VEGAS ERROR! - A NEW TWIST

mR_v1cToR wrote on 5/10/2006, 2:38 PM

Hey what's up to anyone reading this....I posted a few weeks back about an error I was getting when I tried to start Vegas. Now there is a new twist to this whole problem which may help narrow down the solutions. First off I will repost my 1st message just in case you missed it....(message contiued further down)
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1st Post
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I am a registered Vegas user. I have successfully used Vegas 5.0 for approximately a year. I have been running Windows 2000 on my PC. Recently, I purchased some software that required Windows XP so I upgraded my OS. I installed all the critical updates for Windows XP including SP2. I then installed all my software back onto the SAME EXACT PC. No hardware changes were made. The only change made was the OS. I installed Vegas 5.0 and now every time I try to start Vegas I get this error:

"An error occurred starting Vegas. The system is low on memory. You may be able to reduce memory usage by closing other applications."

I never once had this issue with the Windows 2000 OS. I then reformatted my drive again and reinstalled Windows XP and all updates. This time I installed Vegas before any other software. I then tried to run Vegas with no other applications running or installed for that matter. I keep getting the same error. As a test, I installed Vegas on another PC I own. This PC has Windows XP with the same updates. I have no problem running Vegas on that PC however I do not want to use that PC because all my hard drives (5 total) containing all my media are on my main PC. I really need some help getting Vegas running again on my main PC. Vegas is my only video editing software and I am currently in the middle of a project that requires Vegas. I appreciate any help you can give me. Please contact me as soon as possible. Thank you very much.

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OK...so I decided that it was time for a new computer because the P4 1.8GHz I was running just wasn't cutting it with all the plugins I like to use....THE TWIST: I bought a new motherboard, chip, and ram and I'm still getting the same exact error...I reformatted my C: drive again and tried installing Windows XP Pro SP2 instead of Window XP Home. WHAT GIVES??? ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

NEW HARDWARE
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Motherboard- Gigabyte P4 Titan GA-8IPE1000 with Intel 865 PE chipset
Chip - P4 3E GHz 800MHz FSB and 1MB L2 cache
RAM - 2 sticks of 1GB DDR PC3200

Comments

Jayster wrote on 5/10/2006, 2:56 PM

Recently I had problems when I installed XP. Figured out why. I had a big network share with lots of files on it. XP defaulted to a setting that enabled "synchronize offline files." It was building a cache copy of all the network files into a subfolder of C:\Windows until the drive was full. I solved it by using the explorer interface for synching of offline files to delete the cache and disable the synching.

Check your system drive and see if it is nearly full. If it is, then this might be happening to you.

johnmeyer wrote on 5/10/2006, 5:02 PM

OK...so I decided that it was time for a new computer because the P4 1.8GHz I was running just wasn't cutting it with all the plugins I like to use....

One possibility ... and I mentioned this just yesterday in another post ... some plugins will cause Vegas to crash, sometimes at load time. I would recommend either uninstalling, or simply moving the "foreign" plugin DLLs somewhere else (they are in your C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas 6.0\Video Plug-Ins folder, and also in the C:\Program Files\Sony\Filters folder).

fldave wrote on 5/10/2006, 5:56 PM

Is Microsoft .net 1.1 installed? Not sure if it is part of the standard windows updates. Also Direct X 9x may be needed for some plugins. Not even sure if Vegas 5 needs it.

Those kinds of things would be a common denominator with Win XP showing the same error between 2 machines.

Also search this forum for a recent post within the last week about disabling unnecessary services in Windows XP. Turn off XP firewall, all antivirus (if you are not connected to the net) and see if that helps. Check your paging file, make sure it is 1.5x your physical ram. Even with 2 GB, you need a swap file of some kind.

mR_v1cToR wrote on 5/11/2006, 9:57 AM

thanks fldave,
I got Microsoft .net 1.1 installed and directx 9.0c so that should rule that out...as far as the paging file goes, how/where do I check that?

fldave wrote on 5/11/2006, 10:12 AM

My Computer \ Properties \ Advanced \ Performance button \ Advanced.
Bottom of that tab is Virtual Memory. Click Change.
You can put a paging file on any drive, and more than one drive, but they recommend at least some (256MB) on your System drive (usually C:).
With 2GB, you should have 2-3 GB swap file. I wouldn't go over 3.

Do you have an antivirus running? Strange that your new installs of XP won't run. Did you upgrade the power supply also? Newer processors/motherboards take a lot more power now.

Tech Diver wrote on 5/11/2006, 11:45 AM

I did a web search on the expression "The system is low on memory" and found some posts on another Vegas forum from Sept 2004. Here is the pointer:

http://www.videouniversity.com/forum/Video_University_Forums_C1/Wedding_&_Event_Videography_F16/Vegas5_low_memory_rendering_problem_P125766

Several causes and solutions are mentioned.

I ran across four other forums discussing this very issue, but three were in German and one in Russian.

Jayster wrote on 5/11/2006, 12:06 PM

Tech Diver:
The link you are referring to discusses an "out of memory" error that happens during a render. I think the original poster is complaining that Vegas never actually starts successfully, i.e. he never even gets to look at it, much less do a render.

Regardless, thanks for the link you've provided. I am experiencing this same problem during renders. And I've been doing lots of prerenders so I can stitch together a viewable project.

And I've learned that on my 64 bit Windows XP, I get to actually use a lot more RAM and VM before the error occurs (though it still does occur).

mR_v1cToR wrote on 5/11/2006, 1:36 PM

I have my paging file set to: Custom: Initial Size: 2046 MB, Maximum Size: 4092 MB

I don't have any antivirus software running. I tried turning windows xp firewall off...didn't make a difference. I had upgraded my power supply a year ago to a 400 watt supply. I'm pretty sure that should be sufficient. Any other suggestions?

fldave wrote on 5/11/2006, 2:01 PM

Two utilities:

Memtest86:
http://www.memtest86.com/

SiSoft Sandra for full machine analysis. Never hurts after a new upgrade or new machine:
http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2086-10018691.html

I honestly don't think it's a Vegas problem. It started when you upgraded to XP.

Rosebud wrote on 5/11/2006, 10:28 PM

have you consulted the knowledgebase ?

http://www.custcenter.com/cgi-bin/sonypictures.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1155&p_created=1100011774&p_sid=7wiZph7i&p_accessibility=0&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9NjMmcF9wcm9kcz0xNyZwX2NhdHM9MCZwX3B2PTEuMTcmcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9ubCZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PW91dCBvZiBtZW1vcnk*&p_li=&p_topview=1

johnmeyer wrote on 5/12/2006, 8:46 AM

You still haven't mentioned whether you checked your plugin folder. Another way to do this is to open the fX dialog. Does every fX say "Sony?" If not, what are the non-Sony fX called? (i.e., what company name, and what is the fX?)

mR_v1cToR wrote on 5/12/2006, 12:06 PM

John,
I checked the sony folders that u mentioned, removed the sony plugins from those folders but still no luck. I do have third party plugins installed. They show up in my fx dialog and include: PSP pianoverb, Waves Native Gold bundle, Waves Restoration bundle, Izotope Ozone, Spectron, Trash, and Vinyl, Timeworks reverb, phaser, and delay, Pixelan SpiceFilters, Pixelan SpiceMaster, IK Multimedia Amplitube.

Rosebud,
I checked out that link and tried the regedit but still no luck...thank you for your efforts...

This has been a crazy and frustrating upgrade to windows XP which I never wanted to do...I was completely happy with Window 2000 Pro but I just bought ProTools and was forced to upgrade because it only runs on Windows XP :(

johnmeyer wrote on 5/12/2006, 12:29 PM

I checked the sony folders that u mentioned, removed the sony plugins from those folders but still no luck.

