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BSOD crashes during capture and/or encoding... HELP!!
Thanks again to everyone for the assistance with my RAID array setup... as with so many other things in life, however, it appears to have raised more issues than it's settled...
Though I've never had troubles with vidcaps coming from my G200 in the past, I'm finding now that my system lacks its previous stability with regard to capturing and encoding of vidcaps. Here's a breakdown of the system:
- ASUS P2B mobo, rev. 102 (bought new in 1998), with BIOS flashed to version 1012
- FT-100 RAID0 array (2 identical Maxtor 7200 RPM 45GB HDs, on ATA-66 connectors...Write Verification is set to "off")
- 7.2 GB maxtor boot drive HD (5400 RPM, DMA-enabled, on it's original connnector, and operating on the mobo's controller)
- PII-300 (not overclocked)
- 128MB PC-100 RAM
- SB AWE 64 ISA sound card
- Marvel G200, w/BOB
- NIC for my DSL connection
- the PCI modem card from 2 yrs ago (I know it's unnecessary.... just never took it out)
- WIN '98 (with many of the necessary MS patches, but not an actual SE installation)
- Direct-X version is 6.4 (heard some nasty things about the later versions, but should I upgrade to 8.0?)
- AVI_IO (latest version)
- TMPGEnc (latest version)
- bbMPEG (latest beta)
No multiple partitions on the boot drive.
Essentially, I built the machine up 2 1/2 yrs. ago, and tried to kick it up a notch with the FT-100. It had been running fairly rock-steady in that time (no problems using the Marvel MJPEG format for previous captures), but the combination of attempting to capture in YUY2 and the new array really seem to have thrown it for a loop. I'm getting BSODs during captures (with messages talking about Windows errors in VxD blah blah blah and FastTrak VxD blah blah blah... is this referring to a driver conflict?), spontaneous system re-boots during captures, encoders crashing while running (also occasionally causing BSODs)... well, you get the picture. It's been intermittently joyous and frustrating!!! (Welcome to the world of desktop video, eh?)
My benchmark results look like this:
SANDRA--
(Current and Min/Max cache are set at 4MB)
Buffered Read: 61 MB/s
Sequential Read: 61 MB/s
Random Read: 6 MB/s
Buffered Write: 107 MB/s
Sequential Write: 29 MB/s
Random Write: 13 MB/s
Ave. Access: 10 ms. (est.)
HD TACH 2.52--
Read speed max: 63408 kps
Read speed min: 31023 kps
Read speed average: 39927 kps
CPU utilization: 19.8%
FASTCHEK MONITORING--
Status Functional
Synchronization disabled
Write cache enabled
S.M.A.R.T. Ckeck disabled
PCI Bus Utilization @ highest setting
***********************
From looking at the results others have posted, these look like numbers that are right in line with expectations, yet I know something is wrong, because in spite of those benchmark results, I can't even capture full-frame YUY2, even using HuffYUV 2.1.1 through AVI-IO, without dropping frames like crazy. Half-size caps seem to work OK (when the capture doesn't crash the system, that is)... I got a successful 8-minute vidcap with no dropped frames using half-size YUY2 formatting (of course, I bombed the machine on TMPGEnc **and** bbMPEG trying to encode it to SVCD specs, but one thing at a time, I always say...)
I know that high-quality capture and processing vidcaps are probably one of the ultimate stress tests of a system, but it seemed to me that I wasn't attempting anything that Doc and a few others were able to do (in some cases with what seemed to be slower equipment!)... so I'm at a loss, as they say. Am I just pushing my poor mobo and P-II chip too hard? Is there a conflict between running the capture and encoding programs from the slower boot drive (which also has the OS on it) while attempting to save/process info on the much faster RAID array? I don't mind upgrading parts, if that will help (though it may have to wait for a month or two, budget-wise)... if it's a Win '98 thing, though, I'd like to know that as well, however (just so I know it's Bill Gates' fault, and not mine :^) !!). The OS and the machine, have both been pretty steady in the past, though, so if there's **anything** any of you wizards can suggest that may help to recover that dependability, I'd sure appreciate the advice.
Thanks for making it through all of this info, everyone... your advice has been invaluable in the past (when I was a mere lurker!), and so I know my setup will be in good hands as you weigh your respective diagnoses!
