Fried a PCI slot during capture. at DVinfo.net

Rick Foye · January 31st, 2006, 01:09 PM

This past Sunday I did a marathon capture session by capturing 5 hours of video non-stop. I was about to do a 6th tape but I ran out of time. Premiere (pro) started acting oddly and hung when I tried to shut it down. It’s never hung before. Yesterday I tried to fire things up to capture a 6th and 7th tape but I couldn’t get XP to see my camcorder. Thinking it was my firewire connection in the camcorder I plugged in my old Digital8. Same deal. I spent the next 3 hours trying to backdate my firewire drivers manually to SP1, rebooting the computer about 5 times in the process. I then remembered that the XP version I installed came with SP2, so there were no SP1 drivers to backdate to. At this time I shut down the computer, pulled the firewire card out and plugged it into an unoccupied PCI slot. When I booted up XP recognized my camcorder right away.

I'm guessing the firewire card got really hot during the capture session and fried some part of that slot. My case is pretty cool due to the ridiculous amount of fans I have installed. I even had a fan installed in a PCI slot right next to the firewire card. It was pulling air right past the card.

I don’t plan on capturing video for 5 hours straight again. What would be a good method of capturing such a large amount of video? 3 hours max? A 20 min break for every hour captured? One hour of capture, one hour off?

Ron Johnson · January 31st, 2006, 01:26 PM

I don't know a whole lot about the electrical design of PCs, etc, but it seems unlikely to me that a simple mini DV capture session could work up enough heat to take something out on the motherboard.

It might be interesting to try and re-install the capture card in the original PCI slot. The card could have gotten itself into a locked up state that was reset when it was unplugged from the system.

rj

Rick Foye · January 31st, 2006, 03:20 PM

I'll give it a try Ron.

Dan Euritt · February 2nd, 2006, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Foye

I'm guessing the firewire card got really hot during the capture session and fried some part of that slot.

since it worked after you unplugged/plugged it back in again, it's probably not a "fried" hardware issue, because you can't heal an electrical part that is fried.

Greg Boston · February 2nd, 2006, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan Euritt

since it worked after you unplugged/plugged it back in again, it's probably not a "fried" hardware issue, because you can't heal an electrical part that is fried.

He wasn't suspecting the card of being fried, but rather the actual PCI slot it was plugged into. He moved it to another slot and it worked again. I am in agreement with Ron, thinking that it might work in the original slot. If in fact it's a thermal issue, removing and re-seating the board in the original slot works more times than not.

-gb-

Sam Gates · February 2nd, 2006, 07:19 PM

I have run in to this with older operating systems. I had to delete all traces of the card from my system including the registry. Thankfully I haven't run in to this with XP because I would have to figure it out again.

Sam

Rick Foye · February 20th, 2006, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ron Johnson

I don't know a whole lot about the electrical design of PCs, etc, but it seems unlikely to me that a simple mini DV capture session could work up enough heat to take something out on the motherboard.

It might be interesting to try and re-install the capture card in the original PCI slot. The card could have gotten itself into a locked up state that was reset when it was unplugged from the system.

rj

I left the card in the new slot because I didn't want to mess with it while it was working again. Today Premiere locked up again and I couldn't connect to the camcorder via firewire. Again. This wasn't during a capture session. My camcorder had been connected for about 20 min. I moved the card back to the original slot and it's working again. You were right. What would cause this? Is it some conflict with Premiere and XP? I don't want this happening with an external drive. I don't have one yet, but maybe I should get a combo firewire/USB just in case.

My specs are Premiere Pro 1.whatever, 3ghz P4, intel MB, 2 gigs ram, running XP Professional SP2.

Matt Howell · February 23rd, 2006, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Foye

What would cause this? Is it some conflict with Premiere and XP?

Video is my hobby and keeping computer systems and networks running is my real job. (the one where I pretend to work and they pretend to pay me.--joking :)

Bad capacitors on the motherboard is one possibility. Rick, are you by any chance using a Dell? Specifically an Optiplex GX-270 or GX-280? You would not believe the number of GX-270's that have bad caps on the motherboard, of course this can happen with any brand of PC or motherboard, not just Dell.

Anyhoo, when the board has bad caps a visual inspection will usually show signs. What you are looking for is capacitors with swollen or bulging tops, and in severe cases they actually burst and leak a brown colored goop (substance).

When a board has bad caps the symptoms can be varied, strange, and inconsistent, the kind that make troubleshooting very difficult and tedious.

One more suspect is the power supply, be sure to swap that out for a known good one if the PC continues to act crazy.

January 31st, 2006, 01:09 PM	#1
Rick Foye Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Virginia Beach, VA Posts: 30	Fried a PCI slot during capture. This past Sunday I did a marathon capture session by capturing 5 hours of video non-stop. I was about to do a 6th tape but I ran out of time. Premiere (pro) started acting oddly and hung when I tried to shut it down. It’s never hung before. Yesterday I tried to fire things up to capture a 6th and 7th tape but I couldn’t get XP to see my camcorder. Thinking it was my firewire connection in the camcorder I plugged in my old Digital8. Same deal. I spent the next 3 hours trying to backdate my firewire drivers manually to SP1, rebooting the computer about 5 times in the process. I then remembered that the XP version I installed came with SP2, so there were no SP1 drivers to backdate to. At this time I shut down the computer, pulled the firewire card out and plugged it into an unoccupied PCI slot. When I booted up XP recognized my camcorder right away. I'm guessing the firewire card got really hot during the capture session and fried some part of that slot. My case is pretty cool due to the ridiculous amount of fans I have installed. I even had a fan installed in a PCI slot right next to the firewire card. It was pulling air right past the card. I don’t plan on capturing video for 5 hours straight again. What would be a good method of capturing such a large amount of video? 3 hours max? A 20 min break for every hour captured? One hour of capture, one hour off?

January 31st, 2006, 01:26 PM	#2
Ron Johnson Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 103	I don't know a whole lot about the electrical design of PCs, etc, but it seems unlikely to me that a simple mini DV capture session could work up enough heat to take something out on the motherboard. It might be interesting to try and re-install the capture card in the original PCI slot. The card could have gotten itself into a locked up state that was reset when it was unplugged from the system. rj __________________ Ron Johnson Portland, OR

January 31st, 2006, 03:20 PM	#3
Rick Foye Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Virginia Beach, VA Posts: 30	I'll give it a try Ron.

February 2nd, 2006, 07:19 PM	#6
Sam Gates Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Kilgore, TX Posts: 45	I have run in to this with older operating systems. I had to delete all traces of the card from my system including the registry. Thankfully I haven't run in to this with XP because I would have to figure it out again. Sam