michaelkenward

John: Depends on how you're defining terms I suppose. But if the problem immediately disappears when you close ME Pro, that's pretty close to the 'root cause' IMO!

We have been down this road before. Enough of us have seen the symptoms you described, and have awoken their PCs by closing MacExp, to suggest very strongly that MacExp is very strongly implicated in the behaviour.

Other people may see slowdowns caused by other software. If closing MacExp doesn't help, then they should look elsewhere.

In the meantime, I report that it happened to me today.

Treacle in the works. Close MacExp. Sanity restored.

The only consolation is that for me at least it happens slightly less often than it used to.

The only extension that I used which absolutely doesn't work in FF3.6, even if you lie about the version no., is IE Tab, which I really miss. Its alternative offering is called Coral IE Tab, but this doesn't support Outlook 2007 webmail correctly.

Coral IE Tab works here.

http://coralietab.mozdev.org/

What problems are there with Outlook 2007?

Might be worth reporting. It hasn't been abandoned yet.

I changed per your instructions and apparently I can type my usual garbage!

 

I installed 3.6 but uninstalled when most of my add-ons were disabled. That was a bit naughty because it said before install that only one add-on was affected. Back to 3.5.7. I'm all for security but if my software is disabled I put it in the same class as malware.

Confirmed. Change to rich text editor and cursor goes AWOL.

Firefox 3.6 certainly killed a lot of extensions. But some are easily fixed by telling the extension to lie about the version number.

And after a few days they fixed some others.

I also found that there were better alternatives to some of the extensions that broke in 3.6.

The ones that died completely were obviously pretty old and had joined the ranks of abandonware. Eventually there comes a time when you have to move on.

Then again, I can't see much change in Firefox 3.6. But I am no expert.

MEP is started on boot and the whole system becomes really slow.

The symptoms you describe are not those that people have discussed in this section.

What I see, and most other people I assume, is mostly normal behaviour in MEP with suddenly unexplained and unpredictable events that are nearer to a freeze than a slowdown.

MEP starts and works just fine for quite some time, days even, before we see, or saw, the onset of lethargy.

I mention this because you may have a different issue that might be better pursued in its own right.

Hope it gets solved soon.

It's rather irritating... since it is besides this a very useful program.

I don't know about anyone else, but the phenomenon seems to have abated.

I haven't had to force MEP to close for a while.

I suggest trying the newest version. No one is going to put any effort into helping someone to solve problems in defunct versions.

When a new version of Macro Express Pro is released we announce it on this forum, via email with the Macro Express News email newsletter and with an RSS feed. We always wait one business day to announce so we can find out from a smaller audience what problems there may be. So far Macro Express Pro v 4.1.1.1 has two issues that are serious enough that we may decide to hold off on the announcement until we determine how to resolve them.

 

So, this is NOT an announcement that Macro Express Pro is available.

 

We want to add an automated update feature but there are other issues that have taken priority. (Non-sticky settings and crashes when Variable Restore command used, for example.)

Makes immense sense.

Nice to have an update feature, but the challenge of creating a macro to check for updates on startup appeals to me. Then again it is probably far beyond my skills.

On the slowdowns, Chris Thornton of Clipmate suggests turning off "Use the Clipboard Hook" in Macro Express.

I'm reluctant. Might lose something important that I need.

Given that the new version that doesn't really exist has some work on the clipboard interaction, maybe it has sorted out the problem.

I haven't see a freeze since installing it, but freezes are not that common anyway.

Also if it were me I wouldn’t want and auto updater unless the updates were randomized over a couple of days.

That's how it usually works.

Put it on a server, then when the program starts it will check to see if there is an update.

DOpus handles it just fine. So does Clipmate. Both, I suspect, have similar sized audiences.

Thinking about it, Macro Express is just about the only commercial software I use that lacks this feature in some form or other.

Email is fine, and with a short delay. DOpus does likewise to give people time to smoke out any last minute bugs.

An RSS feed is another option that some people use.

Has anyone tried version 4.1.1.1 yet ....

I didn't know there was 4.1.1.1.

Macro Express is rare in not offering some form of aurtomated update check that I can find. Always has to be manual.

Perhaps I am supposed to write a macro.

I wonder if some of it isn't that there are too many fingers in the clipboard pie. I run ClipMate and remote desktops all the time which have RDClip.exe for transferring clipboard events and I wonder if all those combined are having conflicts.

Interesting. We went through another bout of trying to find a common feature between those of us who have seen this slow down. We pretty well ruled out DOpus because quite a few users of that and Macro Express see no problems.

I also use Clipmate. Anyone else who sees the slowdown?

The multiple copies issue in Clipmate is something that I have seen, but not recently.

The guy who developes Clipmate, Chris Thornton, is very responsive to user feedback.

But the thought that it might be a general clipboard might rqruie a wider trawl.

But if IIS is on the case, maybe we can all just wait to see what they discover. This is the first note I recall seeing that they were even investigating the issue.

People have mentioned Directory Opus, I use Directory Opus, which uses hotkeys as well as numerous other programs that do and it was because of all the Hotkeys conflicting that I used Macro Express Pro cutting out as many Hotkeys from other programs as I could, but with the dramatic slowdowns MEP causes I am now using Autohotkey and Direct Access only opening MEP and closing it as soon as finished,

 

Could the problem be Hotkeys? As you suggest

 

It is stupid that I am not using MEP as I should because of a bug in it, I just wish I could start using it again properly as it would save me so much time.

The possibility of a DOpus link came up when we were looking for a possible common link, and software that we might all have running.

I raised it over on th Dopus equivalent of this place. It turns out that not everyone who uses this combination sees the slowdown.

But the hotkeys link might bhe worth pursuing. DOpus does a lot with hotkeys.

Then again, hotkeys are so widely used that it is hard to see how DOpus-heads who reported no problems could avoid the same issues.

Interesting detective work.

What puzzles me in this saga is that Task Manager shows no sign of outrageous behaviour by Macexp. The widget you used seems to find other causes for concern.

The worrying thing really is that there have been so many reports of this, and the discussion has gone on for so long, that you would have thought that an "official response" might have surfaced by now.

Instead, it is left to stalwarts like you to keep plugging away in a search for a pattern.

Auto restore was not ticked in my case. I am still experiencing freezes.

 

But I have this to add: I found some threads about freezes with the latest version (2010) of Kasperky Internet Security in the Kasperky user forum yesterday. Some users appear to have freezes very much like the ones I am seeing. I have now uninstalled 2010 and reverted to 2009 to see if this solves my problem. I need some time to corroborate things, as the freezes tend to occur only a few times a week. So, I will report back here in a week or so with the results.

I use Sophos. Not Kaspersky.

Slow episodes still happen.

If anyone is still experiencing this rather frequently, can you please try the following for me?

 

Go to Options > Preferences and make sure that "Auto restore the keyboard and mouse hooks" is turned off and then apply your changes. I have a working theory that this might be the cause of the problem and I'd like to test out my theory.

It hasn't been turned on here for quite some time.

I still see this beast from time to time, although not for the past few days.

I assume that the PID will not change between sessions!

Bad assumption.

Try this:

TASKKILL /IM /Macexp.exe /F

On another issue, anyone know how to kill MAcExp without having to invoke task manager?

Answering myself, working from this page:

http://www.technospot.net/blogs/how-to-kil...d-line-windows/

I find that this works:

TASKKILL /PID 2308 /F

I assume that the PID will not change between sessions!

Interesting.... Me too!

That's three votes for DOpus.

Anyone else?

On another issue, anyone know how to kill MAcExp without having to invoke task manager?

As others have said, the slow responsiveness of a PC during one of these events means that it can become all but impossible to recover.

Is there a way to create a "batch/command" file to shut it down? For example, I have one that can stop and start a service that causes difficulties here.

net stop Audiosrv

net start Audiosrv

Is there a way to do the same thing for a "Process"?

Then I could put a shortcut on my dektop.

I would, of course, do it with Macro Express, but that is where the problem lies!

I see that there are tools out there, but I would rather not install something else that could screw up my system.

Startup items apart from MEP: Ad Muncher, Kaspersky Internet Explorer, Directory Opus and TaskSWitch XP (an Alt-Tab replacement), all of which I have been using for years without any problems.

The only thing I have in common with that list is Directory Opus.

And I am on Vista.

