Premiere with Vista? Keeps getting stuck, need back-up

[kathoderayblue]

Hi, I just joined the Village.
First Problem:
Frustrated with Premiere (4.0). My computer is a DELL laptop Inspiron 16400 with Vista Home Basic 32-bit, Intel Dual Core (1.75GHz each) and 1022 MB RAM. I noticed the program take forever to open, but at least at first I was able to begin using it. Now, whenever I try to use this program, it freezes with the little timer circle going, and I have to shut it down with Task Manager. Anyone know why I'm having this problem. I feel like I paid a lot of $$ for this program & I can't use it.

Second Problem:
I'd like to copy what little I've done on an external HD because I've also been getting blue screens, and I'd like to save everything and wipe out my hard drive & reinstall. Don't know what else to do. Could someone help me with some advice or links for backing to HD. I have a LaCie external (formatted NTFS), I have the little projects I've done on Premiere, which I can easily let go of at this point (since I've done very little editing) and the original videos burned directly to DVD.

If I uninstall the program and then reinstall it, will my videos still be retrievable, given that I ever get the program to get past FREEZE!! Please, someone, give me something to start on!!
and Thanks!

Kathy

[ATR]

Kathy,

Here is an AdobeTech Note for you to check out re: troubleshooting approach to resolving errors and freezes in Premiere Elements 4
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/402/kb402531.html

HOWEVER, from what you wrote I forced to believe that you have a serious resource problem.
a. How much installed and available RAM do you have? You say that you have 1022 MB RAM (that equals about 0.998 GB RAM)..is that installed or available? If you do not know, go to wherever the System Information is located in Vista. I have Windows XP, and my route to the information is Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information, followed by scrolling down to Total Physical Memory and Available Physical Memory.
b. What is your total internal hard drive space and how much of that is free?
c. Is your computer optimized, defragmented, virtual memory optimized, no unnecessary programs running in the background, etc.

Also, we probably need to look at what you are putting on the Premiere Elements Timeline (photos, pixel dimensions and numbers of); video (formats, duration, numbers of clips). Also, we need to see what you have piled up on your local drive with regard to Premiere Elements preview files and project (.prel) files.

My tentative thought:
1. Increase available RAM to at least 2 GB
2. Free up a lot of hard drive space by moving files to the external hard drive
3. Optimized your computer
4. Check the properties of what you are putting on the Timeline. DV AVI is the native format of that Timeline. Often there are problems with formats other than that. What is your end product goal, DVD-VIDEO standard or widescreen, other? You may be using oversized photos and stressing out the program and/or computer. If you are working with AVCHD or HDV, resource demands are at the top of the issues to be addressed.
So, you may need to convert some video files to DV AVI as well as resize photos (pixel dimensions & aspect ratio) to be close to the frame size of the project preset that you have selected, etc.

Check out my comments, get back to me on your details, and we will work this out together,

ATR

[kathoderayblue]

Thank you so much! I will be backing up all my pics to 2 back-ups today & removing them from my laptop HD:) I have 12 G of 60 left on HD now. The whole thing about system resources is very confusing to me, I don't know what all is running in the "background," what I can safely shut off etc. I think that may be one problem I have. I have to run right now, but I will get back to this later today. thanks again!!!:D

[Barb O]

a. How much installed and available RAM do you have?

go to wherever the System Information is located in Vista. I have Windows XP, and my route to the information is Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information, followed by scrolling down to Total Physical Memory and Available Physical Memory.

b. What is your total internal hard drive space and how much of that is free?
..................
My tentative thought:
1. Increase available RAM to at least 2 GB
2. Free up a lot of hard drive space by moving files to the external hard drive
ATR

ATR and Kathy,

The method that ATR described in point "a" to find the System Information worked for me on my Vista Home Premium (32bit) laptop, so I anticipate that it would work for Vista Basic also. I suggest that you post all the information that displays in that window.

I totally agree with the suggestion of increasing RAM to at least 2 GB RAM.

Your internal hard drive size of 60 GB will probably require continual vigilance to keep sufficient space available to run Premiere Elements. Do post back with how much of the 60 GB is available after you move photo files to the LaCie external hard drive. I suggest that you also post the total space and the available space of your LaCie external drive after it contains those photo files.

