Re: I.T. stuff

[dpw39]

I'm not sure if we have a special section on the website for this type of stuff, so I apologise in advance for any mistake.

Anyway, I’m running XP ( :evil which sucks :evil ) Home Edition on a 1.30 gigahertz Intel Celeron with a 61.48 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity and a SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252F [CD-ROM drive] SONY DVD RW DRU-510A [CD-ROM drive].

When running the latest Nero software converting DivX to DVD format, it shows that my CPU usage is 100% and trying to access any other programs is very slow or difficult in responding therefore literally tying up the machine (conversion of the said files can and does normally take up to 6/7 hours at least), is that normal ?.

I have all the updated XP and security patches, spy-ware, and virus protection and have even run countless Trojan removal and other diagnostics tools such as Sisoft Sandra and Everest programs. I also run various maintenance checks on a regular basis and appreciate that my machine is probably “bog-standard” and could do with an upgrade even though its only a year old.

How can I overcome these difficulties or as in the words of Jack Nicolson “Is this as good as it gets?”.

Any help or contributions (even the sad humour ones), would be gratefully received.

Ciao,

Dave the Rave. :cool:
dpw39

Or you can email me at dpw39@hotmail.com

[EDDIE]

Well i have xp as well but dont have any problems with it. Going buy your hardware spec i think its about time you were upgrading sorry.Also you have 2 roms and a hardrive if they are not set up properly on the ide cables or the jumper settings are wrong u can get problems.
If i get software problems I wipe my computer and put windows back in and its suprising how quick it goes after you do that.And once you have windows setup to the way you want it you should buy a drive image progam like acronis or norton ghost and image your hardrive so when u get a software problem all you have to do is reimage your drive which takes about 10 mins to do rather than put windows back in and all the other progams in which takes a couple of hours and hasstle.Windows xp has a system restore button on it but i never got anywere with it.
But in your case if ure going to be doing a lot of converting files or using it as a gaming machine you really need to upgrade

[Dali]

You havent said what memory you have available .
If it is low say in the 256mb to 512mb then that would be the cheapest upgrade for you to atleast a gig .
This would make a big difference .

[Bobinovich]

I'd have to agree with Eddie here - a 1.3GHz Celeron isn't gonna be up to much multi-tasking especially with Nero running the CPU at 100%! I'm running a 3.2GHz Athlon and I don't touch the PC when I'm burning CD's ' I've had too many coasters made that way.

Yes I know, before anyone says it, dwp39 isn't burning CD's - he's just converting but if the CPU is running flat out he's unlikely to be able to do anything else.

I'd just recommend leaving the conversion until just before you go to bed and leave it running overnight...

[Mr P Cannop]

but he keeps windows xp on top of windows xp

[Dali]

Well extra memory would help due to the cpu would not have to take the full load the cpu should be fine for copying anything .
Did not know amd did a 3.2 ghz athlon .You sure you are not on about the model number, but you should be able to do anything with your pc while you are copying if you have that much power.
I run a 3.8 ghz intel and can do just about anything while copying cds dvds and so on .

[grmacken]

that is entirely normal.

I have an AMD64 3500+, 1gb of very fast memory, gforce 6800GT, XP pro... converting divx to dvd takes a few hours on my computer at full load. this is due to the fact you have us decode the divx movie, resample the video, seperate the audio, then re-encode it in the formats required for dvd.

XP home is crap, intel celerons are worse than crap, they are no use for heavy number crunching as they dont have the cache. tbh all current intels are poor atm.. various reason.

[Rheghead]

Dave, there may be programs running that you don't need to run all the time eg in the start up menu etc.

Stopping these may speed up what you really want to run.

[DM]

I use WinAVI video converter, works a treat. 700mb usually takes about 25-30 minutes to convert to dvd format, and you can convert multiple divx files to dvd in one go :D I just set it off then go do something else for a while and when I come back the files are ready to burn to disc!

[romaruk]

Hi Dave

I am moving to Caithness with my family shortly and will only be too happy to help everyone with their IT problems. As an IT technician, tutor and software tester, I hope to be able to answer as many questions which will save you money and without having a so called professional in some shop tell you a load of old garbage. Believe me, I have worked for a few.

First of all, XP isn't crap. Thats down to the person using it. Ghosting your hard drive is a nice idea but if you have a real problem with your hard drive, it will always be the same. Never, repeat never use System Restore. If a virus gets onto your hard drive it will always be there. There's nothing like a good unconventional format. Also, what type of file system are you using? FAT or NTFS??? We all know that your machine is a little on the low end of the spec but many people still achieve good results.

