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Topic: HP ZE4430US laptop, Athlon 2400+, 1 Gig RAM, 128MB video, so forth

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Hey,

Here is another "is my laptop good enough, and where can I spend my money best to improve it" questions.

I am a demo user, and my demo ran out while I was waiting for this years tax return. However, I just got a new (cough, new to me) laptop, so I put the demo back on the laptop for another trail period while I wait for my tax return, why not after all??

Okay, while playing with the demo, I've been trying some ripped video files and of course MP3 files. I've played around a lot with the performance settings and options.

Here is my laptop:

Athlon XP-M 2400+ Barton core (512K L2 cache)
1 Gig of PC2700 memory (but I think it is only running at 266 Mhz bus)
100 Gig Hard drive, 5400 RPM, 16 MB Buffer
ATI IGP 320M video card with upto 128 MB video shared

I upgraded the memory from 2 sticks of 256, to two sticks of 512. After doing so, I did notice things speed up overall. The hard drive was obviously an upgrade, and is also indirectly the way I got the laptop for quite cheap, as the old hard drive went bad. Picked this otherwise functional laptop up for $75, replaced the hard drive and upgraded the memory.

Okay, the video card is certainly not the best... anytime the words "shared memory" are involved, the video is generally not going to be outstanding...LOL However, I'm wondering if I can't get it to run some video anyway.

If I do video in the future, I wouldn't dream of trying to play VOB files off DVD, or hard drive for that matter. I am thinking more in terms of MPG or AVI, or something similiar, at 640x480 res. That will be good enough for me, and then I could rip the videos to a firewire drive instead of carrying around a case of DVDs.

Outside of VDJ, I can run the sample videos I have full screen on my second monitor, smooth. In the VDJ trial, it is actually pretty decent as well, almost smooth, almost "good enough".

Okay, HERE IS THE PROBLEM. What I see happen, is I will load the first video file, and start it playing. When I try to load the second video file, sometimes it works fairly well, other times, the CPU will be at 100% activity, and the second deck will be extremely slow loading that second file. It then becomes a race as to whether the second file will finish fast enough to be ready when the first deck is done playing.

With some files, it seems to work out okay, other files, it just doesn't work. Once a video file is loaded, I can scratch it, and it looks good on the screen, it's just the load times that are bieng a problem.

I can upgrade my CPU to an Athlon XP-M 2800 Barton, maybe a Athlon XP-M 3000, if I can find one low voltage enough. Will this help with my load times, or will it not be significant?

MP3s play fine. Video playback is not a must, it would just be cool if I could squeeze it out, and I think I can, if I can just handle the load times better.

Here are my performance settings:

I am using an Audigy2 ZS card, so I am using ASIO Latency set to "Auto"
Safe Mode is unchecked, Overclock is checked.
48<->44 Basic Interpolation is checked

Scratch Optimize for: Quality
Simple Algorithm

Master Tempo:
Advanced is checked
Complexity 3
Spatialization 0

Options:
Max Load = Always
Read ID3 Tags = disabled
Write ID3 tags Disabled
Disc 45rpm
Pitch Range -34% to + 34%
Bpm engine Techno


anything else that matters, ask me and I post the info.


--------------------------
Someone's going to ask me "If you can afford the laptop and the upgrades, why don't you own a copy of VDJ yet?

Answer: I needed to get the hardware I was willing to use on the road before I purchase the software. Technically it could go either way, I suppose, but to me it made more sense to get the hardware first, particularly as I could test the software on the actual hardware before purchasing the software.. you know, resolve hardware concerns first. I tried the demo first on my home desktop, but there is no way I am dragging around my desktop to do gigs. Additionally, this laptop plus all the upgrades did did not cost the $300 I would need for the software anyway. Anyway, I await tax return time, as I will be getting plenty back :)

 
Posted Wed 17 Jan 07 @ 7:07 pm
shared video memory is bad for ur mixing

as it uses ram for video memory

so this could be the cause

aslo on proformances try lowering your tab the full way down and choosing autolatency
 
Hey there...(",)

It seems to me like you have a few issues that you want to look at.

Firstly, using the program for video (and even in some cases, audio) with shared memory graphics isn't good. The system tries to do too much and puts strain on the whole thing. Although I'm sure you knew that anyway.

