Drano Please!!

klimvid wrote on 6/23/2005, 1:36 PM
OK, so my system is old but I really think it should be able to handle two instances of Vegas without choking. As it is now, when I am rendering mpg2 in one instance of Vegas (to a Maxtor external drive USB2) it take up to 5 minutes to load or switch between projects in another Vegas, which makes it a waste of time to try to get anything done while rendering. No other applications are running. My CPU Usage is at 98 to 100% with no other processes besides Vegas showing CPU activity; PF Usage 1.14G.

I keep thinking there is a simple "unclog" setting somewhere in my system or setup that I should know about. Any ideas as to why this system is going so slow? Or is it just maxed out and I should schedule renders for overnight until I can build a Spot-on system?

400 Watt Super Tornado Power Supply
Tyan S2460 Dual AMD Athlon DDR ATX Motherboard
2 AMD Athlon MP 1900+ (1.6GHz)
PC2100 512MB DDR RAM 266MHz
IBM 40GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive
2 IBM 120GB 7200RPM Hard Drives, internal
1 IBM 120GB 7200RPM Hard Drives, external in NextStar case
1 Maxtor OneTouch 250GB 7200RPM Hard Drives, external
Matrox G550 32MB DDR Dual Head AGP Video Card
Pioneer DVR-A04 DVD Burner
Toshiba 16X48X IDE DVD Drive
ADS Pyro PCI 1394 Card with 3 FIREWIRE Ports
Windows XP Professional
Creative SB Audigy Platinum
Canopus ADVC100 DV Convertor
Vegas 6b
DVDA 3a
Tsunami
Excalibur 4

Comments

jetdv wrote on 6/23/2005, 1:51 PM
Options - Preferences - Video tab.

You might try reducing the "Maximum number of rendering threads" to 1 or 2.
Quryous wrote on 6/23/2005, 2:45 PM
Until recently, I would have LOVED to trade you my system for yours. It may need a bit of tweaking, but it can do it. Not FAST, mind you, but it can do it.
klimvid wrote on 6/23/2005, 4:57 PM
Thanks. Where do I set the maximum number of rendering threads?
klimvid wrote on 6/23/2005, 6:23 PM
Sorry, missed it upon first read. It was set to 4. Thanks again.
GlennChan wrote on 6/23/2005, 11:26 PM
Try turning the RAM preview down. It will cause high page file usage.

Quick rule of thumb: RAM preview for 2 instances should be <= ( total RAM - 200MB ) / 2
So around 150MB or less.
1+GB pagefile usage is very high... it explains why your system is so slow.

2- Rendering threads should probably be 2.
klimvid wrote on 6/24/2005, 3:34 PM
Thanks for that tip - my RAM Preview was set to 600!

Would the IDE Channel settings be affecting the speed? I can't burn to my A04 unless the channels are set to PIO. I can't capture without dropouts unless they are set to DMA. So I'm always switching back and forth. They were set to PIO when I was having clogging problems.
jetdv wrote on 6/24/2005, 8:47 PM
They were set to PIO when I was having clogging problems

That could definitely cause the problem. Your hard drives need to always be on DMA - PIO takes too much CPU to work.
Coursedesign wrote on 6/24/2005, 10:17 PM
to a Maxtor external drive USB2

USB has to shuffle all data through the CPU.

Firewire does it with direct memory access, so the CPU is totally free to do other things such as rendering or running a second instance of Vegas.
klimvid wrote on 6/25/2005, 4:14 PM
Aha. That's good to know about firewire. My Maxtor case only has USB2 so I may switch to a firewire case.

Now, why do you think it is that my Pioneer A04 won't write unless the IDE channels are set to PIO? Is there a way to fix this?
GlennChan wrote on 6/25/2005, 5:40 PM
Information for winXP:

In the BIOS, make sure things are set to DMA. In Windows, you will drop the burner down to PIO.
In windows, go
control panel
system
hardware tab
device manager button
expand IDE/..... controllers
right click secondary channel
this assumes your burner is installed on that channel
go into advanced tab
select PIO for the right device

2- There may be a way to fix your drive so it doesn have to use PIO to burn. Not sure.
musicvid10 wrote on 6/25/2005, 6:06 PM
**Would the IDE Channel settings be affecting the speed? I can't burn to my A04 unless the channels are set to PIO. I can't capture without dropouts unless they are set to DMA. So I'm always switching back and forth.**

It would appear that since you are switching back and forth from DMA to P10 that you are running your EIDE hard drive and ATAPI burner on the same IDE channel. That is a no-no because the slower ATAPI device (probably ATA33) defaults the whole channel down to that speed. Solution: put hard drives ONLY as master/slave on IDE0, and ATAPI devices ONLY as master/slave on IDE1. Then you should be able to run all with DMA enabled with no problems.

