jweaver

I upgraded to XP from 98 a few weeks back and all was good.. But suddenly I have started getting a problem with 'video' playback.

After I switch on or reboot the PC, everything works fine.. But, when i first run ANY kind of video the application locks up, but XP still runs normally.

At first I thought that it had completely locked, as the application would go into a 'Not Responding' state and I couldn't shut it down.

However, one day, I left it.. And it finally responded and the video played..

Then I closed the application normally..

After this, videos will run INSTANTLY and all works normally until I reboot.

After this, the problem returns.

If I play AVI, DVD, MPEG etc using Media Player, Power DVD, etc (Basically ANY video under ANY application) the application will freeze from anything from 1 to 10 mins.

But, as I said before, after its finished what ever it doing, everything is back to normal again.

I have tried EVERYTHING.. I removed applications, removed hardware, upgraded drivers, but nothing I can do can get it back to 'normal' again.

Its not a major problem, as I now run a video when i first boot my PC, wait for it to respond and then carry on.. But i would like to know whats causing this.

As I am doing a lot of video editing and MPEG work, this is a real pain and I would love to fix it.

Does anyone have ANY ideas where to start??

sboulema

you can always try to do a clean install of XP. Xp works better if you do a clean install instead of an upgrade. dunno where to start to solve this problem another way...

jweaver

A clean install is out of the question at this time.. I am sure that it will fix this problem, but introduce a load of others.

Its something that I will do when I get a REALLY serious problem, but I can't do it now.

sboulema

does all the videofiles freeze and does all the players freeze, or is it just one file and only one player?
You can try to download wmp 8 again or you can try wmp 9.

jweaver

At first I thought that it was just large (and I mean large) AVI and MPEGs (20gig AVI and 3gig MPEG)

However, it now seems that its the FIRST video (irrespective of size).

The applications that I use and have demonstrated this are:

PowerDVD (DVDs, AVIs and MPEG files)
Media Player (AVIs and MPEG)
TMPGEnc (AVI)
VideoWave 5 (AVI)

The curious thing is that when VideoWave first runs, it plays a little video (about 600k).. If this is application is run before i play a video, then it locks up (from 1-10mins)..

On face value, this looks like an application freeze, but its again, the video playback which is causing the lockup.

I am sure that its an incomptable or corrupted driver of some kind, which is why i am hoping that re-installing/upgrading something will solve it.. But I don't know what else to try.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to install a new version of MediaPlayer.. Thats bound to install some new codecs.

Geffy

Can you say why a clean install is out of the question?

I have a clean install and no problems, why should you be any different

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sboulema

maybe try to update your vid card drivers...

w0lv3rin3

ok for clean install reasons: when u install your video drivers for win 98 those drivers are usually ment for windows 98, not for XP, when u upgraded, XP installed on top of that and that could have made the some of the drivers curropt or video drivers are conflicting with XP that were in 98 before the install. before u do a upgrade, i suggest u take out sound video and nic drivers befor u did the upgrade. try comply i mean comply removing the old 98 video drivers reg and all from windows and reinstalling them with a proper XP drivers, if that dont wrok just try removing the viudeo from out of the system properties then hardware manager, if that does not have en effet try d/ling the latest drivers and then install over that or upgrade to newer drivers, alos test your DirectX, Click START - RUN, type DXDIAG and click OK and do some tests to make sahure u pass.

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jweaver

I realise that a clean install is the right way to go.. I am also sure that it will solve the problem.

But.. My reason is down to time.. I just don't have the time to re-install everything again. It will take ages.

Its also down to the fact that I work in support, and it a kind of personal obsession of mine to 'fix' problems. If we told our customers to 'reinstall' everytime they had problems.. We wouldn't have any customers.

At the end of the day, I can live with the problem and wait until I get a REALLY serious problem which will 'force' me into a re-install.. But it would be really nice to fix this before.


sboulema - Video drivers already upgraded (Several times).. I am now using the latest Detonator drivers and the problem is exactly the same.

The weird thing is that sometimes the 'freeze' is less than a minute.. But other times it can be as much as 20mins... Most problems are 'constant' in that they do the same thing EVERY time... I can't work out what would cause it to freeze for different amounts of time.

