This is a BIG thank you to Johnny Roy, PaunzT (Tom), Kelly, Edward, BoomHower, Mahesh .. and especially the very patient Sony Support person ( I'll ask if I can name and re-edit) !

Well, good news - I can now MPEG2 . . . and so far it has NOTHING to do with the install of Vegas6c.

It was an ugly "carpet" of dust and larger particles, lying on top of the CPU fins. This "rubbish", having been sucked into the body of the PC, had been gradually building up on the surface of the CPU cooling fins for 2 years.

Now the serious point is that I was not getting anything that would have directly indicated this heat issue. How would I have known? In the future I should inspect to "see" the cooling fins, the cooling fins of the CPU, below and between the fan blades? What I saw, I thought, was some kind of "filtering pad", it was just like a carpet . .. honest! Yeah yeah yeah . . very funny - NOT!!

OK, the only time I was made aware of an issue other than a system/software one, was last Friday when I got a Blue Screen crash - never EVER had this before. On the blue screen was an IRQ error with its codings. Up till then I was only getting the Vegas quitting errors, and MS log files. So that this HAS to be a purely system/software issue. Till then Windows was still working and I could use other software - right? BUT, until and when I got a Blue Screen I could NOT do or think anything else. I was none the wiser either - neither were others - yes? But last Friday I rendered an AVI and for the first time THAT crashed the PC BIG time and I got this blue screen.

I would also add that I was asked by good guys hereabouts to check to see if the fan/s were working. My replies had been yes. I could SEE and hear the fan/s working. At the same time I was fortunate to be able to "hook-up" with and speak with our Johnny Roy about this and when I showed him this error . . . .

Now he knows I have the same MoBo as he, AND he read the blue screen it was something he too had got, I also sent him the "pictures" of the fan/s.
As I have said, the fans were working and spinning around and I could hear them. -At which point he said - "Hmmm.. you got your MoBo at the same time as I"

"Yes " I said.

" Hmmm.... That error IS a heat issue!"

"But my fans are working!?"

"OK" he says, "can you explain to me what YOU are seeing!" - It was then that I sent him a "picture" of the fans . .

Last Saturday I got busy with a stand up vacuum cleaner and a Grazie-adapted sucker extension that I could get gingerly and gently into the delicate areas around the CPU to pick up the falling crud being dislodged by my brushing with a 4mm soft artist's, sharp cut brush. It worked. I also got to grips with the other intakes, flowing over the hard drive cases, and power pack cooling ducts. It now looks like new.

Guess we should never over look maintenance. However, I didn't know WHAT to look for to "overlook" it in the first place! . Huh .. now I do!

I have been told that when a CPU climbs to its max temp it "throttles-back". It is during this throttling-back that the application will stall and then stop, allowing for the messages I did get, but not enough to crash and then get the blue screen dump heat codings. If I had got these then I would then have been able to report this earlier. Why did this happen later rather than earlier? Well my guess is that as the poor fan/s went into hyper drive they were attempting to draw in MORE cool air. This in itself exacerbated the issues as even more dust and crud was being impacted on top of the layer.

So, I have tested an big 1.5 hour AVI to MPEG2 render . . PC didn't even SWEAT! My PF is now working at 50% from before and the CPU is cruising from 75% to 100%, not even flinching.

Again, thanks people! And the Sony person too! You know who you are . . .

Best regards,

Graham "Grazie" Bernard