Freezing Probs

[Douglystyles]

I have checked each stick of ram sepperately, and also have checked each HD (the project is only about 3 megs in size… So i can burn it all to DVD and transfer it to my 3rd HD which was the old one i have done rendering on for the last 2 years. I also put everything back in that was origonally there before i got the new ram. Its funny you mention the scan disk, because i was just about to do that, and decided to check this and see if anyone posted. I also didnt know that building on one HD and rendering to another improves speeds… Does it work if the video is all on one HD (E – in my case), and the HD im going to render too has the program (C – in my case)?

“Have you over-clocked any part of your system – if so, this can and does have an impact especially if ram timings were played with.” – > not too sure what you mean.

Thanks again for the help.

[Douglystyles]

I was about to run the chk disk, but before i did it, ive been noticing a noise (like a dieing CPU fan), so i wanted to see what it was or if it was the other fan (the bigger one thats not actually on the mother-board). So i got up REAL close to the computer and noticed the sound was coming from the HD… Am I wrong, or is that a bad thing? Also, ive noticed that my old HD has been running EXTRA slow lately… That was the origonal reason why i got the new RAM in the first place. Should i be looking at a new HD possibly?

[Jeremy Rochefort]

Odd sounds from hard drives are never a good thing – this is usually a sign of impending failure (not always).

The fact that your other drive is slow is an indication that it is too defragmented to operate efficiently. One golden rule when working with video – defragment, defragment, defragment – as often as possible.

As I said, test and eliminate each problem in turn. Its never a good thing to change more than one thing at a time – by changing more than one thing, you will never know what the original problem is.

By utilising one drive as a project drive and another to render to, you eliminate the read and write cycle to the same disc which loses time. Should you want touse your C drive, put your project files on the c and render to another drive which will minimise the defragmentation of the c drive. However, usually save your c drive for programs etc and work on other physical drives.

Cheers

Jeremy

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MJ Productions
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[Terje A. bergesen]

Clock says that noise from your HD is not always a problem. I would not listen to him on that one. The noise like a dying fan from your HD is most definitely your problem. You should take a backup of that drive RIGHT AWAY if you do not have a lot of critical data on it. If you DO have a lot of critical data on it and it is costly data, shut down your computer and ship your drive to a specialist.

The dying fan noise of your drive means that the drive is having problems spinning the plates up, or that it is regularly spinning them down. It is an indication of a failing harddrive, and you are probably SOL. The next noise you will hear is probably a clicking noise as the drive is trying to position the reading heads and failing. Is this a Maxtor drive? Not at all an uncommon problem (and symptom) with those, particularly the consumer grade disks.

The reason I only recommend you backup your drive if you do NOT have vital data on it is that the backup it self might quite possibly damage the drive beyond any possible repair.

—
Terje A. Bergesen

[Douglystyles]

Here is what i have done since i last wrote:
I have swapped any possible different combination i could, without removing my C drive… Cause thats where XP is installed. I moved all the files to different drives and rendered to the same and different drives. I reinstalled, got the update patch. Installed Vegas on a whole other HD. Still freezing. Im not too sure what to do at this point… maybe vegas has some corruptness? Because i doubt all my HDs are failing… ?

I would get a new HD… But im begining to wonder if thats the problem.

Thanks againe…

[Douglystyles]

Another thing i just did was put together another simple project with completely different video clips, and audio, to see if it would render… It was a very simple project but it too froze, but this time it got through about 95% of it… Now im totally lost…

[Edward Troxel]

Many times, freezing also indicates a HEAT issue. Rendering hits the processor very hard causing it to heat up. If the airflow is no longer sufficient, it could heat to the point of freezing. Will it render if you take off the side and blow a fan at it?

Edward Troxel

[Douglystyles]

Ok… Update:
It turns out, the sound was not coming from my Main HD (C)… It was coming from the HD with all the video files on it. So i put my other HD (I have 3 total: C, a 40G and a 60G -> The 60G is the one that is making the noise. The 40G is the one i have used for years, and never had a problem with and C is the main HD with windows on it)

So i did a quick project on the 40G and had no problems rendering. I then copied all the files (that i am useing for the project that has been giving me problems) from my 60G to my 40G and tried to render it, and it froze. So i then tried to render in lower quality, and it got further on the render then it has before. So maybe its a quality setting. But why, after all these years would that happen? The project doesnt have a lot of effects, its pretty simple.

Are there any settings i may be missing to help rendering? I have messed with the “Dynamic RAM prievew max” settings under ‘Options’ – > ‘Prefrences’… But it hasnt helped any.

Im about to give up/Give in and buy a new computer (barebone).

Would this one do well for Editing?:
https://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1592091&Sku=A455-2102%20F

If no, does anyone have suggestions? I have a good monitor, DVD burner and things, so i dont need a complete computer… And im not trying to spend much more then 700.00

Thanks everyone.

[Stephen Mann]

“…it could heat to the point of freezing.”

now there’s an interesting oxymoron.

Seriously, if the render locks up at exactly the same place every time, then it almost has to be the media. If the lockup location is apparently random, but at about the same timeframe, then it could well be a heat related problem in the CPU.

Is your motherboard ovrclocked? Rendering is CPU intensive and an overclocked processor is not the best way to operate a rendering PC.

If you know your way inside the advanced BIOS settings, try underclocking – slow the processor clock down. If it renders without error, then you have a PC problem. Maybe the processor can’t handle the load of rendering.

Steve

[Terje A. bergesen]

Rendering is a very CPU intensive process and therefore “taxing” your computer more than most tasks you can run. If you were a software developer, you would probably find that running a full build of your system would make the same thing happen.

You are saying that your main HD is making bad noises, which is ominous. The fact that Vegas is freezing, and as it appears, with any render job, is not necessarily an indication that there is a problem with Vegas, Vegas is just what makes the problem surface. Last time I ran into a bad drive it started with Ulead Cool 3D locking up regularly when rendering to uncompressed AVI. A few days later the PC would randomly lock up during restart, and finally, after two weeks, it would no longer start.

The way Windows is designed ensures that several of the components Vegas relies upon is installed on your main drive, most notably Windows XP it self. If your main drive is failing, the first symptoms are often that your most taxing applications are failing. The OS is loading dynamic components from your main drive, and this loading may fail, or bad data may be read.

Also look at the advice from the other posters. If you have many HDs in your case, they will generate a significant amount of heat. This heat will make components of your PC fail randomly, the heat will also, over time, permanently damage your harddrives. If you have three or more HDs in your case I would recommend you get a case that was specifically designed for cool operations.

—
Terje A. Bergesen