Vegas Crashing all the time

pjam wrote on 8/10/2003, 4:02 PM

Help! any ideas? as far as I'm aware Vegas is stable, but mine is crashing every 2 minutes or so! Is my PC underpowered? I'm working on a project approx 58 mins, 9 tracks, Only two that have substantial events on them. Processor is 1.2g Athlon, 1152 Ram, two 40 gig drives plus 40G firewire drive, Canon XM1 (GL1) linked to external monitor, there is still a Canopus Raptor card in the system but it has not been used since working with vegas. Firewire connections via firewire 1394 compatible card for video capture etc. Thas about it. any comments welcome.

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 8/10/2003, 4:15 PM

Unlike the Pinnacle forums where EVERYONE is complaining about crashing, you'll see very few reports of this sort of problem with Vegas.

That, of course, is little comfort to you, but it does mean that to troubleshoot, you should look to things other than Vegas itself.

Here are some things I can advise to try.

First, I would un-install and then re-install Vegas.

Second, what version are you using? Knowing that may help others on this forum come up with ideas.

Third, I would run MSCONFIG (can be run by selecting RUN from the Start menu and then typing MSCONFIG). Once you have MSCONFIG up, you can select the tab where the startup items are shown, and uncheck all the boxes so that no programs load when you start your computer. Re-boot and then run Vegas and see if things start to work better. If they do, then one of the startup programs is causing the problem.

Fourth -- and perhaps others can comment on this -- I would be tempted to remove the Raptor card to see what happens.

pjam wrote on 8/10/2003, 5:03 PM

Thanks John,
I am running 4c, I'll try your advice. How many times have we been thru' these things with PC's? then when something new crops up you can't remember where to start. Thank god there is such an excellent forum such as this.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 8/10/2003, 5:50 PM

was it working fine before? i only get Vegas to crash in VERY specific instances. Do any other programs crash? Also, are what are you doing when it crashes (if you are trying to do something specific). Also try opening 2 copies of Vegas. Open a new file in one, and your working prpject in another. Copy the project (by selecting everything) and then pasting into the blank file, then save fast! might be a corrupt file.

reamenterprises wrote on 8/10/2003, 10:19 PM

What are you doing in Vegas when it crashes?

I had the same experience with my system only while running Vegas would my system crash. Even placing intense graphic games my system ran find. It took me a lot of trial and error, but I found my Athalon was over heating while I was rendering projects in Vegas forcing the program to crash or my system to reboot.

Make sure you have an effecient heat sink and fan on your processor. I had heard that the "early" Athalons ran hot no matter what.

Chad

pjam wrote on 8/11/2003, 3:12 AM

I did think about the processor overheating, and especially because we have had such high temperatures recently for the U.K. 37c and as you know we are not geared up for it here. It happens mostly when I am editing the audio track. Rendering has been OK although it crashed 57 mins into a 58min project last time, very annoying.

cyanide wrote on 8/11/2003, 6:19 AM

Make sure your power supply is big enough, too.

BillyBoy wrote on 8/11/2003, 10:00 AM

It may be overheating, maybe not. Does it only happen when using Vegas? That's what you need to find out. If it only happens using Vegas if your BIOS supports it try slowing down the CPU a little and see if it goes away. I had a system a few years back I had to slow it down just a bit otherwise Vegas would lock up constantly during rendering. Every other application worked fine. On my latest system messing around with overclocking I got as high as 25% over the rated speed before the system was unstable...only with Vegas and only if rendering a MPEG. Strange. But cutting back a bit made it rock solid stable again.

If it is over heating and you have a big enough power supply then if your motherboard supports it consider having a variable speed fan and/or a bigger heatsink on the CPU. This will get rid of the heat better, faster. The fan runs faster as the CPU gets hotter, otherwise you can't hardly hear it. Don't have it on this one, did on my last AMD system which runs a good deal hotter than Intel boxes do.

pjam wrote on 8/11/2003, 5:45 PM

Yeah! it's only happening on Vegas, it's a little more stable today but then the temperature has dropped 6-7 degrees C. I am installing a new internal hardrive tomorrow 80G ATA133 via PCI controller so we will see if that makes a difference, selling the firewire drive, Billyboy I think you are right about those.

AndyMac wrote on 8/11/2003, 5:54 PM

I had terrible instability problems recently which were traced to the M-Audio Delta 1010 sound card - there's a recent driver update (which mentioned ASIO and Acid) which cured the problem.
It's always said, I know, but check for the latest drivers for *everything*.

Yep - it really is hot innit!

dspoonboy wrote on 8/11/2003, 6:33 PM

Crashes mostly when you edit audio. I had the same problem for about a week. Drove me crazy, as the really bad day when it was crashing regularly, was the day I had the client sitting behind me! The weird thing was that he left and it stopped happening. It still happens (very) occasionally always when I click on an audio track. Updated all drivers, and now save often, and work with 2 open Vegas applications. I work with a lot of Firewire drives, but am sure that they were not the problem. Strange!!

BillyBoy wrote on 8/11/2003, 6:51 PM

Some sound cards use more than one IRQ. They typical "share" one with another device. If that other device wants to raise its IRQ flag when Vegas also wants it, or the other way around, CRASH. I avoid it by having the audio built into my motherboard. If you have an expansion card, check for conflicts and shared IRQ's.

pjam wrote on 8/12/2003, 3:06 AM

Thanks guys, I'm interested in the concept of working with two open Vegas applications, what exactly do you mean?

Grazie wrote on 8/12/2003, 3:41 AM

When access, open V4, you can then "open" another instance of V4. You now have 2 instances of V4

Having 2 "instances" of V4 open means you can have one instance for your actual editing and use the other for things like rendering items that you can bring back into your first instance. Render takes time. This way you can set off "Instance 2" to go away and render!

There is another way, frameserving, but that I still haven't got my head round yet.

Regards,

Grazie

cyanide wrote on 8/12/2003, 9:00 AM

I'm still voting for a weak power supply. I had the same problem when the outdoor temperature went up. Every time you plug in a USB or firewire device, it puts a load on your power supply. If the secondary drops even a little, the computer will hang. Editing video puts a huge load on all your system resources....

pjam wrote on 8/12/2003, 11:39 AM

Hi Cyanide, so what would you recommend for a power supply?

dspoonboy wrote on 8/12/2003, 12:23 PM

I do not think the power supply is the cause in my case. I have an Enermax EG651P power supply, and enhanced cooling. I suspect that the drivers in my Revolution 7.1 audio card may have been the culprit. I reverted to an earlier set of drivers and the problem ended (I have since updated the drivers to the new release and all is well) It will still occasionally crash when I click on an audio track (possibly once every 30 hours of editing). With regards to the two open Vegas events, I edit small sequences on one, and when I'm happy with the segment I add it to the completed edit-to-date on the second. I also save after I complete any complicated sequence. My projects are getting longer, and I am always trying to refine my approach to long format editing. The better bin management on 4 has been a big asset.