Problem: Maybe computer is too slow?

[Guest guest]

The PC in my control box is a 233 MHZ, 256M memory with 8M agp card. I'm using this slower PC because it has an ISA slot for the DIO card that will probably be used this year only. The LOR software and remote desktop are the only things running and installed on this hard disk. It runs XP PRO svpk2.

The problem is when playing the sequence in the editor, I miss beats when the screen has to refresh to the next part of the tune. It's noticable but still usable. I'm using 32 LOR, 40 DIO, and 8 12VDC channels. # of channels makes no difference as the Halloween sequence only uses 10 channels of the 1st LOR unit.

So, how much horsepower does everyone use and has anyone else seen this phenomenon?

Other things that might be asked:

Its a serial connection. 1st unit has only 5 ft. of cable and then 50 to second one. It's the blue PCB's.

[Guest guest]

That computer is really pushing it. It might work if you just use the scheduler and set up a show to play via the control panel. It definitely isn't going to work well (as you've noticed) to do sequencing on, or having sequences play back via the sequence editor.

You don't mention what version of Windows you're using. It's been my experience that even Win98 isn't terribly happy under 256M of RAM-- I've always considered 512K to be a minimum, and under XP 1GB is pretty much the minimum (although you can get away with 512K if you're not doing anything particularly heavy-handed). That machine would probably explode if you tried running XP on it though :laughing:.

-Tim

[Guest guest]

:shock:tfischer wrote:

That computer is really pushing it. It might work if you just use the scheduler and set up a show to play via the control panel. It definitely isn't going to work well (as you've noticed) to do sequencing on, or having sequences play back via the sequence editor.

You don't mention what version of Windows you're using. It's been my experience that even Win98 isn't terribly happy under 256M of RAM-- I've always considered 512K to be a minimum, and under XP 1GB is pretty much the minimum (although you can get away with 512K if you're not doing anything particularly heavy-handed). That machine would probably explode if you tried running XP on it though :laughing:.

-Tim

It running XP PRO sp2. 256M is the most this motherboard will handle. Hopefully the show will run better as it's an alternate of 5 loops of animation sequence followed by a rendition of Monster Mash. Have not yet tried the show as yet. Yes, it exploded once. Don't know why but one morning it just wouldn't boot and got the blue screen of death. I replaced the hard disk and went on with life.

[Guest guest]

I seriously doubt much of anything will work well under XP Pro on that machine. Have you actually used it for non-LOR purposes? That machine would have been from the Win95 or maybe even Win 3.1 days... (My LOR machine is a 766Mhz and it orginally shipped with Win98...)

-Tim

[Guest guest]

No, it's only purpose is to run the LOR show outside. Other than the operating system (used typical settings), LOR is the only installed program. I use Xp for the remote desktop feature.

I get most of my computer parts free. My guess is it is about 1998 vintage. I have other faster boards and CPU's but they didn't have the ISA slot for the DIO...:?

[Guest guest]

I think 512MB is pretty much a minimum usable spec for WinXP... With the work I do (C++ development) even 512MB is so slow I can't stand it...

EDIT: My 766Mhz machine is about 1998 vintage also, maybe early 1999 and it wasn't terribly high-end (gigahertz machines+ were already out when I bought it), so that would have been a pretty low-end machine in 1998...

-Tim

[Guest guest]

My show runs on a 800MHz Pentium 3 with 768 megs of RAM. It runs the show just fine from the scheduler, but trying to run the sequence editor on it is useless. I do all my editing/testing on a Athlon 3200 with 2 gigs of RAM and a nice 256MB video card, then transfer the final files to the show machine.

[Guest guest]

In a prevoius life it ran XENIX with 16M of RAM. That's pretty ancient stuff.... In fact it was too fast for the OS!

It was traded in for an NT server.. I'm a hardware engineer and resident pack-rat so I always take home the obsoletes. At one time, I ran win98 on it.

I typing on a 1.47GHZ 256M DDR box right now and it is faster than the 3gig at work cause there isn't all that spyware and antivirus crap the IT guys load on it that runs in the background. I have a 600MHZ CPU with 256 M running 2003 server for testing weather stations away from their 'secure' (spy-ed on) network and it does it's job well.

[Guest guest]

dschwab9 wrote:

My show runs on a 800MHz Pentium 3 with 768 megs of RAM. It runs the show just fine from the scheduler, but trying to run the sequence editor on it is useless. I do all my editing/testing on a Athlon 3200 with 2 gigs of RAM and a nice 256MB video card, then transfer the final files to the show machine.

If I had that much RAM I'd stay up all night and count it!:shock: I doubt the quanity of RAM is your problem..

Moving on, if you're having problems on hardware I consider pretty quick, you can imagine my delays. Sounds like a good idea, though. I could install the demo LOR on a faster machine and transfer to the show box since they are all on my internal LAN.

This is my first year with a main control box running any kind of software. Before, I stayed in my comfort zone of discreet hardware event sequencers I designed myself. This has been a culture shock, but anyone who sees the events running on my 'light wall' [pic below], has been pretty impressed with my fumbling beginner sequences....



Attached files

[Guest guest]

Last year I used a 200 MHZ with 64MB ram 98se it worked verry good to run the show, the sequece editor grid stoped while the song played as it loaded the next screen. I do all my sequencing on a 2-3 ghz (cant remember) and 512 mb ram XP home SP2 with no problem.




--Daniel L

[Guest guest]

Daniel wrote:

Last year I used a 200 MHZ with 64MB ram 98se it worked verry good to run the show, the sequece editor grid stoped while the song played as it loaded the next screen. --Daniel L

This is what I see, a delay when refreshing the screen. It's mildly annoying but it's good to see it will probably run the show just fine. It's probably the slower CPU rather than lack of RAM in my controller.

[Guest guest]

Roadrat wrote:

Daniel wrote:

Last year I used a 200 MHZ with 64MB ram 98se it worked verry good to run the show, the sequece editor grid stoped while the song played as it loaded the next screen. --Daniel L

This is what I see, a delay when refreshing the screen. It's mildly annoying but it's good to see it will probably run the show just fine. It's probably the slower CPU rather than lack of RAM in my controller.

I too ran my shows on a very old, very slow machine. (Both relative to today's standards.) I wouldn't dare think of sequencing on the machine. However, it ran the shows just fine.