MM2 Freeze and Crash

I'm having difficulty with MM2 sporatically freezing and crashing.

PapaJohn, if you read this and respond, I have visited your website
(frequently - it's on my favorites list :-)) and I have already renamed all
of my problem codec and set my hardware acceleration settings to "3." I have
also already re-installed MM2. I'm hesitant to do any major "tweaks" that
involve the system registry.

MM2 is not doing a typical "crash." It just freezes and does nothing until
I bring up the task manager and manually shutdown the application. I then
restart it and it works for a few minutes and then, once again, freezes. I
send an error report, but get no resolution in return.

I am always editing a project when the freeze occurs. I have no problems
with capture. I haven't had difficulties with my smaller projects (one or
two clips less than two minutes long), but the more complicated the projects
have serious issues (music videos for example) with the "freeze."

Have any more suggestions on what I can try? Any codec not listed on the
PapaJohn website that has issues with MM2?

I deal with quite a bit of video and am currently in the middle of several
projects and the "freezing" is getting out of hand.

Any help would be greatly appreciated :-).

Robin

Hi Robin,

Try turning off... or changing the frequency of the AutoRecover process:
Tools > Options > General

When MM2 does that process, it notes the changes to your collections and the
working project, taking a bit of time to do it if the collections/project
files are large.... and it doesn't tell you what's happening. I just takes
control and it seems like a 'freeze'.
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2: www.papajohn.org
PhotoStory 2: www.photostory.papajohn.org
..
..
"rdb25" <rdbell25@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:6040EEC0-B631-49B2-9C67-7A66E03542E8@microsoft.com...
> I'm having difficulty with MM2 sporatically freezing and crashing.
>
> PapaJohn, if you read this and respond, I have visited your website
> (frequently - it's on my favorites list :-)) and I have already renamed
> all
> of my problem codec and set my hardware acceleration settings to "3." I
> have
> also already re-installed MM2. I'm hesitant to do any major "tweaks" that
> involve the system registry.
>
> MM2 is not doing a typical "crash." It just freezes and does nothing
> until
> I bring up the task manager and manually shutdown the application. I then
> restart it and it works for a few minutes and then, once again, freezes.
> I
> send an error report, but get no resolution in return.
>
> I am always editing a project when the freeze occurs. I have no problems
> with capture. I haven't had difficulties with my smaller projects (one or
> two clips less than two minutes long), but the more complicated the
> projects
> have serious issues (music videos for example) with the "freeze."
>
> Have any more suggestions on what I can try? Any codec not listed on the
> PapaJohn website that has issues with MM2?
>
> I deal with quite a bit of video and am currently in the middle of several
> projects and the "freezing" is getting out of hand.
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated :-).
>
> Robin

That was fast! Thank you for your quick reply. I never even thought of the
AutoRecover (I do have a ton of vid - over 40 GB - in my collections folder -
probably taking quite a bit of time with that). I shut off the AutoRecover
completely. Hopefully, that will solve the issue. I'll post back if it
doesn't :-)

Thanks again! Your help is very much appreciated! :-)

Robin

"PapaJohn" wrote:

> Hi Robin,
>
> Try turning off... or changing the frequency of the AutoRecover process:
> Tools > Options > General
>
> When MM2 does that process, it notes the changes to your collections and the
> working project, taking a bit of time to do it if the collections/project
> files are large.... and it doesn't tell you what's happening. I just takes
> control and it seems like a 'freeze'.
> --
> PapaJohn
>
> Movie Maker 2: www.papajohn.org
> PhotoStory 2: www.photostory.papajohn.org
> ..
> ..
> "rdb25" <rdbell25@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:6040EEC0-B631-49B2-9C67-7A66E03542E8@microsoft.com...
> > I'm having difficulty with MM2 sporatically freezing and crashing.
> >
> > PapaJohn, if you read this and respond, I have visited your website
> > (frequently - it's on my favorites list :-)) and I have already renamed
> > all
> > of my problem codec and set my hardware acceleration settings to "3." I
> > have
> > also already re-installed MM2. I'm hesitant to do any major "tweaks" that
> > involve the system registry.
> >
> > MM2 is not doing a typical "crash." It just freezes and does nothing
> > until
> > I bring up the task manager and manually shutdown the application. I then
> > restart it and it works for a few minutes and then, once again, freezes.
> > I
> > send an error report, but get no resolution in return.
> >
> > I am always editing a project when the freeze occurs. I have no problems
> > with capture. I haven't had difficulties with my smaller projects (one or
> > two clips less than two minutes long), but the more complicated the
> > projects
> > have serious issues (music videos for example) with the "freeze."
> >
> > Have any more suggestions on what I can try? Any codec not listed on the
> > PapaJohn website that has issues with MM2?
> >
> > I deal with quite a bit of video and am currently in the middle of several
> > projects and the "freezing" is getting out of hand.
> >
> > Any help would be greatly appreciated :-).
> >
> > Robin
>
>
>

