The Electronic Mailbox -

Videoguys' Windows 2000 Tips & Tricks

We have been testing Win2K with most of our cards and the verdict is clear: Win2K is the best choice for NLE. It gives you all the stability of NT combined with fantastic multimedia support. If you plan on editing video professionally or on a regular basis, get Win2K! This page was last updated 05/14/01 It will be updated on a regualr basis.

With a Win2K system, the more power you give it, the more powerful your NLE system will be.

Win2K will take full advantage of CPU speed and it fully supports dual processors. For best results give Win2K at least an 800Mhz CPU or dual 600s. You will find that you can get a dual PIII 800 Mhz computer for about the same cost as a single P4 1.5 Mhz. Premiere 6 can now utilize both processors and so can many of our other content creation software.

Win2K demands a lot of memory, so go with at least 256 Megs.

All the hardware in your computer must have Win2K driver support for our Win2K cards to function properly.

For all these reasons we feel you are much better getting a new system with Win2K rather then upgrading an older system that may not have the necessary power and/or driver support.

Win2K machines will automatically share IRQs.
Most times you will find many devices listed on IRQ 9. This is OK! In a properly configured Win2K machine running the latest Bios version and drivers, you can share IRQs with no problems. So when you do see your capture card and a bunch of others listed ont he same IRQ, DO NOT WORRY!! The following is directly from the Microsoft website:

SUMMARY
In Windows 2000, peripheral component interconnect (PCI) devices can share interrupts (IRQs) by design. Per the Plug and Play capability that is defined by the PCI specification, adapters are configured by the computer's BIOS, and are then examined by the operating system and changed if necessary. It is normal behavior for PCI devices to have IRQs shared among them, especially for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (APCI) computers with Windows 2000 ACPI support enabled.
MORE INFORMATION
In Windows 2000, some or all of the devices on your ACPI motherboard may be listed on the Resources tab in Device Manager as using the same IRQ (IRQ 9). You cannot change the IRQ setting because the setting is unavailable. This occurs because Windows 2000 takes advantage of the ACPI features of the motherboard, including advanced PCI sharing. IRQ 9 is used by the PCI bus for IRQ steering. This feature lets you add more devices without generating IRQ conflicts.
Note that Windows 2000 does not have the ability to rebalance resources as does Microsoft Windows 98. Once PCI resources are set, they generally cannot be changed. If you change to an invalid IRQ setting or I/O range for the bus that a device is on, Windows 2000 cannot rebalance the resource it assigned to that bus to compensate. Windows 2000 does not have this ability because of the more complex hardware schemas it is designed to support. Windows 98 does not have to support IOAPICs, multiple root PCI buses, multiple-processor systems, and so on. Rebalancing becomes risky when you are dealing with these hardware schemas, and will not be implemented in Windows 2000 except for very specific scenarios. However, PCI devices are required to be able to share IRQs. The ability to share IRQs should not prevent any hardware from working in general.
The Plug and Play operating system settings in the computer's BIOS should not affect how Windows 2000 handles the hardware in general. However, Microsoft recommends that you set this setting to "No" or "Disabled" in the computer's BIOS. For information about viewing or modifying your computer's BIOS settings, consult your computer's documentation or manufacturer. Manually assigning IRQs to PCI slots as a troubleshooting method may work on a non-ACPI system, but these settings are ignored by Plug and Play in Windows 2000 if ACPI support is enabled. If you need to manually assign IRQ addresses to a device on an ACPI motherboard, disable ACPI in the computer's BIOS before installing Windows 2000.

This link is to an article on the Microsoft website describes the process used by Windows 2000 to enable and install Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) functionality.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE UPGRADED YOUR WINDOWS 2K with Microsoft's Service Pack 2.
Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2) provides the latest updates to the Windows 2000 family of operating systems. These updates are a collection of fixes in the following areas: setup, application compatibility, operating system reliability, and security. Windows 2000 SP2 is not considered a required upgrade; Microsoft recommends that customers review all available SP2 documentation and determine whether to install SP2. Click here to download SP2

This is a known issue with Win2k and UDMA/100 capable drives.
If you have a VIA based chipset on your motherboard, you need the latest VIA 4in1 drivers. Go to www.viahardware.com and download them (you will also find other patches, updates, fixes and tweaks that will really help you optimize your system). Note: This website loads very slowly, I had much better results with IE5 rather then Netscape.

The following link is to Win2K tweaks provided by Dave Laborde. These are expert user tips that will let you tweak every last drop of performance out of your system. You can use all of them or just a few. My advice is to read the entire document first, then begin impleneting the tweaks one at a time. Click here for Dave Laborde's Win2K Tweaks for Non-Linear Video Editing

Videoguys.com 800 323-2325 Instant Product Locator Click here to learn more about the Real Deal advantage of The Videoguys

Click on the icons above to find the gear that's best for your needs.

For sales inquires please email our Sales Team: sales@videoguys.com
For customer service please email our Customer Service Team: custserv@videoguys.com
If you find any problems on this site please send email to: videoguy@videoguys.com

Copyright 1995-2004 TEM Trading Corp. The information on this site is provided and maintained by The Electronic Mailbox. Prices are updated regularly, but subject to hange without notice. Reproduction of articles for eductational / non-commercial use is encouraged. Any use of our content or graphics for commercial use must be approved by VIDEOGUYS.COM aka The Electronic Mailbox.
Videoguys.com 10-12 Charles Street Glen Cove, NY 11542