Things that can degrade system performance?

fultro wrote on 8/22/2004, 5:09 PM
Anyone please jump in here at any point something rings a bell with you - these points may not be related but I have been having more problems lately and I am just throwing a few ideas out to see what anyone might know

My system: 3Ghz, P4, 1G ram, Win XP... I set up system with VideoGuys
recommendations and I defrag regularly. Vegas worked quite smoothly for a few months in conjunction with Photoshop CS according to both my taste and a benchmark or two for video rendering.

In the last month Vegas takes longer to open, screen redraws take longer (when switching programs), and eventually Vegas hangs - requiring Task Manager to quit .. sometimes System Restart required which miraculously never happened much before. This seems to be a problem with Photoshop open in particular - but not sure about this
Rendering times seem to be as usual

I notice in Task Manager that the Swap file is using anywhere from 300 Mb to
800Mb when the system is idling with one or two photos open in Photoshop and 20 stills open in Vegas. Task Manager also tells me I still have a few hundred Mgs of RAM available too - so why the high Swap File usage? and is this my problem???
So.....Various questions have occurred to me - again:

Processor Scheduling: "Background Services" or "Programs" ?

Memory Usage: "Program Files" or "System Cache" ?

Swap File - should I let Windows manage it from the C drive or should I place it as I have on another drive and size it according to my specs? and what drive should that be ? I have C: , a Video drive and a third (which I currently have chosen and partitioned for my Swap file)

Would more RAM help this problem??


Maybe related - maybe not but any wirerd or joyous experiences you care to
relate with the following things that have changed for me in the last month:

--Upgraded to Vegas 5.0b
--My 120 Gig SATA video(only) drive has gotten quite full (95%) - cleaning up now
--Started using TIFs more often which I am suspecting as at least part of the problem for Vegas
--Installed Canopus ADVC 100 with external monitor - I must be really careful with this - very slowly wait for things to happen (ext previews of explorer files in particular).

fultro

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 8/22/2004, 6:51 PM
>>>--Started using TIFs more often which I am suspecting as at least part of the problem for Vegas <<<

First, Tifs use an external reader, which significantly slows up Vegas
Second, previews from the Explorer or Trimmer are unbuffered, which is likely causing latency to your ADVC.

Can't comment on your SATA, seems like my drives are always near full. I'm too lazy to clear them. :-)
fultro wrote on 8/22/2004, 7:50 PM
Thanks - I think that pretty much says it all for the slowing of my system that I have noticed

Are TIFs the only culprit here? PSDs , PNGs , TGAs all perform better ?

fultro
Spot|DSE wrote on 8/22/2004, 8:24 PM
Anything but a tif will perform pretty smoothly. Tif's use Quicktime. My personal prefs are TGA and PNG files, but PSD's are fine, jpgs, etc.
FuTz wrote on 8/22/2004, 8:41 PM

More than often: PNG files here :¦:o I

TIFfs are **heavy** everywhere in "my" computer world (don't know about others)...
fultro wrote on 8/22/2004, 8:48 PM
Spot - did you once mention here on this forum that Photoshop CS was buggy on your system ? It has until this recent problem acted real slick here with Vegas and Ulead DVD Workshop open together
fultro wrote on 8/22/2004, 8:50 PM
What's that you say re PNGs?
johnmeyer wrote on 8/22/2004, 8:53 PM
Any degradation that occurs over time is usually due to "spyware." I have never had a client that had a virus, but I have had over a dozen clients in just the past two months that are infected with various forms of spyware.

Fortunately, you can easily clean your computer. I have been using Adaware from Lavasoft, but even the newest version seems to have problems fully removing some of the problem programs. Gateway Computer recently recommended "Spy Sweeper" to one of my clients, and it immediately fixed the problem.

Spyware is extremely common because many shareware authors, unable to make enough money from selling their software, have turned to advertising. By including pop-up software, tracking software, and other monitoring software in their programs, they can get money from advertisers who track your computing behavior. Leaving aside the privacy issues, these monitoring programs are often poorly created, and place a huge burden on your CPU and network connection.

Again, if your computer worked at one time, and is not working now, and you haven't added or changed your hardware, I am 95% confident that the problem is related to a background process or program.

Anti-virus scanners can also cause problems. After years of getting less obtrusive, many of these (especially Norton/Symantec) have gotten to be real resource hogs. You might try temporarily disabling your anti-virus scanner (if you run one) and see if that helps.
Spot|DSE wrote on 8/22/2004, 8:54 PM
Pshop CS is buggy on my system, yes. I think it's buggy, period. Great tools, but sometimes not worth the hassle. Until Adobe responds, I have to disconnect my NIC everytime I open PS on one machine. it's not a copy, hack, or otherwise version, it's a registered version. And when I change out my Firewire enclosure on this system, it makes me re-register.
fultro wrote on 8/22/2004, 9:07 PM
thanks - I have looked at that stuff because I do occasionally net work this system to a computer that is on-line -- but I have not found any background processes going on and I have no anti-virus stuff on this system either for the reasons you mentioned
Erk wrote on 8/22/2004, 10:54 PM
johnmeyer,

About Norton... I'm using Norton Antivirus 2004 as part of Systemworks 2004. I have disabled "Auto-protect" (the most obvious resource hog?) and "Live Update" (I manually update about once a week), but Enabled "Email Scanning" and "Script Blocking." I don't think I'm experiencing any problems or system-drag related to Norton, but I'd be interested in your comments on these preferences.

Thanks,
Greg
stormstereo wrote on 8/23/2004, 12:58 AM
Norton AV is s hog yes, but I've no problems with it on my machine. Other than that I use ZoneAlarm firewall. This is the only computer I got so it's used for all things - surfing, download, trying out new applications and so on. I always check with the jv16 tool to delete anything in the registry that's left over from an uninstall. Finally, Spybot Search & Destroy is my first choice for sweeping out spy- and adware and other little gangsters. Oh, also regularly backing up the system drive with Norton Ghost.
Call me paranoid.

Best/Tommy

FuTz wrote on 8/23/2004, 6:24 AM

For those who don't have Norton and want a free good antivirus that really seems to be "light" on the system: I use AVG 6.0 and so far, it's done the job beautifully..!
stormstereo wrote on 8/23/2004, 12:01 PM
Yeah, I'm actually considering AVG 6.0 since I've heard so many good things about it. We'll see...
Best/Tommy
ken c wrote on 8/23/2004, 2:33 PM
speaking of which ... I've also had recent problems, "all of a sudden" no matter what browser I'm using (IE, firefox, opera), I'm getting partial/broken downloads.. any ideas?

used to work fine, til just a couple of weeks ago, haven't installed anything new, any ideas what could cause download headaches? even for example, ebay pages not loading fully .. have defragged the drive, moved the cache locations to other drives, still has same problem..

ken
Erk wrote on 8/23/2004, 11:23 PM
kencalhoun,

To me that sounds like classic spyware, or worse, symptoms. I'd scan immediately with several of the free tools out there. Just now I downloaded the fully-functional free version of Spy Sweeper at
http://www.webroot.com/wb/products/spysweeper/index.php
stormstereo wrote on 8/24/2004, 1:45 AM
Broken downloads... I'm experiencing the same. It just stops and I have to reload one or more times. The same can happen when downloading files. It halts sometimes but only when I use normal windows downloading, never when I use Metaproducts "Download Express".

I'm on broadband connection. Amateur guesses:
1. It could be because traffic is so fast into the 'puter it just "clogs".
2. From my broadband outlet I use a CAT-5 cable. My net owner/ISP recommends using CAT-6 to prevent "slower speed".

Absolutely guaranteed no spy-/adware or virus on my machine.

Best/Tommy