@CarpentersMate

It could well be.

It's not normally a good idea to have anything else running that may need the use of some of the graphics cards resources. I'm not sure that looking at still images should be an issue but certainly looking at video footage outside of MEP while MEP is running will at the least make MEP freeze or crash if you are exporting at the time. Opening an app from within MEP I think releases the graphics card from MEP while the other program is running. The same thing can happen with audio drivers. Or it could be that the other program is also using something MEP is using at the same time. A lot of programs rely on either QuickTime or Flash to work. I also work with MEP but use the latest version with an older version of Photoshop at the same time and don't have any conflicts when editing stills. Photoshop can use a lot of memory though so I guess it wouldn't be impossible to trip up MEP if in use at the same time. I'm running 16 gig of memory. Just opening Photoshop can run the memory requirements up by 5.1gig. Some people would think running 16gig of memory is not enough but I get by at present.

Photoshop should not be in trouble by you not altering the amount of virtual memory from a Windows basic install setup, but I needed to buy a book to set up Photoshop properly. Windows, on the other hand, can get into trouble setting up virtual memory at too high or low an amount. To be safe it's probably best to keep the virtual memory around the same size as the amount of physical memory you have installed. Also never let your C: drive get too full. I would think that to run both programs together you would need about 20 gig of hard drive space free. Possibly somewhat more to allow swap files to move about while the programs run.

@CubeAce, @CarpentersMate

Hi

. . . . Also never let your C: drive get too full. I would think that to run both programs together you would need about 20 gig of hard drive space free . . . .

If you only have a single drive for everything then I would consider 20 GB of free space insufficient, a more realistic free space figure is 25% of the hard drive/SSD size.

If you have a small SSD drive eg 128 GB for the OS and programs- you can also save some disc space by:

• turning off the Hibernate option in Windows - this releases the space taken up by the hiberfil.sys
• clean out the Windows log files, temp files etc - run disc cleanup

HTH

John EB

@johnebaker

I agree the more C: drive space you have free the better.

I do get panicky if my hard drive gets close to being half full and always keep the free space above 250gig, but when I run MEP it doesn't seem to require that much space during export. Photoshop, on the other hand, has to be kept in check. Opening multiple files would soon eat up both memory and hard drive space. I was trying to think of the limit where it may still work, but you may well be right and will need much more than I thought.

It's been a long time since I had these types of problems.

My other concern here though is setting virtual memory. Sometimes it can seem like a good idea to increase virtual memory to compensate for the lack of physical memory and it really isn't a good idea.

Also with Win7, you have the option to configure the machine to be optimised for running programs or background tasks. It used to be wise to set the PC to give preference to background tasks for some programs but now it seems to run smoother setting the preference to optimise for running programs.

@CubeAce

Hi

. . . . My other concern here though is setting virtual memory. Sometimes it can seem like a good idea to increase virtual memory to compensate for the lack of physical memory and it really isn't a good idea. . . . .

IMHO it is best to let Windows handle the virtual memory (page file) unless you have 32 GB or more RAM then I would turn it off completely.

John EB

@CarpentersMate

Hi Mike

. . . . residual Nvidia file which I cannot get rid of called Error in C: Missing entry: #13. . . . It 'could' have something to do with how I'm 'CENTERING' font-text-captions . . . . .

Re-reading your comments and the error log, I suspect the issue is caused by a corrupt NVidia driver or setting in the NVidia control panel - the Error . . . 13 - while MEP is trying to display the centred captions - ie all the QWinWidget::showCentered . . . . lines in the error log.

. . . . Error in C: Missing entry: #13 . . . . I'll have to REFORMAT in order to get rid of that . . . .

That should not be necessary - see if this topic helps.

. . . . To be safe it's probably best to keep the virtual memory around the same size as the amount of physical memory you have installed . . . .

It is better to let Windows manage this rather then setting it manually.

. . . . I'll try turning off virtual memory . . .

As I commented only do this if you have 32 GB or more of RAM, for 16GB it is better to let Windows manage the virtual memory/page file size, it will dynamically adjust the size as required.

HTH

John EB

@CarpentersMate

Hi Mike.

I'm not sure about this though I went through something similar a long time ago but never found a satisfactory resolution. I even installed a virtual machine to run an older copy of windows to try to run some older programs. It didn't work. Nor did a dual boot system, as I could not get hold of drivers that would work with some of the hardware and the ports needed no longer existed on new motherboards. I have some very expensive audio cards lying around that are now useless. One has an old Yamaha DX synth built into it that I miss, not to mention some very cool reverb echo and phase tools.

I'm sure if I'm wrong about this John will find a solution.

Ray.

Just noticed John has replied before me.

How old is your copy of Photoshop? Can it manage the same screen settings as MEP?

@CarpentersMate

"Unfortunately I got into sort of a pissing match here a while ago when I mentioned I wasn't crazy about the fact I had to keep all media files within the same system drive in order for Magix to recognize & connect to that media, (unless I missed something)?"

I must take exception to your comment here - I have not seen one of the experienced members who answer 95% of the questions here ever get into a ....... match with other members. They always supply helpful answers to the best of their knowledge and say or accept correction graciously if they are beyond that. Magix has acted with incredibly good common sense IMHO when putting in bold letters at No1 in the community rules "This is a Community - not a competition". Other forums could take note!

You were missing something - I vaguely remember the discussion and I do not believe any one was suggesting that you put everything on the system drive, especially not the Media files. They were advising against the use of external drives that can reduce throughput via the computers (USB) host controller or a bridge chip within the external housing, as opposed to a drive inside your computer attaching directly to the Sata bus. Since then you have put your PC config. in your signature and I can see your external drives are connected by eSata which is virtually the same as having them internal, so you should have no problems there.

I dont know much about reading the crash logs but AFAIK an Access Violation is when a program is trying to access memory that windows is using for another process so it could be a memory issue with your setup. I agree entirely with JohnEB that that Windows should be left to handle Virtual Memory ie. the default Win setting. In the past when we only had 32bit versions and machines with only 4GB of memory I read a lot of comments from all sorts of sources suggesting setting fixed VM amounts but it never seemed to help. Then I read a comment from a Senior Microsoft person who explained in detail why it was a bad idea so have always left it at the Win default.

On the same vein @CubeAce mentioned the Win performance setting to favour background tasks. In the early days Magix advised using this setting but it always seemed an odd thing to do?

I would never run any other program whilst using an NLE no matter how much RAM or VM I had. I use the "Empty Undo and memory cache" in the top Edit Menu when doing intensive editing procedures and before starting a render, or close and reopen the program to unload the memory.

Peter