Hello there,

Below is my standard reply for people with your problem. Before reading it
there are a couple of additional points I should make.

1) You should return to their normal names any codec that you have
renamed....otherwise the program that needs those codecs will not function
either.

2) Your remarks about the Auto Save option...the auto save option simply
creates a small file that is a reflection of the file names in your current
project with notes on what effects and transitions exist in the project. It
does not auto save the source files and consequently the size of those files is
not relevant.

3) Changing the acceleration status of your graphics card makes any program
including XP itself run at a much lower level of performance. Reducing the
acceleration on the card is meant to determine whether there is a fault with
the card itself. If the problem does not re-appear then something has to be
done about the card....probably making sure that the drivers from the
manufacturer of the card are the latest and perhaps check that the firmware has
been upgraded as well (Not all cards have that ability)

4) You should only ever apply one possible solution at a time. If you apply
more than one you will not know which solution applies and what the long term
remedy should be.

Anyway, here is my standard reply for people in your position....hope one of
them helps.

You sound as though you are suffering from a codec problem. There are two root
causes and below you will find the solution for each together with some notes
on other issues.

Option 1)

The one stop solution for that is a program called Rename Codecs and it is
available from my web site (Free). Make sure you check out the FAQ, on the
site, on what it does and how to run it (That will take about one minute of
your time!!) All the info you need is on the web site. The latest version is
1.51.

This reassuringly safe to use program requires no knowledge on your part about
what it is doing or how it is doing it or what it is doing it too!!! neither do
you need to know where any of these files are or whether it is safe to rename
them or not.....and best of all, ITS FREE !!!

Option 2)

If this does not solve your problem then try the following out...it has proved
to be a successful procedure for a variety of problems.

1) Download the full version of DirectX Ver 9.0b, Media Player 9 and Movie
Maker 2.

2) Reboot you computer and Install DirectX

3) Reboot again and install Windows Media Player 9

4) Reboot yet again and install Movie Maker 2

5) Reboot one more time

Yes it sounds very tedious, but if you want to be certain all file locks are
removed so that the correct files can be installed this is the way you have to
go.

It is very important that you only download the full versions of these programs
and that you DO NOT attempt an install over the internet.

Other Notes
===========
Graphic Card Acceleration
-------------------------

There is advice floating around that you should disable the graphics
acceleration abilities of your graphics card if Movie Maker locks up or crashes
out. Doing this is roughly equivalent to taking out your current graphics card
and replacing it with one that is several years old....this is not the way
forward!

The Graphics card on the machine I edit on is a cut above the average, it has
DV In & Out as well as Video In & Out. It does all sorts of clever things and
it is extremely fast. Then the day came when I tried Movie Maker 2 for the
first time. It was a disaster. Knowing what the problem was I immediately
logged on to Microsoft and got the latest driver. There was no change with the
performance of the Graphics card with respect to Movie Maker. After a lot of
messing about I went to the cards manufacturer and downloaded there most recent
driver. I was convinced that the one from Microsoft was in some way defective.
It turned out that I was right but for the wrong reason.

The version of the driver from Microsoft was more recent than the one on my
system AND more recent than the one from the OEM.BUT, the OEM had made minor
changes to how the card worked and these were not taken into consideration by
the Microsoft update!!!

So, do not get the generic update from Microsoft until you have tried the
latest driver from the manufacturer of your card.

Registration
------------

There is in my view some very bad advice floating around that tells you to
unregister the offending codec. If you take this advise be warned that
unregistering any file and doing it wrong will more than likely stop the
program that file belongs to from working all together and may in an extreme
situation cause your entire XP system to fail. This is true whether you make a
mistake using the Registry editor or the registration program itself, one
mistake and you are potentially in deep trouble. Whatever you unregister in
this manner has to be restored and you should take note that the registration
of a codec can often involve more than one registry entry. If you are expert in
these matters you will have no problem.

