Can anyone help please?

Ken Fixter wrote on 5/11/2008, 1:16 AM

I am new to Sony Vegas but have some experience with other video editing software.
To get some practice I have imported about 20 minutes of my own holiday video. I have done some basic editing and added some music from a CD which I own. I worked with the software for about 3 hours without any problems and things went very smoothly.
However about 8 minutes into the final review, my monitor suddenly went blank and a warning message came on the screen saying that the monitor wasn't connected but the base unit continued to operate.
I switched off the computer, got back into Vegas at the place created by 'auto save' and continued without problem.

However, this happened again on a second attempt at a final preview.
I then tried to render the project in DVD Architect Studio . The video part of it rendered but I lost the screen again during the rendering of the audio.

I am thinking that it is not a software problem and that it may be something to do with the video card of the computer. Device Manager says that it is operating correctly but I don't know how to test it. This has never happened before and don't know how to proceed.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks in anticipation.
Ken

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 5/11/2008, 2:06 AM

Make sure your PC's power supply is big enough to support the graphics card when the gfx card works hard for Vegas.

Ken Fixter wrote on 5/11/2008, 2:18 AM

Thank you for taking the time to reply. The pc is fitted with a 560w psu.
I did the calculations for the components and seemed to have lots of spare power.
Is there a way that I should incorporate the software into the calculations?
Regards
Ken

Ivan Lietaert wrote on 5/11/2008, 4:50 AM

The thing is that in DVDA, audio is rendered first (this is a very fast process, actually), so I don't think the audio is to blame.
So I think you may be using a faulty effects plugin at one point, or perhaps you're using a still image that is bigger than 2048 (square) in pixels, which may crash some computers, as was documented in the past here on this forum.

Ken Fixter wrote on 5/11/2008, 7:23 AM

Thank you, Ivan 123.
I agree, I don't think it is the audio. The video output crashed the first time before the audio was touched.
There are no stills in the project.
The only effects I have in the project are those which came with the software. The ones I have used are only some titles and transitions.
Could these be to blame?
Thanks to everyone who is looking at this and I continue to welcome any suggestions.

DrLumen wrote on 5/11/2008, 6:04 PM

It may be an overheating issue. Open the case and make sure the fans are running and the heatsinks are not clogged. Other than buggy software (Vegas is usually very stable), random issues are usually caused by heat or driver problems. Since you had the system on for quite a while and done similar things in the past, that would lead me to think it is heat related.

Just a thought.

Ken Fixter wrote on 5/12/2008, 3:34 AM

Thank you DrLumen.
The graphics card has a passive heat sink and the way it just shuts down tends to confirm what you are suggesting.
I'll look at some graphics card cooling possibilities.
I also understand that I can use the software on another machine so I'll try that with the same project as well.
In the meantime I would be grateful if the suggestions kept coming.I'll let contributers know the final result.
Suggestions have been gratefully received.

Himanshu wrote on 5/12/2008, 7:58 PM

The last time something like this happened to me, the monitor died a few times after it blanked out. Make sure the display resolution and refresh rates you have set in Windows are supported by your monitor! If they are, start saving up for a new monitor ;)

Ken Fixter wrote on 5/13/2008, 2:43 AM

Thank you Himanshu,
That is very useful. I'll try another monitor before dealing with the graphics card.
This may take a while to sort out but I'll let you know the result in due course.
Regards
Ken