I bought Sudoku about two years ago and have been playing the game almost daily.
Recently the program suddenly seemed to stop working. When I try to start it the task manager shows that Sud.exe is consuming 99% of cpu time, but the Sudoku window does not appear. After 5 minutes or so of this, I kill the process.
I tried uninstalling and re-installing several times, both version 1.0.01 and 1.0.03, with no luck.
I am not sure what has caused this problem: A Windows XP update? A firewall or anti-virus program (Zone Alarm+Kaspersky) conflict? Uninstalling another program that took out a dll that Sud needed?
Could you advise me please on how to get the program running properly again?
99% cpu use
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by Son of Pappocom » Sun Jan 21, 2007 7:21 pm
Hi Harry,
Can you think of anything that you installed at about the same time as the problem started appearing? As you mentioned, this sort of thing is usually due to a system change -- it's very rare for a program to suddenly stop working without some kind of external influence. There's not much in the way of external dependencies for Sudoku, so it's more likely to be related to the arrival, rather than the removal, of another program.
Regards
Scott
Can you think of anything that you installed at about the same time as the problem started appearing? As you mentioned, this sort of thing is usually due to a system change -- it's very rare for a program to suddenly stop working without some kind of external influence. There's not much in the way of external dependencies for Sudoku, so it's more likely to be related to the arrival, rather than the removal, of another program.
Regards
Scott
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by HarryB » Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:30 pm
Hi Scott,
Actually I suspect it may be a registry problem. If I log in as a different user on my computer I can actually play the game.
Possibly System Mechanic might be the culprit. It will clean the registry and seems to be a bit heavy-handed. I was careful to run it manually, but it might have deleted something it should not.
Does this sound plausible?
Regards,
Harry
Actually I suspect it may be a registry problem. If I log in as a different user on my computer I can actually play the game.
Possibly System Mechanic might be the culprit. It will clean the registry and seems to be a bit heavy-handed. I was careful to run it manually, but it might have deleted something it should not.
Does this sound plausible?
Regards,
Harry
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by Son of Pappocom » Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:19 am
Hi Harry,
In the intervening time I've had about eight reports of this problem. My suspicion is certainly the presence of another program, most likely a system utility of some sort.
Does System Mechanic continually monitor and fix your computer?
Regards
Scott
In the intervening time I've had about eight reports of this problem. My suspicion is certainly the presence of another program, most likely a system utility of some sort.
Does System Mechanic continually monitor and fix your computer?
Regards
Scott
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by HarryB » Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:10 am
Hi Scott,
System Mechanic can be set up to monitor and fix things automatically, but I never trusted it to do that and always ran it manually. It has a background process, but now I have prevented that from starting up at login.
Uninstalling and reinstalling Sudoku, with System Mechanic disabled, does not fix the 99% problem. BUT logging in as another user does let me play the game without the problem. That makes me think it has something to do with the registry or user local settings. Perhaps something was changed or deleted and Sudoku does not rewrite or repair it at reinstallation. (Something to do with copy protection?)
Regards,
Harry
System Mechanic can be set up to monitor and fix things automatically, but I never trusted it to do that and always ran it manually. It has a background process, but now I have prevented that from starting up at login.
Uninstalling and reinstalling Sudoku, with System Mechanic disabled, does not fix the 99% problem. BUT logging in as another user does let me play the game without the problem. That makes me think it has something to do with the registry or user local settings. Perhaps something was changed or deleted and Sudoku does not rewrite or repair it at reinstallation. (Something to do with copy protection?)
Regards,
Harry
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by Son of Pappocom » Mon Jan 29, 2007 12:36 am
Hi Harry,
We do use a third-party copy protection product, so if the registry settings for that component are being altered by System Mechanic that would certainly account for the problem.
I've sent the an email about the issue, but have yet to hear back. No word from McAfee about their spyware issue either -- not a good month for software companies getting back to me!
Regards
Scott
We do use a third-party copy protection product, so if the registry settings for that component are being altered by System Mechanic that would certainly account for the problem.
I've sent the an email about the issue, but have yet to hear back. No word from McAfee about their spyware issue either -- not a good month for software companies getting back to me!
Regards
Scott
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by ThorMonster » Thu Apr 26, 2007 1:43 pm
Any updates on the 99% CPU usage? Logging in as a different user isn't a satisfactory work-around.
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by wapati » Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:41 am
ThorMonster wrote:Any updates on the 99% CPU usage? Logging in as a different user isn't a satisfactory work-around.
I have had the same problem from SQ and another, that being beta.
I think that it is Microdumb, again.
NetFrame is not stable.
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99% cpu use - Sudoku fails to start
by HarryB » Sat Apr 28, 2007 12:17 pm
The problem has not gone away.
Sudoku is now completely unusable for me. There have been no updates to the program for a long while, and I have the current version installed.
It is possible that updates to Windows XP have caused the problem, or that the copy protection software no longer works properly.
It is a shame. Sudoku was a nice program until it failed completely.
Sudoku is now completely unusable for me. There have been no updates to the program for a long while, and I have the current version installed.
It is possible that updates to Windows XP have caused the problem, or that the copy protection software no longer works properly.
It is a shame. Sudoku was a nice program until it failed completely.
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by Son of Pappocom » Sat Apr 28, 2007 7:31 pm
Hi Harry,
As you say, Sudoku hasn't changed in some time -- so it's certainly not anything we have or haven't done. I keep up to date with all the updates to Windows XP and haven't had any trouble. All the reports of this kind have been linked to System Mechanic, and (despite the several reports to the makers of that software I know have been submitted) no one seems to have heard a thing back from them. I lodged my own ticket in January, when this thread started, and haven't received so much as an acknowledgment.
I hate to say there's nothing I can do -- but I'm really at a loss as to what I can tell you.
Regards
Scott
As you say, Sudoku hasn't changed in some time -- so it's certainly not anything we have or haven't done. I keep up to date with all the updates to Windows XP and haven't had any trouble. All the reports of this kind have been linked to System Mechanic, and (despite the several reports to the makers of that software I know have been submitted) no one seems to have heard a thing back from them. I lodged my own ticket in January, when this thread started, and haven't received so much as an acknowledgment.
I hate to say there's nothing I can do -- but I'm really at a loss as to what I can tell you.
Regards
Scott
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