One for people who know what a Cache is

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 Mar 2005
Messages
12,954
Location
Buckingham
www.keepturningleft.co.uk
dunno where else to ask

there are a few computer people on here

my editing computer has slowed right up - I am editing sailing films - so there is a link

loading a programme takes ages and it almost stops for some longish periods

the cpu usage is low when loading the progs,

so I assume it is a memory problem involving cache and available


all help gratefully received

the computer is quite elderly now and is running xp pro

4 gigs of ram

http://www.keepturningleft.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/computer-figures.jpg
 
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Get Glary Utilities [FONT=Arial,sans-serif](http://www.glarysoft.com/) and [FONT=Arial,sans-serif]check your computer with this tool.
Will highlight quite a lot of problems.
Its free for private use.

No connection to that company just a satisfied customer.

Cheers
Christoph[/FONT]

[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif][/FONT][/FONT]
 
Skipper_Christoph said:
Get Glary Utilities [FONT=Arial,sans-serif](http://www.glarysoft.com/) and [FONT=Arial,sans-serif]check your computer with this tool.
Will highlight quite a lot of problems.
Its free for private use.

No connection to that company just a satisfied customer.

Cheers
Christoph[/FONT]

[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman,serif][FONT=Arial,sans-serif][/FONT][/FONT]
Click to expand...

can I download it on one computer and use it on another one not connected to the web?

d
 
Worth defragmenting the disk. In Windows XP, it's found in the "Device Manager" in the "System Utilities" part of the "Control Panel". If I was on Windows I'd give a roadmap, but unfortunately I'm on Linux at the moment. Disk fragmentation can severely impact performance, and it sounds like you're often manipulating large files.

A Registry Cleaner such as that suggested above might be worth a go; however, I'd take a copy of the registry file BEFORE starting, as there is potential for messing things up, especially if you have unusual software on your machine. Utilities like that can do an excellent job, but they do rather assume you understand what's going on.

The simplest solution might be to take it along to your local PC repairer and ask them to go over it. Most of them will offer a standard "service" for a few tens of pounds that will get rid of the most usual problems. DON'T go to Dixons, PC World or whatever they call themselves this week!
 
Dylan,

XP is now a bit old and you should consider upgrading - really. Many modern programs will not run in XP anymore. Graphics packages always use a lot of memory. Anyway, there are some on-board tools you can run to clean up the HDD and clear out anything unwanted. Go to your accessories section and do a disk clean-up and disk defragment. This will clear out anything not needed like temp files etc and the defragger will reorganise the disc to make it faster (for the system) to access. More Ram will help if you are running close to the limit, so you could upgrade to say 8gb - make sure you get the right compatible type! Shutting down any not needed background processes will also help release memory and processor power. This can be done from your task manager screen (the alt, cont, del command) Just be careful with this as if you shut down critical processes which if you fiddling in here is easy to do, you'll have to restart the PC to start them off again.

You may already know most of this - but just in case. Otherwise, treat yourself to a new PC or better still a Mac - they are fantastic for graphics IMO.
 
Ripster said:
Dylan,

XP is now a bit old and you should consider upgrading - really. Many modern programs will not run in XP anymore. Graphics packages always use a lot of memory. Anyway, there are some on-board tools you can run to clean up the HDD and clear out anything unwanted. Go to your accessories section and do a disk clean-up and disk defragment. This will clear out anything not needed like temp files etc and the defragger will reorganise the disc to make it faster (for the system) to access. More Ram will help if you are running close to the limit, so you could upgrade to say 8gb - make sure you get the right compatible type! Shutting down any not needed background processes will also help release memory and processor power. This can be done from your task manager screen (the alt, cont, del command) Just be careful with this as if you shut down critical processes which if you fiddling in here is easy to do, you'll have to restart the PC to start them off again.

You may already know most of this - but just in case. Otherwise, treat yourself to a new PC or better still a Mac - they are fantastic for graphics IMO.
Click to expand...

The computer is old now

and I am planning to do that before I go onto KTL 7 (the year of the Centaur)

However, I need to get this North sea section finished first

I am going to remove everything I do not need from the disks and do a defrag

D

it is reporting that it does not defragmenting
 
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dylanwinter said:
so I assume it is a memory problem involving cache and available
Click to expand...

