@OldSmoke

I got the specs from the Newegg site, which is where the computer was purchased. I should mention there is one other deviation in the specs -- in addition to the 2TB hard drive, the system also has a 16GB SSD which is supposed to be a cache drive. I can't tell if it's actually being used as a cache or not.

She's not running SVP12. She's running SVP8. But she has uninstalled and reinstalled, which should effectively set everything back to defaults.

I use essentially the same systems specs on my HP H8-1234 without any problems. But I am running Windows 7, not Windows 8.

I don't know if it's possible to remove Win8 and install Win7, but if so it would require purchasing Win7. That would be an absolute last resort.

When I have the computer, I will see if I can find that info in the system properties.

There is no option within SVP8 for disabling GPU acceleration. I will have to see if I can find such a setting in the general Windows 8 display properties, or maybe the DirectX properties.

I'll check on the display driver situation.

@BVP
Sorry, my bad! Yes, VP8 doesn't have GPU acceleration. I don't think you have to buy a new Win7 copy. If I am not mistaken, you are allowed to downgrade to Win7. A call to MS service should clear that up. A reinstall may give you defaults. I say may because there are always folders left behind when you uninstall Vegas and it might well be that the "config" file is still there hence a new installation will read that file and you are back to square one.
A 16GB SSD as cache is actually not sufficient. Windows uses 2.5x your installed memory to generate a swap file; that would make it 25GB for 10GB. Unless there are really 4GB used for video memory and then you would have a 15GB swap file and that would fit onto a 16GB SSD.
Can you make the 16GB SSD visible or check that it exists in the Disk Manager? To be honest, the system looks like HP is trying to get the most our of the cheapest components. Nevertheless, it should work; especially with VP8.

When I had the computer before, I did verify the existence and presence (in Windows) of the 16GB SSD drive. But there didn't appear to be anything on it, which made me wonder if it truly was being used as a cache drive. When I get the computer back, I will see if I can find the performance tools in Win8 so I can see if the swap file is setup for the SSD or not.

I will also see about resetting VP8 to the default settings.

Again, downgrading the Windows version is a last resort. I have no idea how that would affect the apps and configs that HP installed. When I worked for Microsoft, we were told that one of the worst things to do was to install a newer version of Windows over the top of an older one -- that the best thing was to wipe the drive, and then install the new OS. But again -- last resort.

I have the computer in front of me this morning.

First thing I did was to check the file properties on the clips from the four different cameras used. I can see potential problems.

Camera1: .MOV/h.264, 1920x1080x24, 23.976fps. PROGRESSIVE, 1.0 PAR
Camera2: .MOV/h.264, 1920x1080x24, 29.97fps, INTERLACED (upper), 1.0 PAR
Camera3: MPEG-2 (HDV), 1440x1080x12, 29.97fps, INTERLACED (upper), 1.3333PAR
Camera4: MPEG-2 (AVC), 1920x1080x12, 29.97fps, INTERLACED (upper), 1.0 PAR

So okay. At this point there are no clips on the timeline from Camera4, so we'll deal with that later.

But here, on the same timeline, we have 3 cameras. 2 of them are PAR 1.0, and 1 is PAR 1.3333. 2 of them are interlaced (upper) and 1 is progressive. 2 of them shoot 1920x1080 and one shoots 1440x1080. 2 shoot at 30fps and 1 shoots at 24fps. 2 are QT7 and 1 is MPEG-2.

Yeah.....I can see the possibility for problems. Which will only get worse when footage from the 4th camera is added to the mix!

Oh, and the Project Properties are set to 1920x1080, Progressive, 1.0 PAR, 29.97fps.

I've checked the display properties. It shows a Total Available Graphics Memory of 6806MB. Dedicated Video Memory is 2048MB, Shared System Memory is 4758.

>> the system also has a 16GB SSD which is supposed to be a cache drive

Please note, this "drive" is being used by the disk controller as a cache for your main drive. You should not attempt to put any files on it, and it should certainly NOT be used for your Windows swap file. Just ignore it. You'll probably never see any actual files on it.

You can install TeamViewer to operate this computer when it is not in your presence, TeamViewer is free for personal use.

Given the fact that this seemed to happen identically on two different computers, it is not likely that it is a hardware or software failure, but a data failure, in other words, the most likely problem is with the HDV files.

You should of course try to do the exact same thing in your house. If it works there and not in her house, I would suspect a power problem. She might have unreliable power. If so, a UPS is the best option.

You misunderstand, Terje. It doesn't happen on two different computers. I don't have the same problems if I attach her external USB drive with the project file and video files to my computer. Even though the two computers are virtually identical. The major difference is that my PC runs Windows 7 and hers runs Windows 8.

As for the SSD, I realized that cache files are hidden, but there seems to be no space usage at all. Even hidden caches files would take space and that would be reflected in the properties for that drive. To tell the truth, I have already created a swap file on that drive, removing the one from C:, and Windows does seem to run much faster.

I honestly believe there are 2 major issues. First, I'm sure this would run much better on an internal SATA drive, rather than an external USB drive. Second, I think all the different file types, including some progressive and some interlaced, are causing real problems.

I have uninstalled Norton. I need to find out how to turn off Bluetooth without having to stop the processes in Task Manager every time the computer is booted.

I got one clean .MPG render of the whole project last night, but haven't been able to get another. It freezes at 65%, always at the end of the same clip. This is a place where one clip fades into another. The first clip is progressive and the one it fades into is interlaced. The interlaced clip has significant slow motion applied to it -- that is, the speed of the clip has been slowed down in Vegas.

I have taken the second clip and rendered a progressive version of it. I replaced the interlaced clip with the progressive clip, and am trying another render now. We'll see if it gets past 65%.

I suspect I will need to render everything into the same format. We'll see.

Actually, there is something else different about our two computers. Mine doesn't have the SSD cache drive. If Terje is right and the system IS using the drive as some kind of cache, then I wonder if there is a way to disable or suspend that caching?

Okay, the render got past the clip and is at 70% and still going. So let's hope we're onto something here.

Well it got to 84% and froze. Again, at the transition between a progressive clip and an interlaced clip. I'm rendering a progressive version of the clip, and will try again.

Terje, I got rid of the swap file on the SSD drive and set it back to the C: drive.

Now, when I'm rendering in Vegas, I check the performance -- and the SSD drive is showing no activity at all. How can that be, if it's caching?

Also on the performance monitors it shows the following:

L1 cache - 288Kb
L2 cache - 6.0Mb
L3 cache - 8.0Mb

If it's using that 16GB SSD drive, it's not using it very well.

Well it crashed again.

Got to 89% then crashed with an error "The application generated an error that could not be handled." Whatever the heck that means.

Remarkably, got 2 complete MPEG-2 renders last night. Then did a full-HD .AVI render, which also ran without a hitch. Hoping it's still working today.

What I did was determined which clips it was hanging up on. Discovered it always seemed to be at a transition from a progressive clip to an interlaced clip. Created progressive versions of the problem clips and did a 'replace' in the Project Media. That seemed to do it.

The Project Properties are set to progressive. Since the footage from 3 of the 4 cameras is interlaced, I'm going to try changing the Project Properties to interlaced and see if that helps.