10.2 & 10.21 feedback

[kdh05]

I was "forced" to upgrade from 8.0, because my .efs orders would no longer work correctly (IB Error: need to specify currency). It's a long story, but I suspect it is due to an IB change (they've been busy lately).
Anyway, 10.2 & 10.21 are terribly slow. I have almost constant freeze-ups, lasting from seconds to many minutes. It appears that my .efs programs may still running. It will take more time to know for sure.
These two versions are real cpu hogs. Now, I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. Can't trade with 8.0 and can't hardly do anything with 10.21.
It doesn't matter what I am running. It used to work fine with 8.0.
eSignal, why can't you have a simpler version without all the bells and whistles that you must be adding, so that it will run like the older versions??
Very frustrated!

P.S. Is anyone else having trouble with .efs orders to IB using 8.0 and IB's old plug-in? (the new plug-in required upgrading to 10.2 for the sells to work)

[eostrom]

10.2 and 10.21

There are a couple things here that I think need to be explained

The first thing is the new versions of eSignal. These new versions of eSignal were developed, mostly, to deal with the current market volume. Though they do add some features, these versions were actually designed to tax CPUs and computers in general, less. Through testing, I've found this to be true in almost every case. The only case where I have seen 10.2 tax the CPU more than 8.0 is when the client is running a Pentium 4 CPU.

eSignal 8.0 build 1 appears to be the best version of the software to run on a Pentium 4 CPU currently.

You can check the specs of your system if you are running windowsXP by right clicking My Computer and then clicking on Properties. On the first tab that comes up it will give you how much RAM you have on your system and the CPU type and speed.

I would recommend checking this to see what type of CPU you are currently running.

[kdh05]

Thanks Eostrom,
I am using a Pentium 4 (as I am sure many others are).

[kdh05]

Still Frustrated with eSignal

So, I am told that a Pentium 4 doesn't do well with 10.2x and that I should use 8.0. The system requirements for even power users states a PENTIUM 4!!
So, 10.2 just doesn't work and 8.0 no longer supports IB's auto .efs trading.
Great! Thanks for nothing.

[shaeffer]

eSignal, please face up to the fact that your 10.x releases have a serious flaw somewhere. After suffering the freeze-ups in 10.1 and 10.2 I finally had to go back to 8.0. From discussions on this forum and with Jay F. at the recent San Jose eSignal users meeting, I had the impression these problems were rare and only occured on a very few P4 computers. But every time I look at this forum there are more threads talking about 10.x problems.
This is NOT an uncommon problem!!

Then today comes the email about the 10.21 release, and now suddenly a Power User (which is almost any active trader) needs a Quad core CPU! You're as bad as the gov't - they mess up and throw endless money at the problem, you mess up and require we get a newer higher powered computer!

8.0 runs everything just fine (almost) on my P4 computer. But 10.x consistently freezes on that same computer, so it is something you changed that is causing the problems. And buying a new computer to bulldoze thru the problems you created in 10.x is not the answer I want to hear.

So what changed in 10.x? Well , there is almost nothing new for US equity traders. Just look at the recent 10.21 and previous 10.x lists of new features - its almost entirely catering to forex, futures and options traders. I understand that is where the growing market of new customers is, but if you can't accomodate them without ruining the program for equity traders, then please create two separate versions.

For me, there are only two (now three) new but small nice-to-have features in 10.x. The ONLY reason I first tried 10.x was because it resolved the problem of needing to kick start (Ctrl-OK) some charts after the market opened. So can't you apply this fix to 8.0, and include some of those small nice-to-have new features (vertical study shifting, all-in-one Edit>Studies window, horizontal line labeling) as long as those additions don't freeze the program?

Otherwise, we equity traders are stuck forever with a two year old version, or else buying a new computer just to get some minor new features.

Also very very frustrated
Shaeffer

P.S. kdh05, I use IB also. It gives me a confirming 2nd data source and I can't imagine a middle-man can speed up your order execution. Does the integration offer some functionality that TWS does not?

[ScottJ]

shaeffer,

We do recognize that some users continue to have issues with performance. We also believe we've made significant progress with 10.2 and far fewer customers are experiencing the problem. In our testing, we see excellent performance using the new dual or multi core processors. We upped the system requirements to reflect this experience, especially for new users.

Our efforts will continue with 10.3 and further network optimizations.

Thanks.

[kdh05]

shaeffer,
Thanks for the support on my complaint. Clearly, eSignal has no intention of admitting how much a problem their 10.2x version is to many, many users.

Concerning a middle-man: I have .efs programs that automatically enter trades when the right conditions are met. It is much faster than I could ever recognize all the parameters. Plus, it keeps me from second guessing the trading plan.

Oh, and to eSignal, I see you increased the system requirements after my last/recent complaint. That's not really solving the software problem for existing users, now is it??? (I realize it "solves" the problem for you). Plus, I have read complaints here from people with better systems, and 10.2x is still a problem for them.

[ScottJ]

We have a number of ways to measure user experience (some anecdotal and some based on metrics). We realize that some users are still having issues but we can tell it's far fewer than had issues when 10.0 and 10.1 were intially released. And when running eSignal 10.2 on the latest system specs, we've seen even fewer problems.

