Jingles? Chris Pickett? Help!

Just an initial thought some anti virus programs cause problems. i have heard of a few cases where it makes the software act a little funny. ill let you know if anything else comes to me. Welcome to the forums
Sincerely,

Post a pic of your 3D stage. i wanna see something please. Thanks

Remove both PC-Cillin and Webroot. They don't work and let all their spyware buddies in the back door.

Symantec has fewer spyware friends, and install Spybot Search & Destroy 1.62 to nuke spyware.

Let me state this for everyone as well:
Spyware killing software DOES NOT WORK except for Spybot S&D because that guy HATES spyware. The rest have buddies who they let in via an exclusionary backdoor. That backdoor is then further exploited by buddies of the buddies, which in turn do likewise.

Note: Debacle.

First, try running myDMX without the dongle. BOOT the computer without the dongle plugged in.
Do either of those(or both) make any difference?

Have to uninstalled the software, rebooted and then re-installed it?

Here's another goofy idea, and I say goofy because for most people it's not as practical. I'm not running Vista yet(all my pro software hates it), but the same principles apply:
Do a CLEAN install of your OS.

I know, for many people that's not a choice. It came with your PC, and even with the restore set, it puts the crap right back on where you didn't want it in the first place. I know some series and runs of Dell computers did this(re-install it to factory fresh with crapware and more as it came from the factory to you). No brand is really free from this except us home-brew guy(all my desktops are made by me).

My standard policy is "No OS pre-installed, just sell me the hardware and if you'd like you can sell me discounted NON-installed OEM OS software". I used to be a Dell reseller too, but I stopped mainly because I couldn't move the stuff and it's not because it's bad stuff, just because I have to spend too much time marketing and selling it and I am better doing other things.

Now, for a starting price(look it up at the Dell site), this computer is very affordable, especially at teh specs it starts with. Really good starting price point for a well equipped machine.

Also, I'm not a fan of Intel video chipsets(just the video portion). And Intel is a client of mine! It's not something I recommend for anything with heavy graphics, such as the 3D Visualizer. Even so, it isn't a total pile of crud. I think you have some other software issue going on.

I'm at the Sac Horror Film Festival doing sound all day Saturday(I leave at 7:30AM, I get back at 2:30 or 3AM on Sunday). Thank goodness it's only a 20 minute drive going the SLOW way. Oh, I'll be playing with MyDMX and my lights.

My MacBook Pro running BootCamp 2.1 and XP Home(latest everything) with Norton AV 2009 and the 3D Visualizer works wonderful, with or without the dongle. And I'm NOT using PC hardware, I'm uing a Mac! So, I should be having MORE problems than most but my system is rock solid. In fact, I gotta shut down and get some sleep before I go to my show.

I'll check in on Monday if you've got more information.

A quick update: The band gigs tonight, and we have snow warnings and a 3 hour drive (a 3 hour drive), so I must be brief. Jingles, tried last night to bring the stage file over to the desktop PC from the laptop; no luck. I'm blaming a nasty sugar buzz/coma brought on by mother-in-law brownies last night. I'll have time to dump the spyware and load what you reccomend, Chris, tomorrow, while watching our beloved Lions go 0-13. Thanks 2,000 lbs. I really appreciate the time you guys spent throwing suggestions my way. Let's continue this discussion later! - KCnoTek

No problem.

I just got back from my Sac Horror Film Festival event. Went quite well, as usual. Video, lighting, audio, it's a full plate for me to ensure I bring the show.

MyDMX rocked again. I had to do some scene calls for a dancer to fit her routine, which I manually triggered. Went into my OptoBranch 4, worked absolutely flawlessly. Didn't need it, but I feel better having that insurance policy in my rack. Speaking of insurance policy, it gets to live right above my DMX Operator

Hope your show went well. I only needed to move 1 ton of gear for this event, the other ton stayed in the truck. Fog sucked, but I've seen worse.

What a surprise. Got to the downtown gig, complete with 4" of new snow, and there's a parade. Yes, a parade! Thru town. At 6:30 PM on a Saturday night! Maybe a thousand people. It was the Snow Festival Parade or something. Needless to say, it was a great night; snow flying, fireplace blazing, snow bunnies dancing, and us jamming. Merry Xmas to all!

