Multiple MS Icons in Taskbar Eating up CPU performance

miamisoft · Post by **miamisoft** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:37 pm

hi,

i've been reading the forums trying not to ask the same questions already answered. im sure i will anyway as i have so many.

Currently, when i call another Macro from within a macro and i do not allow that 2nd macro to finish (SHIFT+ESC) the 2nd macro icon stays in my taskbar. i cannot right click and exit it. if i repeat trying to exit it i will get an invalid pointer operation Error. When i check my Task Manager, the 2nd msched.exe is showing a consistent 50% CPU Usage, even though its not actually doing anything. I have to End Process from here on that one to get my CPU back and get rid of the icon.

XP Pro (fully updated and clean as a whistle)

any thoughts would be appreciated.

PS - this has to be by far the best software i have ever purchased in my life. i recouped my investment the first 10 minutes using the software. Im on day 3 now and every few hours i create another free employee to work for me. thanks mjtnet!

Post by **Marcus Tettmar** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:59 pm

The question is: why are those macros not exiting? When they finish the icon is removed from the task bar. There must be a reason why they are not exiting and it sounds like they are waiting for something to happen which is not happening. I would run them with the /LOGFILE= parameter so that you can generate a log file and then look at the log file to see why they are waiting.

There is a perfectly valid reason why they are waiting. The script is probably telling them to. We just need to work out why and what.

miamisoft · Post by **miamisoft** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:45 pm

oh i know why they are not finishing. i am purposely stopping them in the middle of their routine by using the SHIFT+ESC command to stop. its just that they wont go away by themselves and are eating up my cpu performance. neither of which is a big deal as i have identified the issue and quite easily end their process. i was really wondering why they were eating up the cpu if they were stopped and doing nothing. and why i cant exit them by a right click.

also, i found another issue with this. if i stop a macro (within a macro) and therefore get the above mentioned bug and i do not end the process; and i continue to write new macros in the original interface (after i stopped the 2nd) and then after i kill the 2nd process and then exit the first process, when i restart the application, my newly created macros are not there. i have to do an import to get them back into my tree. macros created before are still listed. thankfully, they are saved exactly where the software is saving them and the import was super easy.

i also noticed that if i double click the 2nd icon, an interface pops up with no macros inside, not even the samples.

anyway, back to searching the forums i go before i post my next question.

thanks again.

Post by **Marcus Tettmar** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:48 pm

Hang on a minute - how are you calling these macros? If you use the Macro> command no other icons are created.

You must be spawning a new instance of Macro Scheduler or running compiled macros? Using Run Program or Execute File? No need, just use Macro>

Even so, pressing SHIFT+ESC would end the macro and therefore any icons would disappear.

But anyway, if you want to run another macro just use the Macro> command and you won't even see any other icons.

miamisoft · Post by **miamisoft** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:38 pm

Actually, I am using the Run Program>"C:\Program Files\Macro Scheduler\msched.exe" Macro Name to execute the next set of macros in these particular scenarios.

and in one instance i goto START > RUN and type "C:\Program Files\Macro Scheduler\msched.exe" and then paste a unique variable as the macro name which determines which macro to run next based on what the variable that was copied is. as a beginner, this was my first thought on how to deal with a dynamic variable that changes each time i run the macro.

of course, all this was before i read about how to properly use the clipboard variable functions within the scripts. i never bothered to update those lines in my scripts as i had already moved on to new macros.

i will update my code and say goodbye to the hanging multi-instances.

thanks again for the quick replies.

JRL · Post by **JRL** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:26 pm

You must be spawning a new instance of Macro Scheduler or running compiled macros? Using Run Program or Execute File? No need, just use Macro>

I will agree with this statement when the Macro> function has a non-modal option....

Post by **Marcus Tettmar** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:28 pm

I will agree with this statement when the Macro> function has a non-modal option....

But until then you can use Run Program and -NOSYSTRAY to disable the system tray icon.

And anyway, this shouldn't stop the process from exiting properly.