I have a very odd problem that is extremely frustrating - probably because I have no idea how to fix it. I know this looks long, but ANY suggestive help would be MUCH appreciated!

SYSTEM SPECS: Pentium 4 / 3.07 MHZ Laptop with an internal 60 Gig Harddrive and an External 250 Gig Harddrive. 1 GB of RAM.

Both Harddrives are 78% FREE SPACE.

CAMERA: Sony DCR-VX2100 using iLink (DV in) Cable to connect through firewire.

PROBLEM: Brand New Videocamera, Brand new Laptop, Brand new software - all is well right? Apparently not. I'm using Adobe Premiere 6.0 to TRY and edit video from my camera. All video that I capture - Is stored on my 250 gig external drive. The first 10 minutes were gloriously fast paced with no problems what so ever - then suddenly my computer locks up - and progresses at a snails pace. Premiere is not responding and my computer says "Your system is low on Virtual Memory".

I check my Virtual Memory paging file to find that its set to 0 MB. I change this to 2000 MB on my internal 60 gig harddrive - for PLENTY of Virtual Memory Space. I de-activate my Anti-Virus Software and optimize both of my Harddrives (just to be safe). I reboot and enter Premiere with my camcorder connected. Premiere takes 7 minutes to load - then becomes extremely delayed - and eventually locks up when I click "Movie Capture". I even try Windows Movie Maker - and that takes 5 minutes to load and then locks up when I try and capture video in THAT!

This problem makes no sense. Why could I capture Video FLAWLESSLy for 10 minutes in Premiere with beautifully fast speed...then suddenly have Premiere and WMM bog down and then lock up EVERY TIME i try to video edit even after Ive increased my Virtual Memory, de-activated anti-virus software AND optimized my drives?

Does anyone know what is going on here - or how I can fix this problem?

What happens when you ONLY use your internal drives?

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Do you mean - Uninstall Premiere completely from my external drive - and Install it onto my internal drive? What about video that is captured - set that to internal drive as well?

Basically what I did - before your question - was uninstall Premiere completely, run a anti-virus check, a spyware check, cleaned out my system of crap using Systemworks, did a one button check up - and then optimized both my drives. I reinstalled Premiere back to my external drive - and then tried connecting. I had the same exact problems (i.e. slow, laggy, not responding, lock up)

I tried Windows Movie Maker - and I cant even get through half of the Capture Wizard Setup before the program just locks up and just keeps loading...forever. If I press any key during the load time, it just freezes up and I have to End Program with Alt Crtl Dlt.

I really have no idea what the problem is. I thought it might be anti-virus software, spyware, or even popup stopper software interfering with my capturing process - but that wouldnt make any sense because in my first 10 minutes of using the NEW camera, NEW computer and NEW software all together for the first time - Everything worked fine.

Ill go ahead and try just using my internal drive - but something tells me it wont work....Ill post back with results.

You're using adobe on the external drive? Could be the fact that it's external that's why it's slow... what connection is it? Firewire? USB 2.0?

USB 2.0 - But it doesnt matter. I cant even use Windows Movie Maker!!! Thats on the internal drive - and i cant even make it through the capture wizard!!

What the hell is going on??

hmm, fdisk?

what do you mean fdisk? Wipe out my computer completely and start from scratch? Its a brand new computer - like 4 months old - and i dont think fdisk would be the answer....do you guys?

Sounds to me more like a general Windows problem than a problem with anything else.

Norton, if it's checking automatically for viruses with auto protect, can mess up a system real bad. I've seen it happen many times. Also, poor performance like you're saying is bound to be something wacky.

In general external drives are not a good idea for capture. You can archive and encode (compress) onto an external drive but for capture you need the best speed possible, that's always going to be an internal drive. So, capture to your internal drive and then archive out (with compression if you want) to the external.

Windows has a bunch of problems that are unrelated to all of this. "Driver hell", software and codec conflicts, etc etc.

To get to the bottom of this you need to start simple and just get a capture rig going. If you're also doing all sorts of other stuff on the machine you're going to run into problems. The virus and spyware check is a good idea. If you've done all that and all seems OK then try these steps:

- Set Windows to manage virtual memory
- Kill all running processes that aren't necessary. If you're not too sure what I mean by this let me know.
- Disable AutoProtect (disconnect from the Internet before doing this)
- Don't run anything except what you need, you should have nothing in the system tray at the bottom right of the screen, except a couple of icons (get rid of MSN, SETi or anything like that, etc etc). Disable all screensavers.

Now try capturing and be as precise as possible with any feedback at this stage

(optional steps)
- Disable system restore (or reduce the amount of disk space it uses to something like max. 1Gb)
- Disable all power saving options, and make sure laptop is always powered to the mains when you're capturing.
- Uninstall / reinstall JUST the DV drivers