[Dixonary] OT - screen freezes while typing

[Jim Hart]

Knowing this group is inhabited by intelligent, well-informed (not to
mention strong, good-looking and above average) folk, I'm hoping someone
can cast light on an annoying habit of my computer.

Often when I am writing an email, a Word document or whatever, the screen
temporarily stops showing what I have just typed. The keystrokes are still
being recorded but it can be several seconds before they appear on the
screen. This is very irritating as I like to see what I'm writing. If I
were a better typist and always typed blind I suppose I wouldn't notice and
it wouldn't matter, but I'm not and I do and it does.

A similar thing happens when browsing: the cursor still moves with the
mouse but there is no response to the clicks until a few seconds later.
Both phenomena are intermittent.

I'm 99% sure this is caused by Thunderbird when it goes off to to check my
email. When I switched to Tbird a few months ago I also switched to an IMAP
setting; previously I was using Outlook Express with POPmail. This never
seemed to happen before If my understanding of IMAP is correct the mail
files on my computer are kept in sync with those on my mail server (gmail).
That's fine but why does Tbird have to hog my computer while it goes off
for a chat with gmail? Is there a setting that will make it less obtrusive?

Or is something else getting in the way of my screen? I should mention the
change to Tbird also involved a new computer and Windows 7 instead of XP.

Any thoughts?

Jim

[John Barrs]

Jim

I have no problems with TB which I use for several email accounts
except.... when it decides to compact folders then it does slow everything
down so I do a 'compact folders' early in the day, (after the first
collection of email and my processing of it)
- I don't use IMAP - POP keeps my machine uptodate very well
you can see the compacting process in the bottom bar of TB - where you can
also see it getting mail (do a 'compact folders' to see where to look)

Having said that, on my Win 7 machine I recently had to go back to before
the last 2 Windows updates becasue the machine was randomly booting without
mouse or without keyboard. - I did a restore before last update and that
didn't solve it. A restore to the one before that did resolve it - and of
course the updates have since been reinstalled and the machine seems fine
again - I think that it must have been a bad d/l of the previous update

Thsi is probably not much help really.

JohnnyB

On 24 October 2012 06:32, Jim Hart <jfshart (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

> Knowing this group is inhabited by intelligent, well-informed (not to
> mention strong, good-looking and above average) folk, I'm hoping someone
> can cast light on an annoying habit of my computer.
>
> Often when I am writing an email, a Word document or whatever, the screen
> temporarily stops showing what I have just typed. The keystrokes are still
> being recorded but it can be several seconds before they appear on the
> screen. This is very irritating as I like to see what I'm writing. If I
> were a better typist and always typed blind I suppose I wouldn't notice and
> it wouldn't matter, but I'm not and I do and it does.
>
> A similar thing happens when browsing: the cursor still moves with the
> mouse but there is no response to the clicks until a few seconds later.
> Both phenomena are intermittent.
>
> I'm 99% sure this is caused by Thunderbird when it goes off to to check my
> email. When I switched to Tbird a few months ago I also switched to an IMAP
> setting; previously I was using Outlook Express with POPmail. This never
> seemed to happen before If my understanding of IMAP is correct the mail
> files on my computer are kept in sync with those on my mail server (gmail).
> That's fine but why does Tbird have to hog my computer while it goes off
> for a chat with gmail? Is there a setting that will make it less obtrusive?
>
> Or is something else getting in the way of my screen? I should mention the
> change to Tbird also involved a new computer and Windows 7 instead of XP.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Jim
>
>
>

[Judy Madnick]

I have the same issue when Intellect (Chaos Software) is checking/downloading email. It's very annoying...but I live with it.

More important, thanks for your compliments. :-)

Judy

Sent from my iPod

On Oct 24, 2012, at 1:32 AM, Jim Hart <jfshart (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

> Knowing this group is inhabited by intelligent, well-informed (not to mention strong, good-looking and above average) folk, I'm hoping someone can cast light on an annoying habit of my computer.
>
>

[Guerri Stevens]

I am too lazy at the moment to check, but I think Tbird has a setting
for the frequency of checking for and retrieving Email. You could make
the interval longer so that you wouldn't be interrupted as often. You
could also go offline, which is an option on the file menu. Then go back
online to send and/or collect new mail.

Johnny mentioned compacting, but my ancient version of Tbird doesn't do
that automatically. At least I don't think it does. If that's causing
your freeze, maybe automatic compacting can be turned off.

