What should I buy now?

Katydid · #1 (**permalink**) 08-03-2005, 01:22 PM

I've bought a Sony HC20 miniDV camcorder for Christmas. Then I bought a DVD burner. Then I bought Pinnacle Software for $100. Then I bought a firewire cable. Then I took the cable and the software back because I felt I was getting in too deep as nothing was allowing me to capture my video. Now I've filled 3 tapes of video with shots of my adorable new daughter, and I need to do something with them so I can record more.

I took the Pinnacle Software back because my data transfer rate was too slow--the tech support people walked me through all the possible problems (defrag, changing settings, etc) and it was still too slow. They said I needed a new hard drive. My computer's not crap, but it has been running kinda slow lately. It's got 80GB Ultra DMA hard drive, 512 DDR SDRAM memory, 2400+ AMD Athlon XP processor.

I want to capture, edit, and burn my video. I've got the XP ArcSoft Showbiz software, and the Pinnacle Studio9 that I loaded before I took it back. I can buy the firewire cable at the local Computer Deli. What do I have to buy now?

Mike Thorpe · #2 (**permalink**) 08-03-2005, 02:42 PM

It could be possible that if your hard drive doesn't have a high enough data transfer rate that it could be faulty.

Either that, or it could be that there are some programs (malicious or otherwise) sitting in the background doing things to your system. Have you got up to date virus checkers on, and anti-spyware programs etc?

Katydid · #3 (**permalink**) 08-03-2005, 07:56 PM

That's what had been suggested, but I have Norton AntiVirus protection up to date and I recently bought Spyware Doctor software. However, the scans for the Spyware Doctor do not run as often as I have set them to, and the customer support people have not returned my email about it. If it runs a least every week, do you still think this could be my problem? Or is Spyware Doctor crap?

Mike Thorpe · #4 (**permalink**) 08-03-2005, 08:21 PM

Spyware Doctor is great. Norton however is awful, AWFUL software.

Seriously, remove it and your PC *will* speed up. It might or might not be the cause of your current situation, but it will stop your PC from running like a one legged dog. Don't just disable it, uninstall it, and burn the CDs

A wonderful and *free* antivirus program is AVG Anti-Virus - http://free.grisoft.com/ - which is fantastic, stable and regularly updated.

Katydid · #5 (**permalink**) 08-03-2005, 08:50 PM

I went to the site and it only offered a free "trial"--do I have to buy the real thing to get it permanently? I just wanted to make sure that's right before I paid anything.

Nick Niehaus · #6 (**permalink**) 08-04-2005, 01:15 AM

Eh? No, they offer a full free version.

http://free.grisoft.com/softw/70free...ee_338a597.exe

There's the direct link.

Katydid · #7 (**permalink**) 08-05-2005, 01:06 AM

GREAT! Thanks for that link. I installed AVG and uninstalled Norton. I then checked my data rate using a function in the Pinnacle Studio9 and it's still not sufficient to capture. What do you think I should do now?

Mike Thorpe · #8 (**permalink**) 08-05-2005, 08:43 PM

It's possible there's a fault with your hard drive, so you could probably do with running some diagnostic software on it. Any idea at all what make the hard drive is?

Katydid · #9 (**permalink**) 08-05-2005, 09:05 PM

It's a HP Pavilion with 52.1 GB of free space. Is that the info you need?
I did defrag about 3 months ago in attempt to fix this problem, and that didn't change anything.

Mike Thorpe · #10 (**permalink**) 08-05-2005, 10:59 PM

Hmmm... can't remember what brand hard drives HP use. I've got a program somewhere that does non-destructive tests of hard drives, but i can't remember what it's called. It's on my pendrive, but I've lost it

As soon as I find it, i'll let you know!