I just got a new computer:
Zotac IONITX - A-U board Intel Dual-Core Atom 1.6GHz CPU
& wireless lan
320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive
Windows XP Pro
2 GB PC-6400 DDR2 Memory-2x1gb ddr 800
I loaded the same 800 albums and videos on that system as my Desk top test system. The Desk top is an old Compaq with and old processor and not a lot of memory. The Old test system has a 2nd drive that's a Terrabyte HDD that can't be all that fast, where the Music files are held.
Both systems have E-Touch V 5.0.22 installed.
(I just transfered cash from my bank account to PayPal, which should clear by Thursday, so Barry will be getting another DONATION then :-X)
When I double click the E-touch Icon on the desk top system, I start a Stop watch and it takes just 24 seconds for the Album covers to appear.
When I double click the E-touch Icon on the new system, I start a Stop watch and it takes 1 minute and 21 seconds for the Album covers to appear.
I should also say that when I boot up the desk top system it takes a long long time to come up, but the new system is up in a very fast time.
Any thoughts??
Anytime you start talking stop watch - you know you got problems!!!
Is this computer going to be strictly a jukebox computer?
Run this and post the results here:
http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/ (http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/)
I'm not expecting you have a virus problem, but this program is a quick way for us to see what is running/loading on your computer at startup.
Also may want to do some benchmarking tests on both PC's and see what the differences are. Here is a page that has a few on them
http://www.pctechbytes.com/repair/detail.php?Computer-Benchmark-Tools-3 (http://www.pctechbytes.com/repair/detail.php?Computer-Benchmark-Tools-3)
You may have a RAM issue, I've built a few PC's and have had issues with the RAM and motherboard. Had to go in and tweak the voltage for the RAM.
One thing I should mention is thaT the old test system has the 70 gb C drive with the software and a F drive with the 800 albums. The new machine, has everything on one 250 gb drive.
Do you think that having the albums on the same drive slows the Juke Start process up at all??
Anybody w/ 800 or more albums care to say how long it takes from the time you double click e-touch to the time the main screens with the albums appear. I would be very interested in seeing how others are doing.
Randy
this sounds familiar...the games machines i maintain have had similar issues - they all have 1ghz intel celeron with 512 pc133 sdram (i know, dinosaurs!) and identical software (each machine is a clone) anyhow, clock speed on one had dropped to 100mhz while other stayed at 133...any guesses what happened?
easy to fix, just make sure you have the correct ram timing in bios settings. usually optimising for best performance will do this...hope I helped!
It will be down to the config of the PC somewhere not E-Touch.
Make sure your video drivers are up to date as well. It could be taking a lot of time to render the images. You should have a Nvidia GPU in that thing.
As well you could see how much memory in the Bios you are dedicating to video. I know a lot of guys in the XBMC.org world that are running HTPC's are dedicating 500meg of ram to their video cards.
Thanks Kizer.
I am going to speak with the guy that built this system about this.
Randy
Pinball,
Download PC Wizard (http://www.cpuid.com/download/pcwizard/pcw2009_v1911.exe)
Install the PCWizard and it will tell you more than you really want to know about your system.
Plus it will tell you exactly what drivers you have.
Also if you have anything less than 64mb of video, your videos wont work that well. 64mb of video is the extreme low end. 128mb of video is ideal, but 256mb of video is kinda overkill for a jukebox.
:beer
Fordman
Fordman:
I will try that. Something is definitely wrong w/ this new PC settings.
When I am looking at my music albums and click on one, then Hit Add All, to the Queue....
I touch the screen to Go back to the Main Album Cover page and an Hour Glass appears and sits there for 5 to 10 seconds.
Sometimes the Hourglass goes away and I am still on the track screen, like nothing happened.... and sometimes I do go back to the main scree,
I was viewing the History items screen and Hit the screen to go Back and it took like 10 seconds.
I'll look at PC wizard Now.. ! Thanks..
