DescentBB

Yo,

I have a problem with degrading video performance on my media center box. The performance starts to degrade after running programs such as Roxio, or downloading a large file. Everything is fine after I reboot, and stays good as long as I don’t do anything else with the machine.

Any ideas short of rebooting all the time.

System:

HP Media Center
AMD Dual 2.6g
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium
2 gigs System Ram
400 gig SATA HD
NVIDIA 7300 GT with 512 onboard ram
System allots another gig for a total of 1.5 gig video ram

I was looking for something that reclaims ram or some such thing, without rebooting.

Spidey

Degrade in what way?

As in becoming a slide show.

Is some process using up a lot of CPU time after you run these other programs?

Sounds like overheating kinda.

No, Cpu usage is normal...I'll check into overheating, but I doubt that’s it because the problem still exists after the machine has been asleep overnight. And I can run Videos
@1360x768 32 bit color all day and night without a problem. It’s only after I do other things with the machine that the problem starts.

its vista.

It has a habit of eating up ram for its file cache, so it has to take time to empty the cache to do other things.

are you sure that video card has onboard ram - if it did, it wouldn't be needing to be using system ram.

Yes, the card has 512 megs onboard mem, but the system still allots another gig…should I try to change this to no system ram allocated for video?

fliptw wrote:its vista.

It has a habit of eating up ram for its file cache, so it has to take time to empty the cache to do other things.

Downsizing the cache does not take any time. So this cannot be the cause.

Sounds like it's not really degrading video then. It's just slowing the crap down due to something eating up your memory. Most likely something in the background.



Has it always been like this?


If it has gradually become worse, then I would say you need to run cCleaner and run Spybot.


If it has always been like this: Turn off the Vista Arrow theme and all the extra garbage and see if that helps. I know that Vista has caused weird video glitches when you run the default arrow theme. It doesn't look very pretty but it might speed up performance. I am thinking it is more likely something running in the background though.


Also, does it have Norton or McCafee? If so, kill those. They can slow your machine down pretty bad. Trade them off with something like AVG or Avast.

Spidey wrote: NVIDIA 7300 GT with 512 onboard ram
System allots another gig for a total of 1.5 gig video ram

this sounds like your BIOS has Sharing of System RAM for Video still enabled. see if there is a option to share System RAM and disable it.

Ace
I’m going to look in the setup for Allocating system ram, are you sure 512 is enuf for 1360x768 32 bit color? The system has integrated video, when I installed the 7300 I never changed anything as far as system memory allocation, I just set the video to ”PCIe”. (prolly should have mentioned that…my bad). Also its only 767 meg allocated not a gig.

So the OS uses the system ram for video before the built in ram, and that’s why it’s getting slow? (Speculation)

Mess
Yes it’s always been like this, and I’m pretty sure the machine is clean…I run Norton, Spybot, AdAware and windows Defender. The Video only slows down after running programs other than WMC, and I have looked for possible after effects such as spyware and such after running them. My gut tells me it’s a memory usage thing.

And I’m on a LAN so I can’t turn off my Internet security software, besides I don’t believe that’s the problem.

I’m going to try 2 things
1. Set bios to not allocate any system ram for video.
2. If that doesn’t work I’m going to look for some sort of memory manager software.

I’ll let you guys know what happens, thanks for your help up to now.

Spidey wrote:Ace
I’m going to look in the setup for Allocating system ram, are you sure 512 is enuf for 1360x768 32 bit color?

So the OS uses the system ram for video before the built in ram, and that’s why it’s getting slow? (Speculation)

yes 512 is a s&^t load of Video Memory, even for a resolution that high......

no, the OS Does not use System RAM at all for Video if a video rendering device with its own RAM is available (i think)

If you added in a video card to the system, don't forget to disable the onboard one in BIOS.

1360x768 resolution @ 32 bit color could be done on 16 MB of video memory, 512-1024 would be getting into ridiculous excess. A good number would be around 64-128 MB of memory if you do any gaming or run vista with everything turned on.

(By the way messenger, its spelled \"Aero\". )

Hehe, thanks Krom, forgot it was spelled Aero, I haven't fiddled with that setting in a while now.


Spidey.... you run NORTON? Get rid of that s@*! now! Trust me, that is one of the single worst things you can have on your system, PERIOD.

Norton loves to block stuff you don't want blocked, it slows a PC waaaay down as it hogs your system due to bulky, crappy software and I've even found situations where it has disabled people from even using the internet period.


Run something like Avast or AVG, both free, both very well known, both run a lot cleaner than Norton and many other virus protection programs.

Well…

I can’t set anything in my BIOS as far as allocating system RAM.

Krom, I set the BIOS to PCIe when I installed the card.

Mess…Did you ever try to uninstall Norton…LOL…I know it’s a POS I have lots of experience with it, besides it came with the machine.

So I’m back to my first question….Anybody know of a good Memory Manager for Vista?

Spidey wrote:Krom, I set the BIOS to PCIe when I installed the card.

That may only be the setting for which one is initialized first, the on board one may very well still be enabled. It would probably be somewhere in the integrated peripherals menu (on award bios).

Krom,

It’s a pretty limited BIOS, no over clocking and such…the only setting under advanced is “Primary Video Adapter” with 3 choices PCI. PCIe and Onboard. (I know my way around setup screens pretty much)

From what I have read, it’s vista allocating the system ram not the BIOS.

My Brain Hurts, I’m gonna have to live with rebooting when I want to watch videos I guess.

Thanks anyway everyone.

Well, you could try installing CCCP and seeing if that works any better.

http://cccp-project.net

Krom his PCIe/PCI/Onboard BIOS Selector may be infact the onboard disabler.... but there is know way of knowing unless we were there at the machine itself

[quote="Spidey"]Mess…Did you ever try to uninstall Norton…LOL…I know it’s a POS I have lots of experience with it, besides it came with the machine./quote]


There are tools for removing Norton out there. Just need to look around. I did that almost EVERY day of my life last year among other annoying things. That was my job.

Like this http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ts ... 3108162039