I've noticed that if I do a long video processing project with VirtualDub, it has an odd effect on the computer. It causes it to intermittently seize or freeze. Not lock up altogether but if you drag the mouse across the screen it moves - sticks - moves - sticks. Ditto if you play an audio file - plays - glitches - plays - glitches. Rebooting fixes it.
For example, I just processed a video that's almost 2 hours long with a Deshaker filter in VirtualDub. Took over a day to process step 1, at the end of step 1, it exhibited the above symptom. Rebooted, things were okay. Then applied step 2 which is actually applying the filter and saving the processed file which took over 6 hours, at the end of which the machine exhibits the same symptom. And again, reboot, all is back to normal.
brassplyer <brasspl...@yahoo.com> wrote: >I've noticed that if I do a long video processing project with >VirtualDub, it has an odd effect on the computer. It causes it to >intermittently seize or freeze. Not lock up altogether but if you drag >the mouse across the screen it moves - sticks - moves - sticks. Ditto >if you play an audio file - plays - glitches - plays - glitches. >Rebooting fixes it.
>For example, I just processed a video that's almost 2 hours long with >a Deshaker filter in VirtualDub. Took over a day to process step 1, at >the end of step 1, it exhibited the above symptom. Rebooted, things >were okay. Then applied step 2 which is actually applying the filter >and saving the processed file which took over 6 hours, at the end of >which the machine exhibits the same symptom. And again, reboot, all is >back to normal.
>Any idea why this is?
>Running XP Home, P4 2.4 gig, Soyo Dragon mobo.
>Thanks for all input
Check that you have plenty of hard disk space and plenty of RAM. Close down programs running in the background. It's also a good idea to defreg your hard drive. IMHO Visa is a better operating system when doing video work.
On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:36:54 -0700, brassplyer wrote: > I've noticed that if I do a long video processing project with > VirtualDub, it has an odd effect on the computer. It causes it to > intermittently seize or freeze. Not lock up altogether but if you drag > the mouse across the screen it moves - sticks - moves - sticks. Ditto if > you play an audio file - plays - glitches - plays - glitches. Rebooting > fixes it.
> For example, I just processed a video that's almost 2 hours long with a > Deshaker filter in VirtualDub. Took over a day to process step 1, at the > end of step 1, it exhibited the above symptom. Rebooted, things were > okay. Then applied step 2 which is actually applying the filter and > saving the processed file which took over 6 hours, at the end of which > the machine exhibits the same symptom. And again, reboot, all is back to > normal.
> Any idea why this is?
It simply sounds like the memory manager is having a hard time honouring requests from the running application. The VirtualDub software is probably leaking memory and/or managing its memory poorly. The glitches etc are the periods when the memory manager is attempting to coalesce small free fragments of memory into larger contiguous blocks. During this time the CPU utilization will be very high.
Adding more RAM to your computer would be your best option.
Marty wrote: > On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:36:54 -0700, brassplyer wrote:
>> I've noticed that if I do a long video processing project with >> VirtualDub, it has an odd effect on the computer. It causes it to >> intermittently seize or freeze. Not lock up altogether but if you drag >> the mouse across the screen it moves - sticks - moves - sticks. Ditto if >> you play an audio file - plays - glitches - plays - glitches. Rebooting >> fixes it.
>> For example, I just processed a video that's almost 2 hours long with a >> Deshaker filter in VirtualDub. Took over a day to process step 1, at the >> end of step 1, it exhibited the above symptom. Rebooted, things were >> okay. Then applied step 2 which is actually applying the filter and >> saving the processed file which took over 6 hours, at the end of which >> the machine exhibits the same symptom. And again, reboot, all is back to >> normal.
>> Any idea why this is?
> It simply sounds like the memory manager is having a hard time honouring > requests from the running application. The VirtualDub software is > probably leaking memory and/or managing its memory poorly. The glitches > etc are the periods when the memory manager is attempting to coalesce > small free fragments of memory into larger contiguous blocks. During this > time the CPU utilization will be very high.
