Hardware effect on Chart creation speed

[Denis Boucher]

Hi: (sorry for the long post).

I have created a macro to create graphs (X-Y Plot) from data contained in
worksheets. There is very little computation; most of the work is selecting
the proper columns, figuring out what the titles should be, formatting the
axes and axes titles, creating a footer, formatting the legend on some of the
graphs and setting the margins.

I turn ScreenUpdating off while the chart is "under construction" and turn
it back on once it is constructed; the macro builds 11 Charts and then
displays the time it took to build these charts.

The total time required for the macro varies considerably from one PC to the
next (from 5 seconds to about 50 seconds on my PC); we are all running Office
2000; some of us are on Windows 2000, others on XP. I am on XP.

My question is: what affects the speed of a macro creating charts in Excel ?
I am running a Dell Precision 470 workstation with a Dual Xeon and a NVidia
PCI-e video card (64 MB RAM). I would like to think that this should easily
beat a Pentium 4 box with a 16 or 32 MB RAM video card, but that doesn't seem
to be the case.

I have noticed that, while the macro is running, there is considerable
network traffic (several MBytes) and the CPU allocation to service
SpoolSV.EXE jumps from 0% to over 30%. These activities stop when the macro
ends or is stopped.... what could be creating this (the macro does not
attempt to access data on the network, nor does it print anything). If I
stop SpoolSV.EXE, the macro won't run.

Any insights would be welcomed.

Thanks -- Denis

 

[Jim Rech]

SpoolSV.EXE is your Windows print spooler. This suggests that your macro is
doing some page setup stuff for printing. Printer drivers vary remarkably
in their speed and efficiency. I've witness a macro so slowed down by a
slow driver that the user actually did a C-A-D thinking his machine was
hung! A macro that ran instantly for me.

So make sure you have the latest drivers for your printer. Switch to a
newer printer if you have to.

--
Jim
| Hi: (sorry for the long post).
|
| I have created a macro to create graphs (X-Y Plot) from data contained in
| worksheets. There is very little computation; most of the work is
selecting
| the proper columns, figuring out what the titles should be, formatting the
| axes and axes titles, creating a footer, formatting the legend on some of
the
| graphs and setting the margins.
|
| I turn ScreenUpdating off while the chart is "under construction" and turn
| it back on once it is constructed; the macro builds 11 Charts and then
| displays the time it took to build these charts.
|
| The total time required for the macro varies considerably from one PC to
the
| next (from 5 seconds to about 50 seconds on my PC); we are all running
Office
| 2000; some of us are on Windows 2000, others on XP. I am on XP.
|
| My question is: what affects the speed of a macro creating charts in Excel
?
| I am running a Dell Precision 470 workstation with a Dual Xeon and a
NVidia
| PCI-e video card (64 MB RAM). I would like to think that this should
easily
| beat a Pentium 4 box with a 16 or 32 MB RAM video card, but that doesn't
seem
| to be the case.
|
| I have noticed that, while the macro is running, there is considerable
| network traffic (several MBytes) and the CPU allocation to service
| SpoolSV.EXE jumps from 0% to over 30%. These activities stop when the
macro
| ends or is stopped.... what could be creating this (the macro does not
| attempt to access data on the network, nor does it print anything). If I
| stop SpoolSV.EXE, the macro won't run.
|
| Any insights would be welcomed.
|
| Thanks -- Denis

 

[Denis Boucher]

Jim: I commented out the part that was setting the charts margins and
footer.... and my run time is now 2 seconds, instead of over 50 !!

Thanks a whole bunch !!!

Denis
(now... I have to convince my LAN Manager that we need to upgrade the
printer driver !!)