sluggish and freezing timeline -- help please

[artjac]

playback stopping in timeline--help
System:
3.x gig, dual processor
4 x 73 gb scsi(10k) raid for captures
4x 73 gb scsi(10k) raid for backups
2 gb ram
vt 4.5

I teach video production at a middle school. I recently upgraded to the above computer from a much less powerful one. And still experience a slow/stopping problem.
Upon capture(3-5 minutes) of video, I bring it to the timeline.
On the timeline I have some audio tracks(10 sec of music), some Power Points jpg's,and sometime a short 5 sec video clip.

Problem(s):
1. during playback in the timeline, it stops and freezes for a period of time(stops for anywhere from 3 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec). It seems to be a random problem.
I even rendered it and still experienced the stopping.
I have defragged, there is lots of space left on the drives(200gb)
I believe I set all the Preferences correctly, but am not sure. I have been tweaking them for weeks.
Help please.

[Jim Capillo]

Questions:

Have you done an autoconfig ?

Where is the cache set to ?

What format are you capturing in ?

Is this a dealer built machine ?

[artjac]

Questions:

Have you done an autoconfig ? --yes

I have been playing w/all these.
Where is the cache set to ?
Desktop caching: ON
PCI Bus speed: 64 bit 66 --I have been playing w/this strated w/70 and been working my way up-- and no help
DDr Resource usage --medium--i am not using the DDR
DDR Cache bg rendering--enabled
DDR cache CPU limit 4.2--i have been playing with this too and no help
DDR cache PCI--90 --have been playing w/this too
vt-edit cache CPU 4.32 --ALSO PLAYING W/THIS
VT-EDIT CACHE PCI BANDW--90 SAME AS DDR

What format are you capturing in ?
capturing directly from camcorder via the sx8 to bnc to rca adaptor,
uncompressed d1 video. I tried dv video type 1, and machine would not capture.

Is this a dealer built machine ?
Yes. a Newtek vendor, according to the NEWTEk's site recommendated configurations

[Jim Capillo]

Hmmmm.... set the prefs for PCI 32bit 33mhz, no limit.

What drive do you have the caches set to ? Should be the fastest video drive RAID.

Not sure if that's the problem, but you can start there.

What slot is the VT board in ? Have you changed anything from the dealer ? Added anything (firewire card etc)?

I would really call the dealer first - might be something on the board itself.

[ted]

artjac, It looks like you spread this all over the forum. Which also means you have answers all over the forum.
If I can kindly suggest...knock it off! :twak:
Not wanting to be harsh, but it's a pain to follow.

[Jim Capillo]

Yeah, you usually only need post a problem in the correct forum (see forum headers).

There are plenty of folks here who will read it whatever forum it is in. It will be seen.

[Jim Capillo]

Also, check your nVidia software to make sure the Manager is off. What drivers are you using (nVidia)?

You can also turn off the timeline icons by rt clicking on the arrow on the top right of the edit window, but I doubt if that is the problem - you have plenty of horsepower there.

One more question, is this machine on the internet and/or have virus/firewall software ?