> Adding more RAM to your computer would be your best option.
Except, in a 24 hour run, the program has probably churned through many times a 4GB memory space. Adding RAM won't help, if this is a problem with how the OS works. The best a person can do, is find tools to dump resource usage, on the off chance you might stumble on what it is out of.
Some of the tools referenced in that article, are written by the author of the article, and can be downloaded from here. Sysinternals was bought by Microsoft, which is why it is now hosted on a Microsoft site. For example, you can get "Process Explorer" from here.
> Some of the tools referenced in that article, are written by the author > of the article, and can be downloaded from here. Sysinternals was bought > by Microsoft, which is why it is now hosted on a Microsoft site. For > example, you can get "Process Explorer" from here.
Microsoft needed them more than anything else IMO, hopefully they are being paid enough.
FWIW. My recent favorite of their tools... Autoruns, useful in part for the right-click pop-up menu "jump to" that efficiently gets you to the registry entry.
> I've noticed that if I do a long video processing project with > VirtualDub, it has an odd effect on the computer. It causes it > to > intermittently seize or freeze. Not lock up altogether but if > you drag > the mouse across the screen it moves - sticks - moves - > sticks. Ditto > if you play an audio file - plays - glitches - plays - > glitches. > Rebooting fixes it.
> For example, I just processed a video that's almost 2 hours > long with > a Deshaker filter in VirtualDub. Took over a day to process > step 1, at > the end of step 1, it exhibited the above symptom. Rebooted, > things > were okay. Then applied step 2 which is actually applying the > filter > and saving the processed file which took over 6 hours, at the > end of > which the machine exhibits the same symptom. And again, > reboot, all is > back to normal.
Unlikely. Since ALL "XP Home, P4, 2.5 gig" machines don't exhibit these symptoms, the most likely variable is a memory leak in the layered application: VirtualDub. Seems almost certain.
On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:28:36 -0400, Paul wrote: > Marty wrote: >> On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:36:54 -0700, brassplyer wrote:
>>> I've noticed that if I do a long video processing project with >>> VirtualDub, it has an odd effect on the computer. It causes it to >>> intermittently seize or freeze. Not lock up altogether but if you drag >>> the mouse across the screen it moves - sticks - moves - sticks. Ditto >>> if you play an audio file - plays - glitches - plays - glitches. >>> Rebooting fixes it.
>>> For example, I just processed a video that's almost 2 hours long with >>> a Deshaker filter in VirtualDub. Took over a day to process step 1, at >>> the end of step 1, it exhibited the above symptom. Rebooted, things >>> were okay. Then applied step 2 which is actually applying the filter >>> and saving the processed file which took over 6 hours, at the end of >>> which the machine exhibits the same symptom. And again, reboot, all is >>> back to normal.
>>> Any idea why this is?
>> It simply sounds like the memory manager is having a hard time >> honouring requests from the running application. The VirtualDub >> software is probably leaking memory and/or managing its memory poorly. >> The glitches etc are the periods when the memory manager is attempting >> to coalesce small free fragments of memory into larger contiguous >> blocks. During this time the CPU utilization will be very high.
>> Adding more RAM to your computer would be your best option.
> Except, in a 24 hour run, the program has probably churned through many > times a 4GB memory space. Adding RAM won't help, if this is a problem > with how the OS works. The best a person can do, is find tools to dump > resource usage, on the off chance you might stumble on what it is out > of.
In a video processing application, it is unlikely to be a resource leak but rather a memory leak.
In a long run the application will have churned through a massive amount of memory. As a consequence of the memory leak, more and more of the physical memory is lost from the application heap which pushes the machine into eventually spending most of its time thrashing.
Depending on the size of the memory leak, adding extra RAM might delay the onset of the fragged heap sufficiently to complete the required processing.
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