#My PAR, she glitches!!
18 messages in this thread
Hello ALL!
I have had my PAR up and running for approximately 3 months now with relatively
few problems, until recently. I have over the past month made a number of
"enhancements" to my computer systems in order to complete a large project.
This is what I have done:
– Move the PAR system into a DELL XPS-90 Mini tower system.
– Add this new system to a Lantastic Network.
– Update the PAR software to ver 1.27b
– Add a second Hard Drive to my PAR system, giving me a:
Master: Micropolis 2210A – 1.05 GB Drive
Slave : Micropolis 2217A – 1.65 GB Drive
in that order. Since adding the second drive I have been experiencing
problems. 90% of the time things seem to be working perfectly. However
sometimes when I do a join or an append, the process messes up a frame that was
correct before. In other words, I'll join two good animations and get a
slightly messed up resultant animation. Then sometimes when I rerender the bad
frames and try joining them in more frames go south. It is real annoying. It
happens on both drives and seems to be quite random. I can't honestly say that
it is definitely a problem that started with the new drive because my system
has changed so much lately. Any Suggestions?
Jim G.
Just be sure you optimize often. Avoid using your PAR as a storage device for
your ani files. Develop a mindset that the PAR drives are more like RAM than a
dos hard drive. Using this practice will help you keep your animations running
from the fastest parts of your drives.
Nice system, I'm envious. I had hoped to get the 2217A this week but a problem
developed and delayed the project that would have required it.
James,
I notice you have (or had?) similar problems as we have. Maybe there is
somebody who can help us out.
I have a PAE for a week now and the first few days it worked fine. We put the
card and disk in another computer, even connected it to a Lantastic network and
it still worked fine.
Suddenly we got bad frames while importing or duplicating. It looks like there
are two frames mixed in one picture and the sync seems lost. In a few days the
problem got worse and we now have 10 faulty frames in 80 total !
We reinstalled the software (1.25B Pal version), upgraded to 1,29B Pal,
optimized the disk etc. but nothing works.
If we play old animations recorded before the problems started they still look
oke. If we duplicate the old ones: same problem again, so it seems all writing
goes wrong.
Another strange thing is that repeatedly while importing TGA's the PAR stops
and complains about "file …… could not be converted; aborting import".
After this happens the PAR software stops and complains about a fatal error
"communication time out". (I thought this was solved after the release of
1.27).
When we check with PARCHECK it mostly tests oke, but sometimes it complains
about missing ACK's and reports errors while testing PIO mode.
Last strange phenomenon is that sometimes even when booting we get an error.
We checked temperature of the drive, but after some hours off it still gives
the same problems.
Any idea somebody ? We have to shoot a production commercial in two days so we
are desperate !
What BLF are you running? What QF? What is the size of your HD?
What is the current free space left on this drive.? Have you checked the
integrety of those targa files that were causing you problems with a display
software such as photoshop?
You should supply the above info before anyone can get a clue as to what the
problem might be.
Hi Don,
This are the missing specs:
BLF: 200 Q: 23 Harddisk Micropolis 2210A (1GB) Free: > 700 MB
Yes, we have checked the TGA's ; they are oke, even the par seems to be able to
import them sometimes!
Behavior is really erratic.
Hope this helps. Still desperate as we need to shoot a commercial in a few
hours.
I'm sure someone has already suggested this but you could remove your
cables and reseat them. Also reseat the card. Nothing seems to be
out of order in your specs and your BLF is way safe as you could be
using at least 240. Also run PAR TEST to see if it indicates any
problems. Beyond this, you may have a bad board, or HD. I've heard
of one other person here on the forum that had a bad PAR. He got a
new one from DPS and all his problems went away.
Once I had corrupted TGA files during rendering. It was traced to a
bad (dirty) powersupply connector to the mother board. I resoldered a
new (from my junk box) connector and all was fixed.
Thanks for responding!
I haven't yet found a solution. In fact after this past weekend
things seem to be getting worse. Sometimes things work fine, others
the machine will lock up while performing an operation in the PAR
software.
I am actively trying to figure it out, since I am up against a
deadline. If I find anything out I will let you know.
I have had exactly the same problems with the PAR as you described. I
don't have a solution. It just seems to come and go. I thought my
troubles were behind me but I just had a disaster.
I optimized the PAR disk and it destroyed everyone of over 30
animation segments I had prepared. They all have many bad frames
filled with small white cubes and grid lines.
Now every time I do a "join" or "duplicate" the resultant .ani file
comes out bad with the white grid lines and boxes.
I have called DPS tech support and described the problem but all I got
were long pauses and a bunch of "Well, have you tried . . . ." DPS
(at least the guy I talked with) didn't have a clue as to what is
wrong. I'm sending my card back.
I'm also using a Microp 2217A which has been reformated several times
and which is kept completely cool by a large fan blowing on it.
Alec,
Thanks for the response. I was kinda hoping I wouldn't have to send the thing
back. But if I must, I must. Let me know if your new PAR works any better.
Jim G.
I have had the same problem, the reason my PAR-controller was not
firmly in the slot of the motherboard. JUST A SUGGESTION !!!
Hi Theo, Did you really answer James or did you have the same
problems as we have at Studio PC (erratic behavior). We checked
placement in the slot, as you are right we have seen problems in the
past just by misplacement of the board. It's a long card and chances
are it 'misfits' so it's good thing to check first. However our
problems remain…
BTW your name looks Dutch; are you located in Holland (we are) and do
you posess a PC-PAR ? You must be one of the very few.
Hallo Michiel,
Ja, wij zitten in Kortenhoef Tel 035-564044 Fax 035-564024. Tijdens
de laatste IBC in Amsterdam hebben de boys from the STATES een
PC-PAL-PAR voor me meegenomen met de capturekaart. De kwaliteit is
zeer goed, maar het is een heel delikaat instrument. Ik heb besloten
elke keer alles te kopieren, want je bent zo alles weer kwijt. Ik
had "SHE GLITCHES" in het begin, maar nadat ik de kaart met extra
tools had vastgezet was het weg, gisteren kwam het echter weer terug.
Van de 1000 frames waren er zo'n 60 welke heel erg flikkerde. Toch
heb ik het idee dat het in de aansluiting zit, ik kan namelijk e.e.a.
simuleren door aan de plug te rommelen. Net alsof een sterk licht aan
en uit ging. Ik heb de betreffende frames verwijderd en daarna was
alles OK. Maar toch ?!. Ik heb wel vaak en veel problemen met het
optimaliseren van de disk. Vaak ben ik gewoon keihard bestanden
kwijt, en in sommige gevallen helpt alleen nog maar een totale
reformat van de drive. Dus een dringend advies
backup-backup-backup-backup de PAR-files.
Groeten
Theo
Hallo, sorry dat ik hier binnenval
Maar sinds er hier wat nederlandstalige PAR gebruikers zitten, kan het wat
interessant worden.
Ik ben Belg en architect, heb een PAR PAL besteld met capture card en wacht op
delivery, misschien kan het interessant zijn om contact te houden.
Groetjes
Christophe
Hi Christophe,
Gezellig, mijn tel (035-564044) , fax (035-564024).
Bye
Theo
theo
>>Dus een dringend advies backup-backup-backup-backup de PAR-files.<<
This part I understand, and I agree completely – backup those PAR files! It
saved me twice recently.
bob
Bob,
You really must be a very experienced user.
CIAO THEO
theo –
wish i could say so – I'd call myself a "gentleman amateur," – i have a "real"
job 9-5 that pays the real bills <BG>
rw
Thanks I'll give it a try!