Hi all - here comes my first post;

I have a problem encoding flac files - i end up with a screen freeze, generally after a few tracks, whether i use Autoflac, EAC, Foobar, Speek's front-end ... the list goes on (same with Wavpack but have had some success with few albums). I chose Flac over other (lossless) encoders after reading pro's and con's in the Wiki guides - sort of future-proofing. Anyway, i read somewhere in this forum that .Net had to be installed in order to use Flac, so have re-installed .Net which seems (so far) to work BUT only on a setting of 2, which does not give me optimal file sizes. Is there something i have missed in the settings for encoding? - i have followed recommended command line settings shown in this forum.

BC

Hi, it sounds like your PC system needs more (efficent) cooling.

Also, check your disks for errors with "chkdsk c: /r" program. Go to Start -> Programs ->Accessoires -> Command Prompt -> type
and press enter. Check all your drives by replacing "c:" with drivelettter, e.g. "chkdsk d: /r".

Thanks for quick reply Egor

I had checked for errors on the hard drives. I have also tried ripping/encoding on the primary drive which has a fan attached. I don't think overheating is the problem (large case for air flow, chassis fans etc) although since i don't seem to be reading anything similar in any forums something is wrong with my setup - which i don't seem to be able to cure. I don't have problems encoding ape or lame files - and as already mentioned, i've had a shaky success with flac at a setting of 2, but higher settings cause freezes part way through the actual encode (not the rip). I considered that it might be a RAM issue but i have no trouble with other apps - Nero, Premiere, Memory Maps (OS) etc. Any suggestions welcome - the problem might be something simple but i've missed it.

The bit about .Net Framework being installed see http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=37978 - unless i misunderstood ......


BC

It might be a hardware problem still. Different apps have different patterns of what hardware they use most heavily. The fact that wavpack was also freezing your system is good evidence that there is some sort of hardware problem -- both programs are more cpu intensive that the normal home use program. Here's the steps I would do:
1. Check over all your command line options. Are you sure you're calling flac right? Try feeding it plain wav files with no other options to see if it works at basic defaults.
2. Re-download flac and make sure your first exe wasn't just corrupt somehow. (Save it to a new location, not overwrite the old one.)
3. Get Memtest86+ to test your memory. Download the bootable iso, burn it to a cd, and reboot your pc with the new disc in. You should let it run for at least an hour or two, but overnight is better.
4. Download Prime95, install it, run it, and choose options -> torture test. Choose the "in place" test for maximum cpu heat. Let it run for an hour. The other tests can be worth running for a while as well, though the "blend" test is slow and not as good at testing memory as memtest86.
5. Get a better hard drive scanning program than the one in windows. All HD manufacturers have free scanning apps that they give for free on their website.

Yep, you misunderstood. They are talking about Flac Attack and WACK, which are separate programs.

Thanks Klyith

BC