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  1. Member
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    Hey guys!

    Having a few issues with adobe after effects 5.5 running on my laptop, as soon as I add a video to the timeline the whole thing slows to a snail pace, the preview window takes ages to refresh.

    Thing is adobe recommend 2gb of RAM and I have 4gb.

    Here are my system specs:

    Intel Core i7 2ghz
    Nvidia Geforce GT540
    4GB DDR3 RAM
    640GB HD

    Would adding more RAM maybe help this issue?
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    Moviegeek:

    I tried checking all that you listed for update but everything was up-to-date. According to the crucial scanner my laptop will support 8GB.

    I thought id mention that I don't have any other programs running whilst trying AE and not sure if it the same issue but when I had edit the same footage before but it wasnt as slow however when I rendered the final file it took over 8hrs to process a 15 minute clip.
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  3. Did you make any changes to your laptop lately? Something is definitely wrong, have you run a malware scan lately?
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  4. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Squid_uk View Post
    Moviegeek:

    I tried checking all that you listed for update but everything was up-to-date. According to the crucial scanner my laptop will support 8GB.

    I thought id mention that I don't have any other programs running whilst trying AE and not sure if it the same issue but when I had edit the same footage before but it wasnt as slow however when I rendered the final file it took over 8hrs to process a 15 minute clip.
    Use the Resources Monitor in Windows Task Manager to see where the block is (memory, disk access, cpu, network). My bet is you are disk bound. If so, an SSD (or second SATA drive) would speed things up.
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    I ran a scan with malwarebytes and fix some issues but am still have the problem with AE freezing or running very slow.

    With regards to the resources monitor, how can I tell where the block is?
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    Actually more RAM may NOT help. Unless I am missing something (always possible), the original poster has not told us his OS. His profile says XP. 32 bit Windows cannot access more than 4 GB of RAM and any extra is ignored.

    If you insist on using a laptop for video work you need to understand that you have willingly painted yourself into a corner and if you have problems your options to fix them are rather limited.
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    Sorry I didnt realise hadnt posted the OS, I am running 64bit windows 7
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  8. Have you ran CHKDSK and defrag? Maybe install CCleaner to clean junk files and fix the registry, you can also disable unneeded programs from starting up.
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    Moviegeek

    Still no joy im afraid
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  10. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Squid_uk View Post
    I ran a scan with malwarebytes and fix some issues but am still have the problem with AE freezing or running very slow.

    With regards to the resources monitor, how can I tell where the block is?
    In resource monitor you will see the graphs peg or memory showing hard faults. Here is a simple example.

    This is an SD DV low render (audio only) transfer in Vegas from DV video on one drive to another. As you can see, physical memory used (blue line) is 70% used with no faults and the CPU and disk drives are running ~70-80 MB/s but still could go faster.

    Click image for larger version

Name:	DV_disk_to_disk.png
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    Here is an SD DV to h.264 encode in Handbrake. Note that physical memory used went up (Vegas still open) but still only 80% used. CPU is pegged which is normal during an encode. the disk drive is well within spec at ~11 MB/s. Now if this were an uncompressed file, the disk drive would be pegged and the CPU would be less than 100% waiting for data from disk.

    The network activity is unrelated. I'm watching a podcast at the same time.

    Click image for larger version

Name:	DV_to_h.264.png
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ID:	12320

    Post your graphs when running AE and let's have a look.
    Last edited by edDV; 5th May 2012 at 15:42.
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    This is the graphs with only AE running, this was taken during one of the moments of the program freezing.

    Click image for larger version

Name:	Graph image.jpg
Views:	291
Size:	62.7 KB
ID:	12322
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  12. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Obviously a disk access problem. Is this a single disk laptop?

    The green line shows disk transfer rate. The blue line shows disk activity.

    http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/datacenter/use-resource-monitor-to-monitor-storage-performance/4233
    Last edited by edDV; 5th May 2012 at 16:15.
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    Oh right that doesnt sound good, the laptop is less than 6 months old! Yes it is a single disk laptop.
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  14. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Squid_uk View Post
    Oh right that doesnt sound good, the laptop is less than 6 months old! Yes it is a single disk laptop.
    What format video are you accessing in AE?

    Some laptops permit adding a second internal SATA drive.

    Does your laptop have an eSATA port or Firewire800? If so add fast external drives.

    Internal laptop drives are slow and Windows eats most of the disk activity on the main drive.
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    The video format format I am editing is .wmv

    Sadly the laptop does not have a eSATA or firewire, just USB and a USB3.0.

    The thing is I had used the same software and video before and yes the render process was slow which I wasnt that fussed about, its the editing side that the problem, before it was bearable and you could work with it, but now it takes up 30sec + just to move the time lime by 1 sec.
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  16. Member edDV's Avatar
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    WMV shouldn't be stressing the disk, but AE is probably decompressing it to uncompressed RGB which will choke a laptop disk. HD so much the worse.

    Try a fast external USB3 disk and keep the video and AE disk cache on the USB3.
    Last edited by edDV; 5th May 2012 at 17:09.
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    Hmmm, could it have something to with when importing the video I get a window pop up saying that the video 'has an unlabelled alpha channel'. Could the setting of this affect the smooth running?
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  18. Member edDV's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Squid_uk View Post
    Hmmm, could it have something to with when importing the video I get a window pop up saying that the video 'has an unlabelled alpha channel'. Could the setting of this affect the smooth running?
    Alpha is a forth component but doesn't add that much to the compute load.
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  19. Member ranchhand's Avatar
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    adobe after effects 5.5 running on my laptop
    Not meaning to be a troll, but that is your problem. Video editing and all associated video/graphic creating activities are the single most demanding of system resources that a computer can be subjected to, and if you are in to serious video work a laptop just isn't going to cut it. Aside from adding RAM or swapping up to a larger HD, there is no way to upgrade the CPU, Video Card or add firepower to a laptop same as can be done with a desktop. Please understand, I am not trying to say laptops are "no good junk" (!) I don't mean that. It's just that laps were originally designed for convenience, not for high-end power.
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    Originally Posted by ranchhand View Post
    adobe after effects 5.5 running on my laptop
    Not meaning to be a troll, but that is your problem. Video editing and all associated video/graphic creating activities are the single most demanding of system resources that a computer can be subjected to, and if you are in to serious video work a laptop just isn't going to cut it. Aside from adding RAM or swapping up to a larger HD, there is no way to upgrade the CPU, Video Card or add firepower to a laptop same as can be done with a desktop. Please understand, I am not trying to say laptops are "no good junk" (!) I don't mean that. It's just that laps were originally designed for convenience, not for high-end power.
    totally
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