Computer dying after I close a Party skin

[Tosh]

Recently everytime I close down one of these sites my computer slows to a halt for about 30 seconds and the mouse only moves in a juddery motion. I also have it often when opening/closing tables, its very annoying to say the least and I think the last time I had this problem it was some random spyware, but I have run a load of scans so I'm a bit confused.

Anyone got any idea?

[dfscott]

Do you have a big notes file? Whenever Party (or a skin) shuts down, it writes the updated notes file back to disk. If you have a huge one (i.e., multi-megabyte), it can take forever and chew up all your system resources doing it.

After shutting down a Party skin, I now just pull up task manager and kill the process (Party.exe, Empire.exe, etc.). I've been doing it for weeks now with no ill effects.

[cab4656]

I have noticed the same problem lately. Party and skins used to close instantly. Now all of a sudden it takes a good 15 seconds. Thanks for the tip.

[mcozzy1]

Yeah. They changed something a week or two ago. Mine used to close instantly, now it hogs all my resources for a few seconds. So, it's not your computer, it's their software.

[Vendal]

Yes

[StellarWind]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you have a big notes file? Whenever Party (or a skin) shuts down, it writes the updated notes file back to disk. If you have a huge one (i.e., multi-megabyte), it can take forever and chew up all your system resources doing it.

[/ QUOTE ]
Exactly. It's the price of being a data miner. Two ways to prove to yourself it's the problem:

1. Remove the notes.txt file from the directory before you start up the client. The problem will go away.

2. Start the client with the big notes.txt file but shut it down quickly, say within a minute. The delay will not occur because you didn't give it sufficient time to read the whole file in. It won't write the file back because it doesn't have the whole thing. Note that any player notes you made in that minute are lost.

[CindigoHE]

For what it's worth, I dont have an account at Party and therefore no notes. But lately when i close it I experience the same slow down and stuttering of the mouse, so this could be a different problem.

[Yobz]

I've noticed this problem recently, and I have a solution for it (I think). I notice if you hit the X in the upper right corner, this happens. So whenever I close party, I click the "logout" button, or when I close a table, I click the "leave table" button. This also happens when I try to minimize the window using the _ thing in the upper right corner. Just right click the program in the task bar and click minimize -- that should work as well. Maybe its just my computer that is that messed up though (with the minimize and all).

[Tosh]

Interesting, my notes file is about 2meg so it could well be that.