3D-Album Home

Coolblue · Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 8:01 pm Post subject: ALBUM FREEZES

Hi
After being indisposed for the best part of year. I am back to ask questions again.
I have been able to produce several shows after kind help from Nan and the rest of the
Good people in this forum to a very high satisfaction rate.
My problem is this. I tossed out the old computer (through it out the window) and rebuilt a new one that has an INTEL DUAL PROCESSOR. 1 GIG OF DDR11 RAM. / NIVIDA 7600 GFX CARD ON AN ALBATRON 945 M/B AND INSTALLED THE LATEST DRIVERS.
I am now getting a problem with 3D. Most of the time the styles come over like shattered pieces of ice. But the more simple styles seem to work ok like BASIC PRESENTATION I am forever getting the ??3D album has encountered a problem and needs to close.?? Message and then it drops dead and shuts down. Then on the odd occasion everything works fine?K. till it drops dead.
I have reinstalled the program numerous times (I have a disc) as well as the latest update 3.28 and nothing changes. At the moment I can??t get past 1st base. I am using 3D ALBUM PICTURE PRO.
Any ideas here?

rsnow · Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 9:09 am Post subject:

As a starter (if you haven't already done so) I suggest you check out Riva Tuner

http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner&menu=8

Make sure your Nvidia card is set to properly support Open GL, etc.

Riva Tuner is designed specifically for Nvidia cards.

Coolblue · Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:08 pm Post subject:

Many thanks i will check that out.
Col

Styler · Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 8:02 pm Post subject:

It sounds that you have a problem with your video card. The shattered pieces usually indicate a problem with the core of your system, especially a problem with the card's memory. Is your computer custom built? if so, a couple of possible issues for you to check:

1. Your computer's power supply. What amp on the 12V rail? If it does not meet the requirement of your 7600 GFX, you'll be sure to get constent crash.

2. Contact the maker of your video card, and see if they have a solution. There's a claim from the eVGA forums from an insider that the problem is due to a defect in the manufacturing of the card's voltage regulator that's located directly below the GPU from nVidia's plant in China. Another claim from HardOCP is that the video RAM itself is defective. If possible, ask them to give you a new card for replacement.

3. Is your video card over-clocked? Some card maker sets overclock rate for permance without adequate testing. As result, the chip will get extreamly hot and may cause crash or even damage the chip or memory. Try to underclock the card memory to keep it from overheating.

4. You problem may be caused by the memory (& GPU) clock speed being different in 2D & 3D modes. Try to up the clock speed (using Coolbits) in 2D mode to match the 3D clock speed.

5. Try to disable "write combining" in your display settings. Right Click Desktop > Choose Properties > Click Settings Tab > Click Advanced Button > Click Troubleshoot Tab > Uncheck "Enable Write Combining". Also make sure you have disabled Speculative Write Caching ( or something sounds like that) in your BIOS."

Frogprintz · Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 12:18 am Post subject:

I agree with Styler. There have been complaints logged with Nvidia regarding the 7600 GFX similar to what you describe. Systems without problems are those that come pre-configured with the 7600 GFX and have been specially built to balance with the other hardware. However, custom system builders have reported numerous heat related problems that have been traced back to hardware resources not being complimentary. This may not be the case with you, CoolBlue, since you through your old system out a window, but for others, when building your own new custom PC, it is best not to re-use components from your older system. The arguement of course is that you save money. The downside is problems like CoolBlue is having. This is especially true when it comes to RAM, Power Supply, and BIOS compatibility.

Try Stylers suggestions, but in my opinion, if you have to turn performance related features off to get the card to work, what value have you gained in buying this high performance card in the first place?

Best to return the card, or contact Nvidia direct if a retail return is not possible. Your warranty should apply in any case.

As an alternative, you can try the latest comporable ATI cards, but be sure your power supply will support this card too. The ATI cards seem to have much fewer configuration issues.
_________________
Michael Young
FrogPrintz Productions
Authorized Resellers of 3D Album

Coolblue · Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:06 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the information. It is really appreciated. In conclusion i would just like to say that I have now sent
the card back to where i bourgh it, i live in the bush so wont know the results for as least a week. I bourgh the
nVidia card on what i thought was good 'advice'in-instead of the ATI card. I have a complete new system and that
includes the case and power supply which is a 500 wat and rails 13 volts and in regard to stylers comment...i had
un-ticked the box in 'enable write combining, but i could'nt find anything in the Bios that even came near '
'speculative write catch. Something else for me to learn about. I don't play games so i have no need to overclock.
The thing is that all else worked fine till it came up against 3D ALBUM. Sometimes it worked just fine, but most
of the time it turned it's toes up after putting strange artifacts all over the place.
Once again many thanks for the kind help
Cheers to you
Col

Coolblue · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:26 pm Post subject:

