Replay stutters

Topic: Replay stutters (Read 4678 times) previous topic - next topic

Replay stutters

2005-07-19 07:56 pm

My nwc files stutter. The longer my computer is on (RAM=128, Win98v2, Soundblaster soundcard) the worse it gets. That makes it impossible to tape stuff for mac friends. Anyone have any tips? I've defragged, searched for spyware using two different programs, checked to see if spyware is running (none that were detected), etc. I've also removed nwc and re-installed it. Thanks for all info.

Re: Replay stutters

Reply #1 – 2005-07-19 08:48 pm

It still sounds like spyware, or other unwanted visitors. I know that re-installing Windows is not a walk in the park, depending on the software you have installed, the mail program, Internet etc., but eventually one might have to resort to that.

Did you just use spyware hunters, such as Adaware, or did you also check running processes? Catching the read wrongdoer might be a task for someone with wide experience, if reinstalling is not an option.

Re: Replay stutters

Reply #2 – 2005-07-19 10:07 pm

Try converting your files to midi. Play them with mplayer.exe rather than media player which can be a real memory hog.

Run msinfo32.exe and look at startup and running tasks. Some of them may be slowing things down.

hope this helps

Re: Replay stutters

Reply #3 – 2005-07-20 12:54 pm

Do you know that at first I misread the title?
I was (honestly!) thinking: why would _anyone_ want to replay stutters?
I'm laughing at myself, now.

Re: Replay stutters

Reply #4 – 2005-07-20 01:02 pm

>The longer my computer is on ... the worse it gets

There are several possible causes for this:

Most likely: Software on the system is keeping the CPU so busy that there is not enough processor to handle the demands of play back. This can be especially problematic when using software synthesizers, which demand more CPU resources.
Possible: Failing hardware, such as the system clock, memory, or some other board in the system.

I would probably start by disabling the "Chase playing notes" option in Tools, Options, Editor within NWC and see if this helps.

If you have both a software synthesizer and hardware synthesizer used with your sound card, you could also test with just the hardware synthesizer and see if it helps.

Re: Replay stutters

Reply #5 – 2005-07-20 01:40 pm

Say Overful,
does your name refer to your hard drive? As a rule of thumb we usually try to work on a minimum of 20% or 500 MB free. Whatever is the greater. Less than this often sees performance hits.

Also check your temp directory - do a restart and before you run any applications, delete everything in the temp dir.

OR, if you are comfortable at a DOS prompt, restart in MSDOS mode, run a scandisk [to be sure, to be sure

] and then deltree the temp directory. Make sure you create a new one though, Windows doesn't like not having a temp dir.

The suggestions RE spyware are also quite valid. Another possibility is anti-virus software. Depending on what product you are using occasional updates can be buggy and also impact performance more than usual.

Lots of possibilities of course.

If you can identify when it started happening, you may be able to identify a change that happened at the same time - new application installed, new sound card driver - that kind of stuff - if so there is a good chance they are connected.

The comment that it gets worse over time and by implication, improves when you reboot, suggests some software with a memory leak. It may not be anything malicious, it could simply be buggy code.

Rick G's suggestion about running msinfo32 is a good one, but take it a step further and run msconfig - temporarily shut down any unnecessary startup applications and see how things go.

That'll do for a start. Let me know how you go. One thing though, I'm going on holidays in a day or so and won't be near an internet connection for a while so there may be some delay from my end.

Lawrie