JJ702561

it was about four years ago, when I was forward deployed with the USMC about month 3 into a 7 month tour when the homesickness started kicking in. I got a copy of virtual dj from one of the local shops (I dont remember if it was home or a pirated pro copy at the time but downloading anything legitimately was impossible at the time so I didn’t ask questions) and a 2.1 computer sound system. I couldn’t do much in the way of live mixing but I figured out how to set up things like the automix and cue points so I could just about play song a friend brought to me and after I got to know the song figure out where it could go into the play list.

It was a cool experience because my friends and I could just release the days stress by listening to out music mixed seamlessly, dance if we felt so inclined and just be care free for a while. the whole experience is what plated the seed for me wanting to be a dj.

my guess (not knowing much about DJing software yet) is that its a mix of the the OS, processor and the external HDD (especially if its over USB). With no knowledge of your computer I can only suggest some basic steps to try and trouble shoot:

I would start by trying to kill off background processes that are unnecessary to save cycle time.

Then move a couple of songs to the local HD in the laptop to test for that issue.

if it is still locking up, vista is known to be a resource hog and you may want to try a fresh re-install if you have the factory disks. (just make sure you have all you’re media stored externally and take note of applications you need)

only at this point if your machine is still locking up should you look into purchasing a new laptop with a faster processor.

remember that you need to treat the laptop as a business machine (even if its only running “home” versions of operating systems/software) and try not to install a bunch of stuff that is not necessary for your DJing…

hope some of this helps