I got a new computer at school. It's flippin fast, well, compared to the old one they gave me. Anyway, everything loads in a snap of the fingers, except for one program. Matlab takes 4 minutes + to start up. I don't understand why that program takes forever, any ideas?

not sure but your sig is way too big.

what is matlab? is it like mathematica? does it use SQL?

MATLAB has startup scripts (startup.rc or something is one of them). Maybe something is going on in one of those that's taking forever. Also, if you have a license server you're using that can make it go really slow if the server is slow or it's run out of licenses.

Does it just sit there or does it make tons of noise like it's really straining to load the program? The latter might be a sign of not enough RAM or badly configured virtual swap space, but I'd really doubt any of that would cause 4 minutes of load time.

probably because that program requires much more processing power to run than the other programs, or simply just bad programming. Try check for updates.

Ah Matlab... my computers always took a while to load that up, maybe not 4+ minutes, but it always took a while. Dont worry you dont really need to learn it, the only place i know matlab is used is in college, most employers dont even know what it is.

4 minutes is a long time. But, Matlab is kinda bloated on the load. How much RAM does your machine have?

My friend at Lockheed uses Matlab all the time for optics.

Ah Matlab... my computers always took a while to load that up, maybe not 4+ minutes, but it always took a while. Dont worry you dont really need to learn it, the only place i know matlab is used is in college, most employers dont even know what it is.

If you're a "systems" engineer than you'll probably use it. These people get it in their heads that MATLAB is great for simulations and highly math-intensive post processing and it's stuck there forever. In reality it's just because that's all they know how to "program" in. But, if you're good at it, you have a good niche -- so long as you don't shoot yourself first.

not sure but your sig is way too big.
noted

MATLAB has startup scripts (startup.rc or something is one of them). Maybe something is going on in one of those that's taking forever. Also, if you have a license server you're using that can make it go really slow if the server is slow or it's run out of licenses.

Does it just sit there or does it make tons of noise like it's really straining to load the program? The latter might be a sign of not enough RAM or badly configured virtual swap space, but I'd really doubt any of that would cause 4 minutes of load time.
Just sits there. I'll check the startup script file. thanks! :)

probably because that program requires much more processing power to run than the other programs, or simply just bad programming. Try check for updates.
I run other programs which are much more resource intensive, like Ansys and Fluent. They load faster.

Ah Matlab... my computers always took a while to load that up, maybe not 4+ minutes, but it always took a while. Dont worry you dont really need to learn it, the only place i know matlab is used is in college, most employers dont even know what it is.
Yeah, I doubt many in the engineering industry use it because most engineering companies use packages to do their work (Ansys, Solidworks, etc etc). I, however, have to develop my own software, so matlab is a dream. So easy to use compared to C or Fortran.

4 minutes is a long time. But, Matlab is kinda bloated on the load. How much RAM does your machine have?

My friend at Lockheed uses Matlab all the time for optics.
2 gigs.

If you're a "systems" engineer than you'll probably use it. These people get it in their heads that MATLAB is great for simulations and highly math-intensive post processing and it's stuck there forever. In reality it's just because that's all they know how to "program" in. But, if you're good at it, you have a good niche -- so long as you don't shoot yourself first.
What other programs would you recommend?

Most posts in a row! WOOOOOOT

and now i've blocked you from continuing.

C-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-combo breaker!

Yeah, I have no clue. Defrag your hard drive?

What other programs would you recommend?

MATLAB definitely has its place. You can code certain things up very easily and it can handle anything that maps to a giant matrix of data very well. But when it comes to iterative processing it is a giant pile of crap. You can write C++ apps that use optimized math libraries and run thousands of times faster.

The main problem is that electrical engineers, especially older ones, can't and don't like to code. They're not very good at it and when teams of them get together to write code it's the biggest garbage ever. They write these massive apps in MATLAB and they are slow and memory intensive.

Those two things coupled together make it a potential nightmare.

^^^ I can attest to that.

is it trying to connect to some network that isn't available? never used matlab, so i'm just guessing, but a few years ago i had a program that would take forever to start, and that ended up being the reason why. fix was to uncheck a setting in the preferences. don't know if that will work here, but it could be a place to look. also, look around the install directory (for windows) for a log, and see if it lists any errors on startup.

