Troubleshooting Reflection

Troubleshooting, Troubleshooting, Troubleshooting....

Where would we be without troubleshooting? I believe, as I suppose many do, that the amount of troubleshooting necessary just to operate simple functions on the computer grows exponentially. Logically, the problems and issues causing troubleshooting should be decreasing due to better programming and software development, alas, this has not been the case.

I think the most frustrating issue I usually encounter when using computers is my need usually outweighs the computer's ability, so I end up pushing the limits of the computer. At home, my wife and I currently only have one working machine, a Dell Inspiron notebook, so we have to share. The machine is a very solid and stable machine, so I had no qualms when it came to using it for video editing. This is where I made my first mistake. One of the most important lessons I've learned with troubleshooting over the years is the need to stay current with program updates and their machine requirements. Before I began my teaching career four years ago, I was heavily involved with gaming, which always requires a powerful video card. If there was one thing my machine's have always had in the past, it was a top of the line video card, until I began teaching that is. I purchased this machine knowing I needed to balance power with stable performance for utilizing it within the classroom. I certainly should have kept this in mind last fall, unfortunately though, I did not.

One of the classes I took during the Fall Semester required me to create a personal change story. I ended up only receiving half the points for the project due to many technical issues with Adobe Premier Elements. Initially I chose to use Sony Vegas Studio but quickly realized it has a problem rendering sound for QuickTime Movie files. Having successfully used a demo of Adobe Premier 4 for a class last summer, I decided to go ahead an purchase the full version--but I had to purchase the new version (7). My problems had only just begun.

Everything seemed to be going well while using Premier. I was successfully able to import all the necessary video media into the project file, edit the individual media for content, and render a draft video. However, as I stated before, fulfilling the bare minimum requirements generally does not suit me (hence the length of this blog) so I decided to spice up the story a little...what was I thinking??? I went out and bought one of John Mayer's new albums which had a couple of songs I wanted to use for background music. Upon ripping the music (doesn't that sound violent?) and importing them into the project I found out my grandiose computer simply could not handle what I was asking of it. Once I attempted to render the video, Premier would literally shut down on its own, giving me the message to save because it was running out of memory (obviously for you tech guru's out there the message was much more specific and detailed)

For those of you technically savvy, here were the computer specifications at the time:
Intel Centrino Duo Core Processor @ 2.00 GHz
1 GB of RAM
ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (256 MB Video Card
1.5 GB of HardDrive Space Free on C: drive (Dell partion's a backup D: drive which I was unaware of when purchasing this notebook).
17 Inch Monitor with a refresh rate of 60 Hertz

Before scrolling down, since we all have to respond to each other's postings, I thought I would give everyone something to think about and possibly post...if this were your computer's spefifications what would you say the problem was?

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Ok, so I initially thought it was a RAM issue. Having always been up-to-date with my video requirements for gaming, video RAM was not on my mind (as it certainly should have been). So, I ordered another GB of RAM for the machine and installed it. Hoping this would solve my woes, I attempted to render the video again...only to see the same result. Also worth noting, the hard disk space was certianly not part of the answer either as I cleared up another ten GB of space and moved the data to my external hard drive so the drive had almost 30% free space.

A month has gone by since my change video was due to the professor, however she knew I had completed the project as I showed her the un-rendered project within Adobe Premier. I simply needed to render it! Knowing full well the only logical solution to the problem was a solution I could not provide, I brought the machine into class where one of my classmates was a Digital Media student. He worked for nearly an hour, attempting to render the video one segment at a time, but eventually, he ran into the same problem, though he did manage to get the notebook to render nearly all of the video which was much better than I had done. Finally, to make an already long story a little shorter, I burned all the necesssary components for the change video onto a DVD and gave it to the digital media student to take it home and render on his machine, which he was able to do with no problem.

To solve the problem for future video productions, I realized I need to take the time to upgrade one of my desktop machines with a video card that can handle this type of video production (especially now that I receive a supplement at my school as the Audio/Visual Director). Unfortunately, I have a whole nother trouble shooting issue at hand with the desktops...which is why I didn't use those in the first place...but that is another story all together!

As a savy computer user, the only way to alleviate the frustration is to finally fix the problem...but for my peers at school whom I work with and provide support facilitation in terms of technology, I've found the best way to alleviate the stress and frustation computer problems cause is to communicate the problem to those who can help you, whether it is online chat support or simply with a telephone call to a friend or savvy family member.