choppy video output from Premiere 6.5

[noki]

Hi all,

have used my computer for the past 7 years to edit video footages using v6.5 with Win2k 512M RAM, Nvidia videocard, etc. Source material have been AVI, QT, Mpeg1, Mpeg2, WMV.

For the last 6 months the video output, even from Premiere's Preview window have not played back smoothly (is very choppy/jerky) after rendering the timeline. If you watch the timeline as the preview is progressing (after rendering) the indicator (the vertical bar) JUMPS from second to second with a resultant JUMPY video preview to match instead of flowing smoothly. and of course the final video after encoding with Cleaner mirrors the preview in Premiere; choppy.

I have not loaded any software or installed any hardware during this problematic time frame. I am using my laptop to edit the videos in the meantime. would like to go back using my desktop again, though.

mainly because my most recent project locked up Premiere on my laptop after Cleaner analyzes the video and goes into the encoding mode (after about 6 minutes of encoding). The source file for this project is a very hi-quality MPEG-2 file (6kbps video data rate). I processed the same file on my choppy desktop and it completes the encoding and flattening, but with a choppy output.

So is there any video expert out there that might have any insight with the problem my desktop is experiencing???

Thank you in advance.

[noki]

any takers? thanks again.

[JohnnyMalaria]

What hard drive configuration do you have on your desktop?

If you have just one drive, may be it is getting very full or needs defragmenting.

[noki]

JohnnyMalaria,
thanks for responding. Single hard drive partitioned into 3 logicals, one of which is set for applications. all four have lots of Gigs free. also have alloted 1Gig for virtual memory. defragment level okay (less than 5% of files are defragmented).

[JohnnyMalaria]

Which partition does Premiere use for its temporary files?

Also, does the computer in question have an internet connection? Have you checked for malware?

[noki]

The DATA partition is used to house the temp files (lots of free space). Has an Internet connection but is not connected to my cable modem (using my laptop to surf). also does not do wireless. It has been used to surf in the past 6 months though. But have run lotsa spyware, adware, worm, etc-ware utilities, and for all intents and purpose a clean machine.

how would I know if my video codecs all of a sudden went south? maybe that's where the problem is. Or maybe even Premiere is corrupt. any thought on that? have not installed any software on my desktop in a long time.

BTW the original video files play back nicely using WMPlayer, or Quicktime Player, or PowerDVD for MPEG-2 files.

Think I will re-install 6.5 this weekend if no other alternatives surface.

Thanks.