XP Tweaks?

johnmeyer wrote on 7/27/2003, 12:52 PM

I have run Vegas, with no problems, on a 450 MHz system. Your system is not the problem. XP is not the problem. Most likely, some process that gets loaded at startup is the problem.

Click on the Start button, click on Run, and then type:

msconfig

Press Enter. Click on the Startup tab. Click on Disable All, click on OK, and then restart your system. Don't worry, you can run msconfig again later and re-enable some or all of the processes you disabled. After re-boot, run Vegas and see if things all work correctly. If they do, you'll have to re-enable processes (using msconfig) a few at a time, re-boot, and try again until you find the culprit.

I have found that HP's memory card driver that comes with their printers (many of which have memory card slots) creates absolutely havoc with video streaming. You get all sorts of hiccups, dropped frames, etc. Older anti-virus programs have problems, although newer ones don't appear to be a problem.

AZEdit wrote on 7/27/2003, 1:52 PM

Treb,

You could be running low on paging files (virtual memory) In XP check you setting under control panel/performance and maintenance/system/advanced/perfomance settings/advanced...see your virtual memory setting... set it high if you have the disc capacity...that should help. Also- you could have a bad memory stick- that happened to me an a matched set of 2 512's. My guess is it is a bad memory stick...

MDVid wrote on 7/27/2003, 2:51 PM

Videoguys have a nice xp tweak guide:

http://www.videoguys.com/WinXP.html

JTH

treborvdrummer wrote on 7/27/2003, 7:23 PM

I have 25035 MB available on my C drive but the max i see that can be set is 4096 should I max the minimum and the max to 4096?

Also should the paging file be on the C: drive with the O/S?

The recomended size is 1533 (don't know if that matters?)

thanks!

AZEdit wrote on 7/27/2003, 7:45 PM

I dont think I would max it out- you would be allocating 4 gigs of your avail 25 gig for paging file space.... set the min somewhere around 2.5 gig (2500) and set the max at 3.5 gig. Not sure what setting you found e=when you first saw the window?? I would also check youor ram....how many memory sticks do you have?? Sounds like your hitting an error with your ram...this will be a pain, but test the same render you are trying to do- pulling ram out of your system....again- what is the combination of ram you have??

johnmeyer wrote on 7/27/2003, 8:23 PM

Don't mess with all the paging drive stuff. It is a waste of time. The answer lies elsewhere, most likely in the background programs.

If you HAVE messed with the swap file or paging files, etc., this is most likely the cause of the problems you describe. Try to keep as many of the XP settings at their default settings. You really don't need to tweak the way you had to do under Win98. Remember that XP was designed with video/audio in mind. It is one of the main things that distinguish it from Windows 2000. If you can't remember all the tweaks you made, you might want to bite the bullet and re-install XP, but this time leave everything alone.

I am speaking from experience. I tried to over-tweak six months ago when I first got XP Pro, and I ended up -- after a month of agony -- reinstalling from the backup that came with the computer. I proceeded much more cautiously after that and changed very few settings. Everything works great now.

treborvdrummer wrote on 7/27/2003, 9:06 PM

AZEdit,

I have Corsair TWINX1024-3200LLPT DDR XMS (Dual 512MB SLots 1 and 3)

Should I try to test it with a memory test app or SiSoft Sandra?

biggles wrote on 7/27/2003, 9:27 PM

I agree - I found the videoguys XP tweaks really useful. It is a long list, so allow plenty of time to apply them.

JJKizak wrote on 7/28/2003, 7:56 AM

I just loaded XP Pro onto Intel D875PBZ with P4 2.8 HT 800 with
DDR 400 and Super-duper cooling fan cause it runs so hot (127F).The Matrox
Parhelia works very well. The Matrox and the Power DVD required new
drivers and I have it loaded up with Acid pro, Forge, Bitrate, Virtual dub, V-4c
and DVDA1c, 5 SCSI hard drives and 3 IDE drives and one AO-5 burner and
Audigy sound card set to 5.1. Also Dynapel Slow MO, Steady Hand and
Motion perfect. Other stuff too but use firewire thru ADVC-100 and without
doing any tweaking it runs perfect, no dropped frames and the Video appears
to be much sharper on the monitor. Also no IRQ tweaking. If using one FX
on the timeline there is no jumping but if I pile them on it gets twitchy.
I am very pleased with the performance and I didn't have to re-engineer
the computer to get it to work. My render times were reduced from
6 hrs to less than 2 hrs.
My recoomendation is to make sure you have all the latest drivers and if
you are using the built in lan 1394 for capturing you might try another
card as I have heard people having a problem with the built in lan.
I use the Audigy firewire port.

JJK

filmy wrote on 7/28/2003, 12:02 PM

As has been stated Videoguys has a pretty good tweak list for video. You also should check out the very detailed Xp Supertweaks by Black Viper.

AZEdit wrote on 7/28/2003, 12:53 PM

Not sure why you would not mess with the paging files?? Even Alienware and Boxx Technologies maxes out this setting- I guess they to are wrong in doing so?? If you are using a video edit system, animation system or a compositing system- you MUST tweak the paging files for max performance- and this is from experience!

If you are getting an error related to memory, and the error states you are out of system memory- you have a few places to look. But first, I assumed you were only running Vegas at the time? And no other programs open?

The first and easiest is in the memory sticks themselves. Corsair is one of the best- but you can still have bad memory! Take one stick out and test your system using the same program it shut down with earlier. If that fails- replace with the stick you just removed. If that fails- you must look to the motherboard. If you make it all the way through using one of the sticks- then the one out of the machine is creating your problem!

