MSP Scratch Pad problem under NT

[Rick6612]

Hi,

I've been playing around trying to get my Marvel and MSP to work under NT. Everything I have works perfectly fine under Windows 98, but not so well under NT. I have a dual boot setup so I can boot to either OS. I know NT is supposedly a lot fussier about things than 98 is, but I am reluctant to waste a lot of time swapping cards to different slots, etc., in the hope that maybe it will somehow help NT, at the risk of messing up what works perfectly under 98.

When running under NT, using the scratch pad, the variable speed playback control won't work at > 1x speed. I can "turn" the knob higher than 1x speed, and it says 2x, 5x, etc., but as soon as I turn it past 1x speed, the video (and audio) just stops. If I turn the control back down to 1x speed or lower, it starts playing again.

Anyone seen anything like that?

My config is: Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, SP5, Sysinternals FAT32 Driver for NT, latest Marvel drivers for NT, MSP 5.2, PII 400 MHz, 128MB RAM, 18 GB WD 7200 Boot drive, Promise Fast Trak w/10 GB IBM drive and 10 GB Maxtor drive (I know they say you should have identical drives on the Fast Trak, but this combination works perfectly under 98, so I don't believe this is a problem), SB 128 PCI Sound Card, etc.

Rick

[Olliver]

Rick6612,

Well I see that you already had a look at ScottV' problem in "Haig, Can you look at this" post.
So I could suggest all the same things, but what I'd like you to try is to either remove or disable your SB. Now try the scratch pad again.
Also what version of Windows Media player do you have installed?

What driver versions are you using?

Olliver

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All comments and statements are purely of my own opinion and in no way reflect on my employer.


[This message has been edited by Olliver (edited 09-24-1999).]

[Rick6612]

Hi Olliver,

I took out the SB 128 PCI sound card, and sure enough, the scratch pad works fine with no sound card.

I am using the Matrox Power Desk Version 4.07, Display Driver Version 4.00.1381.4000 (4.07.027). The Matrox Video Tools are from the b2_v123e.zip file. The Sound Blaster driver is the latest downloaded from their web site... I'm not exactly sure what the version is (how do you tell what driver versions you are using under NT? It doesn't seem to be as easy as it is under 98). The SB driver came from a downloaded file named e128nt4u.exe, if that helps any.

The Windows Media Player version is the one that gets installed with MSP 5.2 Upgrade Bonus Pack. The Windows Media Player I get under NT looks like an older version, so it is definitely not like the 6.x version I have under 98. Maybe I should try to upgrade it?

Rick

[Rick6612]

Hi Olliver,

I downloaded the latest version of the Windows Media Player yesterday. I went to install it on my NT system, but it complained that I did not have Internet Explorer 4.0 installed! So, this morning I managed to find another CD that had IE 4.0 on it. I installed IE 4.0 and then I was able to install the new Media Player.

I only had enough time to try to play a video using the new Media Player just to make sure it works. It does! It seems to have improved the playback a little bit - I don't get quite as many jerks or stutters during playback now as I did before. But it's still not as smooth as it is under Windows 98. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time before work this morning to fire up Ulead MSP and see if this new Media Player helped any with the scratchpad problem...

Rick

[Rick6612]

Hi Olliver,

I still have the scratchpad problem even after installing the latest Windows Media Player.

Rick

[Olliver]

Rick,

"I'm not exactly sure what the version is (how do you tell what driver versions you are using under NT?"

Do a search for your device and right click on it and select properties/version.
Took some Looken to find that one-

I'll keep looking into this.

Olliver

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All comments and statements are purely of my own opinion and in no way reflect on my employer.

[Rick6612]

Hi Olliver,

I'm not sure what you mean by "do a search for your device..." Where do I do this search?

Sorry, I'm kinda new to NT, so you'll need to be a little more specific.

Rick

[Olliver]

Rick6612,

For example: With your SB 128 you can do a find for sb.* all or most of the files that come up will be related. Right click on any of them go to properties / version.
-OR-
Control Panel/Multimedia/Devices/Audio Devices and, in most cases, the driver version will show up there.

Olliver


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All comments and statements are purely of my own opinion and in no way reflect on my employer.

[Rick6612]

Hi Olliver,

OK, I see that if search for the files, right click, and select properties, then I can go to the "Version" tab and find info.

Under Multimedia Properties -> Devices it seems like most things just say something like "XXX YYY ZZZ Driver (U.S. English)" and "Status: Driver is enabled and functioning properly." Nothing about version here.

Oh well, I guess NT just has a way to go before it will have the kind of nice "user friendly" features that 98 has.

Rick

[Rick6612]

I'm just updating this so it doesn't fall off the bottom of the list of threads.

[Olliver]

Rick6612,

Depending on the drivers loaded for a particular device your right sometimes it won't give you the version in the Devices.

Have you managed otherwise to resolve anything?
I received a message from Ulead and they haven't been able to reproduce the problem either.
I'll keep trying!

Olliver

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All comments and statements are purely of my own opinion and in no way reflect on my employer.

[Rick6612]

Hi Olliver,

No, I haven't been able to find any solution to the problem, except to just do my work under Windows98, where everything works fine.

I'm a little reluctant to push my luck and do anything I'm not real sure about under NT, because I have learned the hard way that it doesn't take much to end up with an NT system that won't boot... and as far as I can tell there is no "Safe Mode," etc., like under 9x that lets you get in and undo the damage you've done.

The big problem for me now is that I am using an 18GB boot drive which is set up with Paritition Magic/Boot Magic so that I can boot either NT or 98. The problem is that if I trash NT, I cannot reinstall it on this drive without first backing up all my Windows 98 partitions, and then using FDISK to wipe the drive clean. As far as I can tell, this is the only way to install NT on a drive larger than 8GB. Otherwise, if NT sees existing partitions on the drive going past 8GB during the install, it crashes.

So, for me, the only way I can reinstall NT if I trash it is I have to install NT on a blank drive, then install SP5 (after SP4, it can deal with drives larger than 8GB), then run Partition Magic to rebuild all my Windows 98 partitions, then restore every thing from backups, etc... a big pain in the ass!

Rick