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rickryan.com

rickryan.com

Mac Daddy DJ
ODJT Supporter
Dec 9, 2009
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Hendersonville, TN
www.rickryan.com
Ugh. Had my mainstay, win7 machine to bluescreen on me in the middle of a slideshow. Ran it for several days straight this week, no blue screens so I assumed it was just a bad .MOV file. Not so. Had it bluescreen again tonight in the middle of the dance set. Had a spare machine already hooked up so transition was quick but still, got to do something about it.

Have any of you guys had any bluescreen problems? If so, do you try to fix it or do a fresh install? Am wondering if it'd make sense to do a win8 install instead. Your thoughts please.
 
Blue screens are usually caused by bad drivers or memory going bad. Have you installed some new drivers lately? I have not had a blue screen in over 4 years.
 
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drzinc said:
Blue screens are usually caused by bad drivers or memory going bad. Have you installed some new drivers lately? I have not had a blue screen in over 4 years.
Click to expand...

Can't remember the last time I've seen a bluescreen. Also can't remember any new drivers. I'll probably do a bunch of diags on it next week including some memory tests. For now, that box is dropping to backup until I can get it resolved.
 
update your codecs also

just make sure your system is up to date BUT dont be online
or have a network running while working or any firewalls, antivirus or spyware running

then it will run better while working

if you have to have any of these working - then you take what you get --- eg BLUE SCREENS
 
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Try popping the RAM chips, clean them off with a compressor or a small brush, and put them back in again. If it still happens, you have a Codec/driver problem.

Standard maintenance for me, as the dust is really bad here. I have to do it like once a month.
 
rickryan.com said:
Ugh. Had my mainstay, win7 machine to bluescreen on me in the middle of a slideshow. Ran it for several days straight this week, no blue screens so I assumed it was just a bad .MOV file. Not so. Had it bluescreen again tonight in the middle of the dance set. Had a spare machine already hooked up so transition was quick but still, got to do something about it.

Have any of you guys had any bluescreen problems? If so, do you try to fix it or do a fresh install? Am wondering if it'd make sense to do a win8 install instead. Your thoughts please.
Click to expand...

Turn automatic updates off, and restore (if possible) to a date when you know the system was reliable.

It's most likely a driver or the software program if it has updated itself.

Blue screens are why I dumped OtsAV for anything video. It blue screens during video on every machine I've ever tried. Turned out it was never the hardware or drivers. The program itself tries to access the overlay in ways contrary to manufacturer and Microsoft recommendations and as a result is unreliable for video. So, check to see that your application updates have not caused a change in your system performance.
 
Looks like it's a memory problem. One of the hardware techs at my day gig brought over a copy of google memtest and it found it within seconds. When I bought this machine, I upgrade the RAM to 8 gigs so I'm suspect either the chips are going bad or there's been some corrosion on the contact points. I just popped the case open, re-seated the chips and have it running the on-board memory diags now. No problems, so far. And for the Mac guys............Mac memory can go bad as well.

Have to admit, I've been slacking on having a backup music source on stand-by at events. Yea, I always have an extra laptop and an ipod with me but this little situation is going to remind me to actually have it all hooked up and even running an appropriate playlist on the 2nd machine. It might even be better to go ahead and sticky-mount the ipod in place and have it running as well. I am curious, do any of you guys do dual setups on your music sources? I'm talking copying the special event songs and having them running simultaneously, in case of failure?
 
I don't usually bring a second laptop (might if I start with software DMX), but always have required/important music on a flash drive (for my media player), on my iPad and on my iPhone as a 4th backup.
 
steve149 said:
I don't usually bring a second laptop (might if I start with software DMX), but always have required/important music on a flash drive (for my media player), on my iPad and on my iPhone as a 4th backup.
Click to expand...

I pretty much always copy the full library from my main PC to a USB hard drive but Saturday's embarrassment stands to remind me just how long it seems when you go from loud to silence, and with a full dance floor. I had the 2nd machine sitting there, booted and with player already loaded but it wasn't hooked up to the mixer. I have a spare 1/8" that was connected to the mixer and I grabbed that, plugged it into the laptop and probably had sound back up in under 15 seconds but it seemed like FOREVER. A photog that I work with a lot was on this gig and he said "I don't think the bride even noticed." but it's simply not acceptable to me. I'm thinking I may velco-mount my ipod and keep it plugged into that 1/8" cord then use a spare USB soundcard to connect the 2nd laptop and make a practice of duplicating what's running on the primary. If/when the main box crashes, you have 2 faders to grab that each have music pumping.
 
rickryan.com said:
Looks like it's a memory problem. One of the hardware techs at my day gig brought over a copy of google memtest and it found it within seconds. When I bought this machine, I upgrade the RAM to 8 gigs so I'm suspect either the chips are going bad or there's been some corrosion on the contact points. I just popped the case open, re-seated the chips and have it running the on-board memory diags now. No problems, so far. And for the Mac guys............Mac memory can go bad as well.

Have to admit, I've been slacking on having a backup music source on stand-by at events. Yea, I always have an extra laptop and an ipod with me but this little situation is going to remind me to actually have it all hooked up and even running an appropriate playlist on the 2nd machine. It might even be better to go ahead and sticky-mount the ipod in place and have it running as well. I am curious, do any of you guys do dual setups on your music sources? I'm talking copying the special event songs and having them running simultaneously, in case of failure?
Click to expand...
How do you mix with an iPod if you are using it as the backup?