Guerri

Jim Hart wrote:
> Knowing this group is inhabited by intelligent, well-informed (not to
> mention strong, good-looking and above average) folk, I'm hoping
> someone can cast light on an annoying habit of my computer.
>
> Often when I am writing an email, a Word document or whatever, the
> screen temporarily stops showing what I have just typed. The keystrokes
> are still being recorded but it can be several seconds before they
> appear on the screen. This is very irritating as I like to see what I'm
> writing. If I were a better typist and always typed blind I suppose I
> wouldn't notice and it wouldn't matter, but I'm not and I do and it does.
....

[Dodi Schultz]

Jim,

As Guerri mentioned, the T'bird File menu includes a go-offline option.

As she also noted, you can change the interval at which T'bird checks for
mail. The item's under Tools | Account Settings | Server Settings.

At least the above is so in the version I'm using (15.0.1).

Which leads to another thought: What version of T'bird are you using? You
might switch to a later version and see if that makes a difference (the
newest is 16.0.1).

—Dodi

[Tony Abell]

The only thing I can suggest is to close Thunderbird temporarily and see if
that does indeed solve the cursor freezes. Once you've identified the
offending program, your only option is to modify your usage of it so that it
doesn't interfere as much.

Technical note: I know that in Windows XP (and apparently still in Windows 7),
if a program fails to process its message loop in a timely manner, as might be
the case if the loop does not not have its own thread and can be blocked for a
time, that process can prevent *some* other processes from getting CPU time,
possibly from some sort of deadlock. It seems to be an inherent problem with
Windows NT-family multi-tasking.

------------------------------------------
On 2012-10-24 at 01:32 Jim Hart wrote:

> Knowing this group is inhabited by intelligent, well-informed (not to
> mention strong, good-looking and above average) folk, I'm hoping someone
> can cast light on an annoying habit of my computer.

> Often when I am writing an email, a Word document or whatever, the screen
> temporarily stops showing what I have just typed. The keystrokes are still
> being recorded but it can be several seconds before they appear on the
> screen. This is very irritating as I like to see what I'm writing. If I
> were a better typist and always typed blind I suppose I wouldn't notice and
> it wouldn't matter, but I'm not and I do and it does.

> A similar thing happens when browsing: the cursor still moves with the
> mouse but there is no response to the clicks until a few seconds later.
> Both phenomena are intermittent.

> I'm 99% sure this is caused by Thunderbird when it goes off to to check my
> email. When I switched to Tbird a few months ago I also switched to an IMAP
> setting; previously I was using Outlook Express with POPmail. This never
> seemed to happen before If my understanding of IMAP is correct the mail
> files on my computer are kept in sync with those on my mail server (gmail).
> That's fine but why does Tbird have to hog my computer while it goes off
> for a chat with gmail? Is there a setting that will make it less obtrusive?

> Or is something else getting in the way of my screen? I should mention the
> change to Tbird also involved a new computer and Windows 7 instead of XP.

> Any thoughts?

> Jim

[Jim Hart]

Thanks Judy - it's at least some comfort to know I'm not alone.

And to everyone else - thanks for your comments. Yes I know I can manually
go offline, and I did extend the time between checking, but I guess I was
hoping for something more subtle. The basic issue is I don't really
understand why my computer can't talk to me and gmail simultaneously. It
seems to multitask on other chores.

Hmm, maybe I should turn off automatic mail collection completely and just
do it manually. Most of my mail can wait for an hour or three, and it would
probably improve my productivity on other tasks.

And btw Dodi I'm on version 16.0.1 for both Thunderbird and Firefox.



On Wednesday, October 24, 2012 11:26:58 PM UTC+11, Judy Madnick wrote:
>
> I have the same issue when Intellect (Chaos Software) is
> checking/downloading email. It's very annoying...but I live with it.
>
> More important, thanks for your compliments. :-)
>
> Judy
>
> Sent from my iPod
>
> On Oct 24, 2012, at 1:32 AM, Jim Hart <jfs... (AT) gmail (DOT) com <javascript:>>
> wrote:
>
> > Knowing this group is inhabited by intelligent, well-informed (not to
> mention strong, good-looking and above average) folk, I'm hoping someone
> can cast light on an annoying habit of my computer.
> >
> >
>

[Dodi Schultz]

On 10/24/2012 10:42 AM, Jim Hart wrote:

> And btw Dodi I'm on version 16.0.1 for both Thunderbird and Firefox.

Uh, maybe THAT's the problem? Some kind of glitch in the new version? Did
it happen before you installed ver 16?

