OT - Getting Windows 2000 to let MP3s go so that they can be edited?

[fitwell]

I have an older computer (PIII, 650 MHz, 128 SDRAM). I'm having
difficulty editing the ID3 tags and renaming files, etc., because
Windows 2000 more often than not grabs on to the file somehow and
doesn't let go. A poster in another ng said that that there is
apparently a way to let the OS let go of the files so one can work
with them but that the poster didn't recall how to do that. Does
anyone here know what this solution might be? It gets very annoying
when one can't edit or work with one's files properly.

TIA.

 

[Craig]

II'm having difficulty editing the ID3 tags and renaming files, etc.,
because Windows 2000 more often than not grabs on to the file somehow
and doesn't let go. TIA.

Hey Fitwell;

I don't know what to tell you. We're runnign win2k systems over here
and I've never come across a time where Win2k "grabs on to..and doesn't
let go" of a file. We've been editing mp3's for about 4 years on them.

Besides checking the write permissions on your files, you may want to
try the newsgroup microsoft.public.win2000.general.

hth,
-Craig

 

[Thorsten Duhn]

Hello,

I have an older computer (PIII, 650 MHz, 128 SDRAM). I'm
having difficulty editing the ID3 tags and renaming files,
etc., because Windows 2000 more often than not grabs on to
the file somehow and doesn't let go. A poster in another ng
said that that there is apparently a way to let the OS let
go of the files so one can work with them but that the poster
didn't recall how to do that. Does anyone here know what
this solution might be? It gets very annoying when one
can't edit or work with one's files properly.

like Craig I don't have a clue, what you mean with "grabs on to
the file somehow and doesn't let go", there is no magic in these
operating systems. A better and more detailed description of what
is happening to you may help.

Compared to older systems like Win95/98/Me you may experience,
that a file is locked as "in use", but I don't see a reason, why
the system itself should use all your MP3 files. What's your
player software?

If this lock is what you mean, you should try Unlocker to see,
what programm uses your files and to remove this lock.

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

Regards,
Thorsten

 

[Thorsten Duhn]

Hello,

If this lock is what you mean, you should try Unlocker to see,
what programm uses your files and to remove this lock.

addition: You can use this safely on your .mp3 files, as you
requested, but you can also unlock and delete relevant system
files like .dll libraries and with that ruin your whole system.
So please use it carefully.

Regards,
Thorsten

 

[Ron May]

I have an older computer (PIII, 650 MHz, 128 SDRAM). I'm having
difficulty editing the ID3 tags and renaming files, etc., because
Windows 2000 more often than not grabs on to the file somehow and
doesn't let go. A poster in another ng said that that there is
apparently a way to let the OS let go of the files so one can work
with them but that the poster didn't recall how to do that. Does
anyone here know what this solution might be? It gets very annoying
when one can't edit or work with one's files properly.

TIA.

Please don't be upset if I'm stating the obvious, but you're not
trying to edit the tag or rename the file while it's actually being
used by another program (player, editor) are you?

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry Bro, I've got Win2K and I make and edit ID3 tages all the time.

I can't duplicate your problem in an attempt to resolve it---I wasn't
even aware that such a problem could exist.

 

[fitwell]

I have an older computer (PIII, 650 MHz, 128 SDRAM). I'm having
difficulty editing the ID3 tags and renaming files, etc., because
Windows 2000 more often than not grabs on to the file somehow and
doesn't let go. A poster in another ng said that that there is
apparently a way to let the OS let go of the files so one can work
with them but that the poster didn't recall how to do that. Does
anyone here know what this solution might be? It gets very annoying
when one can't edit or work with one's files properly.

TIA.

Hi, and thanks for everyone's responses.

To answer the obvious question, no, there is nothing else actively
using the file. I'm not sure what the problem is, myself, but it is a
known problem as it's not something that other groups have posted back
about never hearing. Posting to an MS Windows 2000 group didn't yield
results as they didn't remember what the fix was <lol>. They me to go
to an MP3 group, which I did. Still nothing. A fix proposed over
there to unregister an shmedia.dll didn't work as I don't have this
file (and, yes, searched for it was all files not hidden <g>).

The problem _may_ lie in my older computer. May. That's what someone
advised. I provided my specs, too, and seems it's not powerful enough
for Win2K. Whatever the case may be, so far the probably has only
been with MP3s, but apparently this type of thing can happen with
video files also.

Unless the MP3 is something I've _just_ saved, i.e., after re-encoding
with an MP3 editor, or it's something I haven't touched in a while, I
cannot edit the tags. When I switched tag editors, the message was
something like the file was in use (which it wasn't).

So hopefully someone who has run into this before will read this msg
and will know solution. I'm really having a lot of trouble with this.
And since I'm transferring all my cassette audio books to MP3 for my
MP3 player, it's a daily problem.

Thanks. D

 

[Craig]

Hi, and thanks for everyone's responses.

Posting to an MS Windows 2000 group didn't yield
results as they didn't remember what the fix was <lol>.

The problem _may_ lie in my older computer. May. That's what someone
advised. I provided my specs, too, and seems it's not powerful enough
for Win2K.


Thanks. D

Fitwell;

Did you post to microsoft.public.windows2000.general as I suggested? (I
cannot find a record.) What are your machine's specs and your Win2k's
patch level? When you get this error have you activated the task manager
to see what other processes are running?