I have also found that MP3, Mpeg and Jpeg files can cause problems, So...

Convert all MP3 to WAV or WMA

Convert all MPeg to AVI

Convert all Jpeg to BMP

Video Conversion
----------------

For Video Conversion you should also check out the Knowledge Base Section of my
"Great Links > Knowledge Base" One of the website's in there called "Video
Help" has the best collection of useful information I have yet come across on
converting between the various formats together with links to the software
needed.

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
---
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

Hi John,

Thank you for the reply. I appreciate your help.

You were right, AutoSave was not the issue. I disabled it and the program
still freezes.

For your notes,

1. I restored the codecs back to the original state once I figured out that
they were not the problem.

2. See above :-) You're absolutely right, disabling AutoSave did nothing
to solve the issue :-)

3. I changed the hardware acceleration back when it did not solve the issue.

For your suggestions,

Option 1: I ran the free program you suggested and renamed all of the
"problem" codec. I then tested MM2 and still had the "freeze." Codec
doesn't seem to be the issue.

Option 2: I (re) installed DirectX 9.0b, rebooted, installed Media Player
9, rebooted, installed MM2, rebooted. MM2 still "freezes."

I have the most up-to-date drivers that Toshiba (my PC manufacturer) offers
for the graphic card (NVIDEA GEforce4 420 Go).

The project I'm currently working on has all .avi, .wmv and .wma files. I
do have .mp3 and .mpeg files in my "Collections." Would that freeze MM2
functionality?

Any other suggestions? :-)

Thanks again,

Robin

"John Kelly" wrote:

> Hello there,
>
> Below is my standard reply for people with your problem. Before reading it
> there are a couple of additional points I should make.
>
> 1) You should return to their normal names any codec that you have
> renamed....otherwise the program that needs those codecs will not function
> either.
>
> 2) Your remarks about the Auto Save option...the auto save option simply
> creates a small file that is a reflection of the file names in your current
> project with notes on what effects and transitions exist in the project. It
> does not auto save the source files and consequently the size of those files is
> not relevant.
>
> 3) Changing the acceleration status of your graphics card makes any program
> including XP itself run at a much lower level of performance. Reducing the
> acceleration on the card is meant to determine whether there is a fault with
> the card itself. If the problem does not re-appear then something has to be
> done about the card....probably making sure that the drivers from the
> manufacturer of the card are the latest and perhaps check that the firmware has
> been upgraded as well (Not all cards have that ability)
>
> 4) You should only ever apply one possible solution at a time. If you apply
> more than one you will not know which solution applies and what the long term
> remedy should be.
>
> Anyway, here is my standard reply for people in your position....hope one of
> them helps.
>
> You sound as though you are suffering from a codec problem. There are two root
> causes and below you will find the solution for each together with some notes
> on other issues.
>
> Option 1)
>
> The one stop solution for that is a program called Rename Codecs and it is
> available from my web site (Free). Make sure you check out the FAQ, on the
> site, on what it does and how to run it (That will take about one minute of
> your time!!) All the info you need is on the web site. The latest version is
> 1.51.
>
> This reassuringly safe to use program requires no knowledge on your part about
> what it is doing or how it is doing it or what it is doing it too!!! neither do
> you need to know where any of these files are or whether it is safe to rename
> them or not.....and best of all, ITS FREE !!!
>
> Option 2)
>
> If this does not solve your problem then try the following out...it has proved
> to be a successful procedure for a variety of problems.
>
> 1) Download the full version of DirectX Ver 9.0b, Media Player 9 and Movie
> Maker 2.
>
> 2) Reboot you computer and Install DirectX
>
> 3) Reboot again and install Windows Media Player 9
>
> 4) Reboot yet again and install Movie Maker 2
>
> 5) Reboot one more time
>
> Yes it sounds very tedious, but if you want to be certain all file locks are
> removed so that the correct files can be installed this is the way you have to
> go.
>
> It is very important that you only download the full versions of these programs
> and that you DO NOT attempt an install over the internet.
>
> Other Notes
> ===========
> Graphic Card Acceleration
> -------------------------
>
> There is advice floating around that you should disable the graphics
> acceleration abilities of your graphics card if Movie Maker locks up or crashes
> out. Doing this is roughly equivalent to taking out your current graphics card
> and replacing it with one that is several years old....this is not the way
> forward!
>
> The Graphics card on the machine I edit on is a cut above the average, it has
> DV In & Out as well as Video In & Out. It does all sorts of clever things and
> it is extremely fast. Then the day came when I tried Movie Maker 2 for the
> first time. It was a disaster. Knowing what the problem was I immediately
> logged on to Microsoft and got the latest driver. There was no change with the
> performance of the Graphics card with respect to Movie Maker. After a lot of
> messing about I went to the cards manufacturer and downloaded there most recent
> driver. I was convinced that the one from Microsoft was in some way defective.
> It turned out that I was right but for the wrong reason.
>
> The version of the driver from Microsoft was more recent than the one on my
> system AND more recent than the one from the OEM.BUT, the OEM had made minor
> changes to how the card worked and these were not taken into consideration by
> the Microsoft update!!!
>
> So, do not get the generic update from Microsoft until you have tried the
> latest driver from the manufacturer of your card.
>
> Registration
> ------------
>
> There is in my view some very bad advice floating around that tells you to
> unregister the offending codec. If you take this advise be warned that
> unregistering any file and doing it wrong will more than likely stop the
> program that file belongs to from working all together and may in an extreme
> situation cause your entire XP system to fail. This is true whether you make a
> mistake using the Registry editor or the registration program itself, one
> mistake and you are potentially in deep trouble. Whatever you unregister in
> this manner has to be restored and you should take note that the registration
> of a codec can often involve more than one registry entry. If you are expert in
> these matters you will have no problem.
>
> I have also found that MP3, Mpeg and Jpeg files can cause problems, So...
>
> Convert all MP3 to WAV or WMA
>
> Convert all MPeg to AVI
>
> Convert all Jpeg to BMP
>
> Video Conversion
> ----------------
>
> For Video Conversion you should also check out the Knowledge Base Section of my
> "Great Links > Knowledge Base" One of the website's in there called "Video
> Help" has the best collection of useful information I have yet come across on
> converting between the various formats together with links to the software
> needed.
>
> --
> Best Wishes.....John Kelly
> www.the-kellys.org
> www.the-kellys.co.uk
> ---
> All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
> obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work
>