—Dodi

[John Barrs]

Jim

(as an aside I'm on TB 16.0.1)

one of the things that really bugs me is the fact that despite all that I
do to Wndows if it decides to check-for and d/l updates then you might as
well go and make a cup of coffee. -- to see what is causing the problem try
running task-manager all the time for a while and have it set 'on top' and
move it somewhere not in your way so's you can see it even if the mc
otherwise freezes and set it to display in CPU useage order. ( If waultc is
near the top then that is windows updates) Incidentally this is a problem
unrelated to my online speed; I have a 60MB connection and I have checked
the routing MS uses and it doesn't usually go through a hub slower than
20MB anywhere along the line... this is merely a problem of MS deciding
that updates to Windows are more important than any other work I do and
hogging the mc resources

I *was* running one of those research programs that monitors web browser
useage - but it was defective in that it realized that TB was going online
to collect and send mail but wasn't sure how to analyze that so it added
another 100Mb to the memory use each time TB went online but then never
released that memory .... sooo .... after awhile the montoring software
was using more memory than I had (4.9 GB available to Windows) and so
Windows spent more and more of its time swapping this enormous chunk of
memory to the paging file and back and eventually the machine effectively
died ( exiting the program didn't release the memory back either) -- it
took me three days of frustration to work out what was happening and then
remove the application and sort out the paging file

JohnnyB

On 24 October 2012 15:42, Jim Hart <jfshart (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

> Thanks Judy - it's at least some comfort to know I'm not alone.
>
> And to everyone else - thanks for your comments. Yes I know I can manually
> go offline, and I did extend the time between checking, but I guess I was
> hoping for something more subtle. The basic issue is I don't really
> understand why my computer can't talk to me and gmail simultaneously. It
> seems to multitask on other chores.
>
> Hmm, maybe I should turn off automatic mail collection completely and just
> do it manually. Most of my mail can wait for an hour or three, and it would
> probably improve my productivity on other tasks.
>
> And btw Dodi I'm on version 16.0.1 for both Thunderbird and Firefox.
>
>
>
>
> On Wednesday, October 24, 2012 11:26:58 PM UTC+11, Judy Madnick wrote:
>
>> I have the same issue when Intellect (Chaos Software) is
>> checking/downloading email. It's very annoying...but I live with it.
>>
>> More important, thanks for your compliments. :-)
>>
>> Judy
>>
>> Sent from my iPod
>>
>> On Oct 24, 2012, at 1:32 AM, Jim Hart <jfs... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
>>
>> > Knowing this group is inhabited by intelligent, well-informed (not to
>> mention strong, good-looking and above average) folk, I'm hoping someone
>> can cast light on an annoying habit of my computer.
>> >
>> >
>>
>

[Jim Hart]

Johnny, that's interesting but, um, where do I find task manager? Do I have
one? I usually know when MS is updating itself and agree it can be
annoying but I don't think that's the problem here. Today I've changed
some of Tbird's settings so it only gets mail when I ask it to, so I'll see
if that helps. It is still set to auto-save to the drafts folders (both
local and on gmail) when I'm writing an email, so that could be a useful
comparison.

We shall see.

Finally I have to ask myself how much time am I prepared to spend trying to
eliminate an annoyance? The answer varies of course with my daily Tolerance
Index and the status of my Irritation Response Monitor.


Jim

On Thursday, October 25, 2012 3:20:06 AM UTC+11, JohnnyB wrote:
>
> Jim
>
> (as an aside I'm on TB 16.0.1)
>
> one of the things that really bugs me is the fact that despite all that I
> do to Wndows if it decides to check-for and d/l updates then you might as
> well go and make a cup of coffee. -- to see what is causing the problem try
> running task-manager all the time for a while and have it set 'on top' and
> move it somewhere not in your way so's you can see it even if the mc
> otherwise freezes and set it to display in CPU useage order. ( If waultc is
> near the top then that is windows updates) Incidentally this is a problem
> unrelated to my online speed; I have a 60MB connection and I have checked
> the routing MS uses and it doesn't usually go through a hub slower than
> 20MB anywhere along the line... this is merely a problem of MS deciding
> that updates to Windows are more important than any other work I do and
> hogging the mc resources
>
> I *was* running one of those research programs that monitors web browser
> useage - but it was defective in that it realized that TB was going online
> to collect and send mail but wasn't sure how to analyze that so it added
> another 100Mb to the memory use each time TB went online but then never
> released that memory .... sooo .... after awhile the montoring software
> was using more memory than I had (4.9 GB available to Windows) and so
> Windows spent more and more of its time swapping this enormous chunk of
> memory to the paging file and back and eventually the machine effectively
> died ( exiting the program didn't release the memory back either) -- it
> took me three days of frustration to work out what was happening and then
> remove the application and sort out the paging file
>
> JohnnyB
>
> \

[Guerri Stevens]

Ctrl+Alt+Delete gets you to a menu and one of the items is the task
manager. At least in Vista and probably in Windows 7 too.