Secondly, i'm wondering if your hard drive is fast enough? I know it's 100gb an all which is great, but it's only clocking 5400 rpm. I wonder if you'd be better with a faster hard drive...at least 7200 rpm.

What kind of audio files are you using? I've recently had an issue with wma's causing my waveform to jump and skip like crazy and take a good 10-15 seconds to load up. This is in the process of being sorted..painstaking process it is...:o|

I personally don't use a laptop, so I may be filling your head with complete guff, in which case, I apologise, but this is just my tuppenceworth just now.

P
 
I am using MP3 for audio, been experimenting with mpg mainly on the video side. Tried a few avi and a few Mp4. The mp4 format is really nice for quality/size, but they want a user license for more than 30 day use. Primarily though, I've been experimenting with mpg.

Audio does seem to run fine. Video, almost... ugh. Anyone have a comment on how much of a difference it might make if I go from a Athlon 2400 to an Athlon 2800?

Oh, the hard drive. This is a laptop remember. I went with a 100 Gig, 5400, because I have concerns about using a 7200 RPM drive in a laptop. How much heat do you want in a small space? Additionally, that 100 Gig also has a 16 MB buffer. You will find that a faster drive with, say, 2 MB buffer will be slower than a slower RPM drive with 16MB buffer, when doing heavy file work. The faster RPM drive will be faster for small files, the slower RPM with a big buffer will actually overtake the faster RPM drive on heavy file work. The ultimate choice, of course, woudl be to use a fast RPM drive with huge buffer, but this was my compromise.... and I don't hear the drive struggling really. -- but it was a good question to ask, and to check.

Anyone else? LOL.. If I can't get video to work, I won't be heartbroken, but since it is so close, just looking if there is something I can do to make it stable, so any more comments and suggestions are welcome...
 
Hi there,

I've got a laptop with a 1.82Ghz centrino, gig of ram, but a ATI x300 video card with 128mb dedicated video memory. With this setup it's ok, get a little glitch in video output when i start to load a file, but useable.

To me it seems you might have to get a new video card (not sure how easy that is!).

Also, another thing to try might be using an external hard drive for your files. I know that is meant to put less strain on your laptop.
 
try phoning , the laptop manufacturer to see what is available in the market of upgrades

eternal hardrive can slow ur machine down more if it is already strugling , makesure its a fast one if you do get one
 
It the shared memory thing for sure. I did a lot of experimentation over the last few days, one such thing that I tired was turning off the video, and playing just the audio from the video files. Files loaded just fine with no problems. Then turned on video, loaded same files, problem returned. Grrrr! If the file loads, the video actually plays quite nice, it's just the loading process. If actually think that if I could somehow get the incoming file to load in such a manner, that it would not activate video on that track until it had finished loading the file, it would play fine!

I wish I could change out the video card, but it is a friggin ATI chip soldered to the board. Oh, how I wait for the day when you can just open up a panel on a laptop, like where the wireless card resides on some models, and just upgrad the video that way...LOL.

Anyway, I do have a few more things to try. The ATI IGP 320M integrated video that is on this thing is only Directx 8.1 compatible. Maybe windows is trying to cram Directx 9.0 down it's throught when it's loading these files, and it is choking there. I have another drive I can stick in this machine for experimentation purposes, maybe I will load bare Windows XP with just directx 8.1 on it, and see if it is any different.

In the end, maybe the video shared memory is just going to be impossible to make work with even these mpg files. Seems to work just fine on the audio side though :) Anyway, I'll keep playing with it, and let you all know.
 
Said I would keep you all updated. I discovered something.

I was trying to run video using the "full video" skin, the one with the tiny screens for each deck, and the still small but slightly larger screen in themiddle? For whatever reason, if I just use another skin, with just the "Windowed" screen up, it loads perfectly. Just a tiny bit of jerkiness for the transition, but otherwise perfectly smooth and good quality. Kind of a bummer that I can't use the skin with the preview screens, but apparently the preview screens are just a bit too much for the video card. I can probably switch to the video skin if I have to when both decks are loaded, to cue up a new video, then switch back before the transistion, I'll have to give that a try to see if that works without choking the system up.

Anyway, on goes the experimentation :)
 
sleeperawaken you change Athlon XP-M 2400+ to Athlon XP-M 2800+? 2800+ working with your ze4430us (DK582A), no problem with different cpu voltage 1.45 -> 1.55?
 


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