Randy
Fordman:
Here is some PC Wizard info on this Zotac system-
Chipset NVidia Ion
Intel Atom Dual core 330 @ 1600 Mhz
2048Mem
Vid Card VVidia Ion
OS XP Pro v 5.01.2600 SP3
Direct x v 9.0c
Cache L1 2 x 56kb
Cache L2 512 kb
Video 800 x 600 @ 60 hz 32 bit True Color
NVidia Cuda NO
Open CL Supported (not installed)
Open GL yes
GDI plus Yes
GPU Freq 200 Mhz
Mem GPU 1600.0 Mhz
Under the Operating system:
XP Pro
Total Memory 1792 mb
SYSTEM RESOURCES FREE 28% ??????? Why? Nothing running on this system but PC Wizard
Swap File size 323 348 kb
---------------------
I then went to Control Panel Administrator functions and went to Performance.
There was a graph that was plotting Paging and disk activity.
When I had E-touch on and selected and album, Hit Add All to Queue,
then Hit the Back arrow to go to the Main screen, there were 2 max spikes to the top of the chart for Paging every time. It was at 100.
Is there a way to increase the size of the page spaces to reduce the page swaps???
Is there some user friendly ways to tweek this memory I have. Everybody seemed to think that 2048 was plenty for E-Touch.
Let me know if you see anything here or if I can look for any other info w/ Pc Wizard.
Thanks,
Randy
Under the device manager is anything showing as not having drivers loaded?
Also, do as bzpilot said and download HijackThis.exe (http://go.trendmicro.com/free-tools/hijackthis/HijackThis.exe) and run it, make a copy of the report and post it here so we can read it to see what is running along with E-Touch. Just have a sneaky feeling you have spyware or malware running.
You also need to upgrade your DirectX to the latest release. Goto start>all programs then up in the top lft corner there should be a Windows Update selection. Click that and it will take you to the Windows update page. You may have to install a small Genuine Advantage tool first but if your XP is legit than no issue there. Then you will then have your pc scaned and it will tell you priority updates, hardware updates and not so important ones. What you update is up to you but could take up to an hour to do so.
Also I was reading on the Zotac website that maybe you have a bad BIOS that my not be letting you use all of your memory correctly. http://www.zotacusa.com/forum/index.php?/topic/1660-zotac-ion-itx-series-bios-and-update-utility/ (http://www.zotacusa.com/forum/index.php?/topic/1660-zotac-ion-itx-series-bios-and-update-utility/)
Do the hijackthis report first and lets cancel out any software issues before we start ripping the box open.
:beer
Fordman
Randy,
That machine has plenty of power you must have something running that is causing this.
Start the machine in safe mode and then set the screen res. compatible with ET then run ET,
check the performance with only the essentials running. I would also go to Nvidia and download
the latest drivers for the video.
Woody
Randy,
Do you have a single stick of memory or dual ?
Woody
Looks like he needs the latest NVIDIA drivers at least i see he has Direct x v 9.0c
Woody,
"Start the machine in safe mode and then set the screen res. compatible with ET then run ET"..
What resolution should I set ths at??
I just plugged this PC into a monitor I had here, not a touch screen for right now.
I remember that I wanted a higher resolution , but when I changed it (in the OPTIONS to the higher B&B skin, The E-touch image was very big and would not fit on the screen.
I will test more now.
Thanks.
Randy,
Set ET skin to 800x600 then shutdown and reboot using F8 for safe mode, when booting in safe mode the system boots to 800x600 or 1024x768 I don't recall which one but 800x600 is compatable.
The system will load only those processes that are required for booting, That will give you a good idea if there is a software problem or a hardware issue.
What about that ram ? how many sticks ? Your best bet would be to populate both slots with matching size and spec.
What about the Nvidia drivers ? the drivers that shipped with the board were not the current and need updating.
Woody
Thats why I said he needs to make sure hes got the latest drivers directly from Nvidia. ITs a very common problem with those machines to make sure the Drivers are up todate as well as make sure you have the most up to date Bios installed.
