tfoltyn said:

• whenever I try to create a new sdlxliff file for translation (it pretty much makes no difference whether it's through 'Open Document' or 'New Project'), I receive the following error "An error has occurred whilst using the translation provider XXXX: The translation memory data file engine returned an error: The database file is locked / database is locked." error. What's more, it takes around 10 minutes for the 'error window' to actually appear, and I can do nothing but wait. Then the only thing I can do is add the respective TMs manually via Project Settings and hope that the error window won't re-appear. This works only at times and more often than not the error window does re-appear and I have to start from scratch again and do nothing but hope again. 

Hi Tomas,

I'll take these one at a time.  So the error noted above first. This is one I have come across once or twice, and so far has always been linked to a non-Studio activity.  But there’s always a first time ;-)

 It may be that there are new search requests coming in while previous ones haven’t yet finished.  SQLite will obtain full database locks sometimes, and if another write request comes in (such as with a confirm) while the DB is still locked from the previous write request, this error will be thrown.

 However as we haven’t found this occurring without a good explanation it's worth checking these things first;

• Do you have you TM stored on a network, NAS, or other slow device (such as encrypted volumes/TrueCrypt volumes)?
• Are you using multiple TMs updated at the same time, or many TMs in the cascade (and more than one updated)?
• Do you have any project settings applied (i.e. filter values which are updated on existing TUs during confirm)?
• Are you using very large TMs, or TMs with a large number of annotated context values (for CMs), or a large number of field values (particularly in conjunction with Project Settings)?
• Is the TM open in the TM Maintenance view as well?
• Are there any background jobs/batch tasks running against the TM?
• Are you using any OX plug-ins “doing something” with the TM?
• Do you have any defrag software running
• I have seen people running software that continuously defrags the drive as they work and this can cause problems too

So any additional information like this that you can provide would be very helpful and may allow you to resolve the issue yourself.  For example I came across a user recently who found he had a synchronous backup application running that he didn’t even know about.  Apparently it installed itself when he configured the backup program for his NAS drive, which he installed around same time as he upgraded Studio.  So every time the memory was updated, the synchronous backup would write it to the NAS (all 500+ MB of it), with an exclusive lock until it finished.

Regards

Paul

Dear Paul,

thank you for your reply. I'll go on to answer your questions straghtaway so as not to complicate things any further. :-)

• Do you have you TM stored on a network, NAS, or other slow device (such as encrypted volumes/TrueCrypt volumes)?

Nope. I don't use any NAS, external hard drives or anything like that.

In fact, since I use my desktop almost  exclusively for work, I also try to keep things simple when it comes to software. I have just a handful of programmes installed on the desktop (pretty much only things such MS Office 2007, Chrome and Firefox, Adobe Reader and tiny software such CC Clean, IrfanView.... you get an idea I think). None of that (except for an internet browser) is running while I use Studio. I even shut down Google Chrome once to see if there may possible be some interference, but to no avail.

• Are you using multiple TMs updated at the same time, or many TMs in the cascade (and more than one updated)?

Nope. I stick to oft-repeated advice that only one TM should be updated at a time. I update only my own (the so-called 'master TM', I believe), all other TMs I use are merely for consulting purposes. No TMs in the cascade. 

• Do you have any project settings applied (i.e. filter values which are updated on existing TUs during confirm?

No, I haven't applied any filters or this kind of advanced settings other than those that are set as default. To be honest, I don't really feel up to using any advanced settings of this sort.

tfoltyn said:

• creating a file for translation using the ‘New Project’ pathway is pretty much impossible because the last three of a total of five steps in the 'Prepare Without Project TM' sequence simply stop at 95 percent and the process never gets completed. Pressing 'cancel' helps at times, but even in the ideal scenario it takes at least 10-15 minutes for the operation to be actually aborted. Then a project can indeed be created as it should, i.e. within seconds, but this only applies to small doc files. Working with doc files of more than a few pages is impossible, as not even aborting the process of creating a new project ever seems to end (I once waited for some 45 minutes but to no avail). I suspect it’s because the pre-translation takes ages to complete. However, as there’s no way to customise my sequence of tasks and leave pre-translation out of the tasks in the Freelance version (unless I want to use ‘Prepare’ – i.e. using project TMs, which I definitely don’t), I can only use the 'Prepare Without Project TM' sequence.

Hi Tomas,

This may also be related to the location of your files... just guessing.  Certainly this is not normal behaviour so getting to the root of the first problem may well help here too.  You can probably help yourself a little by manually editing the projects.xml file in here:

c:\Users\[USERNAME]\Documents\Studio 2011\Projects\projects.xml

Look for this element with a text editor:

    <ComplexTaskTemplates>

And then add the following within all the other entries paying particular attention so you don't copy it into the wrong place.  So maybe better to look for this:

    </ComplexTaskTemplates>

Then copy the following immediately above it as this will be the last entry in this nest of code:

      <ComplexTaskTemplate Description="No pre-translation and no analysis." Name="Quick Project" Id="bff3347a-b4af-428a-8221-2cb36a5dddd2">
        <SubTaskTemplates>
          <SubTaskTemplate TaskTemplateId="Sdl.ProjectApi.AutomaticTasks.Conversion" />
          <SubTaskTemplate TaskTemplateId="Sdl.ProjectApi.AutomaticTasks.Split" />
        </SubTaskTemplates>
      </ComplexTaskTemplate>

Then restart Studio and now you should have a new Project task Sequence that does nothing other than convert your files to sdlxliff and populate the target language.  So no interaction with a TM at all.

