Help with TWS & Windows 7

Discussion in 'Trading Software' started by Picaso, Jan 6, 2011.

  1. Picaso

    Picaso

    Hi there, I got a new laptop with Windows 7 and IB's TWS keeps crashing after clicking around a few times (i.e. after changing something in a chart, editing the Global Configuration, nothing fancy). This happens even right after rebooting and with no other programs running.

    Never had any problems with TWS crashing in computers running XP or Vista and the laptop seems to be working fine with all other programs, so I'm assuming there's something wrong with my software (java, whatever).

    My specs:
    - HP Pavillion DV6 (3151), i3 370M, 4 Gb RAM, blah, blah, Graphics card ATI5470 512 Mb.
    - Windows 7 Home Premium updated with all security fixes
    - TWS 911.3 (have to use this version with NinjaTrader - was working fine in the other computer)

    What I've tried so far:
    - Upgrading memory allocation to TWS (the C:\Windows\system32\javaw.exe -cp jts.jar;hsqldb.jar;jcommon-1.0.12.jar;jfreechart-1.0.9.jar;jhall.jar;other.jar;rss.jar -Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true -Xmx<b>1024M</b> jclient/LoginFrame C:\Jts trick)
    - Upgrading Java to 6.23 (had .20 in both computers).

    What I'm going to try in the meantime:
    - Disconnect the power cord to run on battery (then the laptop uses the integrated graphics instead of the graphics card) to see if it's the graphics card drivers (I doubt it, but hey...)
    - Uninstall <b>all</b> java and do a clean install.
    - Uninstall and reinstall TWS after reinstalling java
    - Unistall and reinstall the last TWS version

    Then I'll have to deal with NinjaTrader, which is also crashing (in case this helps or is somehow related).

    Any help and/or guidance would be much appreciated.
     
  2. Hopefully someone else can be more helpful than me, but here goes.

    Summary, multiple programs crashing after initially functioning on new Windows 7 laptop.

    Initial assumption, same, multiple software works on Vista with different hardware. Probably a driver or hardware issue.

    I like your basic steps: test driver, reinstall software, but since this is a new machine, reinstalling after a fresh install is a low probability answer.
    Have you contacted Interactive Brokers?
    How about booting in safe mode to test the drivers?
    Does TWS die at the same logical point or the same elapsed time? (Bug vs heat.)
    Does TWS write any logs or System/Application Events?
    What exactly does "crash" mean?
    Isn't TWS open source? One can certainly run it in the debugger.

    I assume that people have seen TWS working on Windows 7. I have NinjaTrader running on Windows 7 x64 myself without a problem.
     
  3. jokepie

    jokepie

    In addition the above, Go in JAVA console (just search JAVA in control panel window) then go to temp file and delete trash. plus make sure you have atleas 1000MB allotted to temp files may be boost it to 2000MB.

    GL.
     
  4. Picaso

    Picaso

    Thank you very much everyone for your kind suggestions, finally uninstalling all java and installing <b>manually</b> as per IB's instructions did it.

    Steven, it was only these two programs that were giving problems, didn't seem a driver/hardware problem but good call on the safe mode. It definitely seemed a bug to me, no overheating problems (got a mid-level processor in order to avoid those).

    Jokepie, thanks I did that just in case, but I think that applies only to browser-based java (as for instance running IB's web trader). Well thought, though.

    Wentfishing, thank you, I didn't need to do a 1-2 combo, but the link you provided gave me the final tip I needed (changing the javaw.exe file called by TWS from \windows to \program files (86x)\java.

    NinjaTrader seems to be working fine as well without any additional steps so now I can finally go back to my breakeven-trading :D although if I had worked this out a few hours earlier I would have of course captured that 2 dollar move in crude oil. :p

    Thank you again for replying.