djnutz
So here is the 411: As some of you may know, I am using a custom touchscreen rig to dj with. I built this machine almost 3 years ago now and as expected, the rigors of transport to and from gigs has been tough on the components. My issues began about 6 months ago with the system randomly locking up. When I say locking up, I mean everything became unresponsive, right down to the OS. I will start there.
If you are having issues with your system just completely locking up randomly, the first thing to check is memory. It makes no difference if your system is laptop based or desktop based, the process remains the same. First thing you need to do is shut down the system. then crack the case to get at the memory. Remove all the chips and label them however it makes sense to you. Then take one chip at a time and plug it into the first memory slot. Boot the system. If the system boots to your desktop with no problem, shut down, move that memory chip to the next slot and repeat. You need to test every memory chip in every slot. If you have a single chip that causes the system to hang regardless of the slot it's in, then that chip is bad, and you need to replace it. If all your memory chips cause a hang on a particular slot, then the motherboard is bad and you need to replace it.
The next issue i had was a loading issue with both audio and video files. They would partially load, especially on longer tracks, and it seemed to load just seconds ahead of the audio. I never had any audio skipping thank god, but it was nerve wracking to watch it loading while playing. I have 2 backups of my archive, one on a SATA drive stored in a fireproof safe in an anti static bag, and the other is a portable usb drive. When I plugged in the portable drive one day to do a backup, I noticed that if I loaded a file from the USB drive, it loaded in a couple seconds vs the loading just ahead of the audio like it did with the internal hard drive. I pulled the internal drive and plugged it into my tower and ran some diagnostics. Now the drive was set in my dj rig to test the drive on shut down, and to not write data to bad sectors. The drive has a lot of bad sectors, I assume from the vibrations and what not from transporting my rig. I bought 2 500gig SATA drives and one is loaded with video and the other with audio. The loading issue with audio went away, but the video issue still remained. When you do your monthly updating, do a full scan of your hard drives and make sure they are error free and defragged.
Now the video issue. Running 3 touchscreens plus a 4th video signal out, I need to run dual video cards. I was having video issues and since eveything else in the system checked out or was brand new, I determined that the video card had to be the culprit. I bought 2 new cards. A 1 gig and a 512mb. Right out of the box, I had issues. Video loaded in the blink of an eye, but wouldn't play without freezing or skipping and sometime didn't play video at all. I turned of hardware acceleration and the video would play, but it was choppy. I turned acceleration back on and it would play smooth for a couple seconds then freeze up again. I will save you the steps I went through to get it to work and just give you the solution. Your video system memory is used to both play and decode the video files. Therefore, you want to use the registry tool to find out your system memory and assign HALF of the number to playing the video.
Lastly, make sure your system has proper ventilation. Heat and vibration are computer killers. Take proper steps to lessen their toll on your system and many issues can be avoided.
My rig is now issue free. Next upgrades will include solid state drives.
If you are having issues with your system just completely locking up randomly, the first thing to check is memory. It makes no difference if your system is laptop based or desktop based, the process remains the same. First thing you need to do is shut down the system. then crack the case to get at the memory. Remove all the chips and label them however it makes sense to you. Then take one chip at a time and plug it into the first memory slot. Boot the system. If the system boots to your desktop with no problem, shut down, move that memory chip to the next slot and repeat. You need to test every memory chip in every slot. If you have a single chip that causes the system to hang regardless of the slot it's in, then that chip is bad, and you need to replace it. If all your memory chips cause a hang on a particular slot, then the motherboard is bad and you need to replace it.
The next issue i had was a loading issue with both audio and video files. They would partially load, especially on longer tracks, and it seemed to load just seconds ahead of the audio. I never had any audio skipping thank god, but it was nerve wracking to watch it loading while playing. I have 2 backups of my archive, one on a SATA drive stored in a fireproof safe in an anti static bag, and the other is a portable usb drive. When I plugged in the portable drive one day to do a backup, I noticed that if I loaded a file from the USB drive, it loaded in a couple seconds vs the loading just ahead of the audio like it did with the internal hard drive. I pulled the internal drive and plugged it into my tower and ran some diagnostics. Now the drive was set in my dj rig to test the drive on shut down, and to not write data to bad sectors. The drive has a lot of bad sectors, I assume from the vibrations and what not from transporting my rig. I bought 2 500gig SATA drives and one is loaded with video and the other with audio. The loading issue with audio went away, but the video issue still remained. When you do your monthly updating, do a full scan of your hard drives and make sure they are error free and defragged.
Now the video issue. Running 3 touchscreens plus a 4th video signal out, I need to run dual video cards. I was having video issues and since eveything else in the system checked out or was brand new, I determined that the video card had to be the culprit. I bought 2 new cards. A 1 gig and a 512mb. Right out of the box, I had issues. Video loaded in the blink of an eye, but wouldn't play without freezing or skipping and sometime didn't play video at all. I turned of hardware acceleration and the video would play, but it was choppy. I turned acceleration back on and it would play smooth for a couple seconds then freeze up again. I will save you the steps I went through to get it to work and just give you the solution. Your video system memory is used to both play and decode the video files. Therefore, you want to use the registry tool to find out your system memory and assign HALF of the number to playing the video.
Lastly, make sure your system has proper ventilation. Heat and vibration are computer killers. Take proper steps to lessen their toll on your system and many issues can be avoided.
My rig is now issue free. Next upgrades will include solid state drives.
Inviato Wed 27 Oct 10 @ 10:18 am