This happens to me all the time. Honestly, I stopped considering it an ME problem and figured it was the fault of my PoS work PC. If other people are starting to experience it, maybe there is hope for my computer after all!

I wonder if it is related to a particular piece of software.

It would be hard to eliminate everything, though, which is why I asked about logs to consult.

Is there any way we can log this behaviour and provide debugging feedback?

I find it odd that the phenomenon clobbers people with, I suspect, very different pstterns for using Macexp.

I too have been experiencing inexplicable slow-down. No macro apparenetly running at the time. But until now had not focused on MEP as likely cause.

 

--

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Maybe it is a Sussex thing. This behaviour has been a regular feature here to the west of the county.

PC slows to crawl.

Start task manager.

Kill Macexp (Pro 4.1.0.1) -- not supposed to be doing anything, CPU shows no signs of stress.

PC Comes back to life.

Just wanted to add to the count.

Issues entered into the tracking system, either as a bug report or a feature request, are reviewed by developers, not support people. You may not receive a personal response. As stated on the Report a Bug and Request a Feature pages:

 

Our Technical Support people read and respond to each issue they receive in as timely a manner as possible. If a support issue is entered into the tracking system, it is forwarded to Technical Support. However, there may be a delay before this happens.

 

If you want our developers to look at a problem or consider a feature then use the Report a Bug and Request a Feature pages. If you want a reply, response or a possible work-around, send your request to Technical Support.

I am afraid I am not sure what to make of this "boilerplate" response. Is it advising me to try again with a bug report?

No matter, I have now worked my way through my macros, disabling them a batch at a time. Unfortunately, this has not proved anything. The crash still happens even though I have disabled every saved macro.

The problem does not appear to be related to any particular macro.

Are you going to use the Prefix or Suffix option?

 

BTW, your keyboard must be different to mine, as # doesn't need the shift key here. # is the lower case character of the key to the left of Enter, with ~ the shifted option.

 

With prefixes I always used ##. But, as discussed in the thread Shortkeys: reasonable feature request? I've just started using a suffix instead and have yet to settle on a permanent choice. That top left ` is an interesting idea. Does it work OK in practice?

 

--

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

I use a whole raft of shortkeys for expansions, turning abbreviations into the full version. So DECC turns into Department of Energy and Climate Change. (It is a good way of remembering complicated sets of initials that organisations love to make up for themselves.)

So that I can also use DECC and DEC (anyone remenber them?) for different things, I use a combination of start and end keys.

So the # symbol triggers the macro. (I never need to type that symbol on its own.) And each abbreviation has a trailing '\' which completes the shortkey.

So "#DECC\" is a macroc that expands DECC\.

I think I picked up the idea of the trailing "\" somewhere here.

You're doing the right hting to report the bug to ISS. FYI I run OmniPage 15 and MEP with no problems. I swore I was at a page thr other day with all the previous versions of ME3 and MEP but I must have been mistaken. Ask ISS fora previous version and I am sure they will help you.

Thanks. The robot acknowledged receipt of my question as week or so ago but has yet to offer an answer.

I was hoping for some advice here along the lines of "Look at this log to see what might have happened". No luck.

I guess I should just go through my macros sidabling batches of them to see which might be interfering with OmniPage.

Trying to sort out another problem, I thought I would "Repair" MacroExpress Pro. That facility seems to be missing.

The text implies it is there, but I cannot find it. Here's what I see:

"Select Repair" it says. Er, where is it?

If I have Macro Express Pro running, I cannot launch OmniPage Professional 17.

The splash screen appears then after a while I get "OmniPage Application has stopped working".

Turn off Macro Express Pro and OmniPage starts just fine.

Run OmniPage, turn on Macro Express Pro and OmniPage gives the same error.

I have filed a bug report and await the response with interest. In the meantime, is there anywhere that I should look for clues to this?

I have removed, repaired, reinstalled and generally frigged around with OmniPage as much as possible with no effect.

This behaviour started happening recently. As I have only just added the latest version of Macro Express Pro I wonder if this could be implicated.

While I can find earlier versions of Macro Express, it seems that v 4.0 is not in this scheme, so I cannot backtrack, unless someone can point me at an earlier version.

I hope this hasn't come up before, I've looked but find nothing relevant.