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Thread: Laptop Advice (Again)

  1. #1

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    Default Laptop Advice (Again)

    Good afternoon all

    I bought a new laptop last year which is a HP Pavilion 8gb ram and 500g HDD however its recently started to be really slow and sometimes totally unresponsive especially when using iTunes i tried to speed things up by deleting some tracks i never use anymore and turning of i cloud and moving (as someone suggested) my iTunes folder

    Please be warned that if you move your iTunes folder iTunes will no longer be able to find it until you tell it in preferences where it has been moved too as well as this the I Tunes folder will no longer be shown in virtual DJ all this the night before new years eve was enough to push me into an early grave!

    I had to DJ by going into each individual folder and dragging it across to VDJ

    Rather than blaming my laptop i would blame myself for mismanagement of the machine with files being all over the place and half my tracks are now missing!

    The local PC shop have recommended a full wipe and re-install which i will do eventually i have now decided to buy a new laptop which i will solely use for djing and nothing else which brings me to my question!
    .
    What would be the best way forward to manage my new laptop to ensure it stays responsive?
    How do i tell VDJ pro where my tracks are?

  2. #2
    yourdj's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ThomasPM View Post
    .
    What would be the best way forward to manage my new laptop to ensure it stays responsive?
    How do i tell VDJ pro where my tracks are?
    Get a good laptop and an SSD would be my suggestion. Don't mess about with it and it should work fine. I have a 2tb (5200 speed) sata as a second drive in my macbook and thats fine even with videos, but much better using the SSD as main drive as its much faster. I use my laptop for everything (I am on it at least 7-10 hours a day if not more) and have never really had any serious issues (Macbook Pro - various models since the 12 inch G4), so I don't really think that a DJ only laptop is required personally, but maybe a good idea especially with Windows and virus issues they get?

    Dragging and dropping files does not sound good, do you not have any backup play out? Even a decent iPad with Djay? Good job your laptop did not completely bite the bullet. You would have been completely stuck. i once bought an underpowered laptop (when i was less tech savvy) and the track was playing faster than it was loading. Had to play on iTunes all night after that as it would not run Serato, not ideal but no one noticed that i was not mixing (I don't think).

    What specs is your machine and laptop btw? processor, Ram, HDD type and speed.

    Good luck.
    Last edited by yourdj; 06-01-2016 at 02:22 PM.
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  3. #3

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    My advice would be to steer clear of iTunes permanently. On Windows it's a sack of cack

  4. #4

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    I was so worried about the same thing happening to a new windows laptop i took the plunge and ordered a new apple macbook pro i could only afford the 250g ssd tho so im going to slim down my music collection!

    And yes Juski i totally agree with you about iTunes and windows its an awful combination however i have always used iTunes since long before i started mobile djing so i begrudgingly have moved over to apple mac (i am no way an apple fanboy) so hopefully i wont have any problems in the future fingers crossed
    Last edited by Excalibur; 06-01-2016 at 02:41 PM. Reason: merged posts

  5. #5
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
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    Light reading.


    Quote Originally Posted by ThomasPM View Post
    Good afternoon all

    I bought a new laptop last year which is a HP Pavilion 8gb ram and 500g HDD however its recently started to be really slow and sometimes totally unresponsive
    Oh crap. Guess what I got.
    From your description, I'm assuming the problem is more software and fruit related than hardware.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

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  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by Excalibur View Post
    Light reading.




    Oh crap. Guess what I got.
    From your description, I'm assuming the problem is more software and fruit related than hardware.
    The Laptop itself was great Peter it was more what i was trying to get it to do and the fact that I tunes was using anything from 20% to 99% of the CPU @ times!


    I am sure once i have it all wiped and put all my music in the proper place then it will be fine and i can use it as a back up!

  7. #7

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    I would say its software.

    Remove as much crapware from the laptop as possible and follow the DJ software vendors advice for laptop tuning and you should be OK.

    I rebuild my laptops from time to time if they show any signs of problems.

    A good one to retrieve your windows license key if you do not have it is to use the magicaljellybean keyfinder software - I've used it loads if times.

    If you upgrade to an SSD there are many options - I went for a Crucial drive and also got a migration kit which helps you image you hard drive onto the new SSD. Again, I've used it loads of times without issue.

    I've never really used ITunes to organise my music I tend to use playlists etc within Traktor then back them up.

    The other option is if you get an SSD you can install a fresh copy of windows on it and copy the songs from your old disk over. you can get external usb disk enclosures super cheap as well.

    As ever, always back up first before doing too much to avoid premature hair loss !!!!

  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by RobKennedy View Post
    I would say its software.

    Remove as much crapware from the laptop as possible and follow the DJ software vendors advice for laptop tuning and you should be OK.

    I rebuild my laptops from time to time if they show any signs of problems.

    A good one to retrieve your windows license key if you do not have it is to use the magicaljellybean keyfinder software - I've used it loads if times.

    If you upgrade to an SSD there are many options - I went for a Crucial drive and also got a migration kit which helps you image you hard drive onto the new SSD. Again, I've used it loads of times without issue.

    I've never really used ITunes to organise my music I tend to use playlists etc within Traktor then back them up.

    The other option is if you get an SSD you can install a fresh copy of windows on it and copy the songs from your old disk over. you can get external usb disk enclosures super cheap as well.

    As ever, always back up first before doing too much to avoid premature hair loss !!!!
    Thank you thats all good advice for me especially the keyfinder software!

  9. #9
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    May not be the issue but sometimes they just need a good cleaning software and hardware!

    Cleaned the dust off my old pc a few months back and it was loads faster! Obviously the dust had made cooling very inefficient!
    Also depends what you use the laptop for. If you go on Facebook for 10 hours a day every day I doubt that'll cause a slowing effect.
    If you are like me and are always installing new programs etc it can slow it down within days!

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  10. #10
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ukpartydj View Post
    If you go on Facebook for 10 hours a day every day I doubt that'll cause a slowing effect.
    If you are like me and are always installing new programs etc it can slow it down within days!
    Conversely, if you strip it down as far as you can, never connect to the internet, and only really use your DJ software, I'd expect it not to slow down dramatically.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

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