Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[JustinChase]

Hi all,

I have been using playingnow for a while now, I bought the newest version (at the time) when Rhino made it available, and I love it.

My problem is this, when I click on a star to rate the track, if I don't hold my mouse over the rating for at least  5 seconds, it acts like I just clicked to make it disappear, which it does, and does NOT update the rating.  If I don't move my mouse, it updates fine.

Media Center is generally slow to respond to my user input, but this is a couple of steps beyond that.  Does anyone have any ideas how/why this is happening, or better yet, how to make it better?

Thanks

PS  Microsoft Windows XP 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2793 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 177 MB

[RhinoBanga]

Which version of PN are you using?

The latest production version is 1.2.1.

[JustinChase]

1.2.1.0 is what's listed in MC.

Again, I have had other issues with MC responding slowly, but with PN, it is always there and makes it pretty hard to enjoy the plug-in.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the plug-in, I'm just trying to find a solution.

Thanks

[RhinoBanga]

I think something is eating up your CPU.

PN sets the rating on a mouse-up, so thats why you are having to leave your mouse over the rating for so long.

Does MC still act slowly if PN is disabled?

[JustinChase]

Some, but not as much.

I have a P4 w/Hyperthreading, and I think that might be causing most/all of this problem, but I don't know what to do about it.

[RhinoBanga]

Funnily enough I have heard of this type of problem before:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10037


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;815227

[JustinChase]

This sounds like me.  De we have any way of verifying that "It's the UnmapViewOfFile function that causes the problem."?

Does anyone at J River know if this might be my issue?  I would REALLY hate to pay Microsoft for support, especially if this is not the problem.

Thanks.

[RhinoBanga]

Is it only MC that's slow?

If so then can't you switch off HT support in the BIOS and try MC again?

If so and it work ok then it sounds like that's your issue.

[JustinChase]

Mostly MC.  However, I ran a large Access querry a month or so ago, and it took over twice as long as another machine doing the same thing, which didn't have hyperthreading, and was even a slower processor.

Of course, hyperthreading only allowed my machine to use 1/2 it's processor to do the work, so 1/2 my processor was idle the whole time.  Very frustrating.

I have read that if I turn off hyperthreading in the Bios, I really should reinstall XP, since it installs somewhat differently whether it's turned on or not, and I REALLY don't want to reinstall windows.  I've done it too many times in my life, & it sucks more every time.

Thanks for the info, though.  I have been going mad trying to get this working right.

[DougHamm]

Of course, hyperthreading only allowed my machine to use 1/2 it's processor to do the work, so 1/2 my processor was idle the whole time.  Very frustrating.

I have read that if I turn off hyperthreading in the Bios, I really should reinstall XP, since it installs somewhat differently whether it's turned on or not, and I REALLY don't want to reinstall windows.  I've done it too many times in my life, & it sucks more every time.

That's not how hyperthreading works - it's intended to make better use of the idle components of your CPU and doesn't simply halve your chip into two discrete entities.  That's not to say all apps are compatible with it...and the system overhead of managing two chips, real or virtual, do offset some of the theoretical speed improvements.

You can go ahead and turn HT off in your BIOS; your machine should simply identify itself as an APIC uniprocessor PC rather than an APIC multiprocessor PC.  No reinstall necessary.

Take care,

-Doug

[JustinChase]

Thanks for the info Doug.

When I was comparing my machine to my friends, his pegged at 100%CPU, and mine hovered around 48%CPU the entire time it was running (and Access was the only thing running).  My machine was still running the Access job after his had been done LONG earlier (over twice as long).  And the CPU load never went above 50%.  So I just assumed that it would only allow 1/2 to be dedicated to any one app at a time.

This same friend runs a visualization I created in MC, and his CPU load hovers in the mid to high 90% range while running, and mine hovers around 45% running the same thing.  His computer has none of these lag issues in MC, and mine is sometimes nearly unuseable in MC.  I'm no fan of the Hyperthreading at this point.

I assume neither Access nor MC is written to take specific advantage of hyperthreading, which is what has caused my problems.  But, what software is?  I use XP Pro, Office 2000, some specific Mortgage Origination software, and MC.  What's the point of hyperthreading in my case?

I have done a little reading about turning off hyperthreading, and most things I have read says you might not have to reinstall, but hyperthreading installs some/many files specifically for use with hyperthreading, so everyone I have read says it is a good idea to reinstall, and many have said i would most likely have to reinstall XP or I'll have many wierd issues in the future.

I'm not trying to imply you are wrong, because I really don't know, but, why do you say I don't need to reinstall?  Have you done it yourself, is it your line of work, have you researched it?

Thanks again for you input.  I really want to turn it off, but I don't want to have to install from scratch again.  Especially since i'm probably gonna sell this laptop within the year.

[Bartabedian]

Justin, sounds to me like you have other confilcts on your system. I have HT on three different systems all running 3G P4's, all with different hardware, different configs and doing different daily functions, and all run very smoothly. One of these runs MC with AlbumView and PlayingNow plugs flawlessly, even while I encode DVD video or burn discs simultaneously.

More than likely you have another (probably hardware conflict) causing you CPU headaches. Check for the following hotspots:

1. Onboard USB, or USB 2 enabled while not using 2.0 devices
2. Onboard 1394 (can be flaky in some instances)
3. Onboard AC97 Audio Codecs (pretty unstable technology)
4. Bus conflicts with TV cards, FM cards etc, (these like to be on master PCI busses)

But simply blaming your HT isn't really going to get you anywhere. It does work, when used properly...