Hello there,

OK. there is not an awful lot left.

One possibility is your RAM. If you have two or more sticks of ram
installed and provided you are completely happy with doing this, power the
system down and remove one of the sticks....Dependent upon motherboard you
might have to ensure that slot zero has a stick at all times (Look near the
end of the slots you might see a 0 1 2 etc etc.) If you do have them
numbered its a possible indication that they have to be filled from the
bottom up. Anyway, test the program with each of the sticks removed and see
what happens. If you have just one stick that makes it less easy to test.
You will have to try and use all your ram up by running an excessive number
of programs at once. The machine will take longer and longer to complete any
task, it should not readily crash though

The above test revealed I had some bad RAM 2 or 3 machines back. The RAM
caused no problems until it was actually used and then everything would go
belly up. The machine performed better overall with the stick removed. The
big problem is that the test is not conclusive. If you have a friendly
computer store they may posses a test machine.....you would need to find
what I call a "Geek" shop, somewhere it is more likely to find such a
machine. Here in the UK the big computer stores are a waste of time of
things like this, all they are interested in is selling you some more..

It is also possible that the Movie Maker project file is damaged in some
way or the Collections database is damaged. If its not very inconvenient I
would delete the collection(s) involved and close down Movie Maker and then
re-start it. THEN, start a new project and be vigilant with respect to what
you do prior to it crashing again. With any luck it won't crash and although
I always say do one test at a time, the only way to eliminate the
collections or the project is to delete the collection AND start a new
project. I'm not certain of this, I have a feeling that if you delete the
collections and then re-create them using different paths or collection
names you may find that old projects will no longer work well...so have a
think about what you are going to do and how that affects any previous work.

I think I am out of ideas. Re-installing all the software or running the
Codec program nearly always solves problems such as yours. Its possible that
you do have a codec problem and the codec is not one we know about. So, if
you ever discover that it is a codec do please let me know.

Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk

"rdb25" <rdbell25@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:4F143597-1121-4AA2-A523-68C9CE36EB22@microsoft.com...
> Hi John,
>
> Thank you for the reply. I appreciate your help.
>
> You were right, AutoSave was not the issue. I disabled it and the program
> still freezes.
>
> For your notes,
>
> 1. I restored the codecs back to the original state once I figured out
that
> they were not the problem.
>
> 2. See above :-) You're absolutely right, disabling AutoSave did nothing
> to solve the issue :-)
>
> 3. I changed the hardware acceleration back when it did not solve the
issue.
>
> For your suggestions,
>
> Option 1: I ran the free program you suggested and renamed all of the
> "problem" codec. I then tested MM2 and still had the "freeze." Codec
> doesn't seem to be the issue.
>
> Option 2: I (re) installed DirectX 9.0b, rebooted, installed Media Player
> 9, rebooted, installed MM2, rebooted. MM2 still "freezes."
>
> I have the most up-to-date drivers that Toshiba (my PC manufacturer)
offers
> for the graphic card (NVIDEA GEforce4 420 Go).
>
> The project I'm currently working on has all .avi, .wmv and .wma files. I
> do have .mp3 and .mpeg files in my "Collections." Would that freeze MM2
> functionality?
>
> Any other suggestions? :-)
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Robin
>
> "John Kelly" wrote:
>
> > Hello there,
> >
> > Below is my standard reply for people with your problem. Before reading
it
> > there are a couple of additional points I should make.
> >
> > 1) You should return to their normal names any codec that you have
> > renamed....otherwise the program that needs those codecs will not
function
> > either.
> >
> > 2) Your remarks about the Auto Save option...the auto save option simply
> > creates a small file that is a reflection of the file names in your
current
> > project with notes on what effects and transitions exist in the project.
It
> > does not auto save the source files and consequently the size of those
files is
> > not relevant.
> >
> > 3) Changing the acceleration status of your graphics card makes any
program
> > including XP itself run at a much lower level of performance. Reducing
the
> > acceleration on the card is meant to determine whether there is a fault
with
> > the card itself. If the problem does not re-appear then something has to
be
> > done about the card....probably making sure that the drivers from the
> > manufacturer of the card are the latest and perhaps check that the
firmware has
> > been upgraded as well (Not all cards have that ability)
> >
> > 4) You should only ever apply one possible solution at a time. If you
apply
> > more than one you will not know which solution applies and what the long
term
> > remedy should be.
> >
> > Anyway, here is my standard reply for people in your position....hope
one of
> > them helps.
> >
> > You sound as though you are suffering from a codec problem. There are
two root
> > causes and below you will find the solution for each together with some
notes
> > on other issues.
> >
> > Option 1)
> >
> > The one stop solution for that is a program called Rename Codecs and it
is
> > available from my web site (Free). Make sure you check out the FAQ, on
the
> > site, on what it does and how to run it (That will take about one minute
of
> > your time!!) All the info you need is on the web site. The latest
version is
> > 1.51.
> >
> > This reassuringly safe to use program requires no knowledge on your part
about
> > what it is doing or how it is doing it or what it is doing it too!!!
neither do
> > you need to know where any of these files are or whether it is safe to
rename
> > them or not.....and best of all, ITS FREE !!!
> >
> > Option 2)
> >
> > If this does not solve your problem then try the following out...it has
