Debug with external program extremely slow in VS2005

Running in debug mode via an external program is incredibly slow. This is true wether I use the debug property "Start External Program" or try to attatch to a running process. Using a bare-bones basic test dll designed to be loaded and run by NUnit I find that "Run without debugging" (or running the program from outside VS2005) runs in seconds, whereas "Start debugging" takes 5-6 minutes. And thats not even to get started on how slow things go if I try to debug an actual project with content...

I've loooked at the various "VS2005 debugs slow" threads, and I have already tried, in various combinations and all together:
1) Disabled func eval.
2) Disabled MDAs.
3) Disabled the Visual Studio hosting process.
4) Disabled Edit and Continue.
5) Disabled unamanaged code debugging.
6) Disabled Just My Code.
7) Disabled every other non-essential piece of software on my machine, including virus and spyware scanners.

My machine doesn't seem to be using a particularly horrendous amount of its gig of memory for anything, and the CPU is barely ticking over; its just SLOW, and only from VS2005, and only while debugging. What's more, I can send the same project to the guy across the hall, who loaded VS from the same disk and NUnit from the same file, and it runs fine on _his_ machine. Running out of things to try; any ideas

Thanks,

- rob.

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Debug with external program extremely slow in VS2005

Debbie Aarvig
Same deal here. It's strange, and becoming pretty unbearable.

For me, though, the devenv.exe eats 90-99% of the processor. The disk isn't churning. Just seems to display "loading symbols for ..." forever and ever. I literally attach to w3wp.exe, hit something in the browser, and wait 6-10 minutes. Even once the breakpoint hits, it's 50/50 as to whether or not it picks up speed then...
slimstarman
Don't know if this is related information, or a different problem altogether. The first time I debug a program as described above, it loads all of the symbols quite quickly and starts running the external application, then bogs down and takes the app 5 minutes or so to do anything past printing the introductory message. The SECOND time I try to debug the program it behaves completely differently - even if I haven't changed anything at all after the first time. This time it takes incredibly long to even load the symbols for any of the dlls; 5-6 minutes for each file. This makes the whole process take even longer, but if you wait it out the running of the program is still very slow as well. If I shutdown VS and re-start it then the symbol loading reverts to the fast version (for the first attempt) again. (Cleaning and re-building the solution doesn't work; you have to shut VS down.)
Afzal Khan
I experience the exact same problem. VS2005 can load my dlls and their symbols a couple of times fast and then it starts to slow down extremely. I have tried to wait for more than 30 minutes and it seems to get there in the end, even though you should think it is hanging. I have tried with and without symbols loading for system dlls, but this doesn't seem to make a difference.
bobbye
Opened a bug on it, since noone had any new suggestions. No feedback yet from Microsoft (only just opened it; give em a few days) but any additional comment is probably better there: http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/ProductFeedback/viewFeedback.aspx feedbackId=FDBK48783
Hendrikbez
Same boat here. Single stepping takes 10-15sec even on simple statements "int i=0;". CPU usage is low (<4%), the environment is not responsive during this time like it's sleeping. Not sure of the cause yet, but other projects don't seem to show this behavior.
Juanloco
Try clear out the watch window in debug mode. It might help with your problem.
Debug with external program extremely slow in VS2005

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