Hipster Doofus

Maybe:

1. Click on Start/Run, type 'msconfig', then click 'OK'.
2. Go to the 'Services' tab, find the 'Background Intelligent Transfer' service, disable it, apply the changes & reboot.

If it does nothing change it back.

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beatlesdb

You say that the problem is recent - then it is possible you got a codec issue - why not try to use XP's System Restore to go back a few week?

jweaver

When I first discovered the problem, I went back to an old System Restore point. First it was the day before, then a few days, finally the oldest point that I had, (a point well before thestarted happening), but the problem was still there!!.

beatlesdb

Yeah - I had simillar issues - it is not a good idea to do an up-grade from Win9X series to XP - try booting to the XP CD and selecting repair (hardly ever works for me).

Check your video and audio card drivers - these can conflict with each other rather badly.

Check in your BIOS that PnPlay OS is set to Yes
and that all the IRQ setting are set to auto (or something like that).

If all else fails: Re-intall windows wiping previous version (select "L" from the menu) this will keep all your files - but you will need to re-intall all your software (bummer).

jweaver

Video and Sound drivers are a possibility..

PnP BIOS settings are YES.. IRQ settings are OK, but I removed ALL hardware (so few IRQs were being used) and it still did it.

I will re-install Windows at some point, its just that I don't have the time now (And I only just reinstalled Win98 a few months before I upgraded and don't want to do it again).

Are you saying that I don't have to format the drive or delete all the files prior to a re-install? I can just do an install and leave all the files as they are (but a new registry so nothing will work)

If so, its quite a good idea.. But, there are still going to be old Win98 files lying around taking space (although not being used).

I think if I was to do a re-install, I would copy c:\ to another drive.. Format.. Install all.. Move stuff back (stuff that doesn't need re-install) and reinstall all apps.

But I REALLY don't want to do this.. Other than this problem, EVERYTHING else works fine!

jweaver

I say everything is working fine... That may not be true.. I keep spotting things which may be normal, but I can't help thinking that they are wrong.

For example.. Is it normal when inserting a CD/DVD into ANY drive, to have Windows stop responding until the disk mounts?

The cursor still moves and shows a little CD icon next to the arrow, but Windows does nothing.

When I put in a blank DVD-R, it can take about 30mins for the drive to 'mount' it and during this time, I can't use Windows.

This wasn't the case under Win98.. Is this normal?

jweaver

I tried to run DXDIAG and it has a problem too.

At the begining, it does some kind of 'system info' and you get a green line which grows as it does the check.

It gets to about 70% and hangs.. The PC still runs and I can stat other applcationos, but DXDIAG never finishes.

Infact, the problem is almost exactly the same as what I get when I play video. .HOwever, in the DXDIAG case, it never seems to finish.

I decided to do a 'repair'.

I botted from the CD, selected 'R' and was asked which install I wanted to repair.

I only had one choice which was 1. C:\WINDOWS

I selected '1' and was asked for the ADMIN PASSWORD.

What ever I did from here ends in a DOS shell in C:\WINDOWS

Does anyone know what i am doing wrong??

I am in the process of downloading 19 XP updates (Which I havn't done before)... FIngers crossed, that might fix the problem.. Although, I doubt it...

Before I do a repair, I would like to re-install DX8.1.. Anyone know where I can get the download?

jweaver

I should say that when I finally get DXDIAG to quit and restart it, it recognises the fact that it previously failed when trying to get system information.

It lets you continue without trying to get the info..

From here, I can run ALL the DX tests without any problems.. So, DX seems to be working.

It just seems that it has problems getting some information.. I am hopeful that this is the same problem as my video issue.

Octopus

re-install the DX.
run the task manager and see maybe a program is eating the whole CPU usage.

jweaver

Nothing is running at all.. CPU is at 0%..

Even when I am trying to run the video and the application is locked, nothing is using CPU.

How can I re-install DX? Where can I get the install files from?

I tried Microsofts site and can't find an DX download for XP... I saw that 8.1a is out, but whilst original it was posted that it was for XP, it now says that its not!

Are the DX files on the XP CD or can I download them from somewhere?

Octopus

the latest DX is 8.1( for win 2000, it works on XP) you can get it from microsoft.com.