Gruss Forum • View topic - Excel Update

by **greenfingers** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 3:33 pm

In the excel error log I get the "Excel thread is busy" error message every 10 seconds (sometimes 11 but nearly always every 10 seconds!).

Should I be worried?! I use this in-running so time is of the essence.

Excel 2007, Windows XP, BA 1.1.0.49

Cheers!

by **GaryRussell** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 4:12 pm

How many markets at a time are you monitoring and what refresh rate? If you are only monitoring one market at a time then I wouldn't expect to see this message every 10 seconds. Despite this does Excel seem to be updating frequently?

by **greenfingers** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 5:14 pm

Yes, just one market, refreshing at 0.1 sec. No probs with the internet connection (price and bet refreshes error only at 0.25%).
Excel appears to be updating rapidly, although when I compare it to the main screen in Gruss it is perhaps slightly less, hard to tell.
I am using VBA code but it is fairly minimal.
Any further info needed?

by **GaryRussell** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 5:21 pm

My next question was going to be "are you using VBA". The message means that Excel is still busy updating from the previous refresh. To see if your VBA is having an impact try logging to a blank spreadsheet without any VBA and see if the message appears. You can also try it at a refresh rate of 0.2 seconds to see if the message is still there. If the message no longer appears then you need to see if there is anything you can do to make your VBA more efficient.

by **greenfingers** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 5:50 pm

Hi, thanks for your reply. I've tried killing all the excel processes and opening a fresh empty spreadsheet but surprisingly the identical error messages occur every 10 secs. If I slow down the refresh rate to 0.2 then the error messages occur less frequently (sometimes 11 seconds, 14, and 19 seconds apart) - in both a fresh workbook and my original workbook.
Thanks.

by **GaryRussell** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 5:59 pm

In Betting Assistant where it shows the actual refresh rate there is a figure in brackets, what is this typically?

What processor has your PC got?

by **greenfingers** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:38 pm

The figure in brackets is pretty steady at 16. The actual refresh is mainly sitting at 109ms, the other figures are not easy to read.

Pentium 4, 3 GHZ processor.

by **GaryRussell** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:46 pm

A response time of 16ms is very good and your processor is easily powerful enough. What is the CPU usage% of Betting Assistant and Excel in the task manager? Have you got other CPU intensive programs running at the same time? Is your PC running smoothly otherwise, ie. the hard disk isn't constantly busy and the total CPU usage isn't high.

by **greenfingers** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:03 pm

BA 25-29%, Excel 46-55%, only other application running is Firefox which sits at 0-2%.
Thanks for looking into this.

by **GaryRussell** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:18 pm

That CPU usage sounds high. I have a 2.40ghz processor and BA is running at 7%, Excel at 15% at a 0.1 second refresh. I'm afraid it just sounds like your PC isn't up to it for some strange reason. I'll get back to you if I have any more ideas.

by **GaryRussell** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:33 pm

Thinking about it, I have a quad core system so the performance is comparable assuming you have only a single core system. I'll have to get back to you I'm afraid.

by **greenfingers** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:05 pm

OK, thanks for the feedback. I'm not so worried, so long as my assumption is correct that it's only one refresh every 10 secs that doesn't happen, that's 1% so for now that's 99% all good!

BTW, as a recent convert from using one of the other softwares for a few years I'm really enjoying Gruss. The excel implementation is superior (and the refresh rate!).
Thanks.

by **GaryRussell** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 4:12 pm

You could be missing more than a refresh every 10 seconds. It only records an error every 10 seconds to avoid the log filling up too quickly.

I have been looking closely at the Excel code today and have managed to save quite a bit of CPU time here and there. I will be releasing an update in the next few days. You can try that and see if it improves.

by **milfor** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 5:20 pm

I once had a similar problem: I had a good processor and a refresh rate of 11 seconds (!) but BA pushed up my CPU to 100% easily.

I asked a computer expert and he said that the processor is only one factor for velocity. Having a good processor in an old computer is sometimes like having a big bottle with a small neck.

I buyed a new computer and the CPU fell from 100% to below 10% with the same spreadsheet although the processor capacity was only doubled and not increased tenfold.

by **greenfingers** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:08 pm

That's great, thanks, I look forward to the update.

Thanks milfor, that's useful to know as my PC is quite old. Cheers.

Excel Update - Excel thread is busy every 10 seconds

Excel Update - Excel thread is busy every 10 seconds

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