Doesn't look like it. You've only used 34% of physical memory in that shot, with 65% (2677/4094) still available for use. The "cached" stuff, as I understand it, is memory which Windows has stuck stuff may come in useful some time, but which can be used and so is available.

Are you sure your hard disk is in good nick?
 
Worth telling it to check the disk for "errors" and perhaps make it do the defrag anyway. Quit any open programs that you aren't using. XP is passed the end of it's security patching lifecycle - it can't be adequately protected any more and it's time for it to die. Before much longer letting it near the internet will be virtually (no pun intended) asking for it...

Check the SMART status of the drive... http://www.howtogeek.com/134735/how-to-see-if-your-hard-drive-is-dying/

I assume the machine is a desktop... any change in the noises it makes recently (disks, fans etc)?

How much free disk space do you have left?

Have you installed any new software recently? Are you getting any strange beeps or popups?

What security software does it have on it? Sometimes that software causes more problems than is solves, other times it's the saviour :)
 
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yachtailsa said:
Worth telling it to check the disk for "errors" and perhaps make it do the defrag anyway. Quit any open programs that you aren't using. XP is passed the end of it's security patching lifecycle - it's time for it to die.

Check the SMART status of the drive... http://www.howtogeek.com/134735/how-to-see-if-your-hard-drive-is-dying/

I assume the machine is a desktop... any change in the noises it makes recently (disks, fans etc)?
Click to expand...


desktop

no untoward noises

I looked at the reviews for glary and installed it

did the defrag

ran the registry cleaner

premioere still loads slowly but it seems more stable
 
Not likely to be a cache problem. My first guess would be an overfull hard disc (or just possibly too small). If your hard disc is more than 3/4 full, move stuff off. Defragmenting will help in this case but probably not enough.
 
Given what you've said agree with most of the folks above... problem is probably disk related. What percentage is the disk full now that you've cleared it down a bit?

Does Glary let you check the SMART status of the drive? This is really the key for finding out if you've got a real problem brewing and the only hope of predicting future hard drive failure while you still have some time...

When you are ready to replace it.... PCs are basically disposable these days. It's a long time since I bothered to custom build or even repair one apart from for simple stuff like broken LCD panels. You could get a laptop that would be more powerful than your current desktop for not a huge amount of money, or a really great desktop. Places like www.ebuyer.com or www.saveonlaptops.co.uk or even the Dell Outlet http://www.dell.com/uk/dfh/p/ are good places to look. Go for a good brand like Lenovo, Dell or HP. When you are ready pick a couple you like and post the spec on here.... I'm sure someone will be able to tell you if it's a good deal or not! You probably aren't going to like Windows 8.

You could buy a Mac. They are beautiful. But the bang per buck quotient is very low.
 
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Skipper_Christoph said:
Get Glary Utilities (http://www.glarysoft.com/) and check your computer with this tool.
Will highlight quite a lot of problems.
Its free for private use.

No connection to that company just a satisfied customer.

Cheers
Christoph
Click to expand...

I don't know a lot about computers (Hah, understatement) but I downloaded the FREE Glary Utilities, then went through various clean-ups etc.
BL88DY thing has done something to Outlook and now I can't open emails. Some message saying have to reload.

I fear the worst. SO BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT THIS PROGRAMME

BU%%ER IT:mad-new:

And nothing at all is faster, in fact booting up is much slower.

AND I CAN'T SEND EMAILS EITHER
 
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AntarcticPilot said:
Worth defragmenting the disk. In Windows XP, it's found in the "Device Manager" in the "System Utilities" part of the "Control Panel". If I was on Windows I'd give a roadmap, but unfortunately I'm on Linux at the moment. Disk fragmentation can severely impact performance, and it sounds like you're often manipulating large files.

A Registry Cleaner such as that suggested above might be worth a go; however, I'd take a copy of the registry file BEFORE starting, as there is potential for messing things up, especially if you have unusual software on your machine. Utilities like that can do an excellent job, but they do rather assume you understand what's going on.

The simplest solution might be to take it along to your local PC repairer and ask them to go over it. Most of them will offer a standard "service" for a few tens of pounds that will get rid of the most usual problems. DON'T go to Dixons, PC World or whatever they call themselves this week!
Click to expand...

