Ok, I realize this is no longer a qualified laptop. And it may be a bit underpowered.

I recently upgraded from Xpress Pro v5.8 to MC v3.0. I figured I'd try it on my laptop and see what happens. Everything seems to be stable and fine EXCEPT that the playback looks really weird. It scrubs through fine. But as soon as I play it, the bottom half of the picture turns into "squiggly waves." Hard to describe.

Anybody run into this problem or have any suggestions?

Hi,

I'd start looking at the ATI video card, as this sounds like what people get when there are video card problems (it's fine on a still frame, but blank/white/wrong on playback).  Check the ReadMe for what video card drivers you should be running.

good luck,
Carl

Thanks, though that is exactly where I started looking. I have the latest driver installed for the ATI x600 grafx card. But it seems that Avid is optimized for nVidia (even though my nx9600 laptop was qualified not long ago).

I looked at the README file with no pertinent info for my ATI x600 card. I'll try running it in the Legacy Overlay mode by holding down the "L" and "O" keys at the program startup.

The other thing I was wondering is that maybe the usable address space is the issue? I used the included "Install3GB.exe" utility to change my system to "2700."

OK, well the Legacy Overlay mode seems to have solved the problem; I just can't use the full-screen playback feature. :( I suppose this is better than buying a whole new laptop right now. I need to figure out the command that tells Avid to always start in Legacy Overlay mode.

I'll continue to test things and report any other problems I may encounter with this setup.

I figured out that to enable the Legacy Overlay mode as always on, you should open up the console window and type: legacyoverlay on"

I also noticed that the ATI settings allow for OpenGL and other settings. I'll experiment with that too.

So, I get an error message at startup now (even though the program functions fine). Here's the error report I get everytime I start Avid now:

________ Exception Report ________________________
Exception Code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
Fault Module:   01:00015E0F C:\Program Files\Avid\Avid Media Composer\ilgpu.dll
Fault Address:  0F236E0F siILGPUHalImpl::~siILGPUHalImpl+43F

________ Stack Dump _________________________________________
0F236E0F  0012F0C4  siILGPUHalImpl::~siILGPUHalImpl+43F
0F223BD6  0012F108  CanILGPURun+76
0F1C65AC  0012F148  ACFRegisterPlugin+4C
003A5282  0012F24C 
003A42D5  0012F6A8 
003A2229  0012F6DC 
00978842  0012F72C  AApplicationBase::operator=+5705F2
00978BF9  0012F764  AApplicationBase::operator=+5709A9
0084CF98  0012FDB0  AApplicationBase::operator=+444D48
0302969F  026B1230  AApplication::IApplication+25F
75C08502  6D7E54A1 

AVID SYSTEM DUMP - Sat Jul 05 12:52:12 2008

________ Memory ________________________________________________________

numPtrs:      00663
numHdls:      00076
totalPtr:     0x0003f0da (258266)
totalHdl:     0x00000c53 (3155)

________ Current Program Stack _________________________________________
7C90EB94  0012E1E8  KiFastSystemCallRet+0
7C802532  0012E1FC  WaitForSingleObject+12
6038F822  0012E210  PSPrintStack+82
6031289B  0012E2A0  DmpDump+9B
60312D39  0012E558  DmpDumpToFile+389
60318B0D  0012EB10  SetARONotifySatinExceptionCallBack+1B1D
6031B248  0012EB78  SetARONotifySatinExceptionCallBack+4258
7C359C97  0012EBC0  _CxxLongjmpUnwind+EA
7C359629  0012EBF0  _CxxExceptionFilter+1C4
7C3598AD  0012EC48  _CxxExceptionFilter+448
7C35994A  0012EC78  _CxxExceptionFilter+4E5
7C359B9D  0012ECB0  _CxxFrameHandler+26
7C9037BF  0012ECD4  RtlConvertUlongToLargeInteger+7A
7C90378B  0012ED84  RtlConvertUlongToLargeInteger+46
7C90EAFA  0012F0C4  KiUserExceptionDispatcher+E
0F223BD6  0012F108  CanILGPURun+76
0F1C65AC  0012F148  ACFRegisterPlugin+4C
003A5282  0012F24C 
003A42D5  0012F6A8 
003A2229  0012F6DC 
00978842  0012F72C  AApplicationBase::operator=+5705F2
00978BF9  0012F764  AApplicationBase::operator=+5709A9
0084CF98  0012FDB0  AApplicationBase::operator=+444D48
0302969F  026B1230  AApplication::IApplication+25F
75C08502  6D7E54A1 

