Microsoft Streets and Trips uses all CPU resources

My first post, I’m begging for any input about this problem.

First the one sentence explanation. When Streets.exe, 2006 or 2009, becomes a process on my laptop, it uses the maximum CPU it can get, 95% to 100%, forever.

2006 would run and be usable (but very slowly), I’d have to hard (power button) shutdown to get it to stop. 2009 demo doesn’t actually present a UI, but the streets.exe process runs at max, a normal shutdown does work to reboot and end the process.

More of the story. I’ve been using the various versions of Streets & Trips since 2000 or so. I like it, it’s easy to use. It’s always been a smooth install, and just runs. In the past 6 weeks or so this laptop received some automatic updates, including XP SP3. At about that time (but I can’t remember exactly), Streets & Trips 2006 started acting weird, running slowly, not shutting down normally. I started looking and wow, the Streets.exe process was using all the CPU resources it could get. The ONLY way to get streets.exe to stop running was a hard reboot with the power switch. I tried to uninstall, same result, streets.exe gets started and hangs up everything. I tried to reinstall, same result. I got brutal and wiped out the folders. I downloaded S&T 2009, it wouldn’t install. I got more brutal and wiped out any instance of Streets in the registry, deleted any folders, defragged.

Now 2006 won’t install at all, it errors that the install program has been shut down prematurely. 2009 did install successfully, but won’t run, it seems to start, then streets.exe takes all the CPU cycles and the map UI never appears.

I’m pretty sure this is some kinda problem between XP pro SP3 and S & T’s. At home S & T 2006 still works just fine on XP home SP3.

Anybody got any ideas about what to try next?

Thanks bobo

Shut off your antivirus and try again. Antivirus is the number two cause of software corruption (the top cause is the viruses themselves).

After that, I suggest the usual cure-all of reformatting the hard drive, installing a fresh copy of Windows, and then installing all your programs and copying over files. If you have been maintaing good computer habits (keep backup of all data, keep all software install discs filed together), this might even take less time than figuring out what's wrong.

How much RAM do you have? I would fill it up with as much as the computer can handle. Many people underestimate the importance of RAM, especially when running graphics-intensive programs or the more technical programs.

S&T is not even close to CPU-intensive or graphics intensive. It is quite modest in resource usage. There should not be problems so long as you meet the recommended system requirements (256 MB RAM for S&T 2009 on XP).

That having been said, it could be another application that's eating up memory. However, the OP seems fairly technical, so I assumed that memory usage has been checked in Task Manager along with CPU usage. If this is not true, then it's definitely worth taking a look.

We've seen several cases where S&T was negatively affected by glitchy hardware or antivirus or whatever. Hopefully it's one of these known common causes. But if it's not, then you really have to consider how long it'll take to debug the problem, and how badly you want to run S&T on this particular laptop.

Thanks for the help. You've very nicely told me how screwed I am.

I just started Streets & Trips 2009 demo mode again, with Mcafee services turned off (I hope). It took all the cpu again, and a solid 28400K memory, of 2 gigs in this laptop (how memory works anymore, I don't understand).

I had to power switch reboot to kill s&t's.

Streets & Trips 2006 worked fine on this laptop till about May 1, then the problem started. I don't think there's any hardware issue.

I think it's some update from somewhere, that applies to this company network or the various specialized control apps I run. I have installed lots of stuff that may be marginally compatible with other stuff. It's why a complete hardrive rebuild is a sad prospect. What is the connection between s&t's and "game software"? Does maybe some update prevent any "games" from being run succesfully?

Thanks for your help. My last thought would be to ask for suggestions of any other similar maps and routing software that I might use in place of s&t's? bobo

I can't believe I didn't think of this before, but do you have system restore turned on? If you do, then you can roll back to an earlier system state and see if it works there. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084 Doesn't always work, especially given the specialized apps that you run, but if it does, then that could really be a relief. (And if it works, then you'll be glad you didn't format the disk when I suggested it!)

The ability to isolate various environments from interfering with each other is why some people run virtual machines. It could get dicy mapping all the ports, though, since you run a lot of control software.

There are lots of routing/navigation packages covered in other forums on this website. For route planning, the closest one is Delorme Street Atlas, which has been S&T's traditional competitor. For navigation, there are several, but judging by forum activity, Garmin and iGuidance are the most popular.

Don't under estimate the impact of XP SP3 update. At business, one of my collegue got SP3 update and things started going bad after that time. A couple of software installed and the system was unstable. It began to cause BSD at XP startup randomly, until one fine day BSD (Blue Screen of Death) happened at each computer bootup, and it was impossible to boot XP anymore. Impossible to repair the problem, even by doing a repair installation with the windows CD.

Reinstalling on the same computer win xp sp2 and installing the softwares and no blue screen anymore: problem solved...