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Topic: VDJ freezes when stopping/starting songs quickly

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salusPRO InfinityMember since 2006
Hi folks.

I guess this problem has been covered many times in the past in the thousands of posts on this forum, but to save a lot of time researching, could anyone possibly offer ideas on the following?

I can cause VDJ to freeze almost at will be doing the following. Load up a song that starts playing and then mix it such that it finishes before the second song has finished loading. Doing this one, two or three times in a row will generally cause VDJ to have a seizure, needing the computer to be reset. Though on many other occasions it freezes all by itself anyway, whether ot not I've fiddled with the mixing. By this I mean none of the controls work, although the current song may still play, followed by silence. A little awkward when 100 paying guests are all staring at you. Come to think of it, I've never in fact had VDJ run for more than an hour before continuing problems such as these rear their unwelcome - if not downright ugly - heads.

I've checked for any IRQ conflicts but have none. The latency is set to auto and I've tried ticking and then unticking "safe mode" to no avail. I had the VDJ program "analyse" all the songs in my database, taking some 15 hours - but this didn't achieve any discernable result.

Specs for my system are as follows:

Celeron 2.66 P4 CPU;
1GB of DDR400 ram;
Audigy 2 sound card;
ATI radeon X1950GT Super video card - 512mb/256bit/DDR3
320GB hard drive with about 100GB free.

Any comments, questions or suggestions would be welcome, thank you in advance.

Cheers
Barry
 

Posted Mon 16 Apr 07 @ 12:06 pm
PionaraPRO InfinityMember since 2004
Sounds like you might be taxing your ram a wee bit. If you start playing songs whilst it's still loading this is known to cause errors. The machine is trying to do to many things at the one time.

Also (and perhaps someone else can clarify this) a Celeron chip is not particularly good for this program. Although you have a 2.66 ghz cpu, this is notably slower than other Pentium/Athlon chips of the "same" speed. In fact, if you scour the boards for 'Celeron', you'll see that the celeron is defenitely not recommended.

Sorry to spring that on you.

Good luck, hope you get it sorted...(",)

P
 

Posted Mon 16 Apr 07 @ 12:24 pm
salusPRO InfinityMember since 2006
Thanks for this, Pionara.

It just so happens I have a 3.0MHz Intel Pentium 4 CPU sitting on the cupboard bench here collecting dust. Tomorrow I'll remove the motherboard from the VDJ computer, remove the Celeron CPU and replace it with the Intel one. Windows XP Pro will then be reinstalled onto the hard drive, as well as a reload of Virtual DJ.

I'll let you know the outcome.

Fingers crossed.....
 

Posted Mon 16 Apr 07 @ 1:40 pm
PionaraPRO InfinityMember since 2004
No problem. I really hope you get it sorted.

I take it your board can handle the different processor types?

If you're reinstalling the whole system, try and keep it as clean as possible too. The best idea is to have a machine that is dedicated purely to music/VDJ. On my gig machine, I only have XP, VDJ and music along with some other necessary software (graphics, sound, etc).

Keeping your machine clean and internet free will help alot.

(",)

P
 

Posted Tue 17 Apr 07 @ 1:03 am
salusPRO InfinityMember since 2006
Thanks again for the advice, Pionara.

I visited the local computer store today and purchased a new Asus 775 motherboard with an Intel 945 chipset, plus a new 320GB hard drive plus some faster ram (1GB DDR 2, 800). This'll replace the old 915 motherboard fitted with DDR 400 ram. Onto this will be installed the new Intel P4 3.0MHz CPU, with better performance than the Celeron unit. In short, the new computer will have higher speed, greater cache and enhanced memory compared to the old one. I'll also take your advice re keeping it clean of unnecessary, extraneous files and folders.

One reason for going to this trouble is to attempt to get VDJ to operate to its potential capabilities. A friend of mine runs VDJ on his system with maybe one crash per month, which is acceptable - compared to my 3 or 4 crashes every time I use it!

My general observation of the program is that there are heaps of lucky users who are happy with VDJ, yet concurrently there are heaps of hapless users experiencing enormous frustrations with it. Obviously it's a sensitive program, needing optimum conditions (specifications) for it to run cleanly.

What I'd like to see is for VDJ management to release a recommended list of harware specs, which if followed, would almost guarantee successful operation of the program. Compared to the rat's nest of hardware (mixed with many mixed pieces of extraneous software packages) currently possessed by its thousands of clients.

