(solved) 1.8.7 is VERY slow.

Thought it about time to upgrade from 1.6.9 to 1.8.7

Running XP on a 2.7GHz windows machine.

About 4 minutes to fire up.

About 8 minutes to compile a working sketch producing about 7k of target code for a nano.

Any ideas? 1.6.9 was slow, but MUCH quicker than that!

Allan

There are a couple of ways to speed up the IDE.

First is to check the PREFERENCES and turn OFF "Check for Updates on Startup" which can help quite a bit.

Second depending on your computers security is to add the Arduino file locations to your security white list / exclusions list.

Both steps can be very useful on YE OLDE machines.

Thanks!

But the main problem was installing onto a usb-connected hard drive. Put it on the main drive and all seems OK.

But.

Can't upload to a nano -

error messages _

java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "REMOVE/bin/avrdude": CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified
at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(ProcessBuilder.java:1048)
at processing.app.helpers.ProcessUtils.exec(ProcessUtils.java:26)
at cc.arduino.packages.Uploader.executeUploadCommand(Uploader.java:129)
at cc.arduino.packages.uploaders.SerialUploader.uploadUsingPreferences(SerialUploader.java:207)
at cc.arduino.UploaderUtils.upload(UploaderUtils.java:82)
at processing.app.SketchController.upload(SketchController.java:736)
at processing.app.SketchController.exportApplet(SketchController.java:703)
at processing.app.Editor$DefaultExportHandler.run(Editor.java:2028)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)
Caused by: java.io.IOException: CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified
at java.lang.ProcessImpl.create(Native Method)
at java.lang.ProcessImpl.(ProcessImpl.java:386)
at java.lang.ProcessImpl.start(ProcessImpl.java:137)
at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(ProcessBuilder.java:1029)
... 8 more
An error occurred while uploading the sketch

Any ideas?

Allan

USB hard drives on XP can run very slowly and even more so if it is a USB 1.0 port.
If you ever see the message "This device can operate faster etc." then it really does mean that.

If it is a drive you leave connected on a permanent basis there are steps to initialise the drive as part of the main system otherwise it will be treated in a "removable" drive to the full extent. The latter comes with some speed restrictions.

Also 32 bit XP is considerably slower than 64 bit. But for that you need a proper DUAL CORE and NOT "hyper threading"

If your hardware supports windows 7 then that would be the route I would take before putting too much more time into XP.
You may find some of the IDE improvements wasted on an obsolete OS.

allanhurst:
But the main problem was installing onto a usb-connected hard drive.

Is that problem specific to Arduino IDE 1.8.7, or did you have 1.6.9 installed on the main drive?

allanhurst:
error messages _

java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "REMOVE/bin/avrdude": CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified

The thing that will usually solve that glitch is to delete the folder C:\Users{your user name}\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino. Note that Windows hides the AppData folder by default so you might need to change the settings in Windows Explorer to not hide system folders. This will also remove Arduino SAMD Boards and Arduino SAM boards if you have installed those via Boards Manager, but it's easy enough to re-install those.

In the end, I think you'll find 1.8.7 to be a bit faster than 1.6.9. Compilation got WAY slower in Arduino IDE 1.6.6 but they've been making improvements to counteract some of that. Arduino IDE 1.8.5 had a bug that made startup ridiculously slow (as measured in seconds, not minutes) but now that's been resolved.

The locations of folders like AppData\local were different on Windows XP & earlier. Microsoft changed all sorts of stuff starting with Vista.

By now we're all used to the new locations, so easy to forget how things were. I hit this recently while testing software on XP.

1.6.9 was on the main drive - the 1.8.9 installation uninstalled it.

Can't find the folder specified - I'll keep looking.

Allan

Thanks for pointing that out Paul. I forgot about the XP thing.

allanhurst, you can get to your Arduino15 folder by clicking the link at the line following File > Preferences > More preferences can be edited directly in the file.

Make sure to restart the Arduino IDE after you delete that folder.

Found the dir and deleted it - hooray... thanks you.

But I still can't upload and the messages are now:

Sketch uses 6608 bytes (21%) of program storage space. Maximum is 30720 bytes.
Global variables use 254 bytes (12%) of dynamic memory, leaving 1794 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 2048 bytes.

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x60
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 2 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x60
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 3 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x60
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 4 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x60
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 5 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x60
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 6 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x60
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 7 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x60
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
Problem uploading to board. See http://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Troubleshooting#upload for suggestions.
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 8 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x60
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 9 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x60
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 10 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x60

I'm using the arduinoISP as the programmer.

I've tried this on 2 nanos - one known working and one brand new. I'm sure I've chosen the correct comms port.

One step at a time!
Any ideas , gentlemen?

Allan

edit :

1/ if i look carefully the Rx LED flashes on the known working board for a very short time during the attempted download every 10 seconds or so;

2/ On the new board the pin13 LED flashes every 1 second or so, which presumably means the bootloader is working.

A

/edit

Hooray - SOLVED!!

My boards are a couple of years old now, so when I found the option of 'Nano ATmega328P - old bootloader' in the board select section of ' Tools' I tried it and all works fine.

Thank you for your time, gentlemen.

Now to find the goodies in the new IDE.....

Allan
ps can somebody tell me how to modify the post heading to 'SOLVED'

pps it IS a lot quicker than 1.6.9 - compile, link and upload in 19 seconds. I can live with that.

I'm glad to hear it's working for you now.

You can mark the thread solved by clicking the "Quick edit" button at the bottom of the first post in the thread and then editing the post title. Thanks!

My boards are a couple of years old now, so when I found the option of 'Nano ATmega328P - old bootloader' in the board select section of ' Tools' I tried it and all works fine.

You will have the same issue with most brand new Nanos if those are clones. Original nanos come with the new bootloader beginning early 2018.

So if you encounter those error messages which you cited above, have a look if you are using "old bootloader" or the new bootloader for Nanos.