VS X7 frequently crashes, other issues

[Ken Berry]

Bobp said:

There is no "graphics card" in a laptop. There is an "on board" graphics chip.

I am not sure on what you base this assertion. I have a HP laptop (indeed the one listed under my Profile here) which indeed has an Intel graphics chip on the motherboard, but in addition to that has a distinct and separate Radeon graphics card on its own, off though plugged into the motherboard. And indeed, I have a separate HP 17" laptop, a few years older, which also has a quite separate NVidia graphics card. More to the point, rather like RobertOz's sad story above, that one's separate GPU had been stupidly placed by the HP design team directly over the CPU and the heat generated eventually blew the GPU. But unlike Robert, a local company, registered with HP, managed to replace the separate graphics card, though I am still not sure the expense was worth it in the end...

[canuck]

Well Bobp, I did the things you suggested, and they were good suggestions...I installed both the registry cleaner and the malwarebytes program, both found some small issues and fixed them. Thanks for those hints, i am sure having those two programs is a good thing! It does seem like things are moving a little bit faster...but I still have very choppy playback in my preview window, and I am still getting that error message and the disappearing images. I'm feeling quite sure it is my graphics card....I am quite unsure about trying a replacement because I read about a lot of problems others have when updating the GPU in this model of computer.

Registry cleaners can cause more trouble then they try to solve. They will not help to speed up your PC. All they basically do is remove registry entries that are supposedly no longer required, eg left over entries from uninstalled programs. Aggressive registry cleaners can remove required entries and may corrupt your system. The minuscule space you get back from removing entries is just not worth the problems they may cause.

[snowstorm]

I am using a Radeon HD5670 running with Windows 8.1 and VSX6 Ultimate;
Almost all my projects are in HD (1920-1080) and Burned onto Bluray ;I also produce AVCHD projects that are also very demanding.
I never had problems similar to Mark's one.
The AMD Radeon hd7450 doesn't have good reputation and it his certainly overheating ;I am wondering if the power supply is sufficient: 300w per HP PC Specs.
Logically I would say to change the card and the power supply by a technician ,but the PC'S architecture/design itself could be part of the problem.....

For the still images that are no longer appearing in the timeline I would suggest you try to re-link them

Best of luck

snowstorm

[Mark Swanson]

Wow, well, I hope my computer is upgradeable. I have dine enough electronic work to be comfortable replacing the parts them selves, it's just the deeper software things that will give me pause. All I can think of is that it must be my card! I have read about a lot of folks with the same computer that have replaced their cards, some after much trouble getting them to work. I guess there is only one way to know, have to bite the bullet and give it a shot!
Relinking the photos probably will not help, because every time a file needs to be re-linked, VS has told me so. And when this happens there is no notification at all about re-linking. But I will still give it a shot!

[bobp]

I seemed to have stepped in it.

Mark,
Great. Now you know what isn't the problem. What if you had spent the money on a card and it wasn't the problem. You might also try shutting off Norton and seeing if Video Studio works any better. Norton and MacAfee are resource hogs and can slow down your computer. I'm just trying to help you eliminate the simple stuff before you spend any money.

Ken,
Sorry, I obviously misspoke. Though I must say that I can't afford a laptop with a separate GPU. Are there any out there
in the $500 range? Even that is pushing it. Did you still have graphics after the card failed? In a desktop, the BIOS decides whether the onboard chip or a separate GPU is used.

canuck,
I'm sorry you seem to have had bad luck with registry cleaners. Sure there are some that are too aggressive and should be used carefully. Ccleaner is hardly one of those. It is almost too wimpy. Which is why I suggested it. I wouldn't recommend something that I hadn't used extensively on a wide verity of systems without any problems, and only good results. An even better tool is Glary Utilities. Yes, a registry cleaner removes bad entries. And it only takes one or two to mess things up. I've run Ccleaner on systems that had over 600 bad entries. One was over 1,000. Doing nothing else sped these systems up a lot. It's not about space, it's about your computer not being routed all over the place. Everything that happens in your computer, goes through the registry.

asik1'
I have nothing against XP, though I find more and more things I can't use it for.

[canuck]

bobp, you better read up on what registry cleaners do.

[Ken Berry]

Are there any out there in the $500 range?

I doubt it. Both the ones I mentioned were at the upper end of the HP laptop range when I bought them. Moreover, the one with the NVidia card only had that card and no on board graphics. So no, the one did not work once the GPU had blown. That is why I had to get a new card -- and the repair people also gave it somewhat better heat protection. (There had been a group court action in the USA over that specific model, but as I lived in Australia at the time, I got no benefit out of it...) Anyway, it is now just a back-up computer, but it is still working fine.

The one with the on-board and separate Radeon card is still my main editing computer. What is good about the dual GPUs is that you can designate which programs use which card. So of course high demand programs like VS I have assigned to the Radeon. Works a treat...

[Mark Swanson]

You know, when I first started to use VS, I had no troubles. Then as time has gone on, the problems started to show up...so maybe my card is going bad, and overheating.
The thing is, I don't want to buy the 750Ti from a private person who has a brand-new unopened box...I have no recourse to return it if I can't get it to work, and the seller doesn't want to open his sealed new box just so I can try it out. Well I will just simply have to decide where to go from here!

[bobp]

Ken,
Thanks. Good information. All my laptops have always been lower end. I forget how nice high end computers can be.

canuck,
I don't mind being proven wrong. It's how I learn things. My comments are based on several years experience, on many different systems and no failures. Do I ignore that? Do registry cleaners do some kind of damage that shows up later? I don't know. Do you? Should any computer advice given by anyone be taken with a grain of salt? Absolutely. When you search the internet for answers to specific problems, you come up with a dozen different answers. Most of which ( if not all)don't work for your problem. But they worked for someone. That's why they got posted.

Thanks for your words of caution.

[Mark Swanson]

Ok folks, another update. As I may have said before, I do have a brand-new NIVIDEA GeForce GE210 laying around that I bought for another older computer, and I could not use it there...this is a pretty cheap and lower-end card so i ruled it out for me. But, after readi9ng that the card I was using is probably toast and wasn't working anyway, I thought I would get brave and toss it in my computer and see if it was any better.
So far, VS runs great with this card. The preview window is just as choppy as it always was, but outside of that it is behaving itself so far! I think I'll just use this card until I see some other issue with it.