All the best,
-Joel Cairo
Though I've never had troubles with vidcaps coming from my G200 in the past, I'm finding now that my system lacks its previous stability with regard to capturing and encoding of vidcaps. Here's a breakdown of the system:
- ASUS P2B mobo, rev. 102 (bought new in 1998), with BIOS flashed to version 1012
- FT-100 RAID0 array (2 identical Maxtor 7200 RPM 45GB HDs, on ATA-66 connectors...Write Verification is set to "off")
- 7.2 GB maxtor boot drive HD (5400 RPM, DMA-enabled, on it's original connnector, and operating on the mobo's controller)
- PII-300 (not overclocked)
- 128MB PC-100 RAM
- SB AWE 64 ISA sound card
- Marvel G200, w/BOB
- NIC for my DSL connection
- the PCI modem card from 2 yrs ago (I know it's unnecessary.... just never took it out)
- WIN '98 (with many of the necessary MS patches, but not an actual SE installation)
- Direct-X version is 6.4 (heard some nasty things about the later versions, but should I upgrade to 8.0?)
- AVI_IO (latest version)
- TMPGEnc (latest version)
- bbMPEG (latest beta)
No multiple partitions on the boot drive.
Essentially, I built the machine up 2 1/2 yrs. ago, and tried to kick it up a notch with the FT-100. It had been running fairly rock-steady in that time (no problems using the Marvel MJPEG format for previous captures), but the combination of attempting to capture in YUY2 and the new array really seem to have thrown it for a loop. I'm getting BSODs during captures (with messages talking about Windows errors in VxD blah blah blah and FastTrak VxD blah blah blah... is this referring to a driver conflict?), spontaneous system re-boots during captures, encoders crashing while running (also occasionally causing BSODs)... well, you get the picture. It's been intermittently joyous and frustrating!!! (Welcome to the world of desktop video, eh?)
My benchmark results look like this:
SANDRA--
(Current and Min/Max cache are set at 4MB)
Buffered Read: 61 MB/s
Sequential Read: 61 MB/s
Random Read: 6 MB/s
Buffered Write: 107 MB/s
Sequential Write: 29 MB/s
Random Write: 13 MB/s
Ave. Access: 10 ms. (est.)
HD TACH 2.52--
Read speed max: 63408 kps
Read speed min: 31023 kps
Read speed average: 39927 kps
CPU utilization: 19.8%
FASTCHEK MONITORING--
Status Functional
Synchronization disabled
Write cache enabled
S.M.A.R.T. Ckeck disabled
PCI Bus Utilization @ highest setting
***********************
From looking at the results others have posted, these look like numbers that are right in line with expectations, yet I know something is wrong, because in spite of those benchmark results, I can't even capture full-frame YUY2, even using HuffYUV 2.1.1 through AVI-IO, without dropping frames like crazy. Half-size caps seem to work OK (when the capture doesn't crash the system, that is)... I got a successful 8-minute vidcap with no dropped frames using half-size YUY2 formatting (of course, I bombed the machine on TMPGEnc **and** bbMPEG trying to encode it to SVCD specs, but one thing at a time, I always say...)
I know that high-quality capture and processing vidcaps are probably one of the ultimate stress tests of a system, but it seemed to me that I wasn't attempting anything that Doc and a few others were able to do (in some cases with what seemed to be slower equipment!)... so I'm at a loss, as they say. Am I just pushing my poor mobo and P-II chip too hard? Is there a conflict between running the capture and encoding programs from the slower boot drive (which also has the OS on it) while attempting to save/process info on the much faster RAID array? I don't mind upgrading parts, if that will help (though it may have to wait for a month or two, budget-wise)... if it's a Win '98 thing, though, I'd like to know that as well, however (just so I know it's Bill Gates' fault, and not mine :^) !!). The OS and the machine, have both been pretty steady in the past, though, so if there's **anything** any of you wizards can suggest that may help to recover that dependability, I'd sure appreciate the advice.
Thanks for making it through all of this info, everyone... your advice has been invaluable in the past (when I was a mere lurker!), and so I know my setup will be in good hands as you weigh your respective diagnoses!
All the best,
-Joel Cairo