Hmmm, very strange.
SolidWorks has never crashed for me, EVER.
HA, HA, HAAAAAA!
Ya right. It is the crappiest stability program I have ever used. It will simply vanish from your screen leaving you nothing but desktop.
No dialogue box, nothing. NO other program I have ever used is this bad.
I continue to use SW 2007 sp0 (even though I am fluent in every version to current).
It is something you get used to. Just like the PC games of old, save often, because you never know when you are going to die.
Usually it gets dicey when you have complicated lofts, tables, assemblies or anything that confuses the system.
I wish SolidWorks would work on stability and less on unnneeded 'features' or GUI rearrangement.
No help for your specific problem, but know you are not the only one having SW crashes..
-Christian

 

UPDATE!

I just tested one of my CAD projects with a Dell M4600 workstation laptop I use on my day job. I open a copy of the same exact files that crashes when I open them on my home M6600.

The Dell M4600 has a i7 2760QM processor (2.4GHz), 8GB RAM and an nVidia Quadro 2000M graphic card. Pretty much the same setup as my home machine, except my machine has a nVidia Quadro 3000M graphic card instead.

I opened the files from an external hard drive (I'm not allowed to put personal CAD files on my work's machine) and the first thing I noticed on the M4600 right away is how smoother and quicker my CAD files opened compared to my M6600 (why?). When opening files on my M6600 it tends to hesitate a bit. Sometimes that little spinning icon, when it's working on loading a file, or something, appears for a few seconds. I noticed nothing like this on M4600.

I opened at least 20 different files, top assemblies, drawings and individual parts, in the same way as I did on my M6600. All opened smoothly and rather quickly. Since I did not experience any crashes so I closed all the files. This also lead me think that I definitly do not have a corrupt file in my project.

SolidWorks on M4600 did not crash and the laptop seemed to have no difficulty opening my CAD files even from the external hard drive, and it felt like a much newer, smoother, machine compared to mine.

Could it be that my graphic card is the problem? Through PSA on my machine the hard drive has been tested, twice, RAM tested twice, and once with the memtest86 sofware sent to me by my SolidWorks support person, which I ran 2 passes, no errors found. The video card has also been tested three time with PSA. No errors found.

Oh yes, the M4600 I use at work is set up pretty much the same as my home settup, with a docking station and a Dell 24 inch
external monitor.

I'm thinking of swapping my M6600 with the M4600. (Na, someone might notice the bigger screen on the M6600).

 

EVERYONE who uses SW has seen this! If I'm lucky it only crashes three or four times a day. Nothing wrong with hardware or software installation, it is just a dreadfully unstable program.
Get used to it dying frequently. Get used to closing a fully defined and mated assembly then seeing the browser turn red at next opening having lost mates, dimensions and references.
The latest it has done to me is losing a reference in a sheet metal part, not giving any warning but created a layout drawing which had inaccurate dimensions on the flat pattern development. After all, who needs an accurate drawing for heaven's sake.
If you want to stop SW crashing try a different cad platform!

 

ChrisW

Then explain to me why the M4600 I use on my day job has only crashed on me twice in the seven months I've been using it and my M6600 I use at home can crash on me at least three times within any given hour, if not more often? I can't choose what CAD software my day job employer uses, and when my customers use SolidWorks at their site then it only makes since to use the same software.

i know SoildWorks can be quite buggy, I've been using it for over five years now. And, I've been using 3D CAD since 1988 (even earlier when I trained on CompurterVision and Calma back in the early 80's), but I've never seen CAD software behave like this.

UPDATE: after installing a different set of graphic card drivers the Dell support specialist recommended, SolidWorks seem a bit more stable. It did crash twice soon after the installation, but when I used my machine Friday night to do some work I experienced no crashes. I got plenty of work to do today, Sunday, so lets see if this was a fix. I'll keep ya'll posted.

 

Sorry Miguel, I can't explain anything about SW because it's behavior is so bizarre. I am in the same situation that my employer installed SW before my time and I am stuck with it! Three of us run SW on 5 workstations (3in office and 2 at home). All behave differently but all experience stability issues, big time.

Good luck with your update, I hope it helps you.

 

Try reducing the harware acceleration. When minis at max I will crash frequently bt moving the bar half way gets rid of most of my problems.

 

Latest update:
Never did find out what caused the crashing problem. Working with my SolidWorks support guy, and Dell support, we could not find what the problem was, and a fix, except for reinstalling Windows and SolidWorks.
What I had done in the end, by my SolidWorks support guy, was to install a new hard drive and reinstall Windows and SolidWorks. I'm using the original drive as a secondary, back up, drive.
So far I've not had a problem, but it's still early days.
Miguel

 

I my laptop battery died while SW was open and now I have a similar issue. Does this mean that reformatting my laptop will not solve the problem?

ahadjbou

 

I don't know.

All I know is that my machine still crashes. After three re-installs of Windows 7 and re-installing SolidWorks, after replacing the original hard drive, it still crashes. I suspect there is a damaged hardware component on the motherboard, possibly damaged when the original graphic card fried. Dell sent me a poorly built laptop, resulting in the original graphic card frying away because of not having enough thermal material placed between the graphic card and heat sinks. This may have caused other damage resulting in intermittent failures resulting in SolidWorks crashing when I sometimes open a part, save a new part, add a part into an assembly, etc.
After about three months working with Dell support and SolidWorks support, neither have a clue what is causing it. I don't have time, nor the money, to have an expert do a thorough analysis as to what might be causing the crashing problem.
In fact I'm so fed up I just recently purchased a new desk top PC, upper end workstation (which cost me £3,700.00) to replace my laptop. I'm still using the laptop until I get the new PC set up.
Anyone want to buy a slightly damaged Dell M6600 laptop? Only two years old and SolidWolrks crashes on average only about 3 to 4 times and hour! Cheap too! (Actually, once I set up my new PC and transferred my files, I will reformat the hard drive and put up on eBay for sale).

 

Miguel, I wish you well with your new workstation but I use both a Dell Precision and an HP and they both keep crashing. Please let us know if you have any better luck now.