I 'm a long time Vegas user..since V3.
I have used V4 for years on my :30 SD broadcast spots. Super stable and easy on resources. Still use it for simple stuff.
Installed V7d a year or so ago, for some mixed SD and HD work.

PROBLEM: When I output the firewire preview to my external monitor (an old Panasonic 13" tube) using V4, and make color or level adjustments, everything works normally. The output is stable and I can see the adjustments I'm making.
When I try the same thing with SD footage on V7 (levels, CC etc.), the external monitor screen breaks up, flickers grey as though the firewire connection has momentarily disconnected itself. I can play back a rendered file just fine; it's only when attempting to make those FX adjustments that the breakup occurs.
The firewire cable and deck connections are good...work fine on V4. I'm using an old P4 system with a GB of RAM and XP SP2. I know that V7 uses more resources, but this is really puzzling, since I've read here that some are still using older systems with V7 and V8.
Tried re-installing V7...no joy.
Am I missing a Vegas setting somewhere in V7 preferences??

Yes, I know that my system is old, but until I upgrade to a new box, I would really like to use V7.

As always, any help is greatly appreciated.

Ken

No one has had this "disconnect" problem?
Ken

I know I haven't in all of the various versions (basically all of them!) that I've used for that purpose.

Likewise. It may not be a Vegas problem...

I wonder if this could be a firewire driver issue? I'd look for old and current FW drivers for your card, and see if there is some roll-forward or roll-back that helps with these disconnects.

What firewire or fw on motherboard are you using? Is it OHCI? Back in the days of Pentium 4 there wasn't as much FW standardization as came later.

Thanks Edward and Seth for the help.
I started V7 with the defaults (Ctrl+Shift) and managed to do a 2 1/2 minute segment without problems.
Changed the default RAM preview to 128MB instead of the 16MB I had before. Perhaps the extra preview RAM helps!?
Anyway, here's hoping I can get through the other segment without issues!

Thanks again,
Ken