slow startup

[ipoppa33]

hi,

great site! i'm having a problem my slideshows are very slow to open on cd. i create the slideshows and burn them to disc using nero, i have the autorun and slideshow in the root of the cd but they open very slowly or on some computers not at all. am i doing anything wrong or could i do something to speed it up? thanks.

[nobeefstu]

Hello ipoppa33,

A few more details on your Shows set-up and content would be helpful to aid you better:

Overall size of exe

Image files: count, type, kb size and screenwidth

music files: count, type and kb-mb size

Use of lots of Objects in first slide (or not)

(Plus anything else/special you may deem helpful)

Basically, the larger the size Show exe (mb size) ... the longer it takes to load. Speed of CDR Disc and CDRom unit speed play a role here. Virus scanning enabled slow things down.

If the CDR opens on some and not on others can be due to several different things. Brand of CDR Disc used, Closed Session burns are required, Requires use of ShortFile naming (8.3) in Autorun.inf ... just to mention a few.

Basically most CDRW (read and write) units read better ... while CDRom (read only) read faster. However, newer generations of CDRW units have gained higher read speeds. CDR Discs read faster than CDRW Disc.

We will wait to hear from you.

[ipoppa33]

nobeefstu thanks for the reply, here are more specifics:

exe size- 40,000 kb

imagae files: count 110, type-jpg, size of each 150-350kb

1st slide, no main 1st slide just a normal jpg, no use of buttons in this.

file name Wed.exe, the autorun.inf is the same. do i need to use a cap "A" in naming the autorun.inf (Autorun.inf)? i have it as a lowercase "a".

let me know if you have any ideas about speeding it up or if you need to know anything else. thanks again.

[JRR]

The 40mb file is relatively large for running from some CD drives, but as Stu says there are lots of factors here.

Image sizes over 200kb can be a little large too.

Is there no sound file ? 110 images at 200kb plus exe "overheads" seem a little short of 40mb to me.

I don't think the lower case "a" is a factor.

I suspect it is more a factor of the speed/specs of the drives and computers involved. Any specs there for us ?

As mentioned on another thread yesterday, why not copy to the hard drive and run from there. I know it is not as slick, but if it gets your show seen by others.....

[nobeefstu]

ipoppa33,

I too find the overall exe file size somewhat strange ... since your not using any music files that adds to your exe size.

Images @ 150-350 kb x 110 = 40 MB? Even if all were 350kb ...that would be about 38 MB (give or take)

As Jim mentions ... I would try to reduce the images that are over 200kb ... 150 kb for a 800x600 (screensize) image is usually the normal used for most here.

And the "a" is fine. The 8.3 rule is only a safe option to always use when you distribute your CDs ... as some users CD Drives dont read longfile names.

Question :

When you say it loads slow .... what is actual the load up time you are experiencing ?

Note:

As for PCs where your CD doesnt load at all ... its usually CDR Disc incompatability or the users PC doesnt have their CD autorun on insertion enabled.(Since you seem to already be using shortfile names.) Try testing your Show exe by dbl-clicking it from the CD root and see if it plays in that manner.

[ipoppa33]

oops, i have 3 mp3 files included, about 14,00kb, sorry forgot to include them.

it just took 35 seconds to start in my cdrw drive. it wouldn't start at all in my cd-rom drive, although i just tried an old cd with a 21,600kb exe on it and it started within 10 sec on my cd-rom drive.

i'm running a p3 700 with 512mg of memory.

maybe it's just the larger file size of the newer slide show, that makes it load slow? does anyone else use nero to burn with? i make the cd as a cd-rom(iso), no mulit-session and finalize the cd. i used to use ez-cd e\creator, thats probably not the problem.

[JRR]

As Stu suggests, try double clicking from the .exe file on the CD. What happens ?

What kbps did you record the mp3 at at ? Are they 3 separate files ? If so are they assigned to a particular file, or as background or what ?

[ipoppa33]

yes the file will open, it opens on my cdrw drive and by double clicking it.

they are 3 different mp3's and are background music. 2 are at 128kbps and 1 is 192kbps.

thanks.

[nobeefstu]

ipoppa33,

yes the file will open, it opens on my cdrw drive and by double clicking it.

Your above testing seems to indicate that the CDRom unit is not detecting or reading the autorun.inf file for some reason. If it was reading and detecting it but could not load it correctly ... you would get some error message indicating so.

I would try burning in the JOLIET file format as a test ... since possibly the ISO format you are using maybe is translating it differently. Were your settings in ISO9960 ... as some offer different choices.

Your 35 sec load time seems a bit lenghty to me also.

Note:

I believe that Easy CD uses Joliet file format by default upon installation .... Im not sure what Nero settings/ options are , since I havent used that program in awhile. Possibly your CD burning modes/properties/settings may need some adjustment to enable your CDR to work in all CD Drives.