Woody, The skin is 800 x 600. There is 1 2gb stick.
I am sending the pc in to the guy that built it and he is going to address the issues and make the changes necessary. I'll report back next week I guess.
Thanks for everyones help!
Randy
Randy,
Even if you find the problem you should populate both memory slots, the reason being that the memory controller
will access twice as fast (move 2X data per clock) with two memory sticks no matter what their size, you may have enough memory but you don't have is setup optimally. I would almost bet the problems you are reporting are caused by BIOS interoperation in this single memory module configuration.
Woody
I agree with Woody. Get another stick of memory for the other slot.
Pinball, here is what the BIOS does, it reads that slot 1 has memory but the BIOS is set for 2 and when it searches for the second slot, it pauses trying to find it. Then after not finding it, it lets you continue but it is constantly searching for the other memory only to find an empty slot. So the searching process starts over and over.
As I read on the Zotac forum earlier, it was showing that those who had bought that particular system was having issues with the BIOS and memory. Sounds like this will be the case with Pinball's also.
:beer
Fordman
PC shipped back. They will install another 2 GB mem stick. They are going to check everything out and ship it back next week.
I told them about installing the latest Nvidia drivers.
Thanks.
Just waiting for the PC to be returned. It's out getting the performance issues addressed. Needs to be done before Thanksgiving, as we have about 15 people coming that day.
We have 2 weeks to go and I won't have the PC back for a week, so that will leave me only a week to get the entire project done.
I bought 2 amps today, both Samson amps. One was a Servo - 170 Power amp and the other is a 4 Channel 4060 Power amp.
I will be attaching 2 Klipsch CA5TW 8 ohm all weather speakers. These are used here in commercial applications and can be used outside as well. I wanted to put a better ampand bigger speakers in, but I am running short on time . I have concerns about heat issues in the NSM wall box.
I know a few of you have built e-touch boxes out of the old NSM CD wall boxes and maybe you can provide some insight.
I want to put the amp inside the NSM if possible. I looked at a
CROWN XLS-202D 660 WATT POWER AMP.
It said:
Ventilation Flow-through ventilation from front to back
Cooling Internal heat sinks with forced-air cooling
Air Volume Requirements (per minute per unit) 80.15 ft3 (2.27 m3)
Dimensions: Width, Height, Depth XLS 202, 402, 602, 802: EIA
Standard 19"W (EIA RS-310-B) x 3.5" (8.9 cm) H x15.2" (38.6cm) D.
I think there are 2 fans that suck air in the front and blow it out the back.
***
My original plan is t use the Servo 170 amp and to put a cut - out in the center of the metal bottom shelf in the NSM, (that will provide air flow from the bottom vent up to above the metal tray.
I am mounting the amp front control side down on standoffs on the top of the shelf. The back end of the amp will be facing upwards toward the exhaust fan.
(In the back top left of my NSM I have installed a video cabinet fan that is about 5 square inches in size. That is blowing out the back upper corner of the wall box. There is a vent in the bottom of the NSM wall boa to allow air in. I was thinking of adding another vidoe fan on the bottom inside to suck air into the cabinet).
I am really going to be pressed for time, so I may need to rely on the troops again to get me though on this one.
Fordman, Woody, Kizer, Barry and all the troops...... It will be all hands on deck! If this don't get done on time, I am goin' to take a beating, especially from the wife.
Now that I have the ability to post pictures, I will be sure to get a bunch of shots up for all to see.
Thanks! :beer
Randy
Good luck, I will be watching for update on system.
Woody
Randy,
On my juke-cabinet I have a 7" fan pulling air in and one pulling it out. No heat issues at all. Also the back of the cabinet is peg-board for additional air flow.
(http://www.ppcomponents.com/jukebox/jukebox27.jpg)
Thats is an old pic. I have these 2 below that show the fans that I added:
(http://www.ppcomponents.com/etouch/back1.jpg)
(http://www.ppcomponents.com/etouch/back2.jpg)
Keeps the cabinet nice and cool!
