After upgrading, capture drops frames like crazy

[holnet]

Well, first of all I have an ATI All in wonder 128 Pro AGP and it was running in a PIII 500. And I had pretty good results. But we decided to upgrade this computer and so I got an Asus P4S8X-X MB (SIS chipset), P4 2.4Ghz and 512MB PC2700 RAM. I formatted my drives and installed XP Pro onto one. My other (capture) drive is a 120GB Maxtor ATA133. So once everything is up and running, I install the same ATI drivers I had from the old computer (I had saved most of my stuff from the drive beforehand) and the same MMC (it was MMC 7.2.... 7.6 kept crashing on the other computer). Well, whenever i try to run the TV program, the whole computer sorta grinds to a halt. The mouse moves very slowly and it takes about 10 seconds for the start menu to come up. The TV window however displays fine. In task manager, CPU Usage is near %100, but ATIMMC usually uses somewhere between %10 and %40. In fact, sometimes System Idle Process will contain all of the rest of the CPU usage (ex. ATIMMC = %40, Idle = %60 (approx.)) but at the bottom, CPU usage still = %100 (That doesn't make sense to me....) I downloaded Enditall to stop all background processes. There is no virus scanner or anything like that running. Anyway, as soon as I close the TV app, everything is peachy. Well, I tried capturing with other programs (VirtualDub, AVI-IO, Vegas Demo) and all drop about %50 of the frames if I capture at any resolution bigger than a postage stamp. So, I reformatted the drive and reinstalled XP and this time the first thing I did was install ATI drivers/MMC (7.6 this time). Same thing. And yes, I made sure DMA was on on the HD controller and have basically followed every guide I could find on here and elsewhere to setup for an All-In-Wonder. I have changed various BIOS settings related to AGP. Also, I disabled the on-board sound and installed the SB Live from the old computer. Still no luck. I can't remember what else I've done, but I'm sure I've tried other things. I downloaded SiSoftware Sandra to benchmark everything. All numbers for HD, CPU, etc are on par with what I would expect.... I contacted ATI but they e-mailed me a form letter advising me to follow their 'capture guide'.... For some reason I have this feeling it is related to the audio. Oh yeah, if I capture without audio in VirtualDub it doesn't change anything. But if I do it in AVI-IO, it will not show it is dropping frames sometimes, if I capture in non-standard framerates, but when I play the file back it goes really fast (like it skipped frames and just didn't fill them in). There are no BIOS updates, but I did download the latest AGP and IDE drivers from Asus and the latest sound drivers from Creative Labs. So I'm stumped. I would appreciate any advice you can give. And hey... If you're still reading this then you deserve extra thanks - I just realized that this is pretty long. Thanks.

EDIT -
Forgot to mention, I have my Primary HD and DVD Burner on one cable, and my capture drive on the other. And it is set for ATA133.

[txpharoah]

Unload any TSR programs and disconnect hard net connections. Good move so far.

Be sure to use the latest ATI drivers. I just upgraded mine to the April 2003 drivers and using MMC 7.7. Older software had errors.

In 2K/XP I think you can up CPU usage manually, nothing I've ever had to do. I've seen it reported on these boards.

For best captures, you should really use the ATI MMC.

Your HD setup and hardware setup seems fine to me.

[holnet]

Unload any TSR programs and disconnect hard net connections. Good move so far.

That program, Enditall, closes all background programs. But before I downloaded that (I read about it on here a few hours ago), I used task manager to end all processes it would let me. Also, I had the onboard LAN completely disabled.

Be sure to use the latest ATI drivers. I just upgraded mine to the April 2003 drivers and using MMC 7.7. Older software had errors.

I didn't even know about MMC 7.7. I just downloaded it. I uninstalled 7.6 and deleted all ATI registry entries. Then installed 7.7. Still no change. Regarding the drivers, I have a AIW 128Pro - not a Radeon. If there are drivers from this month for the 128, then mine are severely outdated. But on ATI's website, for my card the newest drivers are the ones I have (dated sometime in 2001 I think.) But for that matter, the latest MMC on ATI's website for the 128 is 7.2...

In 2K/XP I think you can up CPU usage manually, nothing I've ever had to do. I've seen it reported on these boards.

I just tried increasing the priority of the process. Same result.

For best captures, you should really use the ATI MMC.

The ATI MMC gives the same result (about 50% of frames dropped) but with the added bonus of sluggish response from the mouse and all menus.

BTW, I forgot to mention I am test capturing straight from DSS/TIVO so the quality is good. Also forgot to say that in Virtualdub the CPU usage is reported around 0% to 10%.

Anyway, I appreciate the suggestions.

[holnet]

Well, here's an update... I found a beta version of the next BIOS update on Asus's ftp server so I downloaded it and tried it. No change. Also, I've tried reformatting and installing Windows 2000 (instead of XP). No change. I've played with every BIOS settings I could find. I changed the AGP voltage. Also, I changed the interrupt controller from 'advanced' to regular. The advanced controller introduces new IRQs for devices to use (> 15). So with it on, my video card was using IRQ 17. When I turned it off, everything in the computer went to IRQ 11. So I disabled the LAN and USB controllers and pulled my sound card. This left only the video card on IRQ 11 (verified in Device Manager). Still no change. MMC and all other programs I've tried still drop about half of the frames. If anyone out there has a newer motherboard that allows changes to the BIOS for voltage and AGP/PCI clock mode, etc... Please tell me how yours is setup. I am getting very frustrated. Thank you.

[thesuarus1]

Check this site for info ... http://www.rage3d.com/board/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=24

Some people are able to use the same card as you with the latest MMC 8.1.... 8) 8)

Also try both your HD's on the same cable and the DVD drive on it's own cable, I think I read somewhere that they don't share well....

Also did you install the Intel application accelerator ???.

[holnet]

Thanks for the link. I'll try getting help from there as well. I followed the instructions to install MMC 8.1. And while it's cool to have it installed, it did not help my problem. I tried putting both HDs on the primary controller and the DVD-RW on its own cable. No change. Also, the intel application accelerator is for Intel chipsets only. So it won't work w/my SIS. Actually, I'm starting to think that maybe the SIS chipset is the problem. I mean, I know there were problems w/some of the Radeons running on it because of its 8x AGP capabilities. Although I think the problem with the Radeon was related to actually running at 8x AGP, and of course my AIW 128 Pro only runs at 4x (and I've tried 2x and 1x). But maybe there is some sort of incompatabililty there anyway. I've e-mailed ATI (anyone ever done that??) and they sent me an e-mail at first telling me to check their website (if only it were that simple). But I e-mailed them back w/my ticket# and more info. So maybe they will tell me of an issue with this board/chipset.