No, do NOT remove the SONY plugins; instead remove the third-party plugins. I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that one of them is the cause of all this.

mR_v1cToR wrote on 5/12/2006, 12:42 PM

well, there were no thrid party plugins in the sony folders....should I just uninstall ALL third party plugins and then try from there?

johnmeyer wrote on 5/12/2006, 1:25 PM

You should try uninstalling plugins ONLY if they appear in the fX dialogs within Vegas. As I mentioned in the other thread, you need to look in these folders (found under the Sony folder within the Program Files folder):

Filters (this is where the Mike Crash plugin resides).

For the remainder, you will find them in various folders starting at this level:

C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas 6.0

The easiest way to find them is to search starting here, and specify:

*.dll

as the search parameter.

Then, sort the result by date. All the Sony plugins should have the same date (e.g., 2/13/2006 for Vegas 6.0d dlls). You will then find other plugins that are obviously licensed by Sony and part of the normal installation. A good example of this is the real media stuff. You'll find these in the

C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas 6.0\FileIO Plug-Ins\rm9plug

folder. These are OK to leave intact because they came from Sony.

You may find some others like

AAFCOAPI.1.0.2.dll

If you are unsure where they came from, right-click and choose Properties. Click on the "version" tab and you will be able to find out what company they came from. In this case, it is from AAF Association and is again clearly something that ships with Vegas.

However, the one thing I found on my system that is clearly NOT part of Vegas' original install is this one:

DebugMode.Wax.dll

Since it is clearly named, I know exactly what it is from the file name, but if it had been labeled with a more obscure file name, I could right-click and through the properties menu get more information (actually, I just looked, and Satish didn't provide any information).

The simples thing to do is to close down Vegas, and take all the DLLs you found and rename them to have a different extension, like OLD instead of DLL. Once you have done this, re-open Vegas, open your project, and try again. If for some reason this doesn't work and you get messages about third-party pluins not loading, then you'll have to remove the plugins using the add/remove feature in Windows.

One last hint: If you keep the Explorer window open that you used to rename all the DLL files, you can simple select undo multiple times to rename all the OLD files back to DLL (you'll have to shut down Vegas before you do this).

mR_v1cToR wrote on 5/12/2006, 1:35 PM

I just uninstalled all third party plugins, restarted the computer, and tried opening Vegas....still getting the same error! This is insane!!!!!!!

Now that I think back....vegas was the first program I installed (before other software and plugins) on the computer after a fresh install of XP and I was getting the error so I'm thinking maybe it doesn't have to do with the plugins...but it was worth a shot...I'll give anything a shot at this point....I'm coming up on a month that I've been trying to get Vegas up and running again...I've even tried installing the newset version of Vegas and I still get the same exact error...

johnmeyer wrote on 5/12/2006, 2:00 PM

I just uninstalled all third party plugins, restarted the computer, and tried opening Vegas....still getting the same error! This is insane!!!!!!!

OK, go ahead and reinstall those.

From one of your earlier posts:

I have my paging file set to: Custom: Initial Size: 2046 MB, Maximum Size: 4092 MB

1. I assume that no other application is complaining. Open Vegas. Options -> Preferences -> General tab. Is the Temporary Files folder pointing to a valid location, and how much free space is reported?

2. You have re-installed Vegas several times during this "exercise." Did you do this by reinstalling from the setup.exe files, or did you simply copy files back into the Program Files folder?

3. Vegas works on your other computer. On the "bad" computer, you have replaced many of the components, except for the hard drive. Let's focus on that some more. How many partitions are on that drive? Are both the operating system and Vegas on the C: partition/drive? Where exactly are your temp files (you can/change that following the same track you use to get to the paging files, namely right click on My Computer, choose Properties, then Advanced tab - > Environment Variables. The TEMP and TMP variables should both be defined.

4. Have you done a thorough check on your hard drive? I should probably have put this first in this post. Open Explorer and for each drive letter associated with this physical drive, do the following: Right-click on the drive letter and select Properties. Click on Tools and then the Check Now button. Click on the "Automatically Fix File System Errors." Repeat this for every other disk letter associated with the main physical drive. When finished, re-boot. The disk checking actually takes place during the re-boot. It takes several minutes (3-4 typically) for each drive. If errors are found, you will see messages to that effect. Doing a check disk WITHOUT clicking on "Automatically fix ..." and then re-booting will NOT fix the kinds of errors that might cause the problems you are having.

