Slow initialization of SAS on Windows

[ninemileshigh]

SAS 9.3 is taking a really long time to initialise (nearly an hour) though the CPU time used is not excessinve (2 seconds). Not sure why, my CPU is not busy, I am not running many apps whilst booting up. It was working fine until yesterday. 

An example log:

NOTE: This session is executing on the X64_7HOME platform.

NOTE: Updated analytical products:

SAS/STAT 9.3_M1, SAS/ETS 9.3_M1, SAS/OR 9.3_M1

NOTE: SAS initialization used:
real time 46:06.03
cpu time 2.00 seconds

Any advice gratefully received!

[LinusH]

"It was working fine until yesterday"

So what has changed?

If you don't know (OS updates?), virus...?

Try to do a search on the whole/all drives for changed files since the last 1-2 days.

Sometimes when things take long time it can depend on low memory (RAM and/or disk).

[ninemileshigh]

Thank you. The only recent (last 7 days) update has been for Microsoft Office (I am running SAS on Windows). I upgraded to WIndows 10 two weeks ago, but haven't had a problem until now.

[LinusH]

So you have no other file changes throughout all your drives? Including system files.

[ninemileshigh]

I will search my drives for changes. I've also started to uninstall recently added apps. I realised that although I noticed the problem with SAS yesterday, I'd not used it for 3 days prior. 

[Kurt_Bremser]

I take it this is not a production machine, as SAS 9.3 on Windows 10 is not supported by SAS.

My first idea is therefore to go back to the previous Windows version. The other is to quickly upgrade to SAS 9.4, which is supported on Windows 10.

Apart from that, one hour start-up for something that should be finished (at worst) in seconds without any effects at the side (constantly lit disk activity indicator, for instance) points me to something like virus infection or a problem with anti-vrius software that takes forever scanning the executable. And ant-virus SW is usually updated daily without notice to the user. so it could be the culprit.

Man, am I happy to work with a Real Operating System (AIX) on the server side.

[SASKiwi]

SAS 9.4 TS1M3 and higher is supported on Windows 10:

http://support.sas.com/supportos/list

There have been reports that earlier releases of SAS still work if installed under an earlier Windows release that is upgraded to 10.

I suggest you upgrade to SAS 9.4 TS1M3, the officially supported release to see if that fixes your problem. 

[ninemileshigh]

Thanks all,

it appears there is a common fault in Windows 10 locking up the hard drive, pinning it at 100% usage. I am in the process of addressing this issue. I will also upgrade to SAS 9.4. 

[Kurt_Bremser]

Any Windows release before SP2 (or whatever it's called in a particular version) has to be called experimental. Was also true for DOS in the old times. Wait another two years before migrating to Windows 10.

Our company did the switch to Windows 7 from XP just last year. 7 seems to be reasonably stable, but we don't use Windows on servers at all.

[ninemileshigh]

new development. I have restored my PC to a previous point, which has not fixed the problem. I have now installed SAS 9.4, but am encountering the same issue. Through a process of trial and error, I have realised that the problem occurs when I am connected to wifi. As soon as I turn airplane mode on and disconnect, it works fine. I guess there is some sort of conflict between SAS and a connection setting/ issue? I've updated my wifi driver etc. still no use.

[ChrisHemedinger]

Run

proc options; run;

And check the log for references to network paths or printers.  Especially printers.

You might need to adjust your config file/startup to remove such references. 

[ChrisHemedinger]

Another related thing you could try: Add
-NOPRNGETLIST
to your config startup options.

See: http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/hostwin/67962/HTML/default/viewer.htm#n1ubc2v3gsus7un1c1...

[ninemileshigh]

Hi. Thanks for the reply. I've run proc options, and the references to printers in the log are shown below. I can't see any reference to network paths in the log. I must admit, I'm not entirely sure what I am looking for. 

PRINTERPATH= Printer path
NOPRINTINIT Do not initialize procedure output file
PRINTMSGLIST Print extended lists of messages

PRINT= Specifies the destination for SAS output in batch or noninteractive mode
PRNGETLIST Enable listing of the system printers. The SAS system will discover printers
installed on the system.

[ChrisHemedinger · Accepted solution]

If you can, add -NOPRNGETLIST to your SAS config file (or SAS.exe command, as a test) to see if it helps. NOPRNGETLIST will avoid the performance penalty of discovering printers and their capabilities, which can sometimes take a long time for network-attached printers.

[ninemileshigh]

Thanks!!! 

I altered the .cfg file and SAS opened straight away. I will alter the cfg for 9.4 as well to see if that sorts that too. I don't understand why it became a problem, when SAS has always worked fine previously (I have never altered a .cfg file before). Could it due to changing from WIndows 8 to WIndows 10?

Anyway, very much appreciate the advice- working offline was not a practical solution to the issue.