 |
Lost Video Island
A Multifandom Vidding site
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Aislynn
Council Member
Joined: 03 Feb 2005
Posts: 35782
Location: Sawyerville, USA
|
 Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 5:34 am Post subject: When Good Vids Get RAMmed... |
 |
|
I moved this answer out of the "What Vids Are We Working On???" thread because I felt it was too involved and perilously close to thread-hogging. *oink oink*  It's the heart-wrenching tale of a Viddergirl, her almost finished Angsty Jack vid, and her RAM-challenged computer. Enjoy... 
| Hobbes wrote: | I still don't get that "not enough RAM to finish my vid thing" are you SURE you're using the right term there?  I never thought Random Access Memory was anything more than the speed that your computer can load things and such (so higher RAM for you would mean your computer.... being able to run two programs at once! ) |
Yep, I'm certain about my terminology. In fact, if I get on any more intimate terms with the RAM, then I'm gonna demand that it buys me a ring... But, since you asked...
After having the computer shut itself off on me a couple of times (or giving me the infamous "Blue Screen of Death"  ), I poked around and found how to call up Task Manager, which among other things, will give you a read on how much RAM you're using right at that very moment. More precisely, it's telling you how much over your RAM you're using, since it's actually a record of your paging file activities. (For those of you lucky enough to not have to know this, the paging file is part of your virtual memory, the RAM being one part and the paging file being basically a part of your hard drive that's been sorta designated as emergency RAM.)
So before I open WMM, I open Task Manager first and position it so that I can keep an eye on it at all times. With no applications open, the RAM is usually at 202 MB. Launching WMM takes it to around 260, just over the 256 MB RAM. But the problem kicks in when I open a project -- Angsty Jack, in this case. The song is 3:56 minutes long, I've got vid clips installed up to 2:40, leaving more than a minute still to be vidded. When I open AJ, the RAM shoots to 450 MB.
At this point, the computer will keep working but it's getting sluggish and WMM tends to stop responding -- not just the vid or audio hanging up, but literally going dead to the point that you have to resort to a full reboot.
| Hobbes wrote: | | So what exactly is the problem with the angsty Jack video? what does it say when you try to save it? |
I've found that it takes anywhere from 100 to 300 more MB of RAM to save a project in WMV form. That's 100 to 300 over what it's running just to have the project open. So even if I could add the rest of the vid clips in and the RAM not go higher than 500, it'll still require 600 MB at the very least to save, but it's more likely to need closer to 800. The highest I've ever seen the paging file go is 700 (to save my April contest vid and it was only 1:39!) and the computer was thisclose to shutting down. (It's sorta like a circuit breaker getting thrown; the computer shuts itself down to prevent damage from being overloaded.)
So this is why I figure it's no use to even try to finish Angsty Jack right now. It ought to be able to open the project file, but depending on how high the RAM goes, the computer will bog down exponentially the more clips I add. RAM does govern how many applications are open at the same time, but it's also handling all of the editing of the clips for your vids in progress. And any program that has an "undo" to it? That's also being handled by the RAM. Which is why I have to turn off the "undo" command when I build animations in Animation Shop. It's a pain because if I make a mistake, I can't just Ctrl+Z it and have it come right back. But it keeps the RAM from having to work so hard.
Okay, so this was probably a lot more than anybody ever wanted to know. Which is why I put it off by itself, so much the easier for the mods to delete... But, there you have it. The sad, strange saga of "Aislynn And Her Neurotic Computer." Never say I didn't tell y'all a nice bedtime story, hm? 
Oh, and yes the problem ought to be solved by adding more RAM. And I should note that I'm in no way a computer expert. So anybody who actually knows about these things is probably sitting here with their hands over their eyes, going, "She's telling it ALL WRONG! That's NOT what this or that does!!!" My apologies. I haven't had any choice but to do my own research and try to perform massive software surgery on this poor thing to keep it going all this time. This is just how I've come to understand how and why things work -- or don't work... 
Now, children, next time, let Auntie Aislynn regale you with the thrilling tale, "Aislynn's Computer And Its Infestation Of Over 3,000 Pieces Of Spyware!" Now that one's a spine-tingler for sure, ya betcha!
~Aislynn
PS - And if you want to look at your paging file, this is how you get to it in XP (other versions of Windows, I'm not sure how you find it, if you even can - the version of Windows I worked with prior to this computer was actually Windows 3.1. Anybody remember that one??? ) :
Right click an empty spot on the blue task bar, left click "Task Manager," then click the Performance tab, which gives you an EKG-like readout of the CPU and the paging file's usage history. You might find it interesting to see what it goes to while you're working on a vid, who knows? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Hobbes
Council Member
Joined: 28 Jan 2005
Posts: 11208
Location: Vancouver, BC
|
| Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 6:53 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | | But, there you have it. The sad, strange saga of "Aislynn And Her Neurotic Computer." Never say I didn't tell y'all a nice bedtime story, hm? |
I'm BOOKMARKING this LOL
Okay... that is a sad, sad story 
and for someone who is "not a computer expert" you certainly taught me somehting! lol
I'm checkign that manager as we speak, and it's default is at about 450 MB, rising to it's highest when I render at about 1.43 GB but it still works! heehee. I just got another 512MB chunk of ram today, so that probably ammounts for that... but what I don't get is how my computer survived the rendering so easilly back when I only had 512MB, and not the 1.024 GB I have now. My theory is that the computer just uses all the ram you have at once to perform the operation, and maybe your system is just on a setting that doesn't stop it from overloading? I still think there must be a way... it worked before right?
Well there's still ONE way you can save angsty Jack. You can send the actual WMM project blueprint file to someone, and then they could finish off what you made (since they would have all the lost episodes as the materials for the vid anyway, right?) and then send along all the animations too...
And hen there's STILL the SLIGHT possibility of being able to shut off every program in your computer... you coul turn off your internet connection, disable your antivirus, go to the task manager and delete the "explorer" process, and then hope your RAM stays low enough  that's about the only idea I have left... poor Aislynn such a horrible fate... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Ringwench
Advanced Vidder
Joined: 14 Feb 2005
Posts: 446
Location: Ontario Canada
|
| Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 5:57 pm Post subject: |
|
|
That really sucks, Aislynn. I was looking foreward to seeing your AngstyJack vid! If I had WMM I would see if I could help you out in some way but I'm running Win98 on my puter so I don't have it. You should try to get someone else to render the vid for you. Like make the timeline and get the clips and timeline on to someone else's computer. That might be quite the process though. I used to do that with one of my roommates. We both vid but my computer was better than hers. So we networked the computers and she would get the timeline all set up on her computer then render the vid on mine so her puter wouldn't explode from overexertion.
Hope you can get all this fixed up soon so we can look foreward to more vids from you! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