Technical Solutions
Solution Number: 1-17VEB

Date Last Modified: 28 Oct 2005
Product: MATLAB®
Reported in Release:
Fixed in Release:
Platform: Windows
Operating System: Windows Any

Subject:

Why does MATLAB take so long to start if I am disconnected from the network?
Problem Description:

I am using a standalone license and a network license on the same machine. I have the license manager (FLEXlm) set up so that it looks for the network license first and all when all network licenses are checked out, MATLAB uses the standalone license.

Solution:

The reason for the slow startup is that the environment variable LM_LICENSE_FILE is either not set or it is not set optimally. This variable tells MATLAB where it can find the license file to use to startup MATLAB. When someone is using a standalone license and a network license on the same machine, usually they have LM_LICENSE_FILE set up so that it looks for the network license first, then if all licenses are checked out, it goes for the standalone license.

This usually doesn't create a problem until the person disconnects from the network. After disconnecting from the network, when MATLAB looks for the network license it takes it a while to realize that it cannot connect to the server to checkout a network license before it falls back on the standalone license.

This slow startup can also happen if you only have a standalone license for MATLAB, but have the LM_LICENSE_FILE variable set to have a license other than the MATLAB license first.

Either way, to fix this problem please do the following:

1. Right-click on the "My Computer" icon and go to "Properties".

2. Go to the "Environment" tab

3. Look for a variable named LM_LICENSE_FILE

4. If there is an LM_LICENSE_FILE variable already in existence, skip to step 5. If there is not, create an LM_LICENSE_FILE variable by typing "LM_LICENSE_FILE" in the Variable text box and continue to step 5.

5. Set the LM_LICENSE_FILE variable to the absolute path of the MATLAB license.dat file for your node-locked PC license first. The license file should be in the $MATLAB/bin/win32 directory for R12 and higher ($MATLAB/bin for R11), where $MATLAB is the root MATLAB directory.

Note: If there is more than one license file, put a colon ( : ) after the first path, then type the path to the network license.dat for the pool of licenses. Click "OK".

6. Click "OK".
http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/data/1-17VEB.html

See if this sheds some light on your problem:

http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/data/1-17VEB.html

EDIT - D'oh! Glyphon beat me to it.... :)

Yeah, good call - 4 minutes is about right for a LAN-timeout. If the hard drive was thrashing for 4 minutes that would indicate a need to defrag or that the computer was using virtual swap space on the hard drive.

What other programs would you recommend?
i used matlab all through school, but now i'm using IDL. there are pros and cons for both platforms, but matlab seems more user friendly code wise. what branch of engineering are you in???

I heard Matlab is like an evo.......

SLOW..........

:)

Matlab owns in the twisties.

C-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-combo breaker!

Yeah, I have no clue. Defrag your hard drive?
He said its a new Computer lol

That doesn't necessarily mean the files aren't fragmented. After a fresh OS and installing Office and other applications, my drives get pretty red.

No, I think I know the reason why MATLAB is running slow. As a MATLAB junkie, I too have run into this problem.

Let me ask you this - does your new computer have a Pentium 4 in it? And what version of MATLAB are you running?

so did you fix this problem or what?

Oh yeah, forgot about this thread. Thanks for reminding me. It is trying to connect to a network. I could fix it, but I prefer asking my underling to do it. As he watches me type this, he asks that I not refer to him as an underling. Unfortunately, I have no regard for his feelings and have now demoted him to 'my bitch' status for his insulence. There ain't shit he can do about it either, cause I sign the checks. muah hahaha :FIREdevil

Thanks for all your help guys.

Ahh you just need to clear up all the po0n you have on your PC lol

Ahh you just need to clear up all the po0n you have on your PC lol

like your sigs? :naughty:

okay, it was the network issue after all. If that doesn't work, what I was getting at is older versions of MATLAB have problems with Pentium 4's. It takes them fricking forever to load MATLAB. There is a patch out there somewhere that you can download that fixes this.

like your sigs? :naughty:
My sigs got po0nd