Hi folks
I need to format my comp again as WD locks up the comp in the early hours, 3 times now in the last few weeks.
I would like to go back to Vista, so my question is can WD webcamcapture create the wmv files in vista now
or is this still an issue?
I suspect that because a “batch file” is being run during the moviemaker process, that there may (?) still be an issue…I don’t know if that particular area has been fully solved yet with Vista…
there is no solution
but you can instead use the swf movie creation
i dont think you have to reformat again to try and fix a lock up problem
there will be less painfall ways to overcome the problem
first thing would be to provide more information on the problem
i.e does it occur at a certain time, etc
the more information you can provide the better
Hi Brian, theres no specific time, but normally early hours, around the 4:40am,
I know its something to do with Wd cause its bang on top of the minute, i.e.
the comp is totally locked up and WD is showing a time of 4:40:00 its always
:00 seconds, theres never an error message either, the only thing i can thing of is
My Kapersky, that starts every day at 1am but it could be draining the system resources
so when WD comes to do its stuff at the top of the minute it ends up being too much
for the systems resources and the whole system has a cardiac…
I am still trying to get hold of some memory for the server and then i can use that for WD
I do have a lot installed on this PC but i have tried to minimise the amount of startup objects
but this is also part of the issue
I thought the SWF was quite a lot bigger in size than the wmv, from what i remember anyway?
I cant see how putting on a even more taxing on the pc OS like Vista is going to help with a system that is getting bogged down?
surely I would first stop using My Kapersky as a test?
I found that Vista ran things just fine, i only went back to XP for the wmv creation
as it was something i really wanted to work…
I can disable Kapersky but then that would leave me open to all security threats and
i do have some sensitive info on my PC, business accounts and wot not…
mmm what a dilemma
btw, i also have the Reboot comp is no data received for 10 minutes enabled but
evidently the comp was locked up so that wouldn’t work anyway lol
I aint sure which way to go about this now, i think i will try disabling Kapersky’s nightly
scans and just leave real time protection enabled and see how that goes for now…
I will keep you informed…
Also check for updates or downloads at that time. Also check Control Panel - Administrative tools - Event Viewer - Applications But sometimes you can find Event viewer elsewhere too. Look for any red crash/lockup items - double click the line for more details.
Graeme
i use the .swf movie files myself
works great
Hi Graeme
I already checked the event viewer and theres nothing untoward at or around the time
the pc when belly up, so no help from there… Also i just checked all running programs and
none are set to update automatically apart from Kapersky but its no where near the time
of pc issue…
WD also uploads and does all its business all the way through the daytime with no problems
Ok it might get rebooted now and again with startwatch due to X amount of time of inactivity (90 seconds) but thats about all
Even windows auto updates is turned off , more than likely its sounding like it could
be the scanning of the drive from Kapersky?
How big is your all day swf file Brian?
I aint too impressed with the quality of the swf compared to the wmv
just over 4 hours of swf is 3mb and a full day wmv is about 4.9mb
heres the swf and heres the wmv
I know the swf is bigger but even making the wmv full screen it dont deteriorate as much as
the swf
Please bear in mind the comp locked up this morning so i lost about 3hrs + images
So, it looks like its XP for life then lol
How much memory have you got installed? How much spare do you have?
Hi Graeme
I have 2gb of DDR2 matched at 667, spare, well that depends on what i have or had running
wd can eat as much ast 200 - 300mb depending on how it feels, then theres Firefox at about
120+ normally…
Since the pc reboot all is fairly calm
I am also trying to balance video quality with limited computer resources. Right now I am using the .swf format for the “tensecondvideo”. I have a related question and this may help Bashy also. What does the section circled in yellow do. I am guessing that it suspends the movie making during night time. If this is so, that could be a solution. Stop making videos at night and use that time to run virus scans, etc…
hi drobbins
I have mine setup from 4am to 10pm at night with a 13 frame rate and ever 1 minute
Looking at yours, your not using this side of things, but you can set it up to just create
a set time, for example if you enabled it now without adjusting the settings, you would
create a 1 hour video between 6am and 7am with a frame rate of 1 frame a second or
is it 1 minute, not sure on that 1 lol
Thanks for explaining that section. I did look at your task manager though. How many processes do you leave running at night? From What I see you could exit a few of them at night for example MSN messenger, etc…
My computer is a 2.2ghz and was taking resources to create the wmv file. Then I was also having troubles playing it in FF. It would play only once then go blank. I settled for the swf.
Mine is a AMD AM2 3800Mhz Dual Core so it should have enough oomph 
Its remembering to exit from these programs… lol
Ok it might get rebooted now and again with startwatch due to X amount of time of inactivity (90 seconds) but thats about all
there should be no reason to use startwatch like that
you might find that its the virus scanner that is making wd pause like that
and then having a program force a restart of WD is asking for more problems
Hi Brian, Like i have said a few times before, without SW WD will hang indefinatley
this is why i had to install SW
Heres a snippet from the SW log, baring in mind that the virus scanner only scans the drives from 1am and stops if i start using the PC anyway…
74 "27/05/2008 20:33:41" "Program Monitor" "WD locked or 'hung' (no CPU activity for 31 seconds)...terminating and restarting"
If SW didnt kick in then WD would still be hanging unless the ten minute reboot kicks in
SW has been a life saver for the data, thats for sure
I also have the same issue with webcamcapture,
but I do not have this hang problem and at the moment you are the only person that I know that has it
it could be just your pc
as I know there was one other person who had that problem (100% cpu locked up) (Frankppp), but he updated the pc, and no reports of that problem
(the problem seems to stem from when a procedure in WD gets too long in the code)
carry on
I know its deffo my PC Brian, i have too much installed on it for WD to comfortably do its thing
this is why i was going to format and start again, i do this every 6 months or so anyway
Windows seems to accumulate a lot of rubbish… I certainly aint blaming WD, thats for sure
hence the talk of formatting and putting Vista back on.
Its certainly not that my PC aint capable either as i class it as a mid range PC and its capable
of converting a 700mb AVI to a full 4.7gb DVD movie in about 20 mintues so it can certainly
hold its own…
Idealliy i need to try to get the memory for the server thats just running the webcam and that
will solve most if not all the issues…
There is another thing i must point out, I am using the server in the shed with webcamcapture
that saves the image to the hd, then this PC with WD on it grabs that image using the
Use image file instead, this dont work too well and can sometime cause the movie to stutter
Highly unlikely theres any bearing on my issues but thought i would mention this as this could be
down to the issues i have with the webcacapture program crashing on me now and again… but
saying that, i think i read on here that there might be an issue with the latest webcamcapture
program? well there must be actually as the version on the server aint been updated for a long time
and thats been running for the last 3 or 4 weeks constant
So…to sum up Brian, i know it aint WD, its the cr@p on my PC