Janitor Bob Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 The last time I opened a return, I checked my system (Windows XP, 4GB RAM) and the ATX software was using 99% of that RAM....ridiculous! That was at 12.1...I did not check last evening after 12.3 install....it seemed somewhat faster after 12.3 so hopefully it is now using less RAM....I am hoping 12.4 improves on that.....because doing anything still takes wayyyyy too long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILLMAS Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 Ran 12.3 today. Running XP, with 4 meg ram. I rolled over my personal return. can't do anything yet in it.. so it is basically just a shell. Tried opening my return. Took 2 minutes to get to list of forms that cannot be rolled over. another two minutes after that to open return... Ugh! I have a "dummy return" with just a 1040 that I created as a new return. That took 2 minutes to open.!! Two minutes into opening my return I got a pop-up from Norton "high cpu usage"... what the heck does that mean.?? Taxtrio This is just terrible, you probably have many programs running in the background, try ctrl-atl-del and check under taskmanager, you will see what is running. Remember these program run automatically, not that you have them all open at the same time. You might have to close some programs before opening ATX, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janitor Bob Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 I have all other programs and unecessary processes closed when running ATX....I should not need to do this. ATX has always been a rather memory-hungry program, but never this bad. Again....12.3 did improve this, so I am hopeful that 12.4 will improve further. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILLMAS Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 I learned this trick many years ago if you don't want to go through the taskmanager, completely shut down the PC (not a restart), let it boot and for to XP to start, don't open any programs or open the internet yet. Once XP is fully loaded, open your ATX program, only a few programs should be running in the background which shouldn't affect it, however if you are borderline with memory usage, it's probably time to upgrade it or avoid the hassle and buy a new PC. Even sometimes upgrading the memory doesn't help much when you have a slow processor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janitor Bob Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 Thanks....I have a lot programs that start automatically at start-up that I usually shut down. My old PC only has 2GB RAM (a lot at the time), but I did not think I was needing more RAM.....no other task or program has went anywhere near that limit. I was already planning a new PC for this year (after tax season....Now I Know to not be cheap on RAM since ATX is RAM-hungry. I was just hoping to delay the inevitable move from XP to 7...Heck, I'll probably just dive right into Windows 8 My processor is actually pretty fast....I may just add more RAM...That I could do immediately. I sure do not want to mess with new PC at this time of year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joanmcq Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 JB, you need more RAM. I ran into this problem with ATX 2007; it took about 15 seconds to enter ANYTHING. It was all in the RAM. I don't buy computers too often (the laptop I was running in 2008 I bought in 2005 and it's still working but bogs down like you describe with iTunes). When I bought my current PC, I got the beefiest one I could afford with all of the money going to processor, RAM and hard drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Margaret CPA in OH Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 I upgraded in October to Win 7 Pro, 8 GB RAM and i5 processor. I have zero complaints with speed - see comments above. The hard drive is 931 GB, your basic terrabyte, I think. I have my computers built by the local major geek. He actually hosts radio program called Geek Talk. He has built my last 4 computers. This one costs $1515. I like that he knows every single part inside and all the software and how it is connected to my periferals, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janitor Bob Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 I figured RAM was the culprit....I am disappointed because ATX 2011 runs just fine.....but then again, "disappointed" seems to be the ATX theme this season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joanmcq Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 So far I've had no problems so far. The first return I roll over is mine, and it's a biggie. Of course, there weren't too many forms available when I first rolled it over. It takes a bit of time to open up as forms are added, but then opens quickly thereafter. So it may simply be when a return is updating its slower. 2011 was one of the only years when the program was pretty complete upon delivery since Congress didn't have to squabble into the next year about extensions.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILLMAS Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 Before buying any RAM for your computer check to see what is the maximun it can take, sometimes you find out things the hardway, my old laptop had 1GB and the max RAM was up to 2GB, I went out and bought 4GB of RAM, and guess what the extra 2GB was a waste because the laptop only recognizes up to the 2GB and it is maxed out at 2GB. MAS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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