P E 9, computer turns off during export

Question

I was able to export 1 short clip, but tried creating a
series of clips into a movie and when I try to export to
the computer file for playback, or burn it to DVD, it gets to 7% then the computer shuts off. There should be enough memory on my computer, 2g available. Any ideas??
Thanks

Answer 1

I think that you are confusing Memory with hard disc (HDD) space.
Memory, in the purest sense, is the installed RAM. This is usually 1, 2, 3,4, 8, 12, 24 or 32GB. With a 32-bit Operating System (OS), there is no need to have more than 4GB installed, as only ~ 3GB can be accessed and used by the OS and programs. With a 64-bit OS, say Win7 - 64-bit, much more can be accessed and used. Depending on the type of RAM, you will see amounts ranging from 8GB to 32GB.
Now, the hard disc is the mechanical (or solid state - SSD) device, where the OS, programs and files are stored. These range in size from about 32GB, up to about 2TB, and many computers have several. For video editing, it is a good suggestion to have at least two physical HDD's, so that the processing load can be split between the two devices, and the OS and programs are not waiting for a single device to do a lot of reading and writing. Especially for video-editing, one needs quite a bit of defragmented, free space, as video files are large to begin with, and programs, like PrE create large working files.
Last, there is the OS's Virtual Memory, seen as the Page File. This is written to and read from the HDD. The OS uses this when the amount of RAM is used up, which on a 32-bit OS will be pretty quickly. The Page File functions like RAM, but because it is on a HDD (usually mechanical), will be much slower. The Page File can either be dynamically managed (default), so that it grows and shrinks, as the OS anticipates the need, or it can be statically managed, where the user sets a size and location, and the Page File is created at bootup. I recommend a statically managed Page File for video editing, as this does several things: If one does this when the HDD is new, and fairly clean, the OS will have plenty of defragmented space to choose from, and it will place the Page File as close to the inside of the HDD, as it can. As one fills up the HDD, those programs and files will be written beyond that static Page File, out towards the slower parts of the HDD. To dynamically manage the Page File, the OS needs to anticipate potential usage, and as a video editor can require more Page File, than most other programs, can guess wrong, or at least slowly. Last, to dynamically manage the Page File, the OS requires a fair amount of processing power from the CPU, and just this task can slow things down.
When on says "memory," they can be talking about any, or all of these, but first, "memory" is considered the RAM. For the HDD, this is most often referred to as "hard drive space." Virtual Memory is just what it sounds like - it functions like RAM, but is located on the HDD.
Hope that helps.
Good luck,
Hunt