Guerri

Jim Hart wrote:
> Johnny, that's interesting but, um, where do I find task manager? Do I
> have one? I usually know when MS is updating itself and agree it can be
> annoying but I don't think that's the problem here. Today I've changed
> some of Tbird's settings so it only gets mail when I ask it to, so I'll
> see if that helps. It is still set to auto-save to the drafts folders
> (both local and on gmail) when I'm writing an email, so that could be a
> useful comparison.
>
> We shall see.
>
> Finally I have to ask myself how much time am I prepared to spend trying
> to eliminate an annoyance? The answer varies of course with my daily
> Tolerance Index and the status of my Irritation Response Monitor.
>
>
> Jim
>
> On Thursday, October 25, 2012 3:20:06 AM UTC+11, JohnnyB wrote:
>
> Jim
>
> (as an aside I'm on TB 16.0.1)
>
> one of the things that really bugs me is the fact that despite all
> that I do to Wndows if it decides to check-for and d/l updates then
> you might as well go and make a cup of coffee. -- to see what is
> causing the problem try running task-manager all the time for a
> while and have it set 'on top' and move it somewhere not in your way
> so's you can see it even if the mc otherwise freezes and set it to
> display in CPU useage order. ( If waultc is near the top then that
> is windows updates) Incidentally this is a problem unrelated to my
> online speed; I have a 60MB connection and I have checked the
> routing MS uses and it doesn't usually go through a hub slower than
> 20MB anywhere along the line... this is merely a problem of MS
> deciding that updates to Windows are more important than any other
> work I do and hogging the mc resources
>
> I _/*was*/_ running one of those research programs that monitors web
> browser useage - but it was defective in that it realized that TB
> was going online to collect and send mail but wasn't sure how to
> analyze that so it added another 100Mb to the memory use each time
> TB went online but then never released that memory .... sooo ....
> after awhile the montoring software was using more memory than I had
> (4.9 GB available to Windows) and so Windows spent more and more of
> its time swapping this enormous chunk of memory to the paging file
> and back and eventually the machine effectively died ( exiting the
> program didn't release the memory back either) -- it took me three
> days of frustration to work out what was happening and then remove
> the application and sort out the paging file
>
> JohnnyB
>
> \

[Jim Hart]

Thanks Guerri - I"ve only ever used ctrl-alt-del to force-quit a hung
program. To think all that information is there! Now if only I could
interpret it intelligently....
- Jim

[Tim B]

,
> Finally I have to ask myself how much time am I prepared to spend trying to
> eliminate an annoyance? The answer varies of course with my daily Tolerance
> Index and the status of my Irritation Response Monitor.

Indeed it does! It's several years now since I decided that I'd had enough of Microsoft wasting my
time, and switched to Linux. I've never regretted the change.

Best wishes,
Tim Bourne.

[Guerri Stevens]

I have the same feeling. I used to think I was pretty knowledgeable, but
somehow with each succeeding version of the operating systems I find
myself with less and less understanding. Is this a sinister plot?

Guerri

Jim Hart wrote:
> Thanks Guerri - I"ve only ever used ctrl-alt-del to force-quit a hung
> program. To think all that information is there! Now if only I could
> interpret it intelligently....
> - Jim
>
>

[Jim Hart]

Thanks Tony. I didn't close it completely but I did change the settings so
it only goes to get mail when I ask it to. That seems to have helped. I
still get interruptions during autosave while I'm writing an email from
within Tbird. The autosaved draft goes into Gmail's drafts folder as well
as my local one. I'm sure there is a setting for that too.

One curious difference with the autosave freezes is that my keystrokes used
to be buffered so I could keep typing and they would appear a few seconds
later. Now they don't so I have to wait. Seems strange but hopefully will
be irrelevant if I can adjust the autosave setting correctly.

I don't know anything about processing the message loop. Assume it's a
different kind of message!

Jim

On Thursday, October 25, 2012 1:33:45 AM UTC+11, Tony Abell wrote:
>
>
> The only thing I can suggest is to close Thunderbird temporarily and see
> if
> that does indeed solve the cursor freezes. Once you've identified the
> offending program, your only option is to modify your usage of it so that
> it
> doesn't interfere as much.
>
> Technical note: I know that in Windows XP (and apparently still in Windows
> 7),
> if a program fails to process its message loop in a timely manner, as
> might be
> the case if the loop does not not have its own thread and can be blocked
> for a
> time, that process can prevent *some* other processes from getting CPU
> time,
> possibly from some sort of deadlock. It seems to be an inherent problem
> with
> Windows NT-family multi-tasking.
>
> -
>