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making windows XP more efficient
By: GaidaroS Rank: Newbie Topics: 5 From: n/a	Added: 02/22/2008 - 03:09 PM Message has been edited, click here to see original content *Original Message - [02/22/2008 - 03:15 PM]* I am running Abelcam on a rather an old PC Pentium II with 160MB memory I have windows XP Pro installed. I have two webcams, Logitech quickcam and Microsoft vx1000 They are connected to a small USB hub, to give me a bit of an extension.(longer cable) This whole unit will be placed on a church tower, and will stay there untended making photos of the neighbourhood So the goal of this project is to collect images from the two webcams during the day. Once a week I’ll go and pick up the images with an external hard disk. My problems are The system barely works and often only one webcam works I need to make windows more efficient, I have used Microsoft power toys tweak. What else can I do? Can I use older software for the webcams? Does any one have experience with the Microsoft schedule to make Abelcam switch on and off at certain times Some ideas would be most appreciated Koert I am running Abelcam on a rather an old PC Pentium II with 160MB memory I have windows XP Pro installed. I have two webcams, Logitech quickcam and Microsoft vx1000 They are connected to a small USB hub, to give me a bit of an extension.(longer cable) This whole unit will be placed on a church tower, and will stay there untended making photos of the neighbourhood So the goal of this project is to collect images from the two webcams during the day. Once a week I’ll go and pick up the images with an external hard disk. My problems are The system barely works and often only one webcam works I need to make windows more efficient, I have used Microsoft power toys tweak. What else can I do? Can I use older software for the webcams? Does any one have experience with the Microsoft schedule to make Abelcam switch on and off at certain times Some ideas would be most appreciated
By: MelvinG Rank: Magna Cum Laude Topics: 661 From: Los Angeles, USA	Added: 02/23/2008 - 04:12 PM Are you using a good powered USB hub? Cameras draw quite a large amount of power - I have had many problems with cameras stopping because of power being "barely enough" at the end of a long cable. Powered hubs help. I'm amazed that XP works at all on a Pentium-II. The only suggestion I can make is to disable any Services that you don't absolutely need. Default installation of XP automatically runs some Services that you probably don't need. Other than that, well, good luck. XP is a resource "pig". AbelCam and MOST cam drivers work on Win2000, which is a little more efficient than XP. WinNT or Linux are obviously way more efficient but unfortunately neither AbelCam nor cam drivers support those O/S's. If you run AbelCam as a service you can start and stop it using either the NET (or SC) commands. (in a command prompt window, type NET HELP for more info - these are "DOS" commands) I'm on Win2000 at the moment and the following commands seem to work: NET START ABELSERVICE NET STOP ABELSERVICE Once you've worked out how to start/stop AbelCAm from the command prompt on your system, make batch files with the appropriate commands in them. Use the Scheduler to run the batch files at the desired times.
By: GaidaroS Rank: Newbie Topics: 5 From: n/a	Added: 05/23/2008 - 07:58 AM since then I have upgrade the computer, it did not work out thanks for the ideas
By: sse Rank: Forum Addict Topics: 73 From: n/a	Added: 06/24/2008 - 07:08 PM Gaidaro, did you enable the SelfCheck? This check makes sure the cameras are in working condition and restarts them if needed. If problems continue, please send me a debug log for closer investigation. See Support Page