Problem: Movie Maker uses very much CPU without doing anything

[JohanR]

I have used Movie Maker for more than a year to edit my DV-films and I have
been rather successful. My problem is that the program often uses very much
CPU, 20-50 % without doing anything. The result is that the showing of a clip
is very interrupted many times per second. If I wait many minutes Movie Maker
may possibly “calm down†and then show the film correctly. But the problem
has allways been there to some degree, but is now worse than earlier.
Sometimes it helps to save the project, exit the program and start it again.
But now I don't think that helps any longer.

More and more I have used the possibility to shorten clips in the time-line
both in the beginning and in the end by dragging the start or the end of the
clip. It seems as this may be a reason.

I use XP SP2 in a LG W1-D2RLV with an Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T5600.
Movie Maker 2.1.4026.0. 2 GB memory.

Regards

 

[John Inzer]

I have used Movie Maker for more than a year to edit my DV-films and
I have been rather successful. My problem is that the program often
uses very much CPU, 20-50 % without doing anything. The result is
that the showing of a clip is very interrupted many times per second.
If I wait many minutes Movie Maker may possibly "calm down" and then
show the film correctly. But the problem has allways been there to
some degree, but is now worse than earlier. Sometimes it helps to
save the project, exit the program and start it again. But now I
don't think that helps any longer.

More and more I have used the possibility to shorten clips in the
time-line both in the beginning and in the end by dragging the start
or the end of the clip. It seems as this may be a reason.

I use XP SP2 in a LG W1-D2RLV with an Intel® CoreT2 Duo Processor
T5600. Movie Maker 2.1.4026.0. 2 GB memory.

Regards

==========================
To overcome resource issues you need lots of
memory and a lean well maintained system.

So...add more RAM...

Before opening Movie Maker...disconnect from
the net and close all running programs especially
virus scanners.

Increase the size of your Virtual Memory
Paging File. The following article explains how:

(308417) HOW TO: Set Performance Options
in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308417

Increase hard drive free space by deleting
or moving files...and uninstalling unused
software.

Do regular maintenance:

Empty your Temporary Internet Files Folder.

(260897) How to Delete the Contents of the
Temporary Internet Files Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=260897

Running Disk Cleanup, Error Checking and
Defrag on a regular schedule is a good idea.

(310312) Description of the Disk Cleanup
Tool in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310312

(315265) How to Perform Disk Error Checking
in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315265
(check the two boxes..."Automatically fix file
system errors" and "Scan for and attempt
recovery of bad sectors") the utility will run
the next time you restart your computer.
(run error checking repeatedly until it finds
no errors)

(314848) How to Defragment Your Disk
Drive Volumes in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314848

--

John Inzer
Digital Media MVP

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Graham Hughes]

I'd check the ram is ok, google for a ram tester, but 2gb is all XP can
utilise properly, so I wouldn't add more.

Check for spyware/adware/viruses and a load more ideas here
http://www.myvideoproblems.com/Tutorials/OptimiseMyPcForVideo.htm

 

[JohanR]

After some systematic testing I have noticed the following:

If I pic one or many clips from one AVI-file everything seems to go well.

BUT: If I pick ONE clip from ONE AVI-file an ONE clip from ANOTHER AVI-file
and go directly to the beginning of the second clip on the time-line, then
the program starts working a lot (about 50 %) for about a minute before the
CPU goes down.
In my example the two AVI-files were 5 GB and 3 GB and the two clips were 4
minutes each. The AVI-files do NOT show up in the report over defragmented
files. (I have been careful about that.)

My conclusion is that you should avoid creating a film from more than one
AVI-file.

 

[John Inzer]

After some systematic testing I have noticed the following:

If I pic one or many clips from one AVI-file everything seems to go
well.

BUT: If I pick ONE clip from ONE AVI-file an ONE clip from ANOTHER
AVI-file and go directly to the beginning of the second clip on the
time-line, then the program starts working a lot (about 50 %) for
about a minute before the CPU goes down.
In my example the two AVI-files were 5 GB and 3 GB and the two clips
were 4 minutes each. The AVI-files do NOT show up in the report over
defragmented files. (I have been careful about that.)

My conclusion is that you should avoid creating a film from more than
one AVI-file.

=============================
How can a 4 minute .avi clip be 5 GB?

--

John Inzer
Digital Media MVP

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Graham Hughes]

I think he means the captured dv.avi file is 5gb, but he has only used a
partial clip from it which is 4 minutes long.

I must say, I haven't found this to be a problem, so I still think there is
a system problem somewhere.

Why not, save the two avi files as wmv files.
Make the same clips.
Add these two clips to your timeline and see what happens.

As the files are much smaller, I'd expect a similar issue but to a lesser
extent. If there is no problem at all, then it is the dv.avi files, but
what, I haven't a clue.

 

[John Inzer]

I think he means the captured dv.avi file is 5gb, but he has only
used a partial clip from it which is 4 minutes long.

===========================
Well.....Okay....

Why are you so smart? )

--

John Inzer
Digital Media MVP

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk