Help!!! External hard drive capture problems.

grpoole21 wrote on 4/1/2003, 1:14 PM
Okay so I have a sony fx150 laptop, and I was having jerky capture problems with Vegas when capturing to the 20 gig internal disk. So I upgraded the memory from 128 to 384 and bought a belkin usb 2.0 cardbus and iomega 120 gig external hard drive. I thought my problems would be over. Not so.

When I try to capture directly to the internal disk everything goes fine and there are no dropped frames. I think this is due to the increased memory. However, when I try to capture directly to the external disk it screws up and there are tons of dropped frames. Theoretically, I could just capture to the internal disk and transfer it but this is a pain.

I done a couple of tests to determine the transfer rate between the external disk and the laptop below are the results:
using a 30MB file
external to laptop = an avg. of 11 secs (2.72 MB/sec)
laptop to external = an avg. of 24 secs (1.25 MB/sec)

I do have the power adapter plugged into the usb 2.0 card, so it should be working optimally.

Does anybody have any ideas or suggestions? I'm so frustrated.

Thanks,
Reed

Comments

way2slo wrote on 4/1/2003, 3:46 PM
xp i assume. did u update xp service pack 1? i do run into few problems with the usb2.0 driver. without sp1, i got 80 drop frames while capturing 1hr dv.
updated sp1, problem fixed, no drop frame.
i have a desktop, i dont really know how stable is the usb 2.0 cardbus. i do recommend getting a firewire harddrive. i have http://www.coolmaxusa.com/product/pd_list/product_cb_list_01.html which is a 1394/usb2 enclosure, it works great both 1394 and usb2 interface.

JackHughs wrote on 4/1/2003, 5:03 PM
Umm...... You may have answered your own question. The minimum sustained transfer rate for DV is 3.6 MB/sec. Since you have no trouble in capturing to your internal drive, I would guess the problem lies in either the laptop USB2 controller or the USB2/IDE bridge in your external drive. Are you using any other USB devices?

JackHughs
grpoole21 wrote on 4/2/2003, 9:39 AM
I am actually running Windows 2000 and have all the updates. Also the only other usb device I have is my mouse.

I tried my external drive on my friend's desktop through the usb 2 port and the data transferred at usb 2 speeds (10 MB/s or higher). So the drive is not the problem.

One thing I can think of is that the Belkin pcmcia cardbus is defective. However, if it was defective I think it would not transfer data at all. The other thing I can think of is that there is a bottleneck where the laptop connects to the cardbus and a limit in data transfer.

I soon plan to try to capture on another laptop witht the same cardbus and external drive. If everything works fine on that laptop I will assume it's my laptop connection with the cardbus. If it still doesn't work I will assume my cardbus is defective.
JackHughs wrote on 4/2/2003, 11:13 AM
Just for the heck of it, open your Device Manager and take a look at the configuration of your PMCIA card. It should show at least one "Enhanced Host Controller" (USB2) and at least one "Open Host Controller" (USB1). Check to see if your external hard drive is shown as connected to the EHC.

If their is no EHC, or if the EHC shows up as disabled, you may need to install an additional USB2 driver. If you have both EHC and OHC and the external drive is shown as connected to the OHC, your card thinks the external drive is a USB1 device.

If you have both EHC and OHC running in good order and the external device is shown as conected to EHC, then the problem lies elswhere.

JackHughs
way2slo wrote on 4/2/2003, 11:36 AM
take a look at this http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/support/news/connectu2.html
i agree with JackHughs, it could be something to do with the cardbus, the interface is running at usb 1.0 low speed.
here is another link for the lastest usb2.0 win2k driver ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/sock478/p4b533/usb2_2K.zip
btw, i do think xp is way better than win2k in some area.
grpoole21 wrote on 4/3/2003, 9:21 AM
I checked the device manager, in it was:

Belkin USB 2.0 High Speed Host Controller
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
USB 2.0 Root Hub Device
USB Mass Storage Device

And the external hard drive was connected through the Belkin USB 2.0 High Speed Host Controller.

I also tried reinstalling the the cardbus with the drivers from the cd, but it is still going slow.

What if I tried another way to capture to the external drive. I know the firewire connection on my laptop works because I am able to capture fine to the internal drive. So what if I bought a firewire hub and connected both the camcorder and the external drive to it. Could I then capture directly to the external drive?

Only the problem I see with this is that data would have to flow into the laptop from the hub (to be processed) and back to the hub (to go to the external drive) at the same time along the same firewire connection.

Thanks for your help.
Reed
way2slo wrote on 4/3/2003, 10:05 AM
yes, i have done this.
i have 2 firewire ports on the external enclosure, one hooked up to the pci firewire card, the other one to the external harddrive. captured 1 hr video on the firewire case harddrive non stop, 0 drop frame. i dont know if this is a good idea tho. i always capture video via internal ide but in your case, it is worth trying it.
btw, can you tell me how long it takes to transfer 1g file from your usb2 harddrive to ur pc?
i have done a test, it took me 2mins. i just want to make sure your usb2 is working fine.
good luck.

riredale wrote on 4/3/2003, 11:04 AM
What happened to me about a month ago may be relevant to your situation. The laptop vendor was different, but perhaps the controller chip inside is the same:

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=164342