Server Busy

ojoshi-2 · ‎May 01, 2014

Hi

I have been plagued with a problem with Mathcad 15.0 (M030 [MC15_M030_20131216]) in which randomly I receive an error that says "Server busy.." When I click on "Switch to" it opens start menu. If I click on "Retry" it gives the same error.

I have tried searching online/this forums but I couldn't find a solution. Does anyone have any remedy for this? If not then I have to regrettably move on (or back) to Mathcad Prime 3

Thanks

Omkar.

Werner_E · ‎May 01, 2014

Why do you think thats a Mathcad issue?

It usually means that a process wants to connect (e.g. to update its database) and can't within a given time and times out. So either the connection is not yet ready or another process is working so heavily in the background that no other process gets a chance to get a connection in a reasonable time. When did the problem show up the first time and what did you install before? If you press Ctrl-Alt-Del, how many runnng processes are showing up?

I encounter the similar problem on two machines, usually while surfing with a lot of tabs open. One time disabling auto Windown updates cured the problem, on the other machine a freshly installed utility seemed to cause the problem, working quite heavily in the background. Since deinstllation no problems of the kind.

ojoshi-2 · ‎May 01, 2014

Well, yes I understand what you mean but I haven't seen this in any other application use. I would be happy if this is solved, whether by changes in Mathcad settings or elsewhere

This error had been ongoing and it typically used to happen with Excel, as in, when I used to click on Switch to, it would take me to one of the cells in Excel sheet that is open. All I had to do is press Esc so it the cursor in the cell disappers, and then Mathcad error used to stop. But now, it points me to Start menu and there is no way to know what process is hindering.

So it is difficult to predict when it occured first. And I have multiple applications open (Word, Excel, Outlook, CFD packages, Inventor, Chrome etc) typically when I work. Do you think a reinstall may solve this problem? The worst part is I can't do anytrhing when this error is thrown because I can't even save the work I had done until that point!

Werner_E · ‎May 01, 2014

I still don't understand why you think its a Mathcad issue and why you think that a reinstallation of Mathcad would cure the problem (though that always is an option). It seems like some other process is taking up too much system ressources and so any the current open programs may show that non-reaction.

It seems to be a good idea to set autosave to a rather small value like 1 or 2 minutes. This feature has already saved me a lot of retyping as Mathad15 has a very bad habit on my system: when I have a regions which takes "endless" to compute (typically some symbolic evaluations) and I cancel the calculation with ESC, I can continue to edit the file. But when it comes to saving, Mathcad would create a 0byte temp file and then dies. I have to kill the process via task manager. I can't remember having that error with older versions but I can't remember which service release was the first where I encountered this nasty effect. A short time at autosave has save me many times in those situations.

draagekreik · ‎Apr 02, 2019

@Werner_E wrote:

I still don't understand why you think its a Mathcad issue and why you think that a reinstallation of Mathcad would cure the problem (though that always is an option). It seems like some other process is taking up too much system ressources and so any the current open programs may show that non-reaction.

It seems to be a good idea to set autosave to a rather small value like 1 or 2 minutes. This feature has already saved me a lot of retyping as Mathad15 has a very bad habit on my system: when I have a regions which takes "endless" to compute (typically some symbolic evaluations) and I cancel the calculation with ESC, I can continue to edit the file. But when it comes to saving, Mathcad would create a 0byte temp file and then dies. I have to kill the process via task manager. I can't remember having that error with older versions but I can't remember which service release was the first where I encountered this nasty effect. A short time at autosave has save me many times in those situations.

As the OP said, this issue occurs ONLY with MathCAD. That's why they think it's a MathCAD issue, and that's why I KNOW it's a MathCAD issue.

VladimirN · ‎May 01, 2014

This happens when you start a program or when you open the working file? What operating system do you use (and how much RAM)?

ojoshi-2 · ‎May 02, 2014

Werner,

Yes autosave seems to be one option. But really it is frustrating to lose all the sheets you are working on in the middle.

Vladimir,

It is fairly random, or at least, I haven't established a causality with any other applications. My workstation has Intel i7 3770 (3.4GHz) processor, 32 GB RAM and Windows 7 64 bit Proofessional OS. Although I must mention that this has started happening more frequently since I upgraded to M030 from M020. Don't know if that is the cause anyway.

tietjee · ‎May 02, 2014

I have had this problem with other programs, so it is not a MathCAD problem. (One of the few that cannot be blamed on PTC.) It would be great to find out what causes the message.

StuartBruff · ‎Sep 01, 2016

Time for a bit of thread zombification ... 🙂

As I was sitting here twiddling my thumbs waiting for an Excel VBA procedure to stop running, I thought I'd have a quick play with a Mathcad 15 worksheet ... and kept getting the "Server Busy" error until VBA finally finished (I reckon VBA had to take its socks off to get beyond 10).

This is, as people have pointed out, not a new Mathcad phenomenon. It's rather a nuisance at times.

Whilst it may occur with other applications, I can't actually remember it ever happening with anything other than Mathcad. It's been a constant across many versions of Mathcad and OSs (XP, Vista, 7) and the processor type / speed and amount of RAM seems to make no difference.

The fact that I've very rarely, if ever, seen it happen with anything other than Mathcad strongly suggests that Mathcad does (or does not) do something that these other apps don't (or do). Under threat of torture, I might be convinced to mention my suspicion that the "busy server" is one of the MS Office apps (Excel in this and many other cases).

Stuart