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[peterb]

I'm about to build a small JukeBox with MJ and a VIA-533mhz ITX mobo. I started experimenting on my usual PC and everything was fine. Today I got the new ITX-mobo and installed Win XP Pro, MJ and the MP3 encoder plugins. However as soon as I try to start encoding then the Lame encoders hangs. APE and Ogg works fine. The new PC only has XP Pro and MJ nothing else. Is something missing? Any suggestions?

[Matt]

Not sure...

I didn't have the best luck with my VIA chip, but the technology sure is promising. (lots of programs just wouldn't run)

Maybe try the latest BIOS and/or 4-in-1 type deals from VIA.  Otherwise, I'm not sure...

Let us know what you find out, and how the system works for ya'.

Thanks.

[peterb]

I installed all the latest drivers from VIA's web-site but it didn't make any difference. I'm also going to upgrade the BIOS, just have to figure out how to make a bootable DOS-CD cause the PC doesn't have a floppy.

When starting to encode MJ first says initializing for the first file. Then changes to copying and soon after that a window pops up saying: "Lame.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Then there is the choice of sending an error report to MS or not (I choose not). There is also a possibility of getting a detailed report but that doesn't give me any more clues.

[Groomlake]

I have a via chip and motherboard and have no problems with MJ or lame. You may want to focus elsewhere.

[peterb]

Groomlake: do you have the mini-ITX as well or another VIA-system?

I have now upgraded to the latest BIOS. Still the same problem. I really don't know where else to look? It's a completely fresh machine, nothing except XP PRO, drivers and MJ on it. All MS updates, All VIA updates.

I probably will do most of the encoding on another PC for speed reasons, but it's annoying when it's not working. Makes me wonder what else will not work.

Maybe I should try to downgrade to XP Home instead.

[JimH]

If you're using default settings for the encoder, it's probably the hardware.  Switching the OS isn't likely to change that.

Did you try a search on google for similar problems?  Use VIA in the search.  Here's a sample:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=via+motherboard+pci+latency

[peterb]

Jim,
You were right switching the OS didn't help. Exactly the same thing happens in XP-home.

I found a fix for via called Georges PCI Latency patch that looked promising but unfortunately id didn't make any difference applying that patch either.

The local time here in Sweden are now 02.00 so I guess I better go to bed and try some more tomorrow. Thanks everybody for your help so far. Please let me know if you have any more suggestions.

[peterb]

I also tried to copy the file to WAW first and then encode from wav to mp3, but still getting the same problem. So I guess it's either a HW-problem or a LAME problem. I'll search some more on the net, but suggestions are very welcome.

[JeffB]

Are you the same PeterB that moderates at the ArsTechnica forums?

[peterb]

JeffB: No I'm another PeterB, never heard of arsTechnica.

I just found out something interesting. I tried other SW that uses LAME. WinLAME had exactly the same problems as with MJ, but RazorLAME worked perfectly. When I took the LAME.EXE from RazorLAME and put it in MJ's Plugin directory MJ worked perfectly as well.

The LAME.EXE with MJ is 190 KB
The LAME.EXE with RazorLAME is 312 KB

RazorLAME say their version is 3.92 MMX

as I understand it this is the same version as MJ uses.

So why are the files different. Can it be that they are compiled differently?

[peterb]

Maybe I was a bit quick in claiming success. The new LAME.EXE is working but it's extremely slow. 12 tracks has taken more than 3 hours using VBR/High/Digital Secure. The same record, all 17 tracks, took 76 min with APE/High/Digital Secure, so something must still be wrong.

[JimH]

Sounds like you're getting a lot of errors.  I wonder if you have master and slave mixed up on the IDE cable.

A google search on this will get you good help.

[peterb]

JimH. both the HD and the CD are configured as masters but on different IDE-channels.

[JimH]

And they are both at the end of the cable?

It's likely that the problem is hardware now.

Cables can be bad.  Drives can be bad.

The big difference between LAME and APE encoding is probably CPU useage.  That could affect other things that need to get done.

I'm guessing here.  I am not a good hardware guy but I do know there have been lots of VIA related problems reported.

I've suggested google a couple times.  Have you tried it?

[peterb]

JimH

Tanks for your help. Yes I've searched Google several times. I use Google all the time but the suggestions to search for Latency was something I hadn't thought of. But I haven't found any solution.

Like you I think that HW or maybe driver is the most likely reason. But I don't think it's a bad drive or cable. I will check anyhow. Both drives are on the end of the cable.

It seams reasonable to assume that it's VIA related but it's strange that it only affects LAME.

The HDD is a Maxtor Plus-9 7200 RPM 120 GB drive
The CD is a Teac 32X slimline

[Glen]

Maybe give this a try if you have not yet. Put both drives on the same cable using cable select but with hd at end of cable. Make sure that the second ide cable is pulled and that bios for ch2 is empty.
Seems to me that in years past I had a similar setup and there were problems with the operation of the hd.
Good luck, Glen

[Bluesman]

PeterB: I also have a VIA 667mgz chip and have the same problem. To date I haven't found a solution. The only program that will encode with Lame is CDex and that can be somewhat slow on some settings as well. I get the same error message as soon as I try to encode with MJ. It has to be an incompatibility problem between VIA and Lame.  Please let me know if you have any success: mailto:bluesbeat@granite.net.au

Geoff

[peterb]

I've tested some more. This clearly isn't a problem with disk or CD I/O.

Glen: It wasn't possible to put the CD and HD on the same cable since one is UATA/100 and one ATA/33 or /66.

I did some rips of a 4.34 minute song with different encoders on the VIA PC. These are the results:

WAV uncompressed: 2.25 min, 46,2 MB file
APE/Normal: 3.15 min, 27,4 MB file
Ogg/Normal: 7.12 min, 4.7 MB file (reqd 2 readings)
MP3-VBR/Normal: 28,45 min, 4,4 MB file
MP3/192 kbps: 4.53 min, 6,3 MB file

All done with Digital Secure.

When encoding from HD-WAV to MP3-VBR/Normal the time was 28,08 min size 4,2 MB

For comparison i did the same rip with my regular desktop AMD/1800 with XP Pro.

APE/Normal: 2.32 min, 27,4 MB file
MP3-VBR/Normal: 2.36 min, 4,217 MB

The encoding on the VIA was with the almost ;.) working larger version of LAME.EXE and the encoding on the AMD WS was with the original LAME.EXE from MJ.

The only result that is odd is when doing MP3-LAME on the VIA PC. My conclusion is that this is either a bug in LAME or a VIA HW problem or maybe a combination of the two. More suggestions on how to solve this problem is of course much appreciated. I think I will post this on the VIA support forum as well and see what their response is.

If anyone knows what's the difference between the two LAME.EXE files and if there are any others worth trying, please let me know. Thanks.

[Bluesman]

Hi Jim,
In reference to the VIA-Lame clash it seems MMX may be the problem. From searching on Google I have come up with a couple of suggestions as to parameters to overcome this.
In EAC the first one at least seems to work for me.
Parameters are-
--noasm mmx
--noasm 3dnow

Jim if I wanted to try this in MJ with the external Lame encoder, how do I enter it in the parameter box given that it currently has this in it - %IN %OUT -b 128
Do I put it before/after, spaces etc. Or won't this work

I have WIN Me with (unfortunately) a VIA Cyrix III 667 chip.

regards,
Geoff