Hi
Further to my original inquiry. Asus sent me a new card and the end result is the same. 3D ALBUM will not play anything but the BASIC PRESENTATION mode. Each time I go to any other style that use??s any complications at all it just drops dead with the message ??3d album has encountered a problem and needs to close??
I put on one of the games that came bundled with the software and it ran straight off. No problems. The problem seems to be the 3D album software.
I have not over clocked the card in ant way. It is as it came out of the box.
I have disabled ??write combining in the display settings??. The entire computer is brand new. (No old parts) I have reinstalled the program for the umpteenth time as well as all updates (3.28)
I am getting a little gun shy here as I was going to buy a package from 3D TIME but I am reluctant to do so. I already have several programs from them and they are just brilliant, particularly ??Montage vol. 1.??
Mate, do you have any ideas that might get me over this mess? The Asus 7600 costs $ 200 in my part of the world so I am reluctant to toss that out.
Cheers
Col :cry:

Frogprintz · Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 10:43 pm Post subject:

CoolBlue,

Asus 7600? I thought you had the nVidia 7600.

I know Asus makes motherboards for users that wish to custom make their own PC's, but not graphics cards. Is this graphics card a branded version of nVidia's 7600? If so, I am unfamiliar with it's drivers and chipset. Branded cards tend to be overclocked, or come with custom drivers to enhance performance. As such, they may require unique motherboard/graphics card configurations. This is one reason I recommended the ATI cards.
_________________
Michael Young
FrogPrintz Productions
Authorized Resellers of 3D Album

Coolblue · Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 1:52 am Post subject:

Sorry but I didn??t make myself clear on that point. The Card is an EN7600GS SILENT PCI EXPRESS.512 MB DDR2 DVI HDTV DUAL VGA TV-OUT and it is powered by NVIDIA GeFORCE 7600GPU MICROSOFT DIRECT X 9.0&OPEN GL SUPPORT

Coolblue · Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 2:37 am Post subject:

Hi You got me thinking about the drivers for nVidia and i got out the disc for the graphic card and reinstalled it for the 100th time and low and behold 3D ALBUM worked like a beauty. And the graphics are first class. Iused driver cleaner pro to clean out the system. There must have been a conflict there.
Many thanks for the help I am now laughing.
Very Happy

Cheers and thanks again
Col Blue

ramram49 · Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 10:00 am Post subject:

Hi CoolBlue,

I am using the same graphic card as yours...and having the same problem in 3d album as well. Can you tell me the details of how you solve the problem.

Thanks in advance.

Ramram

Coolblue · Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 3:15 pm Post subject:

Hi
The first mistake that I made was to listen to people that know zero. The forums here are the best place to learn. Make sure that you DON??T download the driver from NVIDIA??s web site. It is useless for this card. First go to the web and download DRIVER CLEANER PRO it is a free download and follow the read me and clean out all traces of any driver remnants that may still be on your H/D. Then install the driver that came with the software. If you can beg, borrow or steal a copy of ??NEAT IMAGE?? (you can get a trial version of the web.) use it to take any noise out of your pictures. I found that the best pictures make the best shows. Reduce the picture size to 512x385. I use a free program for this called ??Visualizer Photo Resize?? There is some styles in 3D Album that don??t work so well, no matter what you do. Well?Kthat what I found
I also found that if you have a second program, like ROXIO 7, which I use, you can make the show in your chosen style and then jump straight to capture and set things up there as a VEXE FILE, an added bonus here. You don??t get the 3D ALBUM LOADING splashing on the screen. And save it to My Videos and then use Roxio, or any other program that you might have, to run the music and any sound files that you want to use in the TIMELINE.I do this in VIDEOWAVE all you have to do then is stitch the show together in DVD BUILDER.
Hope this has been some help to you, don??t hesitate to drop me a line if there is anything more that I can tell you.
Cheers
Col Blue

ramram49 · Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 7:17 pm Post subject:

Hi CoolBlue,

First of all, thanks for the detailed instruction you've given.

I use 3d-Album to create the visual effect only, and would export the result to either an DV-AVI or a MPEG2 file. After that, I use Ulead VideoStudio to create the final DVD with music and other stuff.

I have downloaded Drive Cleaner Pro, as you mentioned in the previous message, and remove all the traces of NVIDIA. Having reinstalling the driver from Asus web site (I cannot find the original driver CD), the output is the same (ice spikes!!!).

I will try to reduce the size of the JPEG files tonight as you suggested and let you know if it works in my computer tomorrow.

Thanks.

Coolblue · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 3:19 am Post subject:

G??day.
I can assure you that your problem is the driver. The one from the web site will not work for you. I have been there and done that. Mine is the one that I got from ASUS with the software.
VGA DRIVER 2D/3D GRAPHIC &VIDEO ACCELERATOR V526.
ASUS ENHANCED DRIVER 1.30.
I found that this was my entire problem?Kif you are not using this one try and get it.
Good luck to you
Cheers
Col Blue

ramram49 · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 7:18 pm Post subject:

Hi Coolblue

I was so lucky that I've found the Asus driver CD last night.

By following your instruction (as well as the README.TXT in Driver Cleaner Pro), I got 3d Album work very well with the graphic card. Although I haven't trimmed down the photo size, the output is very good.

Thank you very much for your kind assistance here.

RamRam