Ripping & Burning DVD +RW - how much RAM?

[Ansel]

I've just got myself an external Iomega +RW drive & tried to rip a DVD with the intention of burning a copy. However, part way through the rip, Windows (2000 SP4) reboots!!

Question is - can this be a lack of RAM causing Windows to reboot? Can I change other Windows settings to compensate for this?

My PC's pretty ancient now - 256Kb RAMBUS! , 1.7GHz processor, however I've added more firewire & USB ports over the last couple of years to try to keep up to date peripheral wise.

Or should I just bite the bullet & invest in a new, better spec PC?

Thanks for any info.

 

[IbnSina]

Yes, lack of RAM can cause your pc to crash. On the other hand, that machine ought to be adequate to do a lot of ripping and burning. You might only need to increase the limit on virtual memory. Right-click "My Computer", choose Properties->Advanced->Performance Options, and then change the virtual memory setting to double or quadruple whatever is there.

 

[Strontium_Dog]

Should be fine, I know someone who does it with an Athalon 900 and 256 sdram.
They're running XP too, which hogs more resources than 2000.

What software are you using? I've ripped a few with DVDDecrypter, under 2000, never had a problem.

 

[MarineCorps]

My PC's pretty ancient now - 256Kb RAMBUS!

Ouch. I have run across RAMBUS before, the chip was made by a car company oddly enough.

 

[Ansel]

Should be fine, I know someone who does it with an Athalon 900 and 256 sdram.
They're running XP too, which hogs more resources than 2000.

What software are you using? I've ripped a few with DVDDecrypter, under 2000, never had a problem.

I'm using DVDDecrpter.

The more I think about it, since installing a new PCI card a few weeks ago (giving me 4 more USB & 2 more firewire ports) this reboot issue has started to happen more often - it now even happens even during an AVG virus scan. This is when I've got the external harddrive, a DSL modem, an 8 in 1 camera card reader & a webcam plugged into 4 out of the 6 USB ports now available.

When I unplug the 4 peripherals it scans for virus's OK - could I have a power demand/supply issue? Only the external drive has it's own power supply.

One further bit of info - with all the peripherals plugged in & the contents of the system tray as per a normal boot up, I've got 49 - 55% system resources available.

 

[Strontium_Dog]

I'm using DVDDecrpter.

The more I think about it, since installing a new PCI card a few weeks ago (giving me 4 more USB & 2 more firewire ports) this reboot issue has started to happen more often - it now even happens even during an AVG virus scan. This is when I've got the external harddrive, a DSL modem, an 8 in 1 camera card reader & a webcam plugged into 4 out of the 6 USB ports now available.

When I unplug the 4 peripherals it scans for virus's OK - could I have a power demand/supply issue? Only the external drive has it's own power supply.

One further bit of info - with all the peripherals plugged in & the contents of the system tray as per a normal boot up, I've got 49 - 55% system resources available.

You could have a supply problem, yes. Try ripping without the peripherals you dont need plugged in.
You might look at how many processes you've got running in the background too. Shut down those you don't need. I've got mine down to 22 processes (stated by task manager), and 3 icons in the system tray.

 

[Ansel]

Thanks SD - I'll give it a try - is 'msconfig' available on 2000?

I've checked the power supply specs - 300W, so should be able to handle the USB demands. I may have a flaky 5 &/or 12v step down supply.

Next hardware step is to buy a 7 port usb hub (only £25/$45) with it's own power supply.........small investment. Then I'll consider getting more memory - RAMBUS is relatively expensive & less places stock it, I've had a quote of £145 (~$260) for 2 x 256 sticks........larger investment!

Will keep you posted.

 

[Strontium_Dog]

Thanks SD - I'll give it a try - is 'msconfig' available on 2000?

I've checked the power supply specs - 300W, so should be able to handle the USB demands. I may have a flaky 5 &/or 12v step down supply.

Next hardware step is to buy a 7 port usb hub (only £25/$45) with it's own power supply.........small investment. Then I'll consider getting more memory - RAMBUS is relatively expensive & less places stock it, I've had a quote of £145 (~$260) for 2 x 256 sticks........larger investment!

Will keep you posted.

There's no msconfig, but the way I stop things starting up is this...

In control panel, open 'Administrative Tools', then 'services'. From here you can see all the services that are installed, and select whether you want them to start automatically, manually or disable them. This is a usefull site to determine if you need them or not. click me

The power supply is a possibilty, although that usually shows up as the comp' behaving strangely, rather than a total shutdown. At least it did for me, before I got a 450w supply (got a few things plugged in myself).

You could always use it as an excuse to get a nice new machine though

 

[Syterion]

I have 128 RAM and I rip CD's all the time. But maybe CD's use much less resources, I don't know.

My Task Manager has 31 processes which use about 15% of usage, but that includes running firefox and winamp. Also 6 things in the sys tray.

 

[AceChilla]

Are you sure you have enough diskspace available?

For ripping a DVD you need at least the amount of diskspace of a DVD. 4 gig. Otherwise it won't work.

 

[Ansel]

Are you sure you have enough diskspace available?

For ripping a DVD you need at least the amount of diskspace of a DVD. 4 gig. Otherwise it won't work.

Yeah, I've thought of that DM - thanks. The Win 2000 NTFS partition on the machine is 10 gig, with 7 gig free.

SD - thanks for the admin tools info & link. I'll try to trim things down.