Stuttering preview, a strange cure.?

Zulqar-Cheema wrote on 12/9/2005, 4:13 PM
Having used Vegas for over three years with no problems on different PC's I was surprised to get a random stuttering pre-view on my Acer 3Ghz laptop, the little dots on the preview would start to grow for no reason.
(my old 1.4Ghz amd machine had no problems)

I tried all the normal things I could think off, to no avail, the preview would stutter with no rhyme or reason. External display, ext preview, turning all running background stuff off.....

Today however I found if I turned the volume down low on my Laptop, or DIM the sound in Vegas the stuttering stopped, good in one way, but not to hot on the sound front. I think it is a standard on board sound chip.

Any clues as why this would or a way to solve it...? please

Comments

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 12/9/2005, 5:33 PM
ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE!

Sorry man

:(
Laurence wrote on 12/10/2005, 12:57 AM
Try the ASIO4ALL driver here:

http://www.asio4all.com/
Zulqar-Cheema wrote on 12/13/2005, 5:24 AM
Still investigating...
Zulqar-Cheema wrote on 1/4/2006, 9:43 AM
Update,

I have tried the asio drivers to no avail, the preview is fine if the volume is if it is kept low. If I turn the volume down while the clip is playing the picture stop stuttering, and soon as it is turned up it goes into stutter... makes no sense, unless of course the speakers are interfering with something.
If I plug headphones in then no stuttering.

oh well plug away
Coursedesign wrote on 1/4/2006, 10:26 AM
These symptoms indicate that the output stage in your onboard audio is a) defective so that it shorts or nearly shorts the DC supply, or b) there is a bad connection (bad solder point, bad connector or even a damaged wire) in the DC feed that doesn't create a crippling voltage drop until the current exceeds a certain value, at which point the computer chokes.

(U=R*I: the voltage drop equals the resistance times the current flowing through it).

Since it is a laptop, it isn't so likely that you can do anything yourself to fix this.

Hope you didn't buy it at Fry's... (6-8 weeks to service, and a loaner isn't always full consolation).
Zulqar-Cheema wrote on 1/4/2006, 11:59 AM
Good thinking coursedesign, I tried to play a windows movie and a DVD and it plays fine at loud volumes, so that would rule that out I guess?

I have noticed the the CPU performance goes down when I get the preview stutter (to about 10%) and back to about 25% when the volume is lower.
fldave wrote on 1/4/2006, 5:15 PM
I would check your IRQ settings. If more than one significant component is sharing a single IRQ, then the throughput can be reduced. If your video card is sharing the IRQ with the audio card, try to override one of them.

Also, have you defragged your hard drive lately?
Coursedesign wrote on 1/4/2006, 5:22 PM
Check Power Options [or equivalent] in your Control Panel. It could also be that your laptop's power management interferes by throttling the CPU speed or something else.

You can even verify the CPU speed by right-clicking My Computer and selecting Properties. This doesn't refresh, so you have to do the whole thing over each time you want to check.
Zulqar-Cheema wrote on 1/5/2006, 9:11 AM
IRQ as follows Sound 17, Graphics 16

The CPU seems to be constant at 2.93Ghz, was looking for some sort of power management, on the laptop but cannot see one.
Coursedesign wrote on 1/5/2006, 9:53 AM
Nothing in your Control Panel?

Click on Windows' Start button in the lower left corner and navigate to Control Panel in the second column, then click it.
Zulqar-Cheema wrote on 1/6/2006, 6:04 AM
Spoke to Acer service, but got what I was expecting, use the back up disks and re-install the operating system. Must be your software.
Coursedesign wrote on 1/6/2006, 6:37 AM
If you no longer have any Power options in your Control Panel, that may well be necessary.
Zulqar-Cheema wrote on 1/6/2006, 2:00 PM
CourseDesign, Can you point me slowly to this power option as I cannot see it on my other laptop.
Right click "My Computer", the properties, this opens "system properties", then all I see farm the far back left is...
System Restore, Automatic updates, Remote,
Front...
General, Computer name, Hardware, Advanced,
Plus the system information on the panel
System:...
Registered to:
Computer:

I cannot see any power options...

Your not thinking, right click desktop, Screensaver and then Power?
Zulqar-Cheema wrote on 1/7/2006, 3:54 PM
Have decided to use the re-install disks on the machine, have done a ghost in case the problem is not solved at least I can get back to where i was.

In for a penny...
Zulqar-Cheema wrote on 1/9/2006, 4:48 AM
After making a CD Ghost boot disk (no floppy only USB on Laptop) that took half a day in itself. I made a backup of the HD.

Did the re-install, and loaded V5, followed by V6, no real improvements, unfortunately, so did a ghost back, to as it was.



Have noticed if I do a pre-view render no issues on the preview all is well. (SHIFT B)

Zulqar-Cheema wrote on 4/5/2006, 11:34 AM
Just an update, the laptop has just gone back to Acer for the third time.
First time no fault found, so made a video of the fault , so second time, they changed the motherboard, but it still has the fault so has gone back again, have asked fro a replacement, please..

I must say their service is good, I get a text when they get the machine and a text when they are sending it back.
Zulqar-Cheema wrote on 5/10/2006, 4:38 AM
Update.

Laptop went back 3 times in all and still not working so got a returns number and have no given it back and am going for a different laptop, a duo one as they seem faster now.

One concern is the licence for V6 now that I have reformatted the laptop drive to give back and I will now seem to add the software to another laptop, is there a way to "remove" the software and release the keys?

Chienworks wrote on 5/10/2006, 4:53 AM
No need for that. SONY allows several installs, as long as they're all on your own computer and you don't use more than one of them at a time. If you ever get to the point where you've done too many installs then you won't be able to get another activation code. Call SONY's customer support and explain what your doing and why you're installing again (hopefully for a legal reason) and they'll reset your keys for you.