Autocad 2009 crashes/closes for no apparent reason

Hi all,

I work in an office using autocad 2009 (fully updated). Every once in a while I will be working on a drawing.. The next thing I know the drawing has closed or crashed, autocad is gone like someone had closed it, there are no error messages or pop-ups, and there is nothing in my windows event logger that seems to show anything around the time this last occurred. All my data not saved becomes lost. And autosave, lately, isn't exactly my best friend.

Yesterday I lost 3 hrs of work because of this. Autosave works intermittently too. I saved the file at 2PM yesterday. The autosave didn't save once in a timeframe of over 3 hrs. at 510PM the program was just gone.. I lost all my data and autosave didn't even save once in over 3 hrs??

Our IT person has looked into this and found that it doesn't appear to be any kind of memory problem (which makes sense anyway since I don't get any low memory messages).

It happens randomly while I'm working in general.. Not necessarily after I push enter after typing in a command. I have a great video card, the company we have the subscription through sais I have a "really fast computer". I'm mystified...

What the heck is going on here?

I've worked with autodesk software for 6 yrs now.. I've never seen or heard of this problem in that time.

-ChriS

It's been suggested by our subscriber that I do a clean uninstall, defrag my hard drive, and reinstall from scratch.

I think I'm going to do this anyway because I have alot of work to get done. I'll let you guys know if it works... SIGH!!

Also..

I'm gonna load 2010 instead of 2009 since we just got the disc in a few weeks ago. Maybe after I do all this, the problem will go away.

-ChriS

Does the computer act like this when you're in any other program other than AutoCAD such as Word or Excel?

Are you up-to-date with your service pack for AC?

No, I've never had it happen with any other program. the only other autodesk applications I have on here are trueview 2009 and autodesk design review (2009). But I almost never use them.

I called tech-support earlier through the vendor that gave us our current subscriptions. They,too, asked me if my autocad was up to date. I do have the latest version and I verified this through autocad (I just installed it a couple months ago).

I have been noticing other people having this problem, too but I haven't seen any known solution or cause. It isn't memory related because our IT ran a memory monitoring program and it was running the last time this happened. Memory was fine.. And there is nothing in the windows event logger to suggest any kind of error, hardware, or software problem.

My guess is this is software related but I am still mystified as to why. The other people having this problem are having it with 2009 only (sometimes LT, sometimes not).

I am running an ACER computer with windows XP professional SP3.

AMD phenom 9600 quad core @ 2.29 GHZ

3.25 GB of RAM

it has an NVIDIA 8500GT that works great

I'm running DirextX version 9.0c

Our IT sais maybe it's a fragmentation issue with the hard drive (it could be). SO I'm going to do a clean uninstall, and defrag before I install 2010. I'll let you know how it goes!

-ChriS

You should be running AutoCAD 2009 with Service Pack 2 installed.

I would try running the Repair option before taking the drastic measure of uninstalling, defragging and then reinstalling.

Have you considered the possibility of a corrupted drawing?

Other people in your office having the same problem? Are they all running AutoCAD on an Acer computer as well?

I believe there is a Service Pack 3 thats now available.

I was hoping the OP would respond that it didn't make any difference what program was being used. Then I would have gone for the CPU heat level rising suggestion. Many motherboards now incorporate a feature whereby the mobo will be shut down the moment the CPU begins to heat up beyond normal range. Wish they had that feature a long while back when I fried a brand new AMD chip. Can anyone say smokin!?

The video card overheating could be a cause too I guess because sometimes the fans can go out. But everything seems to be working properly. I've already uninstalled and defragged and I'm installing autocad 2010 right now.

We only have one, maybe two people in the office using autocad but I'm the only one having the problem. The thing is though, the other guys using Autocad.. One is using LT 2008, the other is using regular Autocad 2008. But We've never had any problems with file formats or compatability since both 2008 and 2009 use the standard 2007 DWG format by default.

It is true that there is a service pack 3 out now for Autocad and I think it's been out for a few months? I installed it about 2 or 3 months ago. Earlier today I had also gone into autocad to verify the SP3 update was displayed as the current version.

I discovered that my C drive was extremely fragmented and that my video card driver was extremely outdated.. So I installed the newest driver for my vid card and did a defrag. I'm not sure what the exact cause was but it could have been related to either of these I'd imagine.

I have thought about the possibility of corrupted files but I've had this "crash" happen multiple times with at least half a dozen different drawings. And usually everything is fine. The problem seems to occur after I've become engrossed in a job, only to forget to save every 20-30 minutes as I usually do.. Then autocad does a disappearing act while I'm right in the middle of something. But I now know that it isn't a memory problem (I never recieve low-memory alerts anyway) and I never recieved any error messages from Autocad. Also, if the files are corrupted then other people would be having the same problems with the same files, only everything seems to be OK. Bizarre..

We'll see how it goes after 2010 is installed! We have the subscription, I might as well use the newest version since they're sending it to us. Thanks for your replies.

-ChriS

If you suspect that it is a problem with the graphics card overheating the simple addition of another fan would be a quick and cheap fix.

Maybe you should reset the timing on AutoSave to every 10 minutes.

Well, I don't so much suspect the video card as I generally recognize how it could be a problem.

Also, Autosave is set at 10 minutes by default I think. For some reason it just never autosaved (in that particular session). I have autocad 2010 now, and it is also 10 minutes by default. I have no idea why it wasn't working sometimes with 2009.

So far, everything with 2010 runs fantastic. No problems.

-ChriS

That's good to hear. Thanks for the update.

Ammo,

you are running windows 7 correct? if so this is why i am here as well. did not realize this was a cad forum but thought since I am in IT for an engineering firm and we have copies of civil 9&10 architecture 9 network rollouts of CAD 9&10 as well as a 3DS max machine and approx 8-9 users using Revit Structural 2011 it DEFINATELY wouldn't hurt....The reason that I asked about windows 7 is this is a bug in 7. the machine i am using now randomly closes all programs (anything from IE to Word ...) I actually learned to deal with this but have a user (Actually in my CAD department) that is having an issue with 7 closing programs. DEF not a hardware problem as he has a precision T5500 with dual quad core xeons w/ hyperthread, 16 GB of PC3 10600 Ram, a 3GB Quattro video card, and 500GB Raid 0. he has civil 9&10, Design Review 11, 3ds Max 9&10 (W/ Dynamite VSP) and Revit structural 2011(standalone not the network rollout) I have seen this issue on 4 different computers (3 here including this one and my media server at home) so if it persists look deeper than Autodesk as the problem.

Thanks All

Welcome to the forum RizzoBock. Just in case you don't get a lot of response to your post, it may be that you replied to a 2 year old thread. If you are using IE in compatibility mode, the titlebar with the date and time doesn't display for some reason. If you can turn compatibility mode off or use a different browser, you'll be able to see the titlebar over each post and the date and time of the post will appear at the left hand side.

I'm not trying to discourage you from posting to old threads, new information is always a good thing, just didn't want you to think you were being ignored.