- - - Updated - - -

One of the reasons I have a 7 stereo Channel DJ Mixer. Traktor takes 4 stereo channels, MEP-7000 takes 2 pairs and I have 1 pair that I use for Karaoke since Karaoke does not require Mixing. If the Laptop goes down I can continue with the MEP-7000 as a stand alone and still be able to mix manually or even by Auto from the MEP -7000. No iPods or iPads are needed. The MEP is connected to a Passport External drive that has my full library and some playlists for emergency.
 
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ahoustondj said:
How do you mix with an iPod id you are using it as the backup?
Click to expand...

I don't normally use that ipod. It sits in my bag in the case of extreme emergency and has never been used. I'm thinking though that it makes sense to go ahead and connect up the ipod and 2 laptops. In the case of the ipod, there's a spot on the front of my rack where I could just velcro it in place and have it connected to the mixer and land power (adapter plugged in). For the ipod, probably have 2 playlists; dinner and dance. It will hopefully never be needed but it's kinda silly to have it as a backup and not have it in place and ready to push its fader up.
 
You can mix fairly easily on an iPad (not so much on an iPhone or iPod). Can even use Traktor if you'd like. The iPad is hooked up to my system via a 2.5mm (1/8") cable there for the purpose. As I said in another thread, it's easier for me to build playlists in iTunes and then push them to the iPhone and iPad. Then I have the same tunes available on all three. Most of my PC software (VDJ, PCDJ Red Mobile and Serato read the iTunes playlists directly. My Denon HD2500 will as well, as will my backup Numark D2.

The backups only carry essential tracks, general purpose ones and the playlist I am expecting to pick from .. so not as flexible as the laptop, as my music library is now several hundred Gb in size.

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rickryan.com said:
I pretty much always copy the full library from my main PC to a USB hard drive but Saturday's embarrassment stands to remind me just how long it seems when you go from loud to silence, and with a full dance floor. I had the 2nd machine sitting there, booted and with player already loaded but it wasn't hooked up to the mixer. I have a spare 1/8" that was connected to the mixer and I grabbed that, plugged it into the laptop and probably had sound back up in under 15 seconds but it seemed like FOREVER. A photog that I work with a lot was on this gig and he said "I don't think the bride even noticed." but it's simply not acceptable to me. I'm thinking I may velco-mount my ipod and keep it plugged into that 1/8" cord then use a spare USB soundcard to connect the 2nd laptop and make a practice of duplicating what's running on the primary. If/when the main box crashes, you have 2 faders to grab that each have music pumping.
Click to expand...

I thought about bringing an external backup, but I figure if the laptop goes, it probably isn't going to be resurrected with an external disc. I have sort of maxxed out the storage on my current gig laptop, so it may be time for another and then use this one as the backup (my current backup laptop which I don't normally bring is 7 years old). I tried cloning this one's hard drive to a new, larger one, but had issues due to the way it was partitioned. The new one may not be large enough either (500Gb), so a new laptop with a 1Tb driver might be the ticket.
 
steve149 said:
I thought about bringing an external backup, but I figure if the laptop goes, it probably isn't going to be resurrected with an external disc..
Click to expand...


Totally agree -- the backup drive will not function if the computer goes down. I keep two lappys -- if both decide to implode, I give them their money back, and go home and make dinner.
 
Well, I went to Best Buy and picked up another 8 gigs of ram. It's running memory diags now with no errors (it bombed out pretty quickly before) so far. If the bios test checks out I'll put it back on the google memtest and see if it passes. Will probably do a LOT of testing this week. Kinda weird, I ran the thing for several days straight last week, after it BSD on the slideshow video. It never burped. Got about 3 hours into the gig this past weekend before it bit the dust.
 
Say what you all want about Custom/Special Order machines but so far I have not had any let me down. Off the shelf Laptops/Machines are manufactured in an assembly line type method. A Special/Custom Order Machine is more carefully crafted and individually tested so the quality is a bit higher. To me the extra expense is worth having a peace of mind. I never said that it could not or may not fail but it has not happened yet even when I was simultaneously running three Programs including Video.
 
ahoustondj said:
Say what you all want about Custom/Special Order machines but so far I have not had any let me down. Off the shelf Laptops/Machines are manufactured in an assembly line type method. A Special/Custom Order Machine is more carefully crafted and individually tested so the quality is a bit higher. To me the extra expense is worth having a peace of mind. I never said that it could not or may not fail but it has not happened yet even when I was simultaneously running three Programs including Video.
Click to expand...


I used to build computers for a living --there is no such thing as "special order", other than the price you pay.

We take the same mobo off the shelf, the same RAM chips. You can get the same stuff from WlaMart for $500.
 
I sort of have a custom laptop - i just have a stock Laptop that i bought from a company that does " computer upgrades " to computers that will still leave them being covered by manufacturers warranty. Boosted Memory to the max 16gb and upgraded video cards , etc... But to the topic at hand : Sound like a Graphic Card issue or graphics card compatibility issue to me. Could also be something with the memory, some Slideshow softwares such as virtual DJ can glitch and the computer will allow too much of the memory to be dedicated to the slideshow crashing the computer. Virtual DJ has a special Registry Tool to fix exactly that issue, i don't know about other softwares.
 
Follow up, it was the ram. Ran memory tests last week, determined it was bad memory, popped in another 8 gigs, then ran it the entire week. Used the same laptop last night (HP Pavilion g4) for the reception without incident. I will say though that the incident spurred me to go ahead and setup the 2nd laptop, had it hooked up and for each special song I'd start the main laptop, then start the same song on the backup. If something had gone wrong, just push up the 2nd fader. When I hit the dance set, I put a handful of go-to songs on the 2nd laptop, put 1 song in loop, and had it playing the entire time (in case of a failure on the first unit). Hate to admit to not being diligent before but at least I can be diligent going forward.
 
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