proved
> > to be a successful procedure for a variety of problems.
> >
> > 1) Download the full version of DirectX Ver 9.0b, Media Player 9 and
Movie
> > Maker 2.
> >
> > 2) Reboot you computer and Install DirectX
> >
> > 3) Reboot again and install Windows Media Player 9
> >
> > 4) Reboot yet again and install Movie Maker 2
> >
> > 5) Reboot one more time
> >
> > Yes it sounds very tedious, but if you want to be certain all file locks
are
> > removed so that the correct files can be installed this is the way you
have to
> > go.
> >
> > It is very important that you only download the full versions of these
programs
> > and that you DO NOT attempt an install over the internet.
> >
> > Other Notes
> > ===========
> > Graphic Card Acceleration
> > -------------------------
> >
> > There is advice floating around that you should disable the graphics
> > acceleration abilities of your graphics card if Movie Maker locks up or
crashes
> > out. Doing this is roughly equivalent to taking out your current
graphics card
> > and replacing it with one that is several years old....this is not the
way
> > forward!
> >
> > The Graphics card on the machine I edit on is a cut above the average,
it has
> > DV In & Out as well as Video In & Out. It does all sorts of clever
things and
> > it is extremely fast. Then the day came when I tried Movie Maker 2 for
the
> > first time. It was a disaster. Knowing what the problem was I
immediately
> > logged on to Microsoft and got the latest driver. There was no change
with the
> > performance of the Graphics card with respect to Movie Maker. After a
lot of
> > messing about I went to the cards manufacturer and downloaded there most
recent
> > driver. I was convinced that the one from Microsoft was in some way
defective.
> > It turned out that I was right but for the wrong reason.
> >
> > The version of the driver from Microsoft was more recent than the one on
my
> > system AND more recent than the one from the OEM.BUT, the OEM had made
minor
> > changes to how the card worked and these were not taken into
consideration by
> > the Microsoft update!!!
> >
> > So, do not get the generic update from Microsoft until you have tried
the
> > latest driver from the manufacturer of your card.
> >
> > Registration
> > ------------
> >
> > There is in my view some very bad advice floating around that tells you
to
> > unregister the offending codec. If you take this advise be warned that
> > unregistering any file and doing it wrong will more than likely stop the
> > program that file belongs to from working all together and may in an
extreme
> > situation cause your entire XP system to fail. This is true whether you
make a
> > mistake using the Registry editor or the registration program itself,
one
> > mistake and you are potentially in deep trouble. Whatever you unregister
in
> > this manner has to be restored and you should take note that the
registration
> > of a codec can often involve more than one registry entry. If you are
expert in
> > these matters you will have no problem.
> >
> > I have also found that MP3, Mpeg and Jpeg files can cause problems,
So...
> >
> > Convert all MP3 to WAV or WMA
> >
> > Convert all MPeg to AVI
> >
> > Convert all Jpeg to BMP
> >
> > Video Conversion
> > ----------------
> >
> > For Video Conversion you should also check out the Knowledge Base
Section of my
> > "Great Links > Knowledge Base" One of the website's in there called
"Video
> > Help" has the best collection of useful information I have yet come
across on
> > converting between the various formats together with links to the
software
> > needed.
> >
> > --
> > Best Wishes.....John Kelly
> > www.the-kellys.org
> > www.the-kellys.co.uk
> > ---
> > All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
> > obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work
> >

