idea on an "old" system

[mrtristan]

I've had a KT133A based system for about three years now. I eventually adjusted everything just right, so that I could capture with little noticeable frame loss. Although I usually capture at 480X480, using huffyuv, I was able to capture at 720X480 with only about 1 frame drop per 5 minutes.

About a month ago, I started to drop a lot of frames. I haven't changed any hardware or software. I did a clean OS install and it didn't help. I also tried four sets of ATI drivers, (each with a clean install), but that didn't help, either.

I thought it might be one of my hard drives, so I installed windows 2000 on each one and ran them separately. That didn't make any difference.

I tried everything that I know to try and diagnose the problem, but I can't figure it out. I'm assuming that it's hardware related, since the same set of software and drivers don't work with the same set of unchanged hardware. The software will never "burn out," but one of my parts can. Too bad they all seem to be working fine.

That's why I'm confused. The one game that I play (WC3) runs perfect, I can encode without a hitch, and internet/e-mail run fine. If it was a chipset, RAM, or CPU problem, I'm assuming those would also be affected.

Anyway, between Virtualdub and iuvcr, it makes absolutely no difference. The manner in which they drop frames is different, but the end result is the same.

If anyone has any ideas, please chip in your advice. Even if you think it might not help, you never know.

Note: I used to overclock my CPU, if that helps any. I think in doing so, I burnt out my old power supply and may have caused some damage to a hard drive that I also burnt out. I've also noticed that my system take a long time to shutdown. This used to happen to me when I first built this computer. It went away by itself, until now - I don't think it's a coincedence that my video capturing has been affected.

[Dodzzz]

Hard drive fragmentation maybe? do you always defrag before capturing?

[mrtristan]

I don't think it's fragmentation. I usually keep my drives pretty empty. One 40Gig hard drive is dedicated to capturing and it's never more than half full.

I'm guessing that my drives are beginning to succumb to the abuse of constant reading and writing. The other processes aren't as hard disk intensive, so that's probably why they aren't affected in any noticeable way.

[mrtristan]

Update:

After putting around with different installation orders and sets of drivers, everything seems to be working okay. Oddly enough, the drivers that screwed up my system work the best, when done with a clean install.

I'm currently using ATI's latest set of drivers and VIA's hyperion drivers. I followed this installation order:

Windows 2000 Pro
Service pack 2
DirectX 9.0
ATI drivers
Capture drivers
Display driver
reboot
Control Panel
Creative Live! drivers
Network card driver

The problem seems to be solved, but I don't know why. I had the same drivers installed before and I was dropping frames like crazy.

[SatStorm]

You probably installed them with a different order!

Also, some times, you have to install with some PCI cards disconect.
I know some Zoom PCI modems need this...

Anyway, you are lucky, 'cause everything works fine now. PCs can drive you crazy sometimes.... I know, look me!!!!