Of course, in your initial post, you did say that you reformatted your drive, and this typically would fix these kinds of problems, so this may not help ...

You could also open the Control Panel, Open System, and then Hardware tab and Device Manager. Any yellow exclamation points? Under IDE ATA/ATAPI, for Primary and Secondary, when you look at advanced settings, is DMA enabled? Normally if it isn't things simply run dog-slow, but it might cause more serious problems.

fldave wrote on 5/12/2006, 2:09 PM

1) Check to make sure all of your memory is read by XP:
-- My Computer \ Properties. On the General Tab, under Computer: you should see your processor(s) and amount of RAM. Make sure the RAM number is correct.

2) Before you launch Vegas, launch Task Manager (right-click your task bar, select Task Manager), then click the "Processes" tab. Click the Mem Usage column to sort large to small.
--What is taking up so much RAM?
--Performance Tab: Check Physical Memory Available

3) With Task manager open on the Processes Tab (sorted Large to Small) launch Vegas and see what happens. Anything change in the list?

4) Check the Performance tab and see how your Physical Memory numbers change, you can also see page file activity here.

You can also go into XP's Administrative Tools \ Computer Management \ System Tools \ Event Viewer. There may be some system errors that are logged when you launch Vegas.

johnmeyer wrote on 5/12/2006, 2:17 PM

fldave,

Great tips!

fldave wrote on 5/12/2006, 2:20 PM

You too, John.
Now if we can only get it working!

JJKizak wrote on 5/12/2006, 2:53 PM

1....Make sure you formatted the hard drive with the same allocation as the other drives. Sometimes this will make a difference.
2....Put your paging file back to default.
3...Win2k leaves a lot of secret info on your other drives. You may have to double zero them.
4...If you have Microsoft .net 2.0 blow it out and use 1.1. Sometimes .net 2.0 will reak havoc. After the .net 2.0 unistall it will revert to 1.1. Some video cards do not like .net 2.0 (Matrox)
5...If your project veg file was created in V5 with the old OS and hard drive allocation when you opened it in V6 with the new OS and hard drive allocation things might be a bit sticky, but then again they might not.
6...Is the motherboard designed for the brand of memory you have?
Check the websites.
7...Uninstal Vegas. Uninstall Microsoft media manager. Open explorer and delete all Sony files including Sony setup files. Use the search function of win2k. Re-install Sony Vegas and media manager.
8...Send it to my guru buddy. He needs the money

JJK

johnmeyer wrote on 5/12/2006, 5:37 PM

If you want to test your memory (which might not be a bad idea), the memtest86 is the standard tool. I had similar issues after I upgraded memory. I went out of my way to get precisely the same brand and stamping for the memory to rule out all possible problems, but nonetheless, the memory was simply bad. However, it wasn't completely bad, and the computer would run for awhile, and then act up, usually with one particular program (which I assume accessed memory locations not visited by other programs). I ran memtest32 and it quite clearly pinpointed the problem.

Dan Sherman wrote on 5/12/2006, 6:20 PM

Have been struggling with similar problem to V1cToR.
Overall sluggishness, crashing, Vegas shuttingdown, only being able to render about a minute and a half at a time.
Hope you don't mind if I follow along here.

When I go to computer management /event viewer/application I get four errors (red circle with the white X).
Under "system" there are no end of errors listed.
"Driver has encouuntered an internal error " is popping up.
Yep that appears to be the same with each error.
Source is listed as EL2000,---whatever that is.
But what to we do.

fldave wrote on 5/12/2006, 6:53 PM

Sherman:
Are you running German version of XP, and/or do you have a 3COM Network card? There are reported problems with 3COM cards with XP with EL2000 driver pool.
Might try disabling the card, uninstalling the drivers and see if that helps. Then find good drivers.
Dave

Edited: might find more recent drivers first, before you disable your card!