BidMagic Running Slowly

Problem

BidMagic construction estimating software is running extremely slowly
not enough memory
disk thrashing
takes forever to move between cards -- on Windows

Diagnosis

Takes many seconds or even minutes to move between cards or do anything.
On a 486 machine it should go from one card to another in a second or two. Even on a 386 it should only take a few seconds. If slower, there's probably not enough RAM and therefore disk thrashing (see comments)

Solution

BEST SOLUTION-- Add more RAM. 4 megabytes is really too small with Windows 3.1, which takes up 2 or 3 megabytes all by itself. 8 megs of RAM is plenty, 16 is very generous. Later version sof Windows require MUCH more memory.
TEMPORARY SOLUTION-- may be able to free up RAM by removing TSR programs such as screen savers, reduce size of swap file, etc. Check the Windows manual for memory management tips.

Comments

Disk thrashing is when the program runs low on RAM memory and starts using the hard disk as if it were RAM. Because hard disk access is 100's times slower than RAM access, it slows things down drastically.
Hint: A sure sign of disk thrashing-- hard disk makes a constant quiet 'chugchugchugchug' sound.

Entered 2/14/95 by Dennis. Updated 10/22/2010.

NOTE-- We retired BidMagic estimating software back in 2002, and replaced with Goldenseal-- which is integrated estimating software and project management software (plus optional accounting software).