Some possible reasons without delving into more complex hardware and configuration issues:
* As Jenny asked, do you have a dual boot system? I don't.
* I assume you only have 1 processor as well, I'm going to experiment with a dual processor system, but based on responses from this group I'm not very positive about the results. If you use multiple processors that could be a problem.
* What other software do you run? You mentioned Pegasus Mail and RapidSQL, two packages I don't use. Do you have problems when you DON'T run these packages? If so, what else is running? I keep things down to a minimum. I don't run Norton, I don't leave anything like the "My Yahoo" stuff up -- pretty much the only things I have running when I boot up my pc are NT, DDWIN, and a time utility (to keep my clock in sync with our network).
* I DO reboot once or twice a day. I always have with DragonDictate, from DDWIN 1.3 under Win 3.11, to DDWIN 2.5 under Win 95, to DDWIN 3.02 under NT4. Frankly, I reboot less under NT than I've ever had to before.
* DragonDictate's performance has ALWAYS degraded over time for me. It actually takes a lot longer to degrade under NT -- although very rarely it degrades quickly with few apps open, I'd say this happens once a month or less. It doesn't happen often enough for me to figure out the possible reasons why.
If Pegasus Mail and RapidSQL are the only packages that stomp on DragonDictate, do you have to use them? You could switch to another mail package easily, I don't know if you have any substitutes for RapidSQL or not. I have NEVER had my word history commands screwed up like that, and I've been working under NT for 5 months now.
I suspect that there is more to the NT issue than meets the eye. For example, Dana experiences a problem or 2 that have never happened on my pc. I don't have a clue why. But as I said, if anyone is interested in comparing hardware details I'd be happy to investigate further.
Jamie
-----Original Message-----
From: Todd E. Scheresky [SMTP:tscheresky@@micron.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 1998 6:19 PM
To: jenny.woods@@rl.ac.uk
Cc: jamie@@decisionism.com; dana@sybase.com
Subject: Re: DD 3 and NT
I was looking over the archives of the "voice-users" mailing list and I
saw your email. I just want to say that DragonDictate on NT 4.0 bites.
I use DragonDictate 3.02, on a Pentium 200 MHz computer with 128 MB of
RAM, running Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3. This should be a great
setup, but it isn't.
DragonDictate's performance starts out quick and responsive, but in less
than in one hour it's dragging. Worse yet since the application is a
16-bit application its memory is not protected and gets stopped on by
other applications. For instance, if you use Pegasus Mail and simply
download your mail from a POP server it screws up the word history
commands. When you say "Oops", you can no longer say "Word 1", or
"Choose 3". RapidSQL has the same effect on DragonDictate. Your only
recourse is to restart DragonDictate, over, and over, and over again.
With that said, you only have two choices. One, complained vehemently
to Dragon Systems. Two, scrap DragonDictate and start training and
enhancing Dragon NaturallySpeaking Deluxe. I suggest exercising both
choices. I use both products, I much more prefer Dragon
NaturallySpeaking. However, in the command and control feature set, it
is a little lacking but has all the groundwork to surpass DragonDictate.
Just my input... Todd
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