Hi John,

I believe I've figured out the issue and thought I would let you know in
case other individuals have this problem in the future. I have an external
TV Tuner made by Pinnacle called a PCTV USB 2.0. On a whim, I decided to
uninstall the PCTV USB 2.0 and delete all Pinnacle registry entries (they
have a program that does this automatically). After uninstalling that
program and clearing the registry, MM2 is working fine. I have been on it
for over an hour and it has not "frozen" at all - it had been doing it
approximately every three minutes before I had uninstalled that device.

The reason I thought it might have something to do with the Pinnacle
software/hardware is that I have had many many many issues with it
conflicting with both my hardware and other software programs in the past. I
thought I had it finally working appropriately and then wham...MM2 stops
functioning. Honestly, I should have thought about it sooner...just didn't
put two and two together :-)

I have a different TV Capture device that I will use in place of the PCTV.
MM2 does not seem to have issues with that one :-)

Anyway, thank you for your help. I really appreciate it :-)

Robin

"John Kelly" wrote:

> Hello there,
>
> OK. there is not an awful lot left.
>
> One possibility is your RAM. If you have two or more sticks of ram
> installed and provided you are completely happy with doing this, power the
> system down and remove one of the sticks....Dependent upon motherboard you
> might have to ensure that slot zero has a stick at all times (Look near the
> end of the slots you might see a 0 1 2 etc etc.) If you do have them
> numbered its a possible indication that they have to be filled from the
> bottom up. Anyway, test the program with each of the sticks removed and see
> what happens. If you have just one stick that makes it less easy to test.
> You will have to try and use all your ram up by running an excessive number
> of programs at once. The machine will take longer and longer to complete any
> task, it should not readily crash though
>
> The above test revealed I had some bad RAM 2 or 3 machines back. The RAM
> caused no problems until it was actually used and then everything would go
> belly up. The machine performed better overall with the stick removed. The
> big problem is that the test is not conclusive. If you have a friendly
> computer store they may posses a test machine.....you would need to find
> what I call a "Geek" shop, somewhere it is more likely to find such a
> machine. Here in the UK the big computer stores are a waste of time of
> things like this, all they are interested in is selling you some more..
>
> It is also possible that the Movie Maker project file is damaged in some
> way or the Collections database is damaged. If its not very inconvenient I
> would delete the collection(s) involved and close down Movie Maker and then
> re-start it. THEN, start a new project and be vigilant with respect to what
> you do prior to it crashing again. With any luck it won't crash and although
> I always say do one test at a time, the only way to eliminate the
> collections or the project is to delete the collection AND start a new
> project. I'm not certain of this, I have a feeling that if you delete the
> collections and then re-create them using different paths or collection
> names you may find that old projects will no longer work well...so have a
> think about what you are going to do and how that affects any previous work.
>
> I think I am out of ideas. Re-installing all the software or running the
> Codec program nearly always solves problems such as yours. Its possible that
> you do have a codec problem and the codec is not one we know about. So, if
> you ever discover that it is a codec do please let me know.
>
> Best Wishes.....John Kelly
> www.the-kellys.org
> www.the-kellys.co.uk
>
> "rdb25" <rdbell25@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:4F143597-1121-4AA2-A523-68C9CE36EB22@microsoft.com...
> > Hi John,
> >
> > Thank you for the reply. I appreciate your help.
> >
> > You were right, AutoSave was not the issue. I disabled it and the program
> > still freezes.
> >
> > For your notes,
> >
> > 1. I restored the codecs back to the original state once I figured out
> that
> > they were not the problem.
> >
> > 2. See above :-) You're absolutely right, disabling AutoSave did nothing
> > to solve the issue :-)
> >
> > 3. I changed the hardware acceleration back when it did not solve the
> issue.
> >
> > For your suggestions,
> >
> > Option 1: I ran the free program you suggested and renamed all of the
> > "problem" codec. I then tested MM2 and still had the "freeze." Codec
> > doesn't seem to be the issue.
> >
> > Option 2: I (re) installed DirectX 9.0b, rebooted, installed Media Player
> > 9, rebooted, installed MM2, rebooted. MM2 still "freezes."
> >
> > I have the most up-to-date drivers that Toshiba (my PC manufacturer)
> offers
> > for the graphic card (NVIDEA GEforce4 420 Go).
> >
> > The project I'm currently working on has all .avi, .wmv and .wma files. I
> > do have .mp3 and .mpeg files in my "Collections." Would that freeze MM2
> > functionality?
> >
> > Any other suggestions? :-)
> >
> > Thanks again,
> >
> > Robin
> >
> > "John Kelly" wrote:
> >
> > > Hello there,
> > >
> > > Below is my standard reply for people with your problem. Before reading
> it
> > > there are a couple of additional points I should make.
> > >
> > > 1) You should return to their normal names any codec that you have
> > > renamed....otherwise the program that needs those codecs will not
> function
> > > either.
> > >
> > > 2) Your remarks about the Auto Save option...the auto save option simply
> > > creates a small file that is a reflection of the file names in your
> current
> > > project with notes on what effects and transitions exist in the project.
> It
> > > does not auto save the source files and consequently the size of those
> files is
> > > not relevant.
> > >
> > > 3) Changing the acceleration status of your graphics card makes any
> program
> > > including XP itself run at a much lower level of performance. Reducing