More memory would help with the caching of the files you are trying to convert. The other problems arise because you have so many hidden programs in operation. Nero is very hungry for space, and your virus software can take quite a chunk too. So many people update their machines with no idea why. That can be a big mistake. Tell me, are you using braodband or just a conventional dialup connection?? I deal a lot with video conversion and would never use Nero. It's passable as a burning software and thats it. Have you tried any professional conversion software??? Another way would be to buy a AVI/Divx player and forget about the upgrade. Remember, 6 Divx movies on 1 DVD.

I have converted movies on very low celerons. Just don't clutter your hard drive with a load of crap software that you never really use.

Drop me a line with more info and I will give you some ideas for software and that goes to everyone.

All the best

Steve

[DocStone]

dpw,

lets answer your questions one by one:

First off, 6-7 hours to convert with two passes is a good speed for your set-up, if you are using Nero-Vision 3 or the later versions of 2.

Without knowing the actual amount and type of RAM you have there is not more I can say.

There are other programmes out there that can be used, with different CPU and RAM usage per application, but if you want simple, one click converting then you are better keeping with Nero.

So, yes, it is as good as it gets, but it can be improved....

Make sure you are running no other applications when converting, do not surf the web, do not listen to music, close all the programmes you dont need in the toolbar, ctrl+alt+delete to see what else you are running that you dont need. Be carefull though and be sure to restart your PC after you have finished converting, so that your firewall and anti-virus starts again correctly.

To be honest, if you want to convert faster, and utilise other programmes, without any drop in quality then you do need an upgrade, no bones about it. When converting from DivX to DVD your CPU is worked very hard, you split the file into audio and video, convert frame by frame to the new format before recombining the new file type, readu for buring to DVD. A faster CPU will help there, no doubt. Increasing your RAM will also improve the time needed.

The AMD Sempron chips have dropped in price considerably lately, and allow you to upgrade to the new 64bit chips with no change to your system, just simply swap them over (once a stable 64bit OS is released...)

RAM has also dropped in price, its not that expensive for 2x512Mb DDR400 RAM these days, so worth checking out.

It all depends on what you want, or more importantly, what you expect and can afford.

To reply to romaruk, not all the people up here are "so called professionals in some shop", strangely enough there are people up here with a bit of experience.

Professional Software costs a lot of money, and takes a lot of learning, especially to obtain the professional results. Nero does its job and does it well, and it is making big inroads into one click conversions.

Anyways, if you want some more info related to the problem, drop me a PM, and I will try to help with what you need and want.

The Doc

[Bobinovich]

Well extra memory would help due to the cpu would not have to take the full load the cpu should be fine for copying anything .
Did not know amd did a 3.2 ghz athlon .You sure you are not on about the model number, but you should be able to do anything with your pc while you are copying if you have that much power.
I run a 3.8 ghz intel and can do just about anything while copying cds dvds and so on .

Hi Dali

Of course you are correct - I was referring to the model 3200+ Athlon (http://www.amd.com/gb-uk/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_3734_11672,00.html) albeit running at 2200MHz so I apologise if there was any confusion caused by calling it a 3.2Ghz.

Also romaruk I am curious as to why you ask dpw39's connection type? It isn't really relevant to the problem in hand unless you have information to the contrary?

[grmacken]

<-- IT Pro. :p

http://www.afterdawn.com/

Afterdawn.com is an exelent place to look at for information on this stuff, they have exelent guides and software section, every codec you could need.

http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/convert_avi_to_dvd.cfm

Good Guide with links to software to download.

btw the basis of me saying XP-home is crap is that people now are starting to be more demanding of thier computers, setting up home networks and stuff... mickysoft had to change thier rules and patch xp-home when dual core processors came out as xp-home had multi processor support turned off, now it just counts the sockets and not the cores. XP-Pro is worth the extra money in my opinion, untill linux takes over the world :P

Doc is spot on with the sempron, you can build a computer for around £300 that will do more than what most people would want of it, it just gets expencive when you build computers to do such things as playing the latest games.

[Riffman]

I run a P4 2.8GHz, 1024MB DDR400 RAM, Radeon 9600XT 256mb, and even that takes an age to render DVDs....I can imagaine using a 1.3 celeron it must be quite an experiance! :D

I reccommend you move to the power of the P4! (Even though an althon 64 would be cheaper and faster.....lol)

Riff

[The Angel Of Death]

have you tried dvdsanta ??? its pretty good and with my machine (3400 amd 1 gb ram) takes about an hour or two to convers 700mb - 1.5 gb to a dvd

[dpw39]

Many thanks for your imput, it looks like I'll have to "soldier on" with what I've got.

Ciao,


Dave the Rave :cool: