Print to tape.. Computer thinks = Drops seconds!!!

MrEd wrote on 3/4/2003, 2:03 AM
I fixed the other problem of capturing to the computer. I bought a seperate hard drive and capture to it. Works fine.

But...

when I try to print to tape... it goes fine sometimes, other times it stops and starts up again. This ruins the project big time. It drops seconds not frames. I noticed that my computer makes a noise when it happens. Like a small grinding sound for a moment.

I have a dual Pros at 933 and 512 Ram. System that I am capturing on is a NTFS. Capturing to a 114 GB drive.

How can I Fix this problem?

Thanks very much.

-MR Ed

Comments

Grazie wrote on 3/4/2003, 2:54 AM
Errrmm . . do you happen to have a Dell? This "grinding" maybe your fan/s? - If this is the case get this looked at! Don't fry your components! I understand that in the event of your MoBo or other components getting to a critical temperature, your pc will hibernate - it's a type of "failsafe" - yes?

However, you noticing the sound can also indicate that your fan/s are switching on/off - if they are grinding away then IMHO you will need to investigate this anyway - BUT, if you do have a Dell - which model make? - there is a call out to the BIOS which, believe it or not - trips the flow of DV out through firewire while PTTing. Sooo.. maybe what you are noticing is a symptom of something happenning BUT this is being manifested in another way.

Hmmmm . . . very interesting indeed.

Grazie
TomG wrote on 3/4/2003, 7:36 AM
As Grazie mentioned, we of the Dell club have been discussing this problem since the beginning of the year. The "grinding" you mentioned I describe more like "disk thrashing" whereby it sounds a lot like the disk head going crazy trying to find the right track to read (at least that's what it sounds like to me).

The only way I found success is to:

1. Make sure you defragment your HD
2. Make sure you have the most current bios
3. Make sure you have everything else shut down

and then maybe, just maybe, you might get a good copy.

Good luck with this infuriating problem.

TomG
MrEd wrote on 3/4/2003, 12:12 PM
My computer is a Dell Precision 420. Gee I hope it's nothing wrong with it. It has been doing STRAGE things lately. I got it in 2000. Sometimes it won't save Photoshops settings because it says there is not enough memory. ??? It then resets all my styles to default.

Thanks

-Ed
DGrob wrote on 3/4/2003, 12:42 PM
If you're PTTing from the external drive, try sending the rendered file to "C" (say to "My Documents") and then PTT from the Files/Capture menu. You can then delete the "C" copy and go about your business. I have a similar problem: Dell I8200, XP Home, 30Gb C and 120Gb external. Good luck. Grob
BillyBoy wrote on 3/4/2003, 1:59 PM
The tasks of 'printing to tape' and capturing are very intensive demanding most of your computer's resouces regardless how powerful your system. That means whenever you do either task BE SURE you're not doing anything else.

Partial checklist

1. shut down all other applications. Especially those that can start up on their own like automatic updates, anti-virus, screen savers, etc..

2. Before doing any major project defrag your drives. If your drive doesn't get fully defragged the most common reason is something is a miss on the drive preventing the drive from being fully defragged. This is especially true if you run XP and have the default restore option. The files created are special and most defrag program skip over them leaving them more and more splintered over time.

What you should do PRIOR to defragging is go to Windows Explorer, right click on the disks you want to defrag, select properties, tools, check volume. This will force checkdisk to run and if you set it correctly repair file errors that may be prevending any defrag utility from running properly. Again in XP, chkdsk won't run, until you allow a reboot if something is in use on the drive, mostly a problem with your root "C" drive. Duh! If you're already in Windows, then obviously Windows is in use and you can't run checkdsk. Once you reboot having saying to run chkdsk a light blue screen will come up prior to normal booting showing Windows checking adn if you say, automatically repairing any errors like unlinked or lost clusters in the file system. Once done, now run your defrag application.

3. As Grazie said the weird noise could be a fan either first going on or speeding up or just a hard drive having a nervous breakdown. If your system resources are low then Windows may be switching in and out to the paging file like crazy, even if you have plenty of memory... it s a stupid Windows thing best stopped by shuting down all other operations BEFORE you attempt any print to tape or capture.

Finally for some odd reason even if you seem to have pleny of system resouces and the way XP if you're using that is designed you should, doing a full shut down and a cold reboot generally frees more system resources. So worth the minute or two it takes if you system does strange things.

As far as finding out what is beyond this post. Another thing you may wish to try is install power tools which among other things allows you to customize how Windows boots preventing a lot of applications from starting up and either interferring with Vegas or taking resources away from it.