Lots of horror stories about WinXP - I've got XP64/Server2003 on this machine and found on doing a sweep, there are 11 boot sector Trojans. Cleaning them out has rather improved things but still not sufficiently to make it a usable OS. So I'm glad I've got the alternative of Linux.
4Gb of RAM, trying to manipulate video files, together with loads of parasite programmes sounds really like wishful thinking.
So my suggestion to Dylan - run a decent anti-virus scan - Kaspersky or AVG would be my favourites.
After disinfecting all the virus you have on the machine run disk defragmenter (in System Tools).
Registry cleaners are, IMHO, just so much smoke and mirrors but, of course you can revert on XP to a previous HDD image so the problem of running one of them is not quite as stark as it used to be.
If you've more than 60% filled the HDD disk, defragmenter won't work properly, so put all your unnecessary garbage onto a USB stick and delete it on the HDD.
You'll probably have a slight improvement - but to get anything like a reasonable performance instal a dual boot into a Linux distro (I use Suse). The only problem is that, though everything is free, the Linux video-editing programmes are not a patch on Adobe.
Otherwise your fate, Dylan, will be comparable to that of Sisyphus.
4Gb of RAM though - on my little sub-notebook I have 8Gb...:-(#

PS Cache is where you hide things - MS is pastmaster at doing just that - yours is probably not a simple cache problem.
 
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charles_reed said:
Lots of horror stories about WinXP - I've got it on this machine and found on doing a sweep, there are 11 boot sector Trojans. Cleaning them out has rather improved things but still not sufficiently to make it a usable OS. So I'm glad I've got the alternative of Linux.
4Gb of RAM, trying to manipulate video files, together with loads of parasite programmes sounds really like wishful thinking.
So my suggestion to Dylan - run a decent anti-virus scan - Kaspersky or AVG would be my favourites.
After disinfecting all the virus you have on the machine run disk defragmenter (in System Tools).
Registry cleaners are, IMHO, just so much smoke and mirrors but, of course you can revert on XP to a previous HDD image so the problem of sunning one of them is not quite as stark as it used to be.
You'll probably have a slight improvement - but to get anything like a reasonable performance instal a dual boot into a Linux distro (I use Suse). The only problem is that, though everything is free, the Linux video-editing programmes are not a patch on Adobe.
Otherwise your fate, Dylan, will be comparable to that of Sisyphus.
4Gb of RAM though - on my little sub-notebook I have 8Gb...:-(
Click to expand...

no virus scanner on this machine - they slow everything up

all files on here have come straight from the camera or via the web computer which should scan them all

this one has never been in direct contact with the web

so I am reasonably confident that the computer is clean

D
 
Robert Wilson said:
I don't know a lot about computers (Hah, understatement) but I downloaded the FREE Glary Utilities, then went through various clean-ups etc.
BL88DY thing has done something to Outlook and now I can't open emails. Some message saying have to reload.

I fear the worst. SO BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT THIS PROGRAMME

BU%%ER IT:mad-new:

And nothing at all is faster, in fact booting up is much slower.

AND I CAN'T SEND EMAILS EITHER
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear of such a catastrophe.

I'm using Glary Utilities since many years.
First on XP-Profesional Systems, now on Win7. Never had any problems.
 
Dylan, is 4GB RAM the max you can get on that machine?

For video editing these days 8GB is a minimum and 12-16GB is better, esp. if it's HD. If you can add another few GB it would probably make the biggest difference. You can never have too much RAM but I guess if it's an old Core Duo or sumfink then no chance.

Also shut off everything else when you edit, just run the video editor alone (no sneaking onto YBW) although I suspect you prob do that already.
 
dylanwinter said:
no virus scanner on this machine - they slow everything up

all files on here have come straight from the camera or via the web computer which should scan them all

this one has never been in direct contact with the web

so I am reasonably confident that the computer is clean

D
Click to expand...

Balls - only if you plug them into auto mode. But I hear what you say and prefer a good firewall to cower behind and sensible software architecture and operator status instead of the lash-up that's all MS OS.

Sounds like you're a "foolish internet virgin" and are reaping the reward of your sinful behaviour.
Relying on a server doing your cleaning for you is truly showing misplaced faith in modern technology.
Save all the raw material you're wanting to work on and try with an uncompromised machine (I expect you've got one of those ghastly "Celeron" CPUs as well)
 
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