This is a type of screen image that often precedes a Vegas crash. It often occurs during periods of heavy editing, such as rapid scrubbing, system-intensive plugins, editing while looping, or excessive / large media in your project. Sometimes, it seems to occur spontaneously, and when it does this repeatedly, is sure to cause user angst and meltdowns. Having bought a new machine (Intel chipset) that did this out of the box when Vegas Pro was installed, I've been trying to help others prevent these anemic spells.Vegas Pro versions 14-18 seem to be affected.
So, in no particular order, here is a list of things to try, noting that many of them point indirectly to a condition called "buffer underflow," where the RAM "toilet tank" reserve is not being filled fast enough to keep up an adequate volume with repeated flushing, the analogy evoking an equally aggravating domestic situation for many.
- Update your Graphics Drivers -- Despite what many think, Windows 10 does not necessarily do this automatically. Download the latest Release driver version from your card manufacturer. VP18 users see Help->Driver Update. Often, just installing them will cure the issue. If you have a Nvidia product, use the Studio version, not the gaming drivers. Also, reports of crashing may be more common with the GTX 1000 Series, which includes GTX 1060, 1070, 1070 Ti, 1080 and 1080 Ti. With the Turing NVEnc, the 1650 Super or better (1660/20xx) "may" be less prone to this crashing, although I would try the other suggestions first before jumping to an expen$ive upgrade.
- Test "GPU Acceleration of Video Processing" -- To turn this off temporarily, go to Options->Preferences->Video. You can run this way if you are not using a lot of video plugins, but it may slow down the Preview / Editing workflow. Leaving this feature off will not affect your video rendering, even when using hardware accelerated rendering. But before choosing this as your failsafe default, it's good to check out the other options here first. What effect, if any, reducing the rendering threads may have in this stewpot is unknown.
- Reduce the Dynamic RAM Preview -- If this is set so high that it steals water from the flush tank (RAM Potential), just reducing the amount to the default of 200 or even 0 has cured the problem, as @Paul-Fierlinger has recently reported. That discussion was kind of a light-bulb moment in my thought process.
- Increase your System RAM -- Again, this is an option that should be considered after exhausting the less pricey options, but it should be strongly considered if you currently have less than the recommended minimum 16GB installed.
- Reduce System Memory -- This is stock advice: Close Background Applications, Don't Multitask, turn off the Internet, and Check your Task Manager for runaway processes that are stealing memory. Of the latter, the worst is the ancient Windows Spooler Subsystem App. Being but a rudimentary unidirectional command, it can start chasing its tail any time a print job gets stuck in the spooler, and cannot find a printer to relay it to. I've seen it hog >25% of available memory, insidiously. Another strategy is "Save Early, Save Often." closing and restarting Vegas periodically to flush the buffers.
- Feel Free to Start Your Own Thread with additional thoughts, but let's try to keep this one free of discussions and banter, as it is intended to be informative. Rest assured, I will include all tested solutions in this opening post as they become available, and thank you in advance.
- Best Regards.