Arduino IDE in XP - high CPU usage and workaround

[RainyShadow]

Is anyone using the Arduino IDE in XP? Or willing to download about 100MB for a quick test?

Just get the portable 1.8.9 version. Make a folder named "portable" in the same place as the .exe to avoid getting junk in your "Documents and Settings". Run arduino.exe and see if the CPU usage drops after it loads fully.

 

It comes with its own Java and can't use the system JRE without recompiling.

My issue is that whenever i start arduino.exe, which in turn starts the bundled javaw.exe, all my CPU gets hogged by the system services.exe process. This happens even when just sitting idle doing nothing.

If i suspend javaw.exe, the CPU usage drops to normal.

 

I tried to replace the bundled Java, but it doesn't start.

Also tried to disable a few devices in Device manager (card reader, COM/LPT ports, etc.), but it doesn't make any difference.

As a last resort i tried running it in a VM, but that was a fail as well. Recent Debian can't compile the Virtualbox 4.x drivers. Win7 in a VM is just as slow due to virtualisation overhead.

My only working option currently is to every time reboot to Win7, do my arduino things, then reboot back to XP...

The files used in Win7 are the same used in XP, yet the execution differs somehow.

Edited April 6, 2021 by RainyShadow
added links and some details

[dencorso]

Starting a new thread rings any bells, perhaps?
Off-topic post  split into a new thread, and you're its OP, on top of it! Congrats!

[RainyShadow]

Lol, Den...

Since Java causes the issue, i thought it was on-topic, hehe.

[theelf]

1.6.7 is working great here

[RainyShadow]

7 hours ago, theelf said:

1.6.7 is working great here

Any excessive CPU usage when idle?

1.8.9 uses up my whole CPU - AthlonXP, single core. I guess it wouldn't be that noticeable on multi-core systems, but here it slows down everything.

 

Also, did you encounter any compatibility problems with such an old version?

I have a bunch of ESP and Atmega MCUs, mostly unused yet because of various PC problems. Got an STM32 too a week ago, still didn't even unpack it yet.

Edited April 7, 2021 by RainyShadow

[RainyShadow]

OK, i just tested 1.6.7

It has a similar issue with the same result (CPU constantly at 100%).

But in this version the cause is clearly visible.

javaw.exe constantly spawns hardware\tools\listComPorts.exe - as soon as the last process fineshes, a new one is started. This eats up my CPU.

Running listComPorts.exe manually from the command line, it executes for about 5 seconds while checking my 14 currently active serial ports - one real COM, two Blackberry ports, and the rest are Bluetooth ports. Including the currently inactive (hidden in Device manager) ports, the total is 37 serial and 2 LPT ports, lol.

If i rename listComPorts.exe so the IDE can't start it, the CPU usage drops to normal idle levels. The Arduino IDE obviously stops noticing if i plug in my Uno, but the port itself was previously listed in the selector anyways

 

The newer versions probably do the same from within Java, without starting some external tool. That's why the CPU load shifts to services.exe

 

For now i made couple batch files, one to rename listComPorts.exe and one to restore its name. I will try using the IDE like this, by enabling the port detection only when needed.

I may try contacting the IDE devs (not sure how yet), but since they dropped support for XP and it works fine in Win7, i don't have high hopes for this getting fixed.

 

Thank you, @theelf for pointing me to this version!

 

[EDIT]

Aaand it crashed when checking for updates in the Board manager... maybe because i didn't restart after changing the prefs? Worked fine after this.

---

Another issue - arduino-builder.exe is compiled with SSE2 and crashes here. The one from v.1.8.9 works fine.

Edited April 7, 2021 by RainyShadow

[theelf]

Sorry late reply,  i use the arduino IDE in my dell e4200 laptop,   C2D 1.6ghz,  and CPU usage is very low, almost nopthing,  2%

[RainyShadow]

It is similar here now ever since i hid listComPorts.exe from the IDE. Minimal CPU usage most of the time.

No downsides observed yet, only visual difference is that the type of the connected device isn't shown in the Ports submenu.

[reboot12]

I use the Arduino IDE 1.8.9 in my ThinkPad X61s in WinXP SP2 64-bit, C2D 1.6GHz, and CPU usage is also very low. I have Java8 (1.8.0) installed in my system this way: Java8 on WinXP

Arduino IDE installed with the installer from the file arduino-1.8.9-windows.exe

I also tested other older IDE versions - 1.8.2, 1.8.3 and they also work. There are compilation errors in newer versions of the IDE.