Will speed up your Project creation no end and might be worth a try to see if this makes a difference.  Note this is an unofficial workaround I just thought of.

Regards

Paul

Hi Tomas,

ok - back to the first question.  Do you think you can post a screenshot of your task manager showing all the processes running?  Please feel free to email me this privately if you like.

Typically we think the problems this may be coming from are:

- Overeager Backup Software

- Overeager Security Software

- Network Drive

You rules these out but sometimes things are running and you were not even aware of it so it's worth a check I think.

Also based on the size of TMs you are using we’d recommend an Upgrade to Windows 7 64bit as it can allocate RAM better than Windows XP and 32 bit ever could and this may also help.

Regards

Paul

Hello Paul,

first off, thanks for your suggestion concerning the 'Quick Project' sequence. I just finished changing the xml file, it took me quite a while to work it out but in the end I did and it works great. It really speeds things up big time if I can skip pre-translate!

Re the screenshot of processes running, I will email it to you in a second.

You're right I'm sure, Windows 7 64bit would no doubt handle Studio's RAM requirements better, I'll have to upgrade if nothing else works.

Thanks a lot for now!

Tomas

Great... but don't rush.  Believe it or not I'm sitting in a cold railway station finishing off the things I needed as my telephone line went down this afternoon so I'll be offline till Monday I think.

Good that the project creation works well, so hopefully this will resolve some of the problem while we try to sort out the rest!

Have a good weekend.

Paul

A TM of 700.000 TUs or more is a huge one for a desktop dating back to 2006. Do not take me wrong, the PC might look so far ok, but the overall performance of the combination of RAM and HDD (which is the real culprit when it comes to Studio processing) will not be enough. I have a Sony Vaio BX197XP laptop here with Centrino Platform and a PIV mobile processor (2GHz) and 2 GB of RAM, which is pretty well the same age as your desktop - as I did not remember when bought, I've checked on the Internet. This machine is in fact not workable anymore for me, even if it has a great screen and the performance was not that bad some days ago. The main problem is time - it takes extra long time to prepare projects on that machine. Using a TM with > 1 million segments slows that additionally down. I cannot remember now how often I did get the "database locked" message there, but I do not get such messages with my current (and previous) desktop. The parameter of the desktop used now:

i7 processor 3rd generation 3,4 GHz (previous: Core Duo 2,5 GHz Quad)

16 GB RAM (8 GB RAM)

hybrid HDD 500 GB (standard HDD 750 GB)

extra SSD for data (no SSD at all)

NAS attached mini-server by QNAP (both desktops) - it is a TS219P+, connected via gigabyte LAN

All my translation memories, termbases and auto suggest dictionaries are stored locally on the SSD

All project data is stored on the NAS

During the project creation a project TM is being created and rests on the NAS.

So when I work, Studio first searches the TM via LAN and uses the local TBs and ASDs. When concordance searches are performed, the TM is searched locally - this can take quite a time for the big mama TM (now 1,150,000 TUs)

After the first concordance has been found, the next searches, performed within a quite short period of time (maybe 15 minutes) are fast. When I do not use concordance for longer, I have to wait again.

Why I write all this? Because I am sure with a new machine this error will not appear or appear not that often.

For the time being I would try to utilize Project TM concept - a project TM is small and shall never appear to be locked.

best regards. Jerzy

Dear Jerzy,

many thanks for your message. Considering that you obviously speak from experience (with the 'database locked' error), I take your word for it and you're undeniably right. That said, as I complied with SDL's recommendations for hardware specs vis-a-vis Studio (1GB RAM and 1.7 GHz CPU - I'm not entirely sure about the latter, however), my understanding was that Studio might work just fine on my desktop. Anyway, I realise now that the minimum requirements don't guarantee smooth performance

All in all, I've gradually become 'reconciled' to the idea that I'll need to get a new desktop if these issues persist. The always helpful Paul helped me resolve one of the two issues, but if the second problem proves insurmountable due to HW requirements, then obviously I'll have no choice but to get a new PC.

Thank you both again for your time

Regards

Tomas

Before you spend thousands of Euros or similar on the new PC, check the performance of your HDD in the current one.

Maybe a defragmentation could help. My experience shows, that a fast HDD makes the biggest difference.

Beside the current desktop with i7 3rd generation, I have a laptop with i7 2nd generation, but operating only with a SSD drive. To be precise: the laptop has four SDD drives of 64 GB each, building together a single HDD of 256 GB - this means the drives operate in a RAID0 mode. This makes the machine incredibly fast - even though the processor is "only" 2,7 GHz and a dual-core unit, the machine runs all processes at least same fast as my new desktop. The desktop has been bought last year in September, the laptop is already 2 years old.

So before you buy: look at the option of getting an SSD drive in your PC. This might even speed up the one you have now and then afterwards you could take it into the next PC. This is what I've done for my current desktop. I have bought a Samsung 840 240 GB SSD by at amazon.de for roughly 150 EUR. It works with SATA III, but should also perform well with SATA II. Of course the performance boost will not be that big, but it could make the difference you need now.

We have several colleagues using powerful machines for Studio and all would tell you, that Studio changes from the heavy Dornier X to the still heavy Airbus 380 :)

But really: from my own quite long experience with Studio, "database locked" issues were nearly always connected with performance. Not CPU performance, but read/write performance.

Thank you for your advice Jerzy, I cannot but take it and I'll definitely look into the option to use an SSD drive, be it on my old or a potential new desktop. It must really make a massive difference.