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Minimum PC performance for PicoScope use (Read 18,520 times)

PicoFin

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Minimum PC performance for PicoScope use
Mar 10^th, 2013 at 12:28pm

I have developed a love relationship to pre-owned IBM/Lenovo computers, because they are dirt cheap, there is support, spare parts, new batteries and accessories available, and with their titanium frame they can take pretty much hammering, backed up by smart software that locks the hard drive read head if an impact is detected, or the computer thinks one is coming.

Downside is these are of course not the latest spec, but I have not thought much about it since the Pico software minimum spec demand for the hardware is really not much. Of course, lots of other things affect the actual computer performance too.

However, now I have noticed quite a few times that my computer freezes during Pico use. I have had the task manager window open while I use the Pico, and have noticed there can be several seconds that I have 100% CPU usage, of which the Pico software is responsible for close to that 100%.

So, anyone climbed the ladder on computer specs, or have many computers they run Pico on? What is the minimum performance you should have to run Pico very smoothly without any hassle? My target is to upgrade my garage computer, again to a pre-owned one, and go a bit over the spec level needed to cover future loads on it. Many probably tell me to get the cheapest new one available, but I'm just not the kind of guy who wants o have a crappy PC that needs backups every single day "in case of"..

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Tom Roberts

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Re: Minimum PC performance for PicoScope use
Reply #1 - Mar 10^th, 2013 at 12:52pm

Our recommended specs are on our frequently asked questions page here:

http://www.autonerdz.com/faq.htm

They are higher than the specs that Pico recommends for good reason. While it is possible to run PicoScope with a PC meeting Pico's recommended specs, you will not be able to tap into the real power of PicoScope without bringing that PC to its knees.

Pico's recommended specs:

Processor: 2 GHz Pentium IV processor, or equivalent
Memory: 256 MiB (XP) / 1 GiB (Vista, Windows 7 and 8)
Operating system: 32– or 64–bit edition of Microsoft Windows XP (SP3), Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8 (not Windows RT)
Ports: USB 2.0 compliant port

You'll need a lot more RAM than this. 1 gig will barely run the OS much less PicoScope. It will use all that and then grab pagefile and bring the whole thing to a grinding halt. You'll need a minimum of 2 gigs and 4 recommended.

We also recommend 2.0 GHz processor preferably duo core or better.

Tom Roberts
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fisher Super Nerd Picogroup Offline I love YaBB 1G - SP1! Posts: 2,734 Concord California USA Gender:	Re: Minimum PC performance for PicoScope use Reply #2 - Mar 10^th, 2013 at 2:31pm Tom, I tried to download a software for to upgrade my version of Pico but still it would not open that file and also, a message then tells me that the file was made with a newer version of Pico; I must not have loaded the right version. Please tell me the location of the Beta and it's name?
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Tom Roberts Autonerdz Administrator Picogroup Offline Autonerdz Founder Posts: 8,595 Olympia Washington USA Gender:	Re: Minimum PC performance for PicoScope use Reply #3 - Mar 10^th, 2013 at 2:35pm Fisher: http://labs.picotech.com/ Today the beta version is 6.7.15.2. Be sure to select the automotive one.
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PicoFin Guru Member Offline Posts: 276 Parainen Finland Gender:	Re: Minimum PC performance for PicoScope use Reply #4 - Mar 11^th, 2013 at 10:09am Ok. This mini-thing I am on at the moment, is a 1.66MHz Pentium M, with 2GB RAM. OS is XPP/SP3. So, short on your preferred min specs, no wonder, then..
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PicoFin

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Re: Minimum PC performance for PicoScope use
Reply #5 - May 23^rd, 2013 at 7:54am

Ok. I can see some other threads have popped up with the same issue, but as I previously started this one, I'll go on with it.

Now, I cleaned up my Lenovo/IBM I mostly use, tried to dedicate one laptop to some things, and other laptops to other things.

I picked the one with most processor power to be the Pico laptop. It has a 2.13Ghz Pentium M processor, 2GB of RAM, 80GB hard drive that has 30GB free space after cleaning and defragmenting. OS is XP Pro SP3.

Now I tried to have a look if things got any better.. What bugs me, is that when Pico is the only software I am running, without any scope attached to the computer, selected "No" on the demo device question, the CPU usage graph looks like a darn crank signal doing a constant 7ish%-100%-7ish%, even if I'm not touching the PC at all. Pico 6 is the only software that does this. I tried with several other "heavy" softwares, like Office, and with lighter ones like Firefox, Thunderbird etc, all these use 100% CPU at startup, but then go to idle.

Question: Is the Pentium M an insufficient piece of bs when it comes to calculating stuff (it was intended to be a battery-saver on laptops, right?)??

Question 2: Now I'm sourcing a Win 7 Pro laptop. Now really; what should the specs be to run Pico silk smooth?

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Tom Roberts

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Re: Minimum PC performance for PicoScope use
Reply #6 - May 23^rd, 2013 at 11:42am

PicoFin wrote on May 23^rd, 2013 at 7:54am:

Is the Pentium M an insufficient piece of bs when it comes to calculating stuff (it was intended to be a battery-saver on laptops, right?)??

That should work fine. Not sure what version of PicoScope you are using but I would recommend you update to the latest 6.7.21.2. You should always choose yes to demo before opening a file when your scope is not attached.

PicoFin wrote on May 23^rd, 2013 at 7:54am:

Now I'm sourcing a Win 7 Pro laptop. Now really; what should the specs be to run Pico silk smooth?

Recommended specs above.

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PicoFin

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Re: Minimum PC performance for PicoScope use
Reply #7 - May 29^th, 2013 at 4:39am

Ok. Time for an update.

I was lucky enough to open my mouth in the right place and time, a friend supplied me with an Acer laptop running Windows 7 Home on a 1.3GHz dual core processor, backed up with 4GB of RAM. Now I would say that anyone looking for a computer, this should be the absolute minimum processor power to have. I have managed to get a few short stalls on the screen, but overall it works fine. Most of the time in Pico use, RAM memory usage is no problem at all. 2GB should be plenty for this use.

Meanwhile, I was going crazy trying to compare processors, even if I only looked at the Intel ones. Could be everyone knows this, but laptop (mobile) processors, with the same GHz, cache memory etc are totally outperformed by a desktop computer processor with similar numbers. Why? Don't ask me. Maybe because of some power issues or something. Actually, this processor my Acer has runs on only 10W.

Wikipedia has a few good listings on processors, also Mr Google will be glad to help.

Next time I'm buying new stuff, I think I'll source for a good i3/i5/i7 processor (yes, there are slow ones of those also) and a SSD drive instead of an conventional hard drive (look at bootup times on youtube..) Smiley

Now, when I'm geared up, I'll be happy to go on with my learning process..
http://www.autonerdz.com/cgi/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1334174283

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