SPSS 21 running slow

[helviobrito]

Hi. I am a new subscriber and I hope someone can help me. I'm talking about SPSS 21.0, Windows 7, Intel i3, 4gb ram.

I have a small data file with 200 cases and only 50 variables. I wrote a sintax using a few recode commands and custom tables for frequencies and cross data. Nothing more complicated than this. The sintax has about 4,3 k lines. Comments are used only to identify sections.

For many times I ran this sintax with no problems at all, using the same data file. But, suddenly, it has become extremely slow, and lasts more than 30 minutes to generate an output. This is the amount of time I waited before stop the program with windows task manager, because SPSS didn't accept any other command.

Other sympton is that, when I minimise any SPSS window and restart it, the computer screen doesn't show anything: it is black, but this happens only with SPSS windows. If there is any other program running, its window continues normal.

In time: I ran other smaller sintaxes (about 2,4 k lines) with bigger data files (400 cases, more than 150 variables) and they ran a little slow, lets say, about one, one and a half minutes.

Can anyone help me?

[John F Hall]

I would try a cold reboot.  Switch computer completely off from mains: wait
at least 5 minutes and then reboot.  If that doesn't work, get back to the
gurus on the list.

John F Hall (Mr)
[Retired academic survey researcher]

Email:   [hidden email]  
Website: www.surveyresearch.weebly.com  
SPSS start page:  www.surveyresearch.weebly.com/1-survey-analysis-workshop




-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
helviobrito
Sent: 21 April 2015 16:36
To: [hidden email]
Subject: SPSS 21 running slow

Hi. I am a new subscriber and I hope someone can help me. I'm talking about
SPSS 21.0, Windows 7, Intel i3, 4gb ram.

I have a small data file with 200 cases and only 50 variables. I wrote a
sintax using a few recode commands and custom tables for frequencies and
cross data. Nothing more complicated than this. The sintax has about 4,3 k
lines. Comments are used only to identify sections.

For many times I ran this sintax with no problems at all, using the same
data file. But, suddenly, it has become extremely slow, and lasts more than
30 minutes to generate an output. This is the amount of time I waited before
stop the program with windows task manager, because SPSS didn't accept any
other command.

Other sympton is that, when I minimise any SPSS window and restart it, the
computer screen doesn't show anything: it is black, but this happens only
with SPSS windows. If there is any other program running, its window
continues normal.

In time: I ran other smaller sintaxes (about 2,4 k lines) with bigger data
files (400 cases, more than 150 variables) and they ran a little slow, lets
say, about one, one and a half minutes.

Can anyone help me?




--
View this message in context:
http://spssx-discussion.1045642.n5.nabble.com/SPSS-21-running-slow-tp5729298
.html
Sent from the SPSSX Discussion mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of
commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

[Jon K Peck]

When was the last time you rebooted your computer?  It sounds like you are running out of resources or, perhaps, that there are a lot of invisible processes running.

If that isn't it, you can use the Task Manager to see something of what is happening with the Statistics product.  Look at the stats.exe process (frontend) and spssengine.exe process (backend).  You may need to add columns to the Task Manager View.  CPU time, working set, memory, and page faults would be a good start.


Jon Peck (no "h") aka Kim
Senior Software Engineer, IBM
[hidden email]
phone: [phone]




From:        helviobrito <[hidden email]>
To:        [hidden email]
Date:        04/21/2015 08:36 AM
Subject:        [SPSSX-L] SPSS 21 running slow
Sent by:        "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <[hidden email]>

---

Hi. I am a new subscriber and I hope someone can help me. I'm talking about
SPSS 21.0, Windows 7, Intel i3, 4gb ram.

I have a small data file with 200 cases and only 50 variables. I wrote a
sintax using a few recode commands and custom tables for frequencies and
cross data. Nothing more complicated than this. The sintax has about 4,3 k
lines. Comments are used only to identify sections.

For many times I ran this sintax with no problems at all, using the same
data file. But, suddenly, it has become extremely slow, and lasts more than
30 minutes to generate an output. This is the amount of time I waited before
stop the program with windows task manager, because SPSS didn't accept any
other command.

Other sympton is that, when I minimise any SPSS window and restart it, the
computer screen doesn't show anything: it is black, but this happens only
with SPSS windows. If there is any other program running, its window
continues normal.

In time: I ran other smaller sintaxes (about 2,4 k lines) with bigger data
files (400 cases, more than 150 variables) and they ran a little slow, lets
say, about one, one and a half minutes.

Can anyone help me?




--
View this message in context: http://spssx-discussion.1045642.n5.nabble.com/SPSS-21-running-slow-tp5729298.html
Sent from the SPSSX Discussion mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD


===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD

[helviobrito]

Hi, guys. Thanks for helping me. But I did a cold reboot and it didn't solve the problem. So I wento to the Task Manager and this are the figures:

spssengine.exe:
   working set: 39.340k
   cpu usage: 00
   cpu time: 00:00:12
   page faults: 1.036.528 (is that big number normal? SPSS was the only application running.)

stats.exe:
   working set: 403.476k
   cpu usage: 25%
   cpu time: 00:19:03
   page faults: 210.590

Considering all users:
   Process: 110
   CPU Usage: 97% (out of 97% usage, about 70% is occupied by system idle time)
   Physical memory: 69%.

Another symptom I noticed: when I run the sintax, at the first seconds it runs at a high speed, but soon gets slower. It seems to be related to the growth of pages faults, which stops at the above number when the process gets its smaller speed.

As I am not a system administrator, please help me with some tips.

Thanks.

[helviobrito]

One correction: considering all users, the system idle time occupies 93% of the CPU and stats.exe, 5%.