Do me a favor and check your system to make sure your sytem recognizes your memory in several places:
1.) Left click "My Computer" and hit properties- see what your system sees as RAM
2.) Call up your task manager (Ctl, alt, delete) and look at the performance tab- look at physical memory and make sure it reads the same as the earlier reading

If these are consistent- then pull memory and test

If you cannot make it through changing out memory- then I would look to the motherboard. If the only program you had open was Vegas- and you had the error that system memory is low- and it quit your Vegas program- it cannot be background programs! It is a a memory or motherboard issue

As far as changing page files- it’s only virtual memory. It utilizes space on your hard drive for system usage only and simply cannot create the errors you are experiencing…

You will have to decide what route you are willing to take- and go for it…
My 2.5 cents worth

FuTz wrote on 7/28/2003, 1:31 PM

Ain't those tweaks by Black Viper more destined towards gamers?

clearvu wrote on 7/28/2003, 2:49 PM

I've got a similar system and had similar problems.

Update your drivers and system bios.

Brian

treborvdrummer wrote on 7/28/2003, 9:42 PM

Ok just to clarify.... when you all say "make sure you have all the latest drivers" do you mean the VERY latest (but not beta) drivers or do you mean WHQL (Microsoft Certified) drivers?

For example:
My video card is the ASUS V8460Ultra (Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti 4600) and I have two drivers I can use.

1. NVIDIA Detonator Drivers Version: 44.03

or

2. ASUS Display Driver Win2KXP 44.71A

So what would you all do? :)

filmy wrote on 7/28/2003, 10:56 PM

>>>Ain't those tweaks by Black Viper more destined towards gamers<<<

Yes and no. The way he has the page set up you can sort of choose what tweaks you want to do - For example if you click on the link on the right that says "Service Configuration" you will go to a page that lists all the XP services and what the are used for. If you scroll down you will see a nifty little table that lists each 'service' and over to the right on that table you will see he has listed settings for "Safe" "Internet Gateway" "Gaming" and "Super Tweak".

I just think that is you read all the stuff you can find a lot of helpful info. Probably more than the average person wants to know.

videobear wrote on 7/29/2003, 1:23 PM

No. Set the page file to be 1.5 times the size of your actual RAM. That's probably what Windows XP has set it to already, as a default.

For best performance of the page file:
1. Put it on a separate physical hard drive from your system drive or your video storage drive.
2. Set BOTH the minimum AND maximum size to 1.5 times your RAM. This prevents the page file from changing size, leading to fragmentation.
3. Turn OFF the Indexing service for the page file drive, and your video storage drives.

As an aside, I don't recommend turning off all running processes at once with msconfig. XP and Win 2000 offer a nice Administrative tool that lets you look at all running processes and programs, and disable them one at a time. Much safer.

Regards,
Doug Graham

videobear wrote on 7/29/2003, 1:25 PM

A more thorough way to test memory is to download the shareware DocMem from http://www.simmtester.com

Regards,
Doug Graham

treborvdrummer wrote on 8/9/2003, 9:22 AM

Hi Everyone just wanted to report back that one of my Corsair XMS Chips were bad. Gonna RMA them back to NewEgg.com.

Thanks for all the suggestions and feedback even thiught it was a bad stick of memory I have reduced the mental atrophy as it has been a while since I have tweaked windows to this degree and it was a great excercise none the less!!

Thanks again!

treborvdrummer wrote on 8/16/2003, 5:15 AM

BUMMER!

I just got the new MEMORY and i get the same issue. However VV4d shows the same "out of memory" message just like before....

When I look at the application log I see this:

"Hanging application vegas40.exe, version 4.0.0.205, hang module hungapp, version
0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000."

Now when I use Task Manager to monitor the me sizes etc I am noticing VV4d while trying to render the 3 minute video sometimes is using as much as 1,599,500K but I have the Virtual Mem on a separate drive 80 GB etc everything I can think of tweak wise but still blowing up....uuggh!

Any thoughts?

BTW I also found that Corsair was having some compatibility issues with the Intel 875PBZ Chipset Mobo and their XMS 3200LL modules but I found a forum on the Corsair site that gave me the correct CAS paramenters etc?

Intel D875PBZ with BIOS P09 + P4 3.0C + Corsair TwinX1024-3200LLPT

Extended Configuration [User Defined]
SDRAM Frequency [400 MHz]
SDRAM Timing Control [Manual - User Defined]
CPC Override [Auto]
SDRAM RAS Act. to Pre. [5]
SDRAM CAS# Latency [2.0]
SDRAM RAS# to CAS# delay [3]
SDRAM RAS# Precharge [2]

Anyway I am starting to get pretty hopeless with this as I ran the test veg from SPOT's site and it performed as well as anybody else numbers I 've seen 1:36 and according to BillyBoy's numbers.

HELP?

Randy Brown wrote on 10/9/2003, 9:27 AM

Did you ever resolve this issue Trebor?
Randy

Bill Ravens wrote on 10/9/2003, 11:47 AM

Unfortunately, a LOT of the tweaks on the Videoguys site have been proven to be wrong or in-effective. I'd be extremely careful about using some of their tweaks with XP. You can damage more than you can help. Always be sure you can back out of a tweak and it helps to run something like SANDRA after every tweak to benchmark the performance "improvement". I think you'll find some of them actually slow things down, as I did.