Problems with new laptop

[JRR]

I have been presenting PTE AV shows since late 2002 publicly using Toshiba laptops and never had a problem. Nor have I had problems when playing the shows on various PCs.

I just purchased a new laptop, Toshiba A500-02J. Specs are here

It has Windows 7 as the OS.

The problem I have is that randomly, a transition will "drag" just a little and I get static in the audio.

If I play the AV again, it will happen in another spot during the show. Some shows it will happen 4-5 times, some only once or twice.

The shows are either ver 4.48 or ver 5.6

The problem does not occur on my PC, or the other laptops, both running XP.

I suspect it might be something running in the background that happens to be more active at certain times than others and co-incidently at a transition in the AV being shown.

The techie is ordering in another hard drive to swap with the one in the laptop to see if that makes a difference. But he suspects it might be something in the background as well.

Anyone else have any ideas ?

The fact that I haven't heard the issue on the forum before makes me think it is not a Windows 7 issue.

Thanks

[Ronniebootwest]

Interesting problem Jim.

I am about to replace my own laptop because it is quite old now (Dell 4:3 ratio) and I need a wide screen so that I can play my PTE shows on at 1920 x 1080 on my Sony HD TV screen.

I would like a Toshiba myself, providing the spec can handle the latest version of PTE. With you experience, can you suggest a model that would suit?

I will watch this thread with interest, to see if anyone solves your problem.

Ron

[JRR]

Ronnie:

We were looking at this:

Gaming laptop which is HD

But we decided it was too big to haul around. We have a small laptop with a lousy screen that we used for traveling, we wanted to upgrade it but the gaming laptop was just to big. So we compromised with the one that is giving us issues now.

The video card in the problematic one can certainly handle Lin's seasons cube with no problems.

I think the video card in the gaming one is better (should be !) than the card in the problematic one.

I tend to favour Toshiba, (we have three Toshiba laptops of various vintages) but there are other good ones out there.

Laszlo, one of the forum members, had his last laptop built to his spec at a local computer store. It is powerful enough to handle anything, but it does weigh quite a bit.

There might be a local computer store in your area that would custom build one for you.

[JRR]

In trying to track down the "static" and slight transitional drag, I re-compiled three shows of various vintages into ver 6.

So far, fingers crossed, the problem seems to have gone away using these shows.

Does this make any sense ?

(Or am I just lucky for now :rolleyes: ?)

I am going to re-compile more and see what happens

[stonemason]

Hi JRR try playing your slideshows with the laptop on battery power, as I had similar problems which proved to be static noise caused by the power suppy. Swapped the power supply with the one on my wife's laptop, and the static disapeared. Do a google search on laptop power supply noise and it will throw up some interesting reading. Hope this is of some help. For info my laptop is a duel-core dell studio running windows 7.

Geoff

[JRR]

Thx Geoff, something else to try

[Barry Beckham]

This may be just my experience, but slides shows on battery power, not a great idea. If your going to experience any problems at all, it will be while on battery power. Well, that is my experience anyway.

[stonemason]

I agree Barry but just trying it helps eliminate the source of interference with the audio system.

Regards

Geoff