Build slows down computer beyond reason with VSCode on Windows 10

I’m trying to build Marlin Firmware. And for some reason, it is killing my computer. The first symptom is that the compile is really slow. What should take 36sec to build can now take minutes or just doesn’t complete. The second is that opening many applications are now slower as well. As an example, if I try to open Task Manager, it takes minutes to open, if it ever does. Teams will lose the network connection.
I have PlatformIO Core 5.2.4, Home 3.4.0. I’m doing the build with Auto Build Marlin 2.1.36.
I uninstalled PlatformIO and reinstalled it.
I have set my virus scanner to exclude the build directory.
When task manager opens there are no visible signs of any application peeking out resources.
If I boot in safe mode the compile works as expected and other applications are not bogged down.

This is very bizarre and frustrating beyond comprehension.

Does anyone have a suggestion? As a software engineer, I find it hard to comprehend the slowdown when there are no visible resource problems. But I’m very suspicious of a conflict with another program.

Thank you.

I can’t really imagine that a non-running installation of PlatformIO is causing such problems. Do these problems go away when you remove the PlatformIO extension from VSCode and delete the C:\Users\<user>\.platformio\ directory? If no, your problem is not related to PlatformIO.

Thank you for looking at this. I’m not sure about your meaning of “non-running installation.” I have no problems until I try to build Marlin. Terminating VSCode doesn’t stop the problem. I need to restart my computer and then I’m back to normal. I’ve uninstalled PIO and deleted the directory you suggested. I’m now reinstalling and downloading the needed packages. I know this sounds crazy, but I don’t use VSCode for anything other than building Marlin. So I don’t even know how to build something outside of PIO to see if it is just VSCode.
Reinstall just finished and doing a new build. Build is slow, but task manager is opening faster. I’ve also turned off all virus protection and firewalls.
So I really think it is the build process that is causing the slowdown. Looking at Resource Monitor my CPU is running about 8% usage.
About 5 minutes have passed and the build is still working. But as I said, if I reboot in safe mode it takes 36 seconds.

The build process is supposed to be multi-threaded on all threads of the CPU, 8% seems a little low.

I’ve turned off all non-Microsoft services and restarted the computer. Build completed in 0:1:23.853, not as fast as 36 seconds. But it tells me there is a conflict with one of my services/applications. This is not going to be fun to hunt down. As regards the 8%, it really means nothing. It just shows that my CPU isn’t peaking out. I did another build that took 0:1:22.868 and it pushed my CPU up to 115%.

Well, I’ve given up. Like any good engineer, I tried to repeat my results and it started compiling slowly again. The one thing that is repeatable is booting in safe mode. I use my computer for work and just can’t spend the time and frustration on this. I’m going to look into compiling on my raspberry pi or maybe I’ll set up Linux somewhere and use it. Unless someone else has ideas or finds the same problem, I’m moving on.
Thanks

Did you stop the Windows Defender too? Or any other anti-virus? Or configure them to ignore the files in your PlatformIO installation – not just the oroject locations.

To really get a grip on what Windows processes are doing, you might find Process Explorer handy. It’s at Process Explorer - Sysinternals | Microsoft Learn there are other handy utilities by Mark Russovich, namely File Explorer and Registry Explorer, where you can set a filter on a program you are interested in, and have the utility show you everything related to it.

One or more of those might give you a clue. I’m a Linux user, but a while back I installed PlatformIO on a Windows 10 laptop and didn’t see any sliw downs. The laptop being about 16 years old, dual core with 8 G of RAM, so nowhere near today’s top models.

I used to work in support roles, and those Mark Russovich utilities ere the bees knees in helping diagnose problems. Microsoft were also impressed and bought them, and gave Mark a job to boot!

HTH

Cheers,
Norm.

Thanks Norm,
I got so caught up in the frustration of the problem that I forgot about those tools. I’ve used those since before Microsoft took them over. I’ll give them a shot.
Regarding the anti-virus, I turned it off completely and still had the slowdown. I’m pretty sure it is related to one of my autostart apps, but because of work, I have a stupid amount of them.

I’ll report back if I find something.
Mark

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That was the ticket. The problem jumped out as soon as I had Procmon64 running. To access my bank I have to have a program installed, IBM Trusteer Rapport. I thought it was just for the browser while I’m trying to access the bank. But it turns out the damn thing thinks it’s a virus scanner and is checking more than I expected. I’ve turned it off and going to leave it that way until I need to access my bank. I might contact IBM but I’m not optimistic about that.

Thanks to those who looked at this.
Mark

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