LO3.5.2 Writer slow on startup

asked 2012-04-19 00:14:49 +0200

jmjf
11 ● 1 ● 1 ● 3

updated 2012-04-19 23:02:55 +0200

Win7 64-bit, Core i5-5xx, 8GB LO3.5.2. Language Tool 1.7 installed (but doesn't make a difference) Only English dictionaries installed.

Open 700+ page document in Writer 3.5.2. After 2-3 seconds, soffice.bin process goes 25% CPU (i.e., 100% of it's 1 core) for about 2m15s (timed it). During this CPU spike, LO can't really do anything because response to typing is so S-L-O-W.

3.4.6 opens this document and is ready to go. No slow typing. No delays. No CPU spikes. What changed in 3.5.2's document open procedures to cause this CPU spike and consequent usability problem?

Notes:

• The document is plain text. Basic margins and a header (page number). No images, tables, bullets, etc. After the CPU-pegging is done, 3.5.2 seems to work reasonably well.
• Opening a much smaller document in 3.5.2., I see a short 25% CPU spike for <5 seconds, so this seems to be related to document size.
• 3.5.2 is not counting pages, etc. It has the right page count as soon as the document displays on screen.
• 3.5.2 does not appear to be spell-checking. I see red wavy underlines before the CPU spike. I can jump to the end of the document before the spike starts and see red wavy underlines there. Likewise, a fast set of page downs before the spike shows red wavy underlines. And just to be sure, I tested with 300 page lorem ipsum which throws red wavy underlines under every word, so it's really obvious it had spell checked.

19 April 2012 Update

Thanks to manj_k for the update. Hopefully that's it and they get it fixed soon.

In the interest of having correct information, further testing showed that 3.5.2's issue is not just a file open issue. Once the file is open, typing new text spikes the CPU core (CPU = 25%) every time.

I reverted to 3.4.3 (apparently didn't move the 3.4.6 install package to a safe place and didn't feel like DLing again). 3.4.3 also spikes the CPU to 25% on file open (100% of 1 core) for about a couple of minutes, so my conclusion that this is a file open problem is wrong. But 3.4.3. doesn't have the slow typing issue--ever. I can type immediately. 3.4.3 max CPU while typing new text after file open settles down is 2%.

I note that 3.4.3 will occasionally pop over 25% during the file open spike, suggesting it's getting part of a second core. Typing while CPU is 25% after a file open typically runs about 26%, occasionally just sitting there will go as high as 28%. 3.5.2 never went over 25%, suggesting 3.5.2 never got more than 1 core. Maybe LO 3.5.x is limited to 1 core where 3.4.x is not? (wild guess)

Other evidence that may support this. 3.5.2 would freeze a save/autosave in Writer if I opened a dialog box in a Calc document that was open at the same time. (Progress bar would stop part-way across the screen until I closed the dialog, then it would resume moving across the screen as normal. Also, USB drive light stopped flashing during this and resumed after, so quite obviously no write activity during this pause.) 3.4.3 continues saving in the same scenario.

Generated a 14k word lorem ipsum and pasted repeatedly to get 869 pages as a test document I can submit with a bug report (which I'll link to the other bug which is dealing with text in tables--just to make the point this isn't a table thing). 3.4.3 spiked the CPU after the insert for a couple of minutes, but typing was no problem. (So, Writer is doing something on large inserts of text in 3.4.3 that takes up a lot of CPU, but in 3.5.2, even typing in a short sentence in a large document seems to do the same thing.)