PowerBI Desktop Crashes

[Akahn]

After the September update of PowerBI desktop, the program is crashing WAY more than it used to. It often happens when adjusting table relationships, building new metrics, altering existing metrics, and especially when building large or complicated metrics.

Is anybody else experiencing this?

[ThomasDay]

Are you using the 64bit version?

[jiwhite]

No, 32 bit because my Office install is 32 bit, although I have a 64 bit CPU.

[ThomasDay]

Well, it doesn't matter how much memory you have then, I think 32 bits can only address 4gb of memory--the largest 32bit integer is 2gb.  You can install any version of desktop you wish.  It doesn't matter what your Office 365 is, though it seems like 64bit would be smart all around.

[Dan-O]

I'm not sure what the underlying issue is, but I'm experiencing the same thing with the 64 bit version and 16GB of RAM.

[jiwhite]

OK, so increasing the data cache won't help. Is there any way to limit the data being preloaded, other than removing queries?

[ThomasDay]

Oh, and this also presumes that your version of windows is also 64 bit.  There's no good technical reason to use 32bit Office 365 that I can see--and it's the same license fee.  It's just what you installed.

[jiwhite]

I just talke to our local IT guy.  It's 32 bit because that's compatible with our other company applications, but he's going to see if I can be a test case for 64 bit.

[ThomasDay]

Excellent!  Certainly it works perfectly with windows 10 64bit and across all of office...and a file is a file...your .pbix models may not open in a 32 bit version of desktop someone else is using if it's too big, but you're surely pushing it to a workspace on app.powerbi.com for sharing via browser...  Good luck!!

[jiwhite]

It's what IT installed. 🙂  Not my choice.

[ThomasDay]

It depends alot on what you're doing, of course--and on what machine (as in how big) and with what memory.  As far as the what you're doing: I find when I'm working on a model with a lot of bookmarks (preview) and I'm updating them a lot as I configure the actions I want with pages that have a lot of visuals which I'm making appear and disappear / clear data etc. using buttons with links...well, then stuff happens...with me anyway.  But you can tell when things are getting dicey and do a close and reopen.

Anyway, not sure that there's much anyone can help you with unless there's a little more to go on.

[ilansandbox]

powerbi crashes all the time for me, and I don't know why. I tried the following things:

1. Install/uninstall 

2. 32x bit version - works but I can't do refresh (says memory issues and to upgrade to 64x)

3. when I upgrade again to 64x power bi won't load again

4. I tried deleting the files inside AppData - also didn't work

5. I tried playing with the config file - also didn't work

What didn't I do?

I'm running a 64x bit windows 10

Can someone please help (It work yesterday and today it won't even load)

Please help me,

Thanks,

Ilan

[ThomasDay]

I really don't know what to say here, but just fishing for ideas...PowerBi loves memory...and 64 bit lets it use a lot....unless you don't have a lot on your computer.  If you're at 4gb ram or even 8gb...perhaps it's getting caught despite 64bit being able to address it all.

I had a model which had very large files--and I did an inner join to reduce the number of records based on a short list of record types to include.  It churned and churned for hours...and finally made it but not without hiccups. And this was on a much earlier release with fewer features etc.  That with a 16gb computer.  I upped that to 64gb and POW, minutes and works great.

Anyway...do you have or could you access to a big machine?

Tom

[odanovich]

I'm also having this issue... It seems that the Desktop Client is VERY unreliable.. I am currently unable to work with my datasets because it frequently crashes, so I'm stuck and its really frustrating because I cant complete my projects right now.  I'm trying to reach out to the Power BI Team to see what might be causing this issue.. 

[ThomasDay]

@odanovich The Microsoft team is very aggressively building out Powerbi.  I think it's smart of them and to work with it there are some precautions I find helpful.  

• First, know that we can roll back any new update by uninstalling (yes to go backwards, you do need to uninstall) the newest upgrade and reinstalling the prior version, or whatever one you prefer.  As long as you've not implemented any of the new features, you're good to go.  I save every release install file for that reason--they're not available anywhere.
• Second, I generally check the board to see if folks are having issues with a current release...perhaps they're very eager for the new features and update right off.  Depending on that answer, I decide when and how careful to be on an update.
• Depending on your model--how big and how many measures...and your computer, perhaps some issues might be memory.  You can tell I'm always looking for reasons to buy a bigger machine.  Ignore this if you want.  I found a big machine helps.

So, long and short, we're not victims where issues are show stoppers, we're the benefactors of the crazy build schedule these guys are keeping--we just need to be aware of what's up and go from there.

Tom

[samueltonks2712]

Hi All, I'm experiencing crashes on Power BI desktop when importing sets from Dynamics CRM. I believe it to be because one set has over 500 collumns and this large amount of data is overwelming the programme. I only need 3 or 4 fields within each set to form my joins. Is there a way to select which fields before import? Ive only been able to import them all then remove any collumns (95%) within the query but my laptop crashes before I get a chance.

Any help and advice would be much appreciated.

Samuel

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@samueltonks2712 From what I recall, you should be able to choose which fields or expanded elements you want prior to loading the data. It's just time consuming...

We eventually moved on to a different more scalable approach by using KingswaySoft to extract all or Dynamics CRM data into a local SQL DB. - way easier and faster.

[Greg_Deckler]

What OS are you on?

[Akahn]

Windows 7 Professional (Service Pack 1) 64 bit

[WillT]

Hi - we do need you to have Internet Explorer 10 installed as well (we use the IE rendering engine under the hood). If you've got that installed then please do report any problems through the Send A Frown - our engineers are monitoring that and we'll do what we can to help!

[Akahn]

How can I report a crash through send a frown when the program is non-responsive? Should I just re-open the desktop file and send the frown at that time?

[Seth_C_Bauer · Accepted solution]

@Akahn My guess is that they'll have you go into options and enable tracing, have you crash the desktop and send them the trace file to see why it is doing it. Or you could just do that.