stops randomly then starts again

rickdjkj · November 25, 2012, 07:29:04 AM

just bought a new computer as my other was skipping at times,thought is was computer,but this one is all up to date,brand new everything..so what could cause it to just stop for a few seconds then start playing normal?happened 4 times in a 4 hour gig..any ideas anyone?

milky · November 25, 2012, 08:45:09 AM

Probably something to do with power saving. Check your power settings and make sure the hard drive is NOT set to power down after x minutes.

rickdjkj · November 25, 2012, 02:26:28 PM

checked and its set to never...

Quote from: milky on November 25, 2012, 08:45:09 AM
Probably something to do with power saving. Check your power settings and make sure the hard drive is NOT set to power down after x minutes.

Jigger · November 25, 2012, 02:49:27 PM

are you using an external drive?
if you have wifi switch it off.

rickdjkj · November 25, 2012, 03:12:38 PM

no external..3 1tb hard drives..have a usb wifi attached which my brother has ots also and uses one and he never has an issue with it

rickdjkj · November 25, 2012, 03:46:18 PM

I have 2 otsdj icons on my desktop,one which is the newer icon (blue) and the older one(black),the newer one does not have all my songs in catagorized,ie: 1980's,dance,country,oldies etc. which I made over the years..the old one does..not sure if maybe there's a conflict and if so how would I fix it?

mel garland · November 25, 2012, 11:45:20 PM

Am I reading this right that you are using 3 external usb hardrives and usb wifi device. If so I bet that is the problem in that you are maxin out the bandwidth.

rickdjkj · November 26, 2012, 12:14:17 AM

no..I have 3 internal hard drives..wired usb mouse and keyboard,and a usb wifi.have an external for backup only.my old computer was hanging up and thats why I had a new one built...was told that was the problem..still hangs up..song will pause a few seconds then start back up..maybe its something in ots..trying to figure it out..weddings coming up and don't want this to happen then.

Jigger · November 26, 2012, 05:49:06 AM

Does it happen randomly on any song when it hangs? is all your music on one drive if not have you checked the power settings to all drives? turn off anti virus.
I doubt it is Ots causing the problem

Quote from: rickdjkj on November 25, 2012, 03:46:18 PM
I have 2 otsdj icons on my desktop,one which is the newer icon (blue) and the older one(black),the newer one does not have all my songs in catagorized,ie: 1980's,dance,country,oldies etc. which I made over the years..the old one does..not sure if maybe there's a conflict and if so how would I fix it?

Which one are you using. you should use the latest version and copy over your ohml file from the older version that will give you all your cats.
Slightly baffled why you have two icons for ots anyway.

milky · November 26, 2012, 06:26:19 AM

It sounds like you installed Esperance in a different folder, and it has created a new OML file. Technically, if you only have one Ots license, you need to uninstall the earlier version, but, keep a copy of the oml file, as it may be more complete.

rickdjkj · November 26, 2012, 10:48:23 AM

wierd,when i go into uninstell programs there is only one ots and its the new one..hmmm

Jumpin' Jeff · November 26, 2012, 11:31:10 AM

And why wouldn't there be? You didn't re-install the old OtsAV on the new machine did you? the old OtsAV folder most likely got transfered from the old computer, and you could activate it from that folder by just launching the old OtsAV.exe, and activate, it's not actually going to need installed, as the folder was already setup.

Is it possible that you are accessing music from all three of these hdds, and while accessing one, the other 2 are spinning down. then as you access music on the other 2, they need to spin back up? Part of the next track may load from cache, but in order to stream, it needs to have the drive spinning at normal speed. When the cach is empty, you need to refill it before streaming can continue from the drive.

rickdjkj · November 27, 2012, 10:12:00 AM

hmmm..yes I use all 3 drives,different music on all three,was going to get a 2 tb drive but was told they are not stable..not sure what to do now.had always had at least 2 hard drives without issues such as this.i think i may try a 2tb,if i get rid of most of the music videos I should have plenty of room.will give it some thought

Jumpin' Jeff · November 27, 2012, 11:14:53 AM

Just watch your current setup. Listen to your music! You likely know what music is on what drive... You can very likely determine if changing drives is actually the issue. If the previous song came from a different drive than the currently playing track that stalled, this would verify the situation. You could try a utility such as MDIS (MyDriveIsSpinning) from Rocket software to randomly send data to the drives you don't want to spin down, and that may resolve your issue without spending any money at all.

This problem is actually quite common, and not unique to OtsAv users by any means. It's the way the hardware was designed to save on wear and teare on your drive, as well as making it more energy efficient. Unfortunately, with the critical nature ofon demand playback systems, they may not always be ready to go to work exactly when desired without a little assistance such as MDIS.

Nicolee · November 27, 2012, 10:22:33 PM

Try turning off the wi-fi, its very hit and miss from one machine to another. On my old HP laptop wifi had to be off as I had all sorts of problems with it on, on my iMac setup I can leave it on without issue.

Try also using just one drive in the machine, copy a selection of music across to the boot drive to last say 8 hours, and try a soak test with just the one drive. I know with some Maxtor drives they had a spin down time built into the firmware and a special tool was required to turn it off. This maybe the case with the drive you have.

Also try checking the memory on the machine you can get software to test the ram in the machine, plenty of folks overlook this as being a potential problem but bad memory can cause many random issues. Try removing ram except for 1 stick and test each individually, even try running Ots on 1 stick of ram and soak test.

Check the PSU as well, try swapping it out with another unit it you have one, fluctuating voltages can cause unnoticeable issues, but really their effects can be quite damaging to the motherboard, CPU & memory.

Also check to see if any onboard firewire ports are disabled, very rare but I have known these to cause minor skips and jumps on a previous setup of mine.

Also something what is also overlooked is the power profile, sometimes I have seen it accidentally set to its low power setting which can cause issues with things shutting down.

Try those above as they are the most likely culprits to cause issue.