problems importing from singer's disk

[songpony]

I've had numerous - and inconsistent - problems importing from singers' disks. I've had audio drops which then cause the graphics and audio to be a couple of seconds out of sync, I've had the graphics completely freeze up for the entire duration of the read and import (which can be up to 90 seconds now!) while the audio keeps going merrily on its way, and I've had the white window of death pop up ("we're sorry, but Hoster has encountered a problem and needs to close now"). It's to the point where I'm extremely nervous about loading a singer's disk except when I'm singing, because I hate to run the risk of having it mess up during a customer's song - however, only loading one song per rotation rarely works, so this isn't a solution. Sometimes the import works just fine, but there's absolutely no predictability as to when it won't work. I can even load 2 songs off the same disk and one will work fine and the other will experience one of the above problems. I have a Plextor Premium drive, which should be one of the better ones, 1 gig of memory, fast processor, and no issues with anything else. Any ideas that will reduce (preferably ELIMINATE) the problems I'm having on import? Thanks!

[Beavis]

what version are you running ?

[ddouglass]

Since you can't control the way the customer treats the disks or the fact they have a cheap disk if it is a copy then you will have those problems. I have even had customers bring me a cracked disk and told me it works on their player at home.

Try inspecting and cleaning their disk for them before you attempt to import from it. If the disk looks too scratched or damaged then I would tell them (politely) that you can't load it and show them why. Explain to them the proper care and feeding procedures for CDs.

[songpony]

I'm using 3.310. I definitely understand the issues with not being able to read disks that are damaged, dirty, or whatever, but I wouldn't expect those types of things to actually cause Hoster errors such as freezing graphics or shutdowns - I'd expect it to say it can't load it, or just sit there spinning or something. oh, well...

[mindonstrike]

Are you sure you are not trying to click something while waiting for the import to begin (while the hourglass is visible)

Sam

[Beavis]

is the autorun disabled for the cd-rom ?

[songpony]

Autorun is disabled and I'm definitely not clicking anything else while it tries to import.

[Blastenfrog]

I have the same problem that he is having. Ive even had these problems from a newly opened disk.

[Dave Heidersche]

I have the same problem also. I changed Hoster back to 3.303 to eliminate this problem. I like the changes that 3.310 has given us, but don't want the headaches. I have an older plextor 24-10-40 and even downloaded new firmware to see if that might help but no help at all.
Regards, Dave

[ronjr]

Ronjr, I Am running 3.302 and have the same problem what i do is ad singers disk as Iam Calling the Next Singer up to sing have not had any more drop out's

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by ronjr

Ronjr, I Am running 3.302 and have the same problem what i do is ad singers disk as Iam Calling the Next Singer up to sing have not had any more drop out's

This sounds like a hardware problem with your computer. Either memory or processor capacity will cause you to have dropouts. Try running the Task Manager in the background and watch your memory and processor %.

Also, to everyone who has posted in this thread check the News page on main MTU site for update on drive issue. Check here http://www.mtu.com/support/news.htm

[songpony]

Problem for me is strictly with the Plextor Premium drive - if I use the internal laptop drive, I don't have this issue. I don't get audio dropouts with 3.310 - the graphics freeze up as soon as the disk starts reading. This is only on occasion, but having it occur even once while someone is singing is BAD.

[ddouglass]

Songpony, do you get graphics freeze up on both drives or just the Plextor?