________ System Configuration __________________________________________
System software: Windows NT Version 5.1 Build 2600 Service Pack 2
Processor type: Unknown Platform
Physical Memory: 2046 MBytes; Virtual Memory: 2699 MBytes
User name: SysOp
Application info: DeMille_A_Release_R56850

________ Processes Currently Running ___________________________________

________ WindowList ____________________________________________________

________ Binary Modules Loaded _________________________________________

________ Device Drivers Loaded _________________________________________

By all means experiment with your OpenGL settings, but the particular subset that has been implemented by ATI may not meet Avid's requirements.

DC66STEPS:

Fault Module:   01:00015E0F C:\Program Files\Avid\Avid Media Composer\ilgpu.dll

Without knowing for sure, an educated guess tells me that ilGPU.dll is a program module designed to access the Graphics Processor Unit on your display card.  The error message and subsequent debug dump tells you that it's failing when Avid attempts to initialise it.

I believe you are correct.

I experimented further with ATI's OpenGL - no luck.

Also, I checked the Console log after re-enabling Legacy Overlay mode (for future startups) and it said this:

I MCBootstrap::gwhoami = 30
AVX Library V1.5
OpenGL implementation found:
    vendor   = Brian Paul
    renderer = Mesa OffScreen16
    version  = 1.5 Mesa 6.4
    This OpenGL implementation does not support hardware texture render
    maximum render dimensions: = 1920 x 1080 at 8 bits per pixel channel

AAF DLL loaded from : C:\Program Files\Avid\Avid Media Composer\AAFCOAPI.dll
AAF DLL version     : 1.1.4 (45950) [0]
AvidQTURLManager - Checking version info for LoadLibrary AvidQTUpdaterVC7
AvidQTURLManager - AvidQTUpdaterVC7 Version (1.0) loading
AvidQTURLManager - loaded AvidQTUpdaterVC7 successfully
AWin32Mixer::Open inputMixerID = 0
Win32 Mixer is using Conexant AMC Audio, Version = 5.10
AWin32Mixer::Open inputMixerID = 0
Win32 Mixer is using Conexant AMC Audio, Version = 5.10
AlertableTimer Win32 constructor, default system clock resolution min = 1, max = 1000000
AlertableTimer Win32 constructor, default system clock resolution min = 1, max = 1000000
AlertableTimer Win32 constructor, default system clock resolution min = 1, max = 1000000
AlertableTimer Win32 constructor, default system clock resolution min = 1, max = 1000000
Media Drives:
(C:), OSVolID = 67, 39608224 totalKB, 11747492 freeKB, 11724548 realFreeKB
Media Drive (E:), OSVolID = 69, 58074940 totalKB, 35572652 freeKB, 35503175 realFreeKB
Video Drive (F:), OSVolID = 70, 732572000 totalKB, 376478920 freeKB, 375743610 realFreeKB
COM1: error (2) The system cannot find the file specified.

COM2: error (2) The system cannot find the file specified.


Dongle ID: [super secret]
System ID: [ain't tellin']
Avid Media Composer
In Init ARO Cmds
The single frame player will be built for a length of 3600 frames
The default render wait time is 50

AudioPunchInWindow:
    Had to dump the user's previous Input Chl to Track mappings
    due to differences in configuration.

legacyoverlay on
Legacy Overlay Forcing turned on for future runs of the application