[SOLVED] Embroidery software keeps crashing

[dancingbay]

I have high end embroidery software that keeps crashing. I don't know if the it will help with the decision on at least reducing crashes, but the software is Pulse dg16.

I built a new computer in January to address this issue, but the problem persists. I recently upgraded from 16GB ram to 32GB ram which helped some, but the software still randomly crashes, which is very frustrating. The one thing I do know is that the crashes occur when I'm making very small adjustments to an element, which makes me think it's a math/calculation issue.

The tech at the software company tells me that I have a gaming graphics card, but should have bought a non-gaming card. I don't know how to tell which are for gaming and which are for non-gaming. Essentially, what he told me was that my gaming card is trying to do to much of the wrong things which is causing the software to have resource usages issues.

I currently have installed an EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB ACX 2.0 Video Card. The tech is telling me that 2GB will be enough as long as I have the right type of video card. He suggested the NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 or 740 with 2 to 4 GB onboard ram.

I read that the difference between gaming and non-gaming is that the gaming card is more focused on good visuals, fast loading, and a fast smooth frame rate. Non-gaming card is more focused on calculations.

The GT 730/GT 740 recommendation doesn't exactly gell with what I'm reading online. According to articles I've read online, the non-gaming cards would be very expensive, maybe even more that what I spent on the origonal build.

Anyone out there that can make a good recommendation on which graphics cards I need to be considering.

Thanks,
Alisa
Dancing Bay Embroidery

 

[punkncat]

Wow, their site is super less than helpful and quite vague on the system requirements for this.

With that said, where you are meeting system requirements, WHAT IS your system? Are you certain that the crashing isn't on the hardware or OS side of this issue?
Beyond that I am not sure anyone here not employed by HSI is qualified to help with this.

 

[dancingbay]

System:
* CPU: Intel Core i5-8400 Coffee Lake 6-Core 2.8 GHz (4.0 GHz Turbo) LGA 1151
* CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - C7 40.5 CFM CPU Cooler
* Motherboard: ASRock - H310M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard
* Memory: CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM
* Storage: Crucial - MX500 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
* Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB ACX 2.0 Video Card
* Case: Fractal Design - Node 202 HTPC Case
* Power Supply: Corsair - SF 450 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply

System Requirements:
* 64-bit 3.0 GHz Quad Core Genuine Intel Processor
* Microsoft Windows® 7 (64-bit), Windows® 8 (64-bit), Windows® 8.1 (64-bit) or Windows® 10 (64-bit)
* Video Card: A video card memory minimum size of 2GB and best of 4GB Ram video card size
* Monitor with 1024x768 (4:3) video resolution with 16-bit color display (or higher)
* CD-ROM drive
* 8 GB RAM - better choice 16GB or above- other program memory requirements should be taken in to consideration for appropriate RAM memory.
* Minimum 2 GB hard disk drive space available
* Mouse (three-button is preferred for digitizing)
* At least one Universal Serial Bus (USB) Port

With the system requirements in hand, someone on this forum recommended these components with the exception of the RAM which I changed out for what is listed above about a month ago.

I questions the processor speed and was told that it would overclock to 4.0GHz. I don't really understand this and now think the overclocking is not automatic. However, this is the CPU I have. The Pulse tech felt that the CPU was adequate.

Thanks,
Alisa

 

[punkncat]

That system is well equipped for the requirements of the program IMO.

Do you use this computer for anything else? Is it reliable in those tasks?

If you were to check Event Viewer, is the only thing showing a crash of the embroidery program?

 

[dancingbay]

Actually, I'm not sure if the system build recommendation was from someone on this forum because I cannot find the thread.

 

[dancingbay]

I also use CorelDraw and PaintShop Pro with no problems. I keep my books in excel with no problem. I browse the internet with no problem. I also have 2 other embroidery softwares that run with no problem, though they are not nearly as advanced. Pulse is by far the most expensive of the 3 softwares, so you'd think it would be more reliable, not less. I have only crashed these other two a few times when I had to many things open, especially pages in Chrome. I also do a little bit of PHP/mySQL programming with no problem.

Other than Pulse crashing, this system is wicked fast. It boots in seconds, not minutes. The only time it's slow (on the internet) is when the router needs to be re-started.

 

[punkncat]

I think I would escalate the issue with them, insomuch as is possible.

Their recommended spec list is a joke and they make absolutely no mention of not using a "gaming" GPU in the list. There can be a significant difference in choosing a Quadro (etc.) price wise and they certainly should have said something about that up front on the sales page there.

I am not informed on the world of embroidery software, and from what you say this is supposed be among if not the best? Is there some other program you could use?

 

[dancingbay]

I agree about the specs. I'm pretty ticked about the whole thing because I built my machine based on those specs. There was no mention of gaming vs graphic video cards, just about how much onboard RAM it needed, which was 4GB. Now the tech is telling me that 2GB is plenty with the right card.

I've been on the phone/emails with the Pulse software tech for over 3 years trying to work this crashing issue ever since dg15 came out . I've submitted numerous tickets, but they don't seem to have an answer for me because I cannot tell them what I'm doing to make it crash. I upgraded to dg16 thinking they'd worked all the dg15 bugs out, but they hadn't and it was actually even more unstable than the previous version. I built a new computer to fix this problem, based on the spec requirements on their website. I've escalated it to the top tech.

Changing software is possible but very expensive, around $5K, plus a lot more work going between software and machine, so would prefer not to go there if I can "fix" Pulse with a new, more appropriate video card. I just cannot figure out what that card is.

Thanks,
Alisa

 

[punkncat]

It appears that you aren't the only one:

https://dgcommunity.pulsemicro.com/topic532-software-shuting-down.aspx

I see page after page of this same manner of discussion. It would seem to me that there is a flaw within their program (code) causing this issue.

I am sure you have already looked ahead and realized that whether you buy a card or two, or even a whole new system that it would be cheaper than the alternatives as you know them. My personal thoughts are that going to a 7xx series card are going backwards but perhaps there is some merit, or some other enterprise level card might do the trick as a check and see.
I wish that I could be of more help and hope you find some viable solution.