For example, to work smoothly, if VDJ needs a dual core processor fitted to a 965 chipset motherboard with 2GB of DDR2 800 ram, 100 GB of free space on the hard drive plus ultra high quality video and sound cards - then maybe VDJ management could tell us? At least then everyone will know where they stand. And more importantly, they'll know how to resolve their frustrations.

Surely it's better to be told exactly what we need, rather than continuously going in circles, attempting to remedy glitches that won't ever be able to be remedied, due to the inherent sub-optimal hardware involved? By this I mean, if a customer is experiencing problems with VDJ, rather than wasting time trying to find a solution around the inadequate equipment, wouldn't it be better to tell him (or her) straight out to dump what he's got, and go out to buy a precise list of specified componentry that should always work, as it already has been well tested and approved by the VDJ team?



 

Posted Tue 17 Apr 07 @ 11:01 am
Tear Em 'UpPRO InfinitySenior ModeratorMember since 2006
The CUE version has both a "bare minimum" and "recomended" system requirements on the Numark website www.numark.com
 

Posted Wed 18 Apr 07 @ 12:52 am
"My general observation of the program is that there are heaps of lucky users who are happy with VDJ, yet concurrently there are heaps of hapless users experiencing enormous frustrations with it. Obviously it's a sensitive program, needing optimum conditions (specifications) for it to run cleanly. "

I agree 100% with whoever said this, however, a supporter of the program also said "90% of problems are syatem related".

Well, even if that is correct that means there are 400,000 dissatisfied (yet trying to be loyal) customers.

I believe and have been counting, that the 90% completely satisfied is more like 50-60% like you stated.

That is not enough! The program NEEDS to work. 1 crash a month is way too many. That will only lead to three or four, gigs will get lost as a result.

Program needs to work on mostly all computers, no excuses. The programmers and lucky techy guys who can make it work need to know this and continuously need to be told.

Let's hear some more noise from those who are unhappy that feel for 200 bucks that they should be made happy.
 

Posted Wed 18 Apr 07 @ 8:04 am
You cant say NO EXCUSES. I am a HAPPY user and an UNHAPPY user. 2 different machines 2 different experiences. I can tell you on the system that I built that is only running 21 processes on XP it is a dream of a software that runs great. Now get me on my piece of SH*T Dell now thats another story. I am sure there are some happy Dell users, but these pre-built systems can also be the cause of the problems. I can also say that 95% of the users that just simply did a fresh install of an OEM version of XP had no problems after that and doin the tweaks. This software like all other software and OSs are gonna have some glitches some of the time but 99% of the time it is the system you are runnin on that is the issue.
 

Posted Wed 18 Apr 07 @ 8:59 am
I get the same problems with my mk1.. FREEZE!!!! I also get freezed upped while prelistin a song from the record caseā€¦
Virtual DJ Pro 4.3
MK1
Windows XP Professional

Motherboard
Asus P5B Intel P965 Chipset, LGA775 compatibility, Intel Core 2 Duo and Extreme CPU support, Intelligent Overclocking Tools, PCI-Express x16, Gigabit Ethernet, SATA, 8-channel Audio, USB 2.0

Processor
Intel PentiumĀ® 4 631 Processor Prescott 3.0GHz, 800MHz FSB, Socket 775, 2MB

Ram
OCZ OCZ28002048ELDCGE-K 2GB Kit DDR2-800 PC2-6400 Enhanced Latency Gold Edition Dual Channel Memory

Video Card
Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO PCI Express 512MB DDR2 Video Card w/TV-Out, DVI & VGA
 

Posted Wed 18 Apr 07 @ 1:47 pm
You just said it "I am a HAPPY user and an UNHAPPY user."

You see, EVEN the "happy" users are unhappy!!

It shouldn't be that you have to build a system around a program for it to work just to get to the "happy" stage, and as stated above, "still unhappy at that".

No Excuses.
 

Posted Wed 18 Apr 07 @ 9:03 pm
bryantpb wrote :
You just said it "I am a HAPPY user and an UNHAPPY user."

You see, EVEN the "happy" users are unhappy!!

It shouldn't be that you have to build a system around a program for it to work just to get to the "happy" stage, and as stated above, "still unhappy at that".

No Excuses.

I did and my VDJ freezes...
 

Posted Wed 18 Apr 07 @ 11:49 pm


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