Playback stutter after reinstalling 3.0 -ACID Product Family

Subject:Playback stutter after reinstalling 3.0 Posted by: JayM Date:11/8/2002 6:51:31 AM I've got an annoying little problem that's driving me up a wall. A couple of days ago I had to reinstall Acid 3.0 because of a conflict with a previous SoFo app. Everything was going swimmingly, except that now my Acid can only handle about 5 minutes of playback time before it starts to stutter. Smells like a resource conflict, right? Well, here's the trick: the resource config on the PC has not changed. Still have 128 MB RAM, still the same old processor, sound card, etc. The only thing changed was Acid was reinstalled. Same version of Acid, same CD and serial #. Never exhibited this behavior before reinstallation. Now here is the kicker. Older project files, created before reinstallation, and longer than 5 minutes, play back fine, beginning to end. It's only files created since reinstallation that hitch. First I thought it was the file, so I went through gymanstics to clean it, then finally started a brand new project and recreated it from scratch. Still have the same problem. Memory? I have 128, the project file is 28, no problem. But just in case, I brought the system down to a bare minimum: literally all that's running in the process space is Windows Explorer, Acid, and Norton Anti-Virus. Still have the problem. Sound card? Unchanged, but I jacked the playback buffer to its maximum (1 second). That extended the playback time from 4 1/2 minutes to 5, but still get stutter. (Remember, the sound card and the drivers have not been changed.) Playback device? Tried both the Sound Mapper and the Wave Driver going directly to the audio card. No change. Temporarily I can get around the problem by rendering to a wav file and listening to the song that way. (Rendering is unaffected, and the wav file plays back fine, so this is an Acid problem no doubt.) But you can't imagine what a pain in the ass it is. In the final stages of my projects, I listen to the output over and over, 15-20 times, fixing and tweaking little things. Now, every tweak, I have to re-render the wav file to get the full impact. Oh, by the way, it's not a region problem either. When I start from the affected point, everything plays back without stutter, so it's a time problem. Couldn't find anything useful in the Knowledge Base. I've been up all night, so the neurons aren't firing as well as they ought to, but I can't see anything useful in the self-help options. I was thinking of updating Acid, but it's a huge download (I'm on dial-up), and again, I have not done anything except reinstall the product, so I shouldn't have to update anything. (Yes, I know I should do it anyway, but I don't buy that that's my solution.) The only thing I can think of is that between the original installation and the reinstallation I updated DirectX to the latest version. But how could that affect my playback buffer? Only using three FX in the project, all Sonic Foundry "optimized". So I ask you, wtf? BTW, PC config: Pentium (forget what kind exactly, but probably 3 or 4) @ 1.3 GHz 128 MB RAM (Rambus, no less) Windows ME Help!
Subject:RE: Playback stutter after reinstalling 3.0 Reply by: MyST Date:11/8/2002 7:05:52 AM For starters... disable the anti-virus. Disconnect your internet if your worried. Also, you've un-installed and re-istalled a few times, have you defragged since then? 128 RAM is low, you might want to bump it up to 256, but that's only a side note, since your system was working fine before. M
Subject:RE: Playback stutter after reinstalling 3.0 Reply by: JayM Date:11/8/2002 8:40:13 PM OK, again: This was working fine before the installation with the anti-virus running. Also, I defrag every week. And I only reinstalled once. Jay

I've got an annoying little problem that's driving me up a wall. A couple of days ago I had to reinstall Acid 3.0 because of a conflict with a previous SoFo app. Everything was going swimmingly, except that now my Acid can only handle about 5 minutes of playback time before it starts to stutter.
Smells like a resource conflict, right? Well, here's the trick: the resource config on the PC has not changed. Still have 128 MB RAM, still the same old processor, sound card, etc. The only thing changed was Acid was reinstalled. Same version of Acid, same CD and serial #. Never exhibited this behavior before reinstallation.
Now here is the kicker. Older project files, created before reinstallation, and longer than 5 minutes, play back fine, beginning to end. It's only files created since reinstallation that hitch.
First I thought it was the file, so I went through gymanstics to clean it, then finally started a brand new project and recreated it from scratch. Still have the same problem.
Memory? I have 128, the project file is 28, no problem. But just in case, I brought the system down to a bare minimum: literally all that's running in the process space is Windows Explorer, Acid, and Norton Anti-Virus. Still have the problem.
Sound card? Unchanged, but I jacked the playback buffer to its maximum (1 second). That extended the playback time from 4 1/2 minutes to 5, but still get stutter. (Remember, the sound card and the drivers have not been changed.)
Playback device? Tried both the Sound Mapper and the Wave Driver going directly to the audio card. No change.
Temporarily I can get around the problem by rendering to a wav file and listening to the song that way. (Rendering is unaffected, and the wav file plays back fine, so this is an Acid problem no doubt.) But you can't imagine what a pain in the ass it is. In the final stages of my projects, I listen to the output over and over, 15-20 times, fixing and tweaking little things. Now, every tweak, I have to re-render the wav file to get the full impact.
Oh, by the way, it's not a region problem either. When I start from the affected point, everything plays back without stutter, so it's a time problem.
Couldn't find anything useful in the Knowledge Base. I've been up all night, so the neurons aren't firing as well as they ought to, but I can't see anything useful in the self-help options. I was thinking of updating Acid, but it's a huge download (I'm on dial-up), and again, I have not done anything except reinstall the product, so I shouldn't have to update anything. (Yes, I know I should do it anyway, but I don't buy that that's my solution.)
The only thing I can think of is that between the original installation and the reinstallation I updated DirectX to the latest version. But how could that affect my playback buffer? Only using three FX in the project, all Sonic Foundry "optimized". So I ask you, wtf?
BTW, PC config:
Pentium (forget what kind exactly, but probably 3 or 4) @ 1.3 GHz
128 MB RAM (Rambus, no less)
Windows ME
Help!