I would sure do everything in my power to get Hoster back up and running ASAP. I do not have it backed up on a lappy which I do need to do. I can't even imagine having it go down during a show. I am, however, having to reload a lot of music lately for some reason - it'll just stop in the middle for no apparent reason. Trying to keep an ongoing list of what has failed has proved a challenge for hubby and me, but we're learning. All in all, I am very pleased though out of fear of what happened to us originally (new version, songs disappearing) I've been mortally afraid to do the update to 4. Soon I hope to get up the nerve to do it, LOL. :w

k

Is it doing it to the same songs or kind of randomly choosing? Do you retest the same song before reimporting? I had songs that would just all of a sudden stop. Turns out the hard drives were going bad & it wasn't the actual files, then we also found that the mother boards SATA interface was dying. I am in the process of getting that fixed now.

No real rhyme nor reason to it at this point. I reloaded a bunch on the weekend and will keep a record of what is failing. Some are disappearing altogether. The "guts" of my machine are brand new and should certainly not be failing already with only two shows a week. I don't know if transporting constantly may have a bearing. Will have to get serious about laptop backup and maybe switching over completely to laptop, although I love our current setup (PC shuttle, cordless keyboard & mouse, and flat screen display).

k

Like you I want to update so badly but scared to death to do itmy old software runs great never ever had a problem with it but sitting and letting the world go by because you are used to it does not keep you on top, but Im so scared to do it. I had such a prblem and still having it with, upgrading micorstudio, Im afraid to loose everything likeyou all said.

kowboys

I have been hosting w/o Hoster since June. Just got my tower back 2 days ago - due to very bad customer service from a service shop, will NEVER use them again. Had to get back into running discs, but it worked out fine & was able to make the show just as fast once I got back into the swing of it. I am glad that I got my tower back, it is so much easier, hopefully will never need to do that again, working on getting a laptop for a backup! :r

Wow, Lonman, what a trooper! I have to take my shuttle in today because it's been slow to boot up - critical status warning about the SATA drives. Not always but just just often enough that I'll start to panic as show time nears. Will be backing up onto my laptop and doing a music backup before I take it in, though.

Glad you're back into the Hoster world.

k

Host Without Hoster
 

When I first started using Hoster, you didn't see anyone else using a computer at that time. A KJ told me he would never use Hoster with a computer. I asked him why not? He then asked me, "What are you going to do when the computer crashes or breaks?" I said "the same thing you'll do if your cdg player breaks!" We always talk about backup backup, backup, but people don't seem to keep a laptop or even a tower computer for backup. Funny thing is you can buy an old tower that will run hoster for less than you can buy a capable cdg palyer these days. A used shuttle on ebay brings about $200 and it will run Hoster. Great for backup. This is why I won't do the disc thing, ever!!! I don't even have a cdg player!
muzicman:c:c:c:c

You are absolutely right about the backup. Ironically I have kept my backup current on my DJ laptop (which contains hundreds of hours of DJ music) but for some reason (maybe because it lives in a crate most of the time, when not in use, locked in the van) I haven't done a recent backup of Hoster. Time to do that. Thanks for the knock on the head.

In my postion, I feel the exact same way. Vista may be crap right now but XP is stable enough that an attentive person can keep it running well and see when a failure (nomally hard drive) is on the horizon and fix it.

I'm glad you got your tower back Lonnie. :c

Jim :g

I had SATA failure on the motherboard itself. They originally thought it was the hard drives, so bought new ones, same issue. They swapped out the processor, & then discovered it was the motherboards SATA interface itself that was dying. The motherboard was still under warranty which was the biggest delay, the company never did send it back, I said screw it I need it back & we bought another board. But then they loaded it with an unauthorized copy of XP Pro (had 2000 Pro) & when I got it back it kept wanting the activation key which I didn't get. So then I had to find a place that actually still sold XP & reload the entire system myself. What an ordeal.
But I would go back to discs if need be as I did, the show must go on & that's just what it did. But I am very happy to have my computer back in operation!

Great information. The guts of my computer are all new I believe (the drives) but I will mention your issue to my repair dude in case I have the same thing going on. You mentioned this when I reported some of my songs just stopping or disappearing altogether. Time to do some maintenance....

Lonnie,
I'm glad you're out of computer hell. Store computer guys can be hard to work with, they know it all!

The show MUST go on!

Jim :g

That was the first indication, good files of songs would just stop in the middle for no reason, then be fine the next time they played. There was no error messages or anything like that. Never had the disappearing act - well until the day all failed then lost the entire drive contents.

You're scarin' me here... Going to get the computer out of the van right now, back everything up, and take it in. You'd think a computer that is only about 6 mos old would be functioning error-free, wouldn't you...

Hey Karen,
Like anything man makes, a computer can fail no matter it's age. you are doing the right thing. Lonnie's right on once again! :c

Jim :g

I'm with you Karen, I really want to upgrade but after the fiasco on the last upgrade ( bye bye files ) I am gun shy to the bone. BUT when they are able to play VCD's and / or divx files I will upgrade for sure.

Mine was just shy of a year old.

LOVE my local computer guys (Richman Poorman Computers in Everett, Washington YAY!) - Took my shuttle in yesterday afternoon at about 2 p.m. They call me this morning at 11 a.m., it is repaired. Apparently there was some little "cable" inside that had a bad connection - which would explain why it would sometimes boot right up and sometimes hesitate for what seemed forever.

So, even though I was prepared to use player and CDGs tonight, I'm back in Hoster business again...PHEW... Will bring shuttle in the house after tonight's show and do a backup, then get my backup lappy ready to go.

It's nice to have the option of using CDGs if I ever have to, but will do my best to make sure that never happens (all the newest CDGs [probably 40 discs) on the computer have NOT been assigned CDG #'s so I was panicking at the prospect of finding new stuff on CDGs - :?)

lap tops
 

I was just wondering, what kind of lappys are you guys using for back up. and did you have to put a new video card in it or did it come with the one that is exceptable or what. Just wondering, along with a lot of others here, I need to get one for back up as well.

Dan.....kowboys karaoke