the habit of not paying much attention to it, as builds worked even when there were tasks running. I found that it was scanning everything for Intellisense data; CPU usage was high. This process took over 10 minutes, followed by a brief scan of the path project. I waited until it indicated all background tasks were complete.
4) The build proceeded normally and completed successfully. CPU utilization fluctuated as expected, often reaching 100%, as did memory usage, occasionally peaking at 13GB (I have 16 GB installed).

I have no idea why the intellisense scanning was triggered, but that seemed to conflict with the actual compilation processing. My take away is to wait in the future until background tasks are done before actually starting the build process.

Perhaps this might be of use to others.

-Frank Alviani
User avatar
chennes
Veteran
Posts: 3881
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2016 3:38 pm
Location: Norman, OK, USA
Contact:

Re: Solved: Problem with VS 2019 freezing

Post by chennes »

I have never seen Intellisense interfere with a compilation like that, but there are a few files out there that, if changed, will probably trigger a recalculation of all Intelisense data, so it does happen from time to time (I believe we recently added a few entries to the precompiled headers, which may be what did it this time).
Chris Hennes
Pioneer Library System
GitHub profile, LinkedIn profile, chrishennes.com
Post Reply