TC slow browsing on optical media.

[AnneAardvark]

I haven't looked through all the posts so forgive me if this point has already been discussed.
I find browsing CD/DVDs painfully slow in TC, you have to wait for each icon to load before you can do anything and if TC loses focus then you have to wait all over again before continueing. I have tried turning icons to standard only but its still too slow. If you quickly look in a folder and go straight out again then you have to wait.
I love TC and I'm only mentioning this in the hope some thing can be done. I have been using other directory programs and they do not have this problem at all but I miss using TC.
Maybe the icons can be cached (especially as you go further into a tree) or at least have icon loading in a seperate thread so you can do stuff as the icons load.

[StickyNomad]

2AnneAardvark

Hi and welcome!

You can try to add the following line to TC's config file WINCMD.INI, in the section [configuration]:

Code: Select all

IconsInThread=1

[majkinetor !]

IconsInThread=1

I don't beleive this will help. THreads will still have to access the different postion on CD, thus probably making complete operation even slower, at least I think it would be..

[Hacker]

This seems to be a related topic - Folders on a DVD-Drive.

HTH
Roman

[petermad]

2majkinetor !

Well, IconsInThread=1 is default.

If I try the two settings, it seems to me that with setting 1 the file list i shown as fast as possible and the icons are added later if necessary, whereas with setting 0 the file list is shown as fast as the icons can be read from the files.

[AnneAardvark]

I tried the IconsInThread=1, it made no difference.
I should have pointed out that the problem is on large folders with many sub folders. You enter the folder, it takes ages to draw the contents and you can't do anything but wait, no cancel, nothing. If you quickly enter one of the folders and exit again then the whole thing has to redraw again. The test subject I'm using has 200 folders, which is common now with DVDs for backup.

This is a serious problem for me. I have stopped using TC because of it. The one I'm using instead draws the same folder contents instantly. I hope I don't get too used to it as I did prefer TC but I do need speed.

It doesn't seem to be related to the flickering display problem refered to above. I'm completely locked out while it draws, just a wait cursor until it's done.

[Lefteous]

2AnneAardvark
Which version of TC do you use?

[AnneAardvark]

Been away a few days.
Currently I'm trying 7.0rc3 with no extra plugins, but this problem has always haunted me even with v6.xx, its just now I'm whinging about it as the opposition is getting quite.

Maybe other people don't have large collections of folders on DVD/CD as I find it amazing nobody has had this problem before.

[ghisler(Author)]

The obvious question: Could it be your virus scanner? Such slowdowns usually mean that your system is reading every single file on the CD when listing it.

[AnneAardvark]

No resident virus scanner (I scan on demand only, I hate the extra delay caused by such programs).
No resident program to slow anything down (I am a power user, everything must perform well).

Let me get this straight. Yo can not duplicate the fault? You have tried 200+ folders on a CD or DVD and you can browse in and out of the folders at full speed (at least as fast as explorer)?
I consider a 3-4 second delay too long, especially when you were just in a sub folder and immediatly exit again (it shouldn't have to reload it). I can watch it draw each folder in the tree and then redraw each folder again with a different icon, thats how slow it is.

It seems to me that TC has to access each folder in the list and check for an icon (or whatever - slow) even if display icons is turned off.

Does TC access each folder in a tree for any reason?

Maybe there's something I'm missing in the settings but as I said this problem has haunted me for a long time and only with TC.

[ghisler(Author)]

Let me get this straight. Yo can not duplicate the fault? You have tried 200+ folders on a CD or DVD and you can browse in and out of the folders at full speed (at least as fast as explorer)?

Yes I can! The directory shows up immediately, within milliseconds.

Does TC access each folder in a tree for any reason?

No, not in the default configuration. Can you try with a fresh settings file, please? Just start Total Commander like this:
c:\totalcmd\totalcmd.exe /i=c:\path\fresh.ini

where "path" is a directory where you have write rights.


If this doesn't help: Is there anything special about your CD/DVD drive, e.g.
- external USB
- remote (network drive)
- no drive letter, but mounted as a subdirectory
- etc
?

[StickyNomad]

2AnneAardvark

Hm, just to make that sure: Do you have thumbnail view active or a standard view mode (brief/full)?

[AnneAardvark]

Tried the fresh ini file, still the same.
Tried turning icon view off (only standard icons) and there is an initial delay when accessing each branch of the DVD of about 3-4 seconds, sometimes the display panel goes white (optical drives have ultimate priority), and then the display is drawn instantly. Seems to me the slowdown is caused by a delay in the drive processing the change directory command or the way TC recognizes that the command has been completed, the drive access led does not flash at all, so its all happening in the cache. Must be something about the way TC communicates with the drives.

Answer to questions, its a stock standard inbuilt drive on its own IDE channel without a slave drive, a Pioneer DVR 111D which has had its bios firmware updated to the latest. Currently I have 2 other hard drives, another IDE (on its own channel) one and a SATA I drive. I use the drive for many tasks like burning CD/DVD, movies, data, whatever and it works fine.

Thumbnail view is off (I havebuttons on the toolbar to select thumbnail/details view the only two views I use)

I'm at a loss as what to check now as its only TC that has this problem - all other directory utilities I have tried are fine, its a pity as TC is my favourite and I would hate to have to abandon it. I supose if you can't duplicate the fault then you can't fix it unless you can change the way TC communicates with the drive i.e. trial and error, but if I'm the only person to have this problem then it wouldn't be worth it, like I said, I've had this problem for so long and just put up with it (until now) and I'm flabberghasted that nobody else has had the same problem.

[JP]

Could this be a media problem? I have done 2 sets of DVD data backup. They are exactly the same, but one works really fast with TC, the other almost doesn't work…
Just a possibility…

[AnneAardvark]

@JP: If its a media problem then its a media problem with all my discs as they are all the same, s.l.o.w.
If you can get your almost doesn't work dvd to ghisler then he could at least see the problem and maybe come up with a work around otherwise I'm up the creek and will have to paddle with the opposition.