In the latest version of 10.2, we added a mechnasism to dig into performance issues deeper. It's a process that detects freezing, locking, etc. and collects information about the state of eSignal at the time of that event. After such an occurrence, the next time eSignal starts, the user is asked to upload that information to our development team. We remain steadfast in improving desktop performance from all possible angles.

Thanks.

[TALLPAW]

Re: 10.2 and 10.21

Originally posted by eostrom
There are a couple things here that I think need to be explained

The first thing is the new versions of eSignal. These new versions of eSignal were developed, mostly, to deal with the current market volume. Though they do add some features, these versions were actually designed to tax CPUs and computers in general, less. Through testing, I've found this to be true in almost every case. The only case where I have seen 10.2 tax the CPU more than 8.0 is when the client is running a Pentium 4 CPU.

eSignal 8.0 build 1 appears to be the best version of the software to run on a Pentium 4 CPU currently.

You can check the specs of your system if you are running windowsXP by right clicking My Computer and then clicking on Properties. On the first tab that comes up it will give you how much RAM you have on your system and the CPU type and speed.

I would recommend checking this to see what type of CPU you are currently running.

Eostrom: I am currently on a Windows 2000 professional SP4 w/ a pentium 4 . have the following version loaded 8.0 (build 782) 07/20/2006. I see in your quote above that I should use 8.0 build 1 . Is that the download that says esignal_80r1.exe which looks like the only download available on the download previous versions of esignal. Could you give me the correct link to download 8.0 build 1. Thanks for your help .

[TALLPAW]

Re: Re: 10.2 and 10.21

Originally posted by TALLPAW
Eostrom: I am currently on a Windows 2000 professional SP4 w/ a pentium 4 . have the following version loaded 8.0 (build 782) 07/20/2006. I see in your quote above that I should use 8.0 build 1 . Is that the download that says esignal_80r1.exe which looks like the only download available on the download previous versions of esignal. Could you give me the correct link to download 8.0 build 1. Thanks for your help .

Any moderator from Esignal feel free to answer this question . Thanx !!

[kezha]

A friend just pointed me to this forum. I too have experienced NOTHING but constant freeze ups with version 10.1 and 10.2. I spent today with a technician and after explaining my problems and telling him I was quite computer savvy he stated that I should uninstall versions 10 and reinstall 8. AND guess what, eSignal works like a charm again. My advice is for eSignal to REALLY address this issue and send out an email to their users. They came within one phone call of me switching to TradeStation, but I thought i would give the tech guys a chance. I am a long time user of eSignal and it is sad that this problem has been left to continue...on and on and on. Sure wish I would have known about this discussion WEEKS ago.
Thanks.

[kezha]

Dear Scott Johnson,
Regarding your statement below that you eSignal sends a message to you regarding freeze ups, etc....when the client restarts eSignal. TRUE.
But you are missing something.
My eSignal would freeze up constantly for like 5-20 seconds and then start up again. And I mean CONSTANTLY. It was less common (but not rare) for it to just FREEZE UP resulting in a complete computer reboot.
When it was only freezing up for 5-20 seconds, I did not get the message that "it had shut down incorrectly and please send us a report, blah, blah, blah."
Please rethink what actual data you are asking for versus what you are getting.
I wish you the best as I think eSignal (when it is working) is a wonderful product.
Good luck.

[AssetHound]

Freezes

Scott,

Does eSignal 10.2 deliver ticks differently than previous versions? I have 3 charts, 1 quote screen, and 16 scripts running. Some scripts are calculation intensive. Previously, I didn't have a problem but recently have had eSignal freeze up -- especially when volume grows (i.e., more ticks). If I remove some of the scripts, the problem goes away. If I use setComputeOnClose(), it seems to also help -- but I don't like that option since I lose the current bar results.

Processor usage is only about 53%. I have a fairly new, dual-core machine. Is this just a hardware issue -- too much to do? Thanks.

Bob

Originally posted by ScottJ
We have a number of ways to measure user experience (some anecdotal and some based on metrics). We realize that some users are still having issues but we can tell it's far fewer than had issues when 10.0 and 10.1 were intially released. And when running eSignal 10.2 on the latest system specs, we've seen even fewer problems.

In the latest version of 10.2, we added a mechnasism to dig into performance issues deeper. It's a process that detects freezing, locking, etc. and collects information about the state of eSignal at the time of that event. After such an occurrence, the next time eSignal starts, the user is asked to upload that information to our development team. We remain steadfast in improving desktop performance from all possible angles.

Thanks.

[eSignal_AveryH]

Tallpaw,

Version 8.0r1 can be downloaded from here. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.


AveryH
eSignal Support

[eSignal_AveryH]

Hey Bob,

We have not changed they way the Tick by tick data is delivered to the desktop. However the increase amount of data we're now delivering can cause some of the issues you're experiencing.

By configuring the EFS to compute each tick you are increasing of amount processing power need to run Advanced Charts.

Our commendation is to set it the compute on close so that you save the processing until the end releasing more memory and process. It sounds as if you have plenty of processor with the dual Core and once eSignal goes multithreaded it will only help you that much more.

AveryH
eSignal Support