Okay, gang, back to the Debacle (!) After a Sunday of Honey do, and a Monday of actual work, I'm back. First thing I did, without cleaning off any weirdware, just powering up the laptop WITHOUT the dongle, myDMX and 3D Vis are working great. I can & have saved a couple new scenes. It still takes 3D Vis over 30 seconds to window up, but once it does, scene steps run actual time; no delay. ReDongling the laptop recreates the s l o w scenario described previously. Tomorrow I'll hook up the dongle and all the actual lighting, to see what happens. Jingles, I've saved .dlm and .evs files and a .bmp snapshot, but am unsure how to send you these via the forum.

I sort of hope this hasn't just fixed itself. I'd like to know why this happened, if I did something wrong or stupid, if I need to get something serviced or upgraded, - just so I understand the process a little better. Thanks already for the answers and input; hope there's more to come.

email me the files as an attachment no .zip files please to james k @ american dj DOT COM
ok?
Sincerely,

Is it possible to change the size of the font or the size of the box when running the show. Not enough room to write something like (rear lights only with blue spot). Gets a little confusing looking at all the scenes. Would be helpful to place them in columns or having bigger (I guess icons)to look at. Or even.....different colors.

I have now been using MyDMX for over a year and its great. Not had any problems or gliches. I have the original Colorstrip profile. Has their been an upgrade since then?

No i dont see any way to change the size of the text. but on the playback section i think it sort of does it for you on the buttons. There is not really a updated version of the colorstrip profile but one is strictly RGB mode for the light the other is Everything else except RGB mode. Make sense?
Sincerely,

No way to resize text in my experience.

What I do is a logical sorting of stuff. It works for me at least:

Par 64 Washes in various colors
Different fixture washes
Repeat for yet another.

Combinations of washes via various lights.

Add movers....

Special scenes(like my Cinema Insomnia Movie Oath scene).

Be descriptive and sometimes put something in ALL CAPS to just notate a new area starting. This is what I'm starting to do:
"64 LED PRO WASHES" is just a white scene, but is repeated as "64 LED WHITE". I know, a waste of a slot, but it helps to act as a sepparator.


I think what needs to happen is:
When it glitches, QUIT MyDMX, UNPLUG the dongle, re-dongle, relaunch MyDMX. It SHOULD be OK. It's sounding like a wonky cables at this point.

Also, use a DMX Terminator, it can't hurt, and just in case, get an OptiBranch/4 or a DMXBranch 4 to help protect against nasties going down your data cable shield/ground.

Another suggestion, although this hasn't been a problem for me:
Use the 3D Visualizer for design, don't use it during shows unless you absolutely have to. In my case, I do exactly that. On my last two shows where I had to make some scenes on the fly(the Lobo scene I mentioned for Mr. Lobo, look him up on the internet), I didn't need to use the 3-D Visualiser since I had the stuff on stage live between sets. But, I ran it anyways and it looked more or less as I wanted.

The 3D Visualizer is a resource pig compared to the MyDMX controller portion. It's necessary, it's a graphics demon, no choice. Only run what you need when you need to run it.

Also, another suggestion:
Disable WIRELESS, it can waste a lot of CPU time and cause other wackiness. At least, do it for shows. I do, I don't want to take chances. Whenever I do any recording via ProTools(Mac or PC) or video capture or MyDMX or even MIDI apps(like Sonar), I disable as much as I can to get the most out of the CPU that I can.

Enjoy, have fun.

EXCELLENT ADVICE! Yes, I'm shouting. I'm finding as I go along blindly that your wash setup, save, then change colors technique is the bomb. Starting with the saved washes, I then add whatever moves in whatever direction.

Yes to minimizing; Jingles described some excesses I had allowed (who needs brick walls, really), and the performance is back. I'm also doing the design on the desktop (2 monitors) and the playback on the laptop.

Thanks again, guys, for your top notch advise. I especially admire the fact that you took the time to help a newbie thru initial frustration, into design and tuning. For others having problems, read this thread, it'll help.

Your Quite welcome.
Sincerely,

I totally agree with leaving out the excess. When I am designing a stage, I need to know the dimensions so I can work with it and place objects. I need to know where the walls are, but that's about it. Don't care if it's a brick wall, to me, it's just a surface doesn't need more detail than that.

Keep it simple, always a good rule. I'm basically lazy. But being lazy means doing a lot more work up front so you do a lot less work later on. You've got the concept: do your design on where it is most convenient, even if the actual work will be done elsewhere(laptop).

I got more lazy tips if you want them. But I might be too lazy to post them. I have to have my secrets!