The button on the back is a power button that turns it all on. I keep it hidden back there so no one can turn it on or off! Only 2 people in my house know that it is there!
:beer
Fordman
My PC builder had my new PC back over the weekend and determined that the performance issues that I was having trying to run e-Touch on this new box was related to the ATOM processor that the ZOTAC board had on it.
This new pc was only running e-Touch and it was taking like 50 seconds to load the program until you could see the album covers on the first page.
He swaped out my Zotac mother board for another Zotac that could take a non ATOM processor and the e-Touch pgm loads in about 16 seconds or so! Great!
HAS ANYONE RUN E-TOUCH ON AN ATOM?????????
Here is the new Zotac system specs:
ZOTAC nForce 630i-ITX WiFi
Packing support for Intel® dual -core Socket LGA775 processor, the ZOTAC® nForce 630i-ITX WiFi is ready for all your processing demands. Paired with an NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7100 graphics core with support for DirectX 9 with Shader Model 4.0 support, the ZOTAC® nForce 630i-ITX WiFi is ready to meet your graphical demands as well.
Integrated 802.11b/g wireless enables the ZOTAC® nForce 630i-ITX WiFi to connect to wireless networks without installing additional and sometimes bulky wireless devices. The ZOTAC® nForce 630i-ITX WiFi also packs one PCI Express x1, two SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, one ATA133 port and 4GB of DDR2 memory for plenty of expansion room.
Here is the link to the conclusion video of the performance testing to resolve the issues on my new Zotac PC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39uOrR2z2ys
Should get my new FAST pc back on Thursday!! :D
I know others run on the atom without issues. I have run it fine on a PIII albiet a little slower than my P4 based machines that i run it on now. I know some people have issues with the animations, they seem to depend on the graphics card and graphics card drives, there is some GDI in use which also seems to be effected by the graphics card. If you have an NVIDIA chip set you should see it is much snappier. This machine i am using as my dev machine right now has an intel card and it is slower. You can get an atom with the NVIDIA chipset on it i think that might give you better results.
e-Touch is now running great on my new pc since the processor was changed. One thing I notice, comparing this to the last 2 boxes I built is that the videos look awesome. First I had to put driveway markers in for the snow.I guess the video card makes a big difference. Does the 4 gb of memory help the videos? They look super smooth and clear now..
I got the florecents working on my door tonight. I will be installing the amp and testing the speakers out tomorrow.
I need to take the NSM cabinet to the machine shop Monday. I am having some cuts made for fan exhaust and ventilation.
I have been on the phone alot this week with the Techs from e-Cast in California, and the NSM Techs in Chicago.
The touch screen I have is not an ELO . It is an open frame and one of the techs told me it is a Zytouch from the UK!
It uses Projective capacitance. It reads though the glass it is positioned behind. I am concerned that there may be some custom or proprietary software on the controller that was done for e-cast. I need to get 2 12v sources to9 the monitor board and also the serial connector for the touch screen itself.
Then I can test it out.
If this monitor doesn't work, I am in bad shape as ELO no longer sells
Projective Capacitance monitors in the USA.
I can't cut a hole in the juke glass as it is tempered.
I may need to have the front glass redone in plexi with a hole cut and install an ELO monitor.
Randy
(By the way, my 12 pound ham and some kielbasa and pierogis arrived her today from a Polish deli in NJ. 16 people will be here for Thanksgiving on Thursday)!!! Most people like turkey on TYhanksgiving , but we are partial to "Big Ass Ham" !
How much did that MB combo cost ya? I am about ready to go and order up a mini itx board, but do not want to end up with the same slow loading issues for the project.
My initial thoughts were that you did not have enough memory to the video ram, or that you did not have Hyperthreading on your memory properly used.
You can get the Zotac boards for about $200 bucks. Then add the memory you want and the drives, case and extras you want, etc. It comes wireless ready and the sound and video are good.
I've been getting about 15 sec load-ups.