Let me know how it works out.
klimvid wrote on 6/26/2005, 6:50 AM
**Solution: put hard drives ONLY as master/slave on IDE0, and ATAPI devices ONLY as master/slave on IDE1.**

Would you please explain first, how I determine which devices are on which channels and second, how to move them?

Thanks for your help.
farss wrote on 6/26/2005, 6:53 AM
Open case, you should have at least two IDE ports on the mobo. One should be used for all the ATAPI devices such as CD and DVD drives, use the other one for HDDs. Config the HDD port for DMA.
Bob.
klimvid wrote on 6/26/2005, 7:15 AM
OK. In poking around my BIOS I discovered the following:

Primary Master:
Type: [Auto]
LBA Format
Total Sectors: 80418240
Maximum Capacity 41174MB
Multi-Sector Transfers [16 Sectors]
LBA Mode Control: [Enabled]
32 BIt I/O [Disabled] (NOTE: THIS AND "TYPE" ARE THE ONLY PARAMETERS THAT ARE NOT GRAYED OUT)
Transfer Mode [Fast PIO 4]
Ultra DMA Mode: [Mode 2]

Primary Slave:
Type: [Auto]
LBA Format
Total Sectors: 268435455
Maximum Capacity 137439MB
Multi-Sector Transfers [16 Sectors]
LBA Mode Control: [Enabled]
32 BIt I/O [Disabled] (NOTE: THIS AND "TYPE" ARE THE ONLY PARAMETERS THAT ARE NOT GRAYED OUT)
Transfer Mode [Fast PIO 4]
Ultra DMA Mode: [Mode 2]

Secondary Master [CD-ROM]
Type: [Auto]
Multi-Sector Transfers [Disabled]
LBA Mode Control: [Disabled]
32 BIt I/O [Disabled] (NOTE: THIS AND "TYPE" ARE THE ONLY PARAMETERS THAT ARE NOT GRAYED OUT)
Transfer Mode [Fast PIO 4]
Ultra DMA Mode: [Mode 2]

Secondary Slave [CD-ROM]
Type: [Auto]
Multi-Sector Transfers [Disabled]
LBA Mode Control: [Disabled]
32 BIt I/O [Disabled] (NOTE: THIS AND "TYPE" ARE THE ONLY PARAMETERS THAT ARE NOT GRAYED OUT)
Transfer Mode [Fast PIO 4]
Ultra DMA Mode: [Mode 2]

Can you suggest any tweaks from this?



klimvid wrote on 6/26/2005, 7:28 AM
**Open case, you should have at least two IDE ports on the mobo. One should be used for all the ATAPI devices such as CD and DVD drives, use the other one for HDDs. Config the HDD port for DMA.**

Bob, two HD go to one port, CD and DVD go other port. Have configured Primary IDE Channel to DMA and Secondary IDE Channel to PIO.

Thanks for your help.
GlennChan wrote on 6/26/2005, 10:09 AM
klimvid, I'm curious: Are you still having performance problems?

I think your system should be fine now. Performance for the hard drives should be top notch. The CD burning may go a little slow, but it should work. In my experience, DMA burns CD-Rs 2X faster than PIO. DVD burning is qutie a bit slower with PIO.
This may not be a problem for you.
klimvid wrote on 6/26/2005, 10:17 AM
I will be ready to render a project this afternoon and will let you know how it goes. DVD burning speed on PIO is 1x, which causes no problems.

However, just for my education I would like to know how to make the DVD drive work on DMA. How could I do that?
klimvid wrote on 6/26/2005, 5:22 PM
That's what I'm talkin' about! Rendering away and working along in a second Vegas. Thanks everyone for your input.

So much to learn, so little time.