DVDA "takes over" my computer

johnmeyer wrote on 2/12/2004, 2:52 PM
When I am preparing (not burning) in DVDA, all other programs come to a standstill. I cannot do any useful work at all until the prepare finishes. I am using Windows XP SP1; have 512 Mbytes of RAM; two 120 Gbyte hard drives, plus a 250 Gbyte external. I've tried preparing to and from various combinations of drives, and that doesn't make a difference.

One clue may be that when I quit DVDA after the prepare has finished, the disk light goes "full on" for about 20-30 seconds.

This is not a new problem, but it continues to be aggrevating (and as you can tell from my other posts, DVDA does tend to bug me from time to time).

Is there a temp file setting or something that I need to change??

Comments

readw wrote on 2/12/2004, 10:15 PM
Follow this procedure.....

Ctrl Alt Del
Click on Task List
Select applications tab
Highlight DVDA app
Right Click
Select Go To process
Right click on process
Select Priority
Set to low

This will set the priority of the application to low allowing you to get on with other things.

Notes.
This is not a permanent change and will only stay low until the application is closed.
Never, never never set it to Realtime.

Cheers

Warren
johnmeyer wrote on 2/13/2004, 12:32 AM
Select Priority

I guess I can do this. It certainly should help. However, it doesn't explain why it takes the computer thirty seconds of disk thrashing to clean up after itself. It sure feels like some sort of memory, temp file, or other type of issue. I have 512 Mbytes of RAM, but it almost feels like the swap file is in constant use.

SonyEPM wrote on 2/13/2004, 6:42 AM
"a 250 Gbyte external"

Is this a 1394 drive, more specifically one of those with the widely reported "stall" problem?

Is DVDA using it?
johnmeyer wrote on 2/13/2004, 11:19 AM
"a 250 Gbyte external"

It is a 250 Gbyte drive -- a Maxtor "One Touch." I'll try turning it off and unplugging, and see if the problem goes away. I'm pretty sure, however, that this is not the cause, since I've had this problem for a long time, and I only just recently (January 1, 2004) installed the Firewire drive.

I'll report back if I find out the Firewire drive is the cause.