My system is breaking down...
 

Hello all. I am having a very frustrating problem since I purchased my VX2100, and I hope I can get a suggestion or 2 here. For every tape I have tried to input so far I have had a complete PC lockdown. Let me give a little background... in October I upgraded my PC to a P4 3.2, 1Gig RAM, and I am feeding to a SATA 300GB hard drive. When this happens, the mouse pointer freezes and the audio is still there but "frozen" My business is computers so I know the PC side well enough to know that what I am getting here is a complete system lockdown, my only resolution is to restart. The tape continues to play in whatever deck I happen to be using; I have tried using my Panasnic GS120 as a deck, and also the sony. This happens traditionally after 12-18 minutes of constant feed. Am I just simply running out o resources? Or is there a problem with the camera or how I am trying to input it? It has happened with LP and SP recorded tapes, but more often with LP. It never happened using this same PC with my Canon or Panasonic footage. However, I also never tried to batch capture a whole tape, I would fish through and get just what I wanted. I figured that I had enough RAM etc., and I shut down all my background processes before capturing. I am using Sony Vegas 6.0d. Any help anyone can give would be much appreciated.

Bill
Grant Photo & Video
http://www.grantphotovideo.com

I'm perhaps gonna state the obvious (I'm a computer "tech" as well), but that sounds like a hardware problem. Specifically a heat problem or perhaps a faulty memory chip.

I assume you are not overclocking your system? Perhaps it is a good idea to install some software to monitor temperatures inside your case and on your cpu.

Did you do a clean install of Windows (which version are you running by the way?) when you upgraded?

Hey they moved my thread..
 

Yeah, I did a clean install of XP pro to a seperate 10 gig partition. I have 110 Gig partitioned as a "work" drive which is usually where I do all my active edits, a 120 Gig for playing and a 300 gig for permenant storage. What I did tonight was to try and take all of my variables out of the equation. I tried loading the tape I shot with the Canon, and it froze as well at about 14 minutes. So that means it was not a problem with the Sony (as I first thought, good thing he moved my thread). I then tried inputting the tape to my 300 gig sata drive instead of the 110 gig partition, with a similar result. I got all the way through the sony tape that froze it last night (52 minutes) but it froze 3 minutes into the canon tape. Then I tried the "windows movie maker" thing instead of Vegas, and I captured an entire LP tape from the Canon, 78 minutes, no problem. Does that mean I have a vegas issue? RAM is a possibility though, but it doesn't do this on any other ap. Also I have a really monster thermaltake case with like 3 case fans as well as a PS fan, it could be processor heat, but I haven't had this problem like this until now... Nothing is the resource hog like editing though I guess. Let me know what you think...

Thanks

you know if I had only come here first
 

I installed a temp monitor and went to capture a bit. The temp gets up to about 120F I can imagine that capturing at that temp would make the system just halt like that. The windows movie maker stays at a nice cool 90F. My surfing temp right now is 88F. Thanks for the tip. I realized that this all happened after I "cleaned up" my studio area and put my case back together... :) i have the side back off now (where it belongs) thanks for the help.

Bill

If Windows Movie Maker is working fine for capture and the Vegas capture utility is locking up on you, I'd completely un-install Vegas, and then re-install it fresh.

What you're describing is clearly not a camera problem.

temp is not an issue
 

I rendered a 6 minute file which took 36 minutes, with no problems, CPU temps got consistantly up to 130f for 36 minutes. So, you think an uninstall/reinstall would do it?

Since it appears that you have one capture utility working properly, and another malfunctioning, uninstall/reinstall would be the next logical step (troubleshooting the malfunction/patching can take a lot longer).

Have you tried Windows Update? ...or maybe a patch for Vegas?

I rarely recommend this as it is usually a red herring, but I think you should run a memory tester. http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
The Microsoft download will let you create either a floppy or CD version of the tester. You then boot on it (there are instructions.) Usually when you crash as the system is loaded, it is heat related. Your temps are ok, so it may be memory. Since different apps stress things at different rates, it may be fine for a lot of stuff, but have one app that will always create an issue (it was a 3D pipes screen saver on NT that would cause a crash for a bad cache chip on a whole series of units we had.)