[ATR]

Kathy,

The values for installed and available RAM are very important, so please include them in your next post. If you tell me that you have 2 GB of installed RAM and have about 1 GB available, maybe we could figure out what is using the 1 GB of RAM and correct/minimize that. But, if you tell me that your installed RAM is 1 GB, that means that you are trying to work with less than 1 GB RAM, maybe as low as 600 MB. Bad news.

If I read you correctly you have 12 GB remaining of total 60 GB hard drive space that your computer has. That plus the low total capacity of the hard drive is definitely not so good news. Even if you do a computer clean up, I am doubt if you will be able to get more than 48 GB free hard drive space. The low free hard drive space value cited in Premiere Elements System Requirement is not very realistic for a decent project.

Do not rush to respond. We will be watching for your progress whenever that may be. Just do a careful study of the situation and then we can move forward together.

Actions
1. Let us work on the free hard drive space first....
a. Move your photo and video files to your external hard drive (make sure the external hard drive is working before you do any kind of mass transfer to it).
b. Premiere Elements/Edit Menu/Preferences/Scratch Disks...direct your scratch files (preview files) to the external hard drive. You can move the Premiere Elements project files (.prel) to the external hard drive, but DO NOT move the Premiere Elements program files that were installed during program installation. Leave them on the local drive.
c. Do you have any programs (using a lot of space) that you rarely if ever use? If so, you might consider uninstalling them.
When all is said and done, let us see how much free hard drive that you gained via use of the external hard drive. We can talk about shutting down Start Up programs other time if necessary.

2. Next, increasing the installed RAM and gaining far more available RAM is the order of business. But that will depend on the details requested.

3. The size of your intended Premiere Elements projects will more or less dictate what we can and can not get away with re: resource levels. Keeping away from high resolution exports, staying with DV Standard or Widescreen, and resizing photos to come close to frame size of the export will help to get an end product for viewing on the TV. With video, know what format you are using and do not let that mess you up. DV AVI is the native format of the Premiere Elements Timeline. Not all files with an .avi file extension are DV AVI. AVI is considered a wrapper format that can contain different compression, example, MotionJPEG AVI, AVI MPEG4... Sometimes problems files need conversion to DV AVI before bringing them into Premiere Elements. But, we do need to talk about your goals for your projects.

A lot of words, but is should be doable with conservative action and goals if we address the available RAM and free hard drive space aspects.

To be continued,

ATR

3.

[kathoderayblue]

Thanks. I found out I CAN upgrade RAM to 2 GB, so I'm sending away for the memory ASAP. I have freed up some of my HD, now I have 18 GB available. This is out of a 60 GB HD. I have encountered 2 Blue Screen (of Deaths!) today, so I'm about to give up on copying Premiere projects, they're barely anything anyway, and the basic movies are on tape & DVD. So I plan to reinstall Windows Vista & everything else, because I don't know what else to do about these BLUE SCREENS, and I'm worried I'll destroy my HD altogether. Any comments about this? and thank you. . .
Kathy

[ATR]

Kathy,

I would put a temporary hold on your projects until you install additional RAM and see how much of that will be available to you. But that is not the whole answer.

The 18 GB free hard drive space is a big problem. That plus the low RAM is probably the cause of your blue screens, so I would back off uninstalling/reinstalling Vista until you see what progress you make with the RAM/free hard drive space issues. You really do not want to mess with installation/registry issues related to the operating system.

An external hard drive (format NTFS) may be the means to an end for storage and freeing up more local drive hard drive space. Have you already used your external hard drive trying to free up local hard drive space and the 18 GB hard drive space is the best that came of that?

If you are thinking computer overhaul, top of the list along with RAM amount would be an internal hard drive with a capacity greater than 60 GB.

If I understand you correctly, these blue screens are appearing when you are working in a project with content on the Timeline. What exactly are you doing and what is on the Timeline when the blue screen hits? Are these blue screens appearing:
a. when you open a new project
b. when you open a saved project
c. when you open a saved project and begin to re-edit it?

Please update me on your progress.

ATR