-Craig

 

[Ron May]

Hi, and thanks for everyone's responses.

To answer the obvious question, no, there is nothing else actively
using the file. I'm not sure what the problem is, myself, but it is a
known problem as it's not something that other groups have posted back
about never hearing. Posting to an MS Windows 2000 group didn't yield
results as they didn't remember what the fix was <lol>. They me to go
to an MP3 group, which I did. Still nothing. A fix proposed over
there to unregister an shmedia.dll didn't work as I don't have this
file (and, yes, searched for it was all files not hidden <g>).

The problem _may_ lie in my older computer. May. That's what someone
advised. I provided my specs, too, and seems it's not powerful enough
for Win2K. Whatever the case may be, so far the probably has only
been with MP3s, but apparently this type of thing can happen with
video files also.

Unless the MP3 is something I've _just_ saved, i.e., after re-encoding
with an MP3 editor, or it's something I haven't touched in a while, I
cannot edit the tags. When I switched tag editors, the message was
something like the file was in use (which it wasn't).

So hopefully someone who has run into this before will read this msg
and will know solution. I'm really having a lot of trouble with this.
And since I'm transferring all my cassette audio books to MP3 for my
MP3 player, it's a daily problem.

Thanks. D

It doesn't sound like a "system requirements" issue with the OS. M$
claims W2K will run on a P133 with 64 meg, and even taking that as too
low for real world use, you've got adequate RAM and more than enough
CPU.

I did use Win2k a few years ago at work, but I never messed with the
innards as it was on a government system and the IT guys had
everything locked down tight, so I don't consider myself a "user" or
former user in a practical sense. IIRC though, the workstations had
about 128M (like you have) but I'm pretty sure the CPUs were slower
than your 650 MHz. Since they weren't used for multimedia apps, they
worked just fine.

If you were having performance issues with PLAYING or RECORDING video
and MP3 files while running other RAM or CPU intensive programs, then
the specs may pose a problem, but simply editing tags on MP3 files of
typical size (2-10 MB) shouldn't need much more resources than using a
word processor or text editor.

Assuming the problem doesn't have anything to do with permissions
(i.e., file is locked under another user logon) you could try one of
these to see if a particular app is causing it:

WhoLockMe -

http://www.dr-hoiby.com/WhoLockMe/index.php

or Unlocker -

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

If that doesn't shed light on the problem, it might help if you
provide some specifics like what software programs you're using to
work with the MP3 files (rip, encode from .wav, edit tags, etc.) If
the problem can be duplicated, I imagine someone here can suggest a
fix.

 

[Thorsten Duhn]

Hello,

To answer the obvious question, no, there is nothing else
actively using the file. I'm not sure what the problem is,
myself, but it is a known problem as it's not something that
other groups have posted back about never hearing.

I still cannot read from you what really is happening.
What is the error message you get when you do what?

I recommended Unlocker, now Ron May recommends again,
did you try, with what result?

Regards,
Thorsten

 

[fitwell]

Fitwell;

Did you post to microsoft.public.windows2000.general as I suggested? (I
cannot find a record.) What are your machine's specs and your Win2k's
patch level? When you get this error have you activated the task manager
to see what other processes are running?

Of course, and I did that _first_. _They_ advised me to look at other
ngs.

I have SP4, btw. And I posted the specs at the beginning, they seemed
to have gotten cut off: PIII, 650MHz, 128 SDRAM.

Task Mgr doesn't reveal anything that I recognize. Of course, _I_ am
not actively using files trying to fix tags and/or rename, etc.

 

[Gert van der Kooij]

Hi, and thanks for everyone's responses.

To answer the obvious question, no, there is nothing else actively
using the file. I'm not sure what the problem is, myself, but it is a
known problem as it's not something that other groups have posted back
about never hearing. Posting to an MS Windows 2000 group didn't yield
results as they didn't remember what the fix was <lol>. They me to go
to an MP3 group, which I did. Still nothing. A fix proposed over
there to unregister an shmedia.dll didn't work as I don't have this
file (and, yes, searched for it was all files not hidden <g>).

The problem _may_ lie in my older computer. May. That's what someone
advised. I provided my specs, too, and seems it's not powerful enough
for Win2K. Whatever the case may be, so far the probably has only
been with MP3s, but apparently this type of thing can happen with
video files also.

Unless the MP3 is something I've _just_ saved, i.e., after re-encoding
with an MP3 editor, or it's something I haven't touched in a while, I
cannot edit the tags. When I switched tag editors, the message was
something like the file was in use (which it wasn't).

So hopefully someone who has run into this before will read this msg
and will know solution. I'm really having a lot of trouble with this.
And since I'm transferring all my cassette audio books to MP3 for my
MP3 player, it's a daily problem.

Thanks. D

If you want to know which process is locking a file you can use the
Handle utility from http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Handle.html to
search for the process holding it. This might help to find the real
cause of your problem. I'm also using W2K on an older system but never
had any problem with tagging MP3 files using MP3TAG from
http://www.mp3tag.de/ .

 

[Thorsten Duhn]

Hello,

Task Mgr doesn't reveal anything that I recognize. Of course, _I_
am not actively using files trying to fix tags and/or rename, etc.

third time I'm asking:

What is the exact error message you get?

Have you already tried Unlocker/WhoLockMe/Handle?

Regards,
Thorsten