MultiCharts: Trading Software for Automated Trading and Backtesting

Hi, I encounter a situation that the screen of workspace of MC and quote manager are messed up as shown in the attachment. It happen a few times. The screen will be blinking. Sometimes I can close all workspaces and restart all again but sometimes I need to kill the MC process and restart all again.

I describe my environment for better understanding. I don't know if it relate to memory handling issue. I have tried to load around 20 workspaces and start another MC to load another workspaces. Finally I start 5 MC and load upto 100 workspaces. Only 1 MC encounter this problem, the other 4 MC still running smoothly. My computer has 32 GB memory, I guess it is sufficient enough to handle. One perspective I think, do I start 5 MC instances or only 1 instance? Will it be better for 5 MC instances to handle smoothly? Just wild guess. Appreciate if any idea can help.

Which MC version?

What is your Windows version?

How many monitors do you have?

What is the spec of your graphics card?

MC64 V11.0 build 14943
Win 7 Pro sp1
3 monitors
Nvidia GT 610

Check that the number of GDI objects is not getting too close to its maximum. I had similar issues before seeing the Multicharts "reached the maximum capacity of 9500 active GDI objects" popup message. If necessary run multiple MC Desktops to split the load.

Yes Janus. I have start multiple MC to do so to avoid this issue. But how do I know I start a new instance of MC as I see there is only client id connected with ib gateway, sometime there are several client ids connected with gateway? What is proper method to start multiple instances of MC?

Janus, how to find the no. of GDI objects in a workspace?

Janus, how to find the no. of GDI objects in a workspace?

How to view GDI Objects being used by MC - "go to Taskmanager" (cntrl-alt-del)
This is written for Windows 10, but should work on 8 and 2012 too.
In order to select them, you need to the following:
First, if you aren't already using the more detailed view, press "More details" in the bottom left corner.
Then at the top, go to the "Details" tab.
From here, "right-click the column header" and choose "Select Columns".
A big list with columns is available to choose from. Select "GDI" objects .

I cannot find the details tab in Win 7 but thanks for your help. I find a small app in internet for looking GDI called "GIDView". If you have interest, you can download it from http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/gdi_handles.html.

When I load up 55 workspaces (which is much higher than my normal no. around 20), it shows MC use 8XXX GDI . No error message for over the max limit.

Please check your graphics card driver to make sure it is up-to-date.

I cannot find the details tab in Win 7 but thanks for your help. I find a small app in internet for looking GDI called "GIDView". If you have interest, you can download it from http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/gdi_handles.html.

Yes I found that little program too but decided to write my own. Attached is the code for anyone who is interested. It's written in FreeBasic but of course it can be readily translated to your favorite language.

When I load up 55 workspaces (which is much higher than my normal no. around 20), it shows MC use 8XXX GDI . No error message for over the max limit.

8XXX GDI objects, meaning over 8,000? That I believe is above the GDI limit of 7,500 built into MC64, unless it has been changed lately. I'm using MultiCharts64 Version 10.0 Release (Build 14558).

Yes Janus. I have start multiple MC to do so to avoid this issue. But how do I know I start a new instance of MC as I see there is only client id connected with ib gateway, sometime there are several client ids connected with gateway? What is proper method to start multiple instances of MC?

Use MC Desktops. See https://www.multicharts.com/trading-sof ... g_Desktops

When I load up 55 workspaces (which is much higher than my normal no. around 20), it shows MC use 8XXX GDI . No error message for over the max limit.

8XXX GDI objects, meaning over 8,000? That I believe is above the GDI limit of 7,500 built into MC64, unless it has been changed lately. I'm using MultiCharts64 Version 10.0 Release (Build 14558).

It can be changed higher values in windows system setting to avoid this issue

It can be changed higher values in windows system setting to avoid this issue

Yes I read up on the procedure to do that but decided to take the MC Desktop option as it's more appealing to me.