I run Cybertrader Pro with about 7 charts, 1 Level 2 display and a lot of other stuff. All of this takes up about 70% of my computer's system resources. I also run a separate newsfeed and a quote feed. My computer is a Dell 8100 Pentium 4, 40GB hard drive and 384MB of RAM. I have 2 monitors. Recently when I had all of my software running + a couple of internet browsers open, my system resources were dropping below 5%. I had to close some of the browsers to solve that problem. I am looking to add a 3rd monitor so that I can have another 3 charts open + a lot of Cyberquant windows. I am afraid that the whole thing would take up about 95-99% of system resources. Does anybody have a solution to this problem or has had this problem in the past? I have already added 256MB of memory (originally it came with 128MB) and this has not helped at all.
Just curious what operating system you're using. If it's not Win NT or 2000, that could be your problem.
I use cybertrader pro but havn't had this problem. Similar amount of charts & others, plus 6 level II boxes. I'm using win2000 on 900mhz with 512mb of ram. Presume you run check disk and defrag on regular basis. About every six months system gets glitchy so I format hard drive and reinstall everything. Cures problem but takes ages to do. If you have two PCs and connections, don't forget you can open cyber software more than once. Cyberquant is great for creating your own filters. I used to have a separate news feed but stopped it when cyber strated giving DJ wire service in software. Sometimes if you watch "trader order flow" you will see a reaction before the news hits the wire. Ken
I too had the same problem consistantly with my Dell (950 mhz 256k ram) and it really annoyed me. I never figured anything out as I am anything but a tech expert. I now use an AMD based PC with a 650 mhz processor and 256k and have yet to have a low resources issue. It is surprising considering the Dell name. In my heart I agree with another poster who says it may be WIN 98. I am still using 98 and think it is inherently an unstable, resource intensive op system. I am simply too fearful of installing 2000 or the new version on an existing machine so am waiting until I buy a new one.
I had the same problems with low resources when I was using Win98. I would have to reboot at least once each day. I did this for awhile until it crashed on me while I was in a trade. That was all the push I needed to make the move. I got a copy of Win2k on Ebay and it was the best $150 I've ever spent. I haven't had a single problem since I made the switch. Don't wait for a crash that costs you big money because a trade goes against you while you are trying to reboot. In the end it will cost you much more than the upgrade will. Kirk
So you think it's the software problem? I have Win ME and will upgrade to XP when that comes out. Ken, the DJ news that you get from Cybertrader is an incomplete version. You miss all non-economic news. Eg political news, Fed Beige Book, Treasury comments etc. All you get is the company related news. True, it accounts for 95% of the content, - but the last 5% is very important. I prefer to pay $95 per month to my news feed service and have a piece of mind.
Yes..go w/ win2k. Did the trick for me and I couldn't be happier. I don't know about win xp...too soon to really tell.
That's funny. I don't use cybertrader but I do run ravenquote, spread out on 3 screens (2@19" & 1@17"). I keep 23 charts open at all times, and one level 2 box. Plus I've been trading through Datek, which requires several open browser windows, including an applet, and I'll often open addt'l windows to get news and market commentaries. My system never slows down or hesistates in any way. I have a copy of win2k but the fact that my cpu's rock solid right now hasn't given me the urge to use win2k. My system is win98 (1st edition) with no additional memory management software or any other non-standard stuff. I have an AMD 1.4 Athlon, ASUS A7A266 motherboard, 512mb DDR sdram, two matrox g450 video cards, a link-sys ethernet card, and DSL. I typically have (with everything above open and running) at least 50% system resources free and never any kind of slowdown or instability. I think the problem is your dell, and all the extra software knick knacks they install in the retail boxes which totally bogs your computer down. Hit ctrl+alt+delete right after the computer boots up - you shouldn't have more than five applications running when you do this. If you have more than that, there's your problem. I'd format the harddrive, pull out all the cards (except video card of course), re-install the OS from a clean microsoft disk (not the boot disks you got with your dell) and re-install the hardware one thing at a time. You should have a rocket ship after that.
sasha1, Win95, Win98, and WinMe are all built around 16-bit technology and there is a limited number of stacks which put a cap on your available resources. Some programs are resource hungry, some aren't, sometimes Win9x can reclaim resources when you close a program, sometimes it can't. When Microsoft went to 32-bit technology for the kernel in WinNT, Win2000, and WinXP the fundamental structure was changed and there are no resources per se -- that is, you may run out of memory at some point but you'll never run out of resources since that concept no longer applies. Remember, memory and resources have nothing to do with each other, so adding more memory to a Win98 system isn't going to make any difference to that particular problem (although it helps in other areas like disk-churning). Recommend you install WinNT or W2K on a clean machine (i.e., after formatting your drive), since upgrading them on an existing O/S doesn't always go smoothly, especially on top of Win9x systems. Or you can wait until XP but I assure you it will be very buggy as all new Microsoft operating systems are, so if you go that route you may want to wait for the inevitable first Service Pack.