ISSUES: NEED HELP DESPERATELY

Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/9/2008, 7:26 AM

I'm working on a client's 5-minute project and things are coming close to grinding to halt. When I started the project (Vegas 5) everything was going smoothly. Nothing taxing on the system, nothing out of the ordinary--video, small stills, text, audio.

Whenever I ask Vegas do do something, it sits there and thinks about it. The CPU hovers at around 35-45%, depending on the task. Even something as simple as deleting a trim off a clip takes several seconds from the time I hit "delete" to when it actually does it. WHen I move the cursor from point A to point B it takes forever On the high-end, attempting RAM renders are totally useless.

Is there anyone that would be willing to allow me to call them and see if we can figure out what's going on here--is it the computer or is it Vegas?

Thanks in advance!


Comments

gpsmikey wrote on 2/9/2008, 7:46 AM
As a noobe myself to vegas, this is only a guess, but how much
RAM do you have in your system ? Is there LOTS of disk activity
going on when it is acting like this ?? It may be swapping which
brings the system to it's knees.

mikey
Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/9/2008, 8:10 AM

I'm not new to this, that's why is so maddening!

Two gigs of RAM. Everything for this project is all on the same drive.

Even when I hit the play button, I have to wait for it to think about what it wants to do.

JJKizak wrote on 2/9/2008, 8:22 AM
A long time ago I had a similar problem and traced it to a veg made with fat 32's which was then imported to an NTFS drive system. Everything was in slow motion. Re-install of Vegas into the NTFS system fixed everything but the project was FUBAR. Any double install of a windows OS file will slow things down a lot and cause mucho problems. That's about it from this end.
JJK
Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/9/2008, 8:28 AM

James, this was installed on a NTFS system. There are no double installs of Windows, either.

I'm really at a loss here.It's like wading through knee-deep mud!


johnmeyer wrote on 2/9/2008, 8:37 AM
If it's Vegas, I'd look at the size and number of any still photos. V5 had real problems with that and would go into a thrashing condition when it hit a "threshold" (i.e., when you got beyond a certain number and certain size of pictures).

It it's your computer, I'd look at any anti-virus software. I have removed Norton anti-virus from over a dozen client computers over the past two years. Their symptoms with various programs was identical to what you describe.

Also make sure that whatever disk is used for your swap drive hasn't gotten full.

Finally, while disk defrag is a waste of time and won't help, one reason it does sometimes seem to help is that it forces a chkdsk. I would recommend you right-click on each disk drive in Windows Explorer, select Properties, then the Tools tab, and click on Check Now in the Error-Checking section. Check the "Automatically Fix ..." box and then select OK. You'll need to re-boot to let the checking finish.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/9/2008, 11:14 AM

Thanks, John. The pics are jpegs, only 16, each just under 1MB.

I'll turn off the anti-virus. I neglected to think of that. It's only there for when I have to go online to register programs.

The swap drive isn't full.

I'll check the drives, too, as you suggested.


craftech wrote on 2/9/2008, 11:36 AM
Jay,

In addition to what John suggested about the anti-virus software, check how many processes you have running at the same time. Some can be disabled. Narrow the problem down. One way is if you have a scanner. Open a photo editing program like Photoshop and start scanning in Photographs. If it takes longer than the last time you remember the problem is likely your OS, hardware, or interface. If scanning in and opening photos works as fast as it used to then maybe there is a problem with Vegas.

John
johnmeyer wrote on 2/9/2008, 4:38 PM
If you have Norton Anti-Virus, then I would bet LOTS of money that you have found your problem. Make sure you turn off ALL real-time monitoring. Basically, turn everything off and turn it into a manual scan-only program. Make sure you turn off email monitoring as well.

While I wouldn't recommend this for other people, I do not use anti-virus software on any of my dozen computers, except for one, which is the only one that ever got a virus. If you want to replace Norton, I recommend Trend Micro.

MH_Stevens wrote on 2/9/2008, 5:35 PM
Sympptions of a constapated computer. have you done your house cleaning?
Delete olf files
Defrag
Check for Virus and spyware
Background programs you don't need running
(Run Hijackthis is a good option when having unexplained slowing - it is analysed for you free - check 24/7 fixes)
Windows graphic setting. Set for performance not windows managed etc.

Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/9/2008, 7:47 PM

Double post... Sorry!

Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/9/2008, 7:48 PM

Guys, I've got nothing else running that hasn't been running all along. I will give Hijackthis a try along with checking the Windows graphic setting. I don't remember what it was set for, it's been so long.


johnmeyer wrote on 2/9/2008, 8:34 PM
Did you disable the anti-virus software? Did you completely disable it?? You didn't mention it, and as I said before, I'm betting money that it is the culprit.
MH_Stevens wrote on 2/9/2008, 9:18 PM
IF you think it is Vegas and not your computer, check things that might have changed like the storage location of you project media, RAM allocations, render bitrates and the like.
ushere wrote on 2/9/2008, 10:53 PM
sympathies....

i'm no expert, but the few times i've had problems i did two things.

a. saved the timeline to a new project, then closed vegas. rebooted (god knows why), and opened the new veg. that worked a couple of times.

b. saved the project to a new folder WITH media. that worked the other time.

i have to say that in +6 years with vegas i have rarely ever had problems that haven't been pc related rather than vegas. those with vegas are a complete mystery to me, and were solved with the above.

btw, i always use .png's, and if using 'imported' media, eg. qtime, strange mpeg from hd cameras, i always convert to either .avi (sd), or m2t (hd), BEFORE putting them on the timeline.

the above 'might' cause a slight loss in quality, but most of the clients i've know would NEVER see it, and i get to keep what little is left of my hair.

good luck

leslie
MH_Stevens wrote on 2/9/2008, 11:25 PM
I second Leslie. Even though I said "If you think it is ..." I also when having problems have always found it hardware related. Vegas, despite some whines you get here is very solid and coherent.

If the new project and reboot does not work consider a System Restore to a time when it did.

(While I'm here I thank you Leslie for your offer of a link to the Cineform old file but I think I'm upgrading to NEO HD and that is why I did not yet respond to you. Did not mean to be rude.)

busterkeaton wrote on 2/9/2008, 11:27 PM
Vegas is supposedly optimized for PNG graphics.

ushere wrote on 2/10/2008, 1:57 AM
no problem mh,

i should point out that my 'vegas' problems were all solved by my above mentioned techniques - i haven't had any problems since, but as i wrote, everything that goes on the timeline is, if necessary, pre-rendered, converted to .png, etc.,

again, good luck,

lesle
JJKizak wrote on 2/10/2008, 6:05 AM
As I recall just having Norton on your system will slow everything down by 20%. And also as I recall from info on this forum after you delete Norton there are 300 Norton files left behind undeleted and you must re-install the OS to get rid of them.
JJK
gpsmikey wrote on 2/10/2008, 8:12 AM
Norton and AOL are not allowed in my house any more. My machine
has thanked me for that many times (although I periodically find
some little "feature" left behind from when I did have Norton - what
a pain !! )

mikey
johnmeyer wrote on 2/10/2008, 8:37 AM
And also as I recall from info on this forum after you delete Norton there are 300 Norton files left behind undeleted and you must re-install the OS to get rid of them..

There is a Norton removal tool, available from the Symantec site, that will remove ALL traces of Norton: files, registry entries, folders.

Everything.

[Edit]
By the way. I'd rather have a virus on my system than Norton AntiVirus.

Ahmen.

craftech wrote on 2/10/2008, 8:55 AM
Guys, I've got nothing else running that hasn't been running all along. I will give Hijackthis a try along with checking the Windows graphic setting. I don't remember what it was set for, it's been so long.
====================
HiJack This! won't help if you don't know what is safe to delete.
If you say that nothing else is running that hasn't been running all along and you haven't changed anything or added anything then I would suggest you see how much space you have left on your hard drive.

If it is nearly filled with video files and you have another drive in the system move your swap file to the other drive with more space OR put a swap file on each drive and see if that speeds things up.

Right click on My Computer. Advanced/Performance/Advanced. Virtual Memory. Change. Select the drive you want to place a swap file on. Set the swap file to system managed or custom. If custom, make it around 1/2 the amount of total ram in your system. That is, if you have 3 drives. The total swap should be 1.5 to 2 times the ram in the system. Make sure you hit "set" after each drive is set up with a swap.

John

By the way. I'd rather have a virus on my system than Norton AntiVirus.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/10/2008, 4:17 PM

John (Meyer), sorry I thought I had mentioned that. Yes, I did "totally" disable the anti-virus.

Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/10/2008, 4:20 PM

John, I'll give that a try.

apit34356 wrote on 2/10/2008, 4:40 PM
"By the way. I'd rather have a virus on my system than Norton AntiVirus." By definition, I think Norton is a virus that steal resources for economical gain!

Jay, the critical thing about swap files is having continuous disk space, this is true for temp dir as well. And as always, 35- 40% free space on the system disk never hurts.

Recently, I noticed a performance problem with quicktime files.