HELP!! After CPU+MoBo upgrade, too many dropped frames

[Greycat]

Please somebody help me!

My old CPU was a Pentium III 1 GHz with Soyo motherboard (VIA chipset) and I was able to capture with no dropped frames with 352 x 480 at
30 fps, using MJPEG codec quality 19 and CD-quality audio (using a SB-AWE 64 ISA sound card). This was Ok for me to make VCDs. But after a long and happy time doing that my system started freezing all the time and the problem was the motherboard, so I decided it's time for an upgrade and bought a Pentium 4 1.8 GHz and a new Asus SY-P4I845PE Lite motherboard (Intel chipset). Since this MoBo has no ISA slots, I "retired" my good-and-old AWE 64 and am using now the on-board sound until I can buy a decent PCI sound card. But for my surprise, my captures now are dropping *lots* of frames at the same resolution and framerate! The CPU usage with MJPEG codec increased from nice 30% to 60-70% and sometimes even more! When I capture only video, not sound, the frame dropping stops, but it's useless for me and anyway the increased CPU usage problem is still there, so the problem isn't only the on-board audio! Why the increased CPU usage even when the sound isn't captured? Shouldn't it decrease with the P4-1.8GHz?

I am really disappointed and very upset -- the upgrade was very expensive and simply made my equipament useless for capturing. I wonder whether an upgrade of my OS from Win98 to XP would make some difference, but since my capture card doesn't work well with XP (the XP drivers are crap) I prefer to stick with W98.

Does someone please have an answer for that?!?

[Greycat]

I wrote:

I decided it's time for an upgrade and bought a Pentium 4 1.8 GHz and a new Asus SY-P4I845PE Lite motherboard (Intel chipset).

Sorry. My new motherboard is SOYO, not ASUS.

And I repeat my request:
Does someone please have an answer for that?!?

[dun4cheap]

Well the good news is your in a better situation the badnews is you will need a new audio card. First off the 845 chipset in general is a good chipset, so the first thing you should do is install the intel application accelerator, so goto Intels web page and do that. This #1 will allow larger hard drive abilities, but more importantly it will increase the transfer rate for your hard drives. Remember the old days of busmastering, meaning the CPU was not required to process harddrive access, same thing here. It will also help speed up everyday access to applications.

On board audio for years now has been a serious problem for any kind of video capturing, put right its not going to work, to many bottleknecks with the architecture. You should go and get yourself a SB Live!5.1 or Audigy2 card. The SB Live!5.1 oems are $32 so squeeze it from somewhere.

I assume you are already using 7200RPM or faster drives with ATA 100, if not than you just as well have stayed with the p3 system. Memory is also a must have. While Win98 and ME are limited to a max of 512Megs of use full ram, XP,NT 2000 run sweet with 1024 and above.

Bios settings, well you need to make sure none of the cache is slowing you down, video bios should be disable.

Tests, I know the ATI Multimedia Center has a basic system test, probably the most important test is the sound delay should +-.002 delay anything larger will cause dropped frames and sync problems.


Last but not least, make sure your capture card is not sharing an IRQ with your video card or your sound cards. Also make sure this is true for your Sound and Video cards. This is where xp or nt fair better, much better control with this.

I was able to capture with my 1.6P4 and Intel wn845 board with sdram without dropping frames, VCD, SVCD, DVD at the highest settings without frame loss. But you are using a intel chipset on a soyo board, their could possibly be timing problems with the pci architecture which could possibly cause loss of frames or audio sync.

You never did mention what type of video card you are using. Believe it or not you need to make sure you have a decent video card and updated drivers, this can by itself create bottleknecks.


Lastly, your upgrade to an already obsolete processor what did this cost you. I know here in San Diego, I just bought a p4 2.66/533 processor and ecs l4vxd2 motherboard for $159. I did not use the ecs board, I sold it for $60 and put an Intel 875pbzk in which cost more for the board than the processor $149.99 but I require stability not only for my video editing but I design computer software, so I can't afford any problems.

Fry's today has a 2.4Celeron and via motherboard for $69 today, don't know how they do it, but I bought one, to sell to someone. It would suffice for video capturing without any worries.


Well I hope some of my rambling helps you out.

[Greycat]

dun4cheap:

Thanks for your help.


My HD is a Maxtor 80 GB-7200 RPM, so I think that's not the problem.
Memory: 256 MB DDR 266MHz

Last but not least, make sure your capture card is not sharing an IRQ with your video card or your sound cards. Also make sure this is true for your Sound and Video cards. This is where xp or nt fair better, much better control with this.

That is a problem. After upgrading to the new motherboard, the Intel drivers installed lots of things and now my system has many shared IRQs, especially the video and capture card... I don't know how to fix this up -- I may be wrong but none of them allows me to change IRQs.

You never did mention what type of video card you are using. Believe it or not you need to make sure you have a decent video card and updated drivers, this can by itself create bottleknecks.

Video card is GeForce 4 MX 440 Lite (AGP), newest nVidia driver installed.

Lastly, your upgrade to an already obsolete processor what did this cost you. I know here in San Diego, I just bought a p4 2.66/533 processor and ecs l4vxd2 motherboard for $159. I did not use the ecs board, I sold it for $60 and put an Intel 875pbzk in which cost more for the board than the processor $149.99 but I require stability not only for my video editing but I design computer software, so I can't afford any problems.

Well, I make video capturing/edition just for hobby. Anyway, to buy or
not to buy the best/up-to-date CPU/MoBo is not only a matter of choice for me, especially in the country where I live where imported computer stuff is really expensive... (but this is another story)

Thanks again for your help!

[dun4cheap]

The shared IRQ is a simple fix in most cases. The video card I assume is AGP and in the AGP slot, so make sure you do not put you capture card in the pci slot next to the AGP slot. They share the same IRQ. I like to pace my cards out leaving spots between them. Simply move the capture card to another slot until it gets is own IRQ. This by itself may cure your problems..

[Greycat]

Thanks for your hints, dun4cheap!

I solved my problem!

Your advices on shared IRQs improved the captures, but the main reason for the poor performance with the new system was because the F*** guy who set the new hardware and reinstalled the OS at the store simply forgot to enable the hard disk DMA!!!

My fault was to think that some "technicians" should be aware about this elementary knowledge...

Thanks!