> the
> > > acceleration on the card is meant to determine whether there is a fault
> with
> > > the card itself. If the problem does not re-appear then something has to
> be
> > > done about the card....probably making sure that the drivers from the
> > > manufacturer of the card are the latest and perhaps check that the
> firmware has
> > > been upgraded as well (Not all cards have that ability)
> > >
> > > 4) You should only ever apply one possible solution at a time. If you
> apply
> > > more than one you will not know which solution applies and what the long
> term
> > > remedy should be.
> > >
> > > Anyway, here is my standard reply for people in your position....hope
> one of
> > > them helps.
> > >
> > > You sound as though you are suffering from a codec problem. There are
> two root
> > > causes and below you will find the solution for each together with some
> notes
> > > on other issues.
> > >
> > > Option 1)
> > >
> > > The one stop solution for that is a program called Rename Codecs and it
> is
> > > available from my web site (Free). Make sure you check out the FAQ, on
> the
> > > site, on what it does and how to run it (That will take about one minute
> of
> > > your time!!) All the info you need is on the web site. The latest
> version is
> > > 1.51.
> > >
> > > This reassuringly safe to use program requires no knowledge on your part
> about
> > > what it is doing or how it is doing it or what it is doing it too!!!
> neither do
> > > you need to know where any of these files are or whether it is safe to
> rename
> > > them or not.....and best of all, ITS FREE !!!
> > >
> > > Option 2)
> > >
> > > If this does not solve your problem then try the following out...it has
> proved
> > > to be a successful procedure for a variety of problems.
> > >
> > > 1) Download the full version of DirectX Ver 9.0b, Media Player 9 and
> Movie
> > > Maker 2.
> > >
> > > 2) Reboot you computer and Install DirectX
> > >
> > > 3) Reboot again and install Windows Media Player 9
> > >
> > > 4) Reboot yet again and install Movie Maker 2
> > >
> > > 5) Reboot one more time
> > >
> > > Yes it sounds very tedious, but if you want to be certain all file locks
> are
> > > removed so that the correct files can be installed this is the way you
> have to
> > > go.
> > >
> > > It is very important that you only download the full versions of these
> programs
> > > and that you DO NOT attempt an install over the internet.
> > >
> > > Other Notes
> > > ===========
> > > Graphic Card Acceleration
> > > -------------------------
> > >
> > > There is advice floating around that you should disable the graphics
> > > acceleration abilities of your graphics card if Movie Maker locks up or
> crashes
> > > out. Doing this is roughly equivalent to taking out your current
> graphics card
> > > and replacing it with one that is several years old....this is not the
> way
> > > forward!
> > >
> > > The Graphics card on the machine I edit on is a cut above the average,
> it has
> > > DV In & Out as well as Video In & Out. It does all sorts of clever
> things and
> > > it is extremely fast. Then the day came when I tried Movie Maker 2 for
> the
> > > first time. It was a disaster. Knowing what the problem was I
> immediately
> > > logged on to Microsoft and got the latest driver. There was no change
> with the
> > > performance of the Graphics card with respect to Movie Maker. After a
> lot of
> > > messing about I went to the cards manufacturer and downloaded there most
> recent
> > > driver. I was convinced that the one from Microsoft was in some way
> defective.
> > > It turned out that I was right but for the wrong reason.
> > >
> > > The version of the driver from Microsoft was more recent than the one on
> my
> > > system AND more recent than the one from the OEM.BUT, the OEM had made
> minor
> > > changes to how the card worked and these were not taken into
> consideration by
> > > the Microsoft update!!!
> > >
> > > So, do not get the generic update from Microsoft until you have tried
> the
> > > latest driver from the manufacturer of your card.
> > >
> > > Registration
> > > ------------
> > >
> > > There is in my view some very bad advice floating around that tells you
> to
> > > unregister the offending codec. If you take this advise be warned that
> > > unregistering any file and doing it wrong will more than likely stop the
> > > program that file belongs to from working all together and may in an
> extreme
> > > situation cause your entire XP system to fail. This is true whether you
> make a
> > > mistake using the Registry editor or the registration program itself,
> one
> > > mistake and you are potentially in deep trouble. Whatever you unregister
> in
> > > this manner has to be restored and you should take note that the
> registration
> > > of a codec can often involve more than one registry entry. If you are
> expert in
> > > these matters you will have no problem.
> > >
> > > I have also found that MP3, Mpeg and Jpeg files can cause problems,
> So...
> > >
> > > Convert all MP3 to WAV or WMA
> > >
> > > Convert all MPeg to AVI
> > >
> > > Convert all Jpeg to BMP
> > >
> > > Video Conversion
> > > ----------------
> > >
> > > For Video Conversion you should also check out the Knowledge Base
> Section of my
> > > "Great Links > Knowledge Base" One of the website's in there called
> "Video
> > > Help" has the best collection of useful information I have yet come
> across on
> > > converting between the various formats together with links to the
> software
> > > needed.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Best Wishes.....John Kelly
> > > www.the-kellys.org
> > > www.the-kellys.co.uk
> > > ---
> > > All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
> > > obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work
> > >
>
>
>

Hello there,

Thanks for letting us know. I have been wondering whether or not to buy one
myself`.....You just put a line through that one )
--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
---
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work
Yet another access attempt on 11th Aug 2004 LOL