Help!!! Computer skipping during songs!!!

[magog2k]

Hi. Love hoster!!! Just bought a new laptop, and I'm having some issues with it.

dell inspiron
windows 7 64 bit
quad 2.27 GHz
4 gig ram
hoster 4.20

Seems like some nights, it randomly will "pause" during a song for about 2 seconds. When it resumes, the music is behind the words. Very frustrating for my singers. I've turned off windows Aero, disabled my antivirus during the show, changed the color to 16 bit, and yet I can't seem to figure out what it would be. Any help out there?

Also (not sure if it's related), the music DOES always skip when minimizing/restoring any windows to the taskbar.
Also having issues with the "undock and resize" preview screen.

Don't know what to do. I'm at a loss for what the problem is. I'm not sure if it's a compatibility issue with windows 7, or if it's a problem in windows 7 itself. Anybody out there got ANY ideas?

[Roy Dennis]

From the control panel select "Performance Information & Tools" From the window that opens select "Adjust visual effects" click the radio button adjust for best performance then Apply. This should stop the skipping when minimizing.
If after wards you want to turn some of the features back on use custom setting and just try a few at a time. One item you might want to leave activated is the smooth screen fonts.

Roy.

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by magog2k

Hi. Love hoster!!! Just bought a new laptop, and I'm having some issues with it.

dell inspiron
windows 7 64 bit
quad 2.27 GHz
4 gig ram
hoster 4.20

Seems like some nights, it randomly will "pause" during a song for about 2 seconds. When it resumes, the music is behind the words. Very frustrating for my singers. I've turned off windows Aero, disabled my antivirus during the show, changed the color to 16 bit, and yet I can't seem to figure out what it would be. Any help out there?

Also (not sure if it's related), the music DOES always skip when minimizing/restoring any windows to the taskbar.
Also having issues with the "undock and resize" preview screen.

Don't know what to do. I'm at a loss for what the problem is. I'm not sure if it's a compatibility issue with windows 7, or if it's a problem in windows 7 itself. Anybody out there got ANY ideas?

First thing is to go to the following link and do everything suggested in it. These are all the items that will help Hoster run as smoothly as possible.
http://www.mtu.com/upgrades/hoster/windows7-changes.htm

Your biggest problem is that laptops use "Shared" memory for video instead of dedicated memory. This means that the minimum amount is allotted to the video card.

[magog2k]

Just seems weird. My older laptop with Vista never had problems skipping during songs. And that was Vista. Vista sucked.

[Roy Dennis]

What sort of problem are you having with preview undocking ? It doesn't take effect till after you re open Hoster.

Roy.

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by magog2k

Just seems weird. My older laptop with Vista never had problems skipping during songs. And that was Vista. Vista sucked.

I am not sure why you say it seems weird. Windows 7 is based on Vista.
If you have gone through and done all the items listed above by Roy Dennis and myself then you can also try going to Blackviper.com and try turning off some of the background processes that are not needed.

[magog2k]

Simply saying that Vista was full of bugs, and Windows 7 seems to run much better than Vista did, other than the obvious skipping that I've been expereincing.

As far as the Video docking/resize issue, it's still doing it after restarting Hoster, or the computer. Might be more of an issue with 4.20. My Dell with Vista has the same problem as of late, with resizing the Video preview screen. Not that big of a deal.

I've already gone onto black viper and turned off some of the "unneeded" processes. As I had said before, the skipping is way better than when I first installed Hoster. The only problem is that I never know when it may skip---I have to run a show to find out if it's gonna skip. Just quite embarassing for me to have singers get frustrated at me for the skipping.

Guess I'll just keep playing with it until I figure it out.

[ddouglass]

Only way to do it is to go to Show Display/ Preview tab and check the Undock and Resize box. Then Apply. Then close and re-open Hoster.
If you cannot move it at that point, try grabbing the corner and strectching it out some. If it will do that then you will need to move it by using the resize to stretch it out then grab the other edge to shrink it down repeating this until you get it where you want it.

[magog2k]

Video preview resizing: had it working, and now it's stuck again.
Reset video displays, went under tools/show display, clicked the box, restarted hoster, and still nothin. It's so tiny!!!! Anybody ever experienced this before?

[billyo]

Originally Posted by magog2k

Video preview resizing: had it working, and now it's stuck again.
Reset video displays, went under tools/show display, clicked the box, restarted hoster, and still nothin. It's so tiny!!!! Anybody ever experienced this before?

which one is tiny, your screen or the singers screen? dbl click on the singers screen, that should make it bigger.if your screen is tiny, grabbed the sides of the screen and stretch it.make sure nothing is playing .

[magog2k]

Yeah, it's my screen that's tiny. It's undocked, but for some reason I can't "grab" on to any part of it to resize. I've noticed my other laptop with Vista is doing it too. Seems odd.

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by magog2k

Yeah, it's my screen that's tiny. It's undocked, but for some reason I can't "grab" on to any part of it to resize. I've noticed my other laptop with Vista is doing it too. Seems odd.

In that case go to Tools/Options and click on the Reset Displays button. This will reset those items back to default locations.

[magog2k]

Done that. Multiple times. Reset, clicked the undock/resize box, turned off hoster, turned on hoster, and nothin. The window itself is undocked, but I can't find anywhere to click/drag to resize......

[ddouglass]

Just like any window in Microsoft you should be able to do it from any corner.
Can you get a screen capture and attach it here in a post?

[magog2k]

Here ya go:

Like I said, the screen is detached, and movable, but not resizable. Even if I do the "reset" for displays. Seems almost as if it's missing the border to click on. The singer display has no problems whatsoever: it even has the framed border on it.

[ddouglass]

According to the picture it doesn't look like it is detached and for being attached that is normal size.
If the Preview view in the Show Display windows says it is detached, try unchecking the box, close Hoster, re-open it, check the box, close Hoster, re-open it, then try grabbing in the lower right corner.
This could be problem with 64 bit Windows 7. If it still doesn't work, then put in a Support Email with as much detail as you can.

[Beavis]

why dont you restore your computer to a time it worked properly.

[magog2k]

Well, as strange as it sounds I have finally found a simple fix for the preview screen. Seems that if I shut down Hoster, and double click the singer display (thus placing it on the laptop screen, only it's not full sized), when I start Hoster at my next bootup the singer display is detached and resizable. Doulbe click the singer display and it fills the external monitor. Problem solved!!!!

[ddouglass]

I am confused. Was the problem the Singer's Display or the Preview? Preview is the small one in the upper left corner of the Hoster main window. The singer's display is what you move to the second monitor for the Singer to use. So which one was the problem??

[magog2k]

It was the "preview" screen that was not able to be resized. The preview screen that is in the upper left hand corner of the hoster player. The fix I found for it was to "double click" the singer's display on the external monitor/tv, so that it shrinks down to a smaller size on the "MAIN" computer display. By doing this when I shut Hoster off, when I start Hoster at my next show, the "preview" screen is now able to be resized on the "MAIN" display. Double clicking the "singer's display" maximizes the "singers display" from the "MAIN" screen to the external monitor/tv.