Start Up Problems

[HarryM]

Hi Guys

Newbie here so go easy!!!

I'm in the process of trialing OrangeCd to take over from my current MP3 cataloguing package as it seems to have taken a turn for the worse with it's current release...pity but there you go. The problem is I have been using it for so long, learning how to drive a new package is proving a bit more difficult than I would have thought.
The main problem is this though, I find OrangeCd dreadfully slow, taking maybe 5 mins or more to open and every command takes about a minute, or more, to execute. Not something I could live with I'm afraid. So I searched the forum for similar problems and found one with a solution that suggested storing cover art in external file rather than the database, then compacting the database which will improve performance all round.......erm, 'fraid not!!!!
Now, when I try to start the app, it just sits there and churns, eventually giving a not responding message when you try to do anything with it, it also has the processors running at 100% during this time, not good I would imagine....
I've un- and re-installed to no avail. Obviously this isn't normal behavious for the app so any help you can provide would be gratefully received.
My stats are as follows.

PC is an AMD Athlon Dual Core X64 with 2GB RAM and 2xNvidia 7950GT video cards in SLI config with about 1.1TB of HDD on various drives.

The MP3 database is about 1500 albums in total comprised of roughly 19,000 tracks with cover art for all albums and the database is made up totally of MP3's, i.e. there are no 'physical' CD's, everything is on the HDD's.

I hope this is sufficient data to help you, obviously, if you need any more please let me know. I am very keen to get this working to see what it can do as it seems, on the face of it to be the app I'm looking for if I'm going to replace my current one. It seems to have all the features I'm looking for but, because of the performance issues, which are totally absent from the current app by the way...., I can't even try it out. I will try and delete the current database and rebuild with only a few files to try and work with it but, obviously, if it's not going to work with my full database, then, that'll be a problem. I can't belive the PC's at fault in this.....
Sorry for writing such a rambling first post but this is important to me and I'd like to at least try this product out....

Thank you for your patience in reading this and hopefully you'll be able to shed some light on my problem...

Incidentally, my current app is Helium 2007 latest release.

Best Regards

HarryM

[Moredun]

Hi HarryM

Just letting you know I have a similar system to yours with 2044 Cd's in the database with 75% with album covers and 30434 tracks.

To date, OrangeCD starts up and loads in the data in under 30 secs (full view mode). I am also storing the cover artwork in the main database as well.

By chance are you using Vista? If so, try turning the UAC and Protection mode off.


PS I have also disabled the file indexing, that slowed down the comp badly. You can disable this by going to the HD, right click/properties and untick the box for "index this drive"

[HarryM]

Hi Moredun

Thanks for this. I am using Vista and I'll try out your suggestions and see if they help. I must say the UAC mode is a bit of a bind anyway, MS is really taking the security issues a bit far maybe....anyway, I'll let you know what happens over the next day or so. Thanks again.

Best Regards

HarryM

[andrei_c]

This is a known issue and can be addressed by tuning and optimizing your database. Sometimes, simple compacting of the database (menu Database->Manage Database->Compact) can make huge difference.

Please check out this topic for detailed instructions:

[url]http://www.firetongue.com/boards/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=orangecd_general;action=display;num= 1180843834;start=1#1[/url]

I would be very surprised if this does not help. I also recommend checking how much of free space you have on your hard drive. Windows (and OrangeCD) tend to become very slow when there's no extra free space on HDD.

Andrei

[andrei_c]

One more performance tip:

Defragment your hard drives. When hard drive is mostly full it gets fragmented and any large file spans multiple fragments scattered on entire hard drive. This causes excessive HDD head seeks and it can be heard as "churning".

If you hear hard drive churning for few seconds when you do something with your database, it's a sign that your hard drive may need degragmenting. It will help performance in any application, not just OrangeCD.

Andrei