Can't play videos

[ram1009]

I'm not sure where to ask this because I'm not sure what's causing it. I have a fresh install of XP Pro in an old machine running an Athlon XP 3000+ on an ASUS A7V8X MB with 1.25G of memory. Bios & drivers are current. Every time I launch a DVD the system freezes completely. I can open the viewer, either VLC or WMP but as soon as the DVD begins to open it freezes. The CPU is not overclocked and the machine runs OK otherwise. Any ideas out there?

 

[saint19]

Use another codecs...ffdshow...try with this codecs...

 

[aford10]

Does it freeze completely, meaning you have to restart the PC? Or does it pause and then continue on?

 

[ram1009]

Does it freeze completely, meaning you have to restart the PC? Or does it pause and then continue on?

The only way to continue is to power off.

 

[number13]

I am assuming that the memory is a couple of mismatched sticks, try removing all of them except one and see what happens, then try a different stick

 

[aford10]

Try it with an audio CD and see if it does the same thing.

 

[ram1009]

I am assuming that the memory is a couple of mismatched sticks, try removing all of them except one and see what happens, then try a different stick

Tried a single stick of Crucial DDR2 512MB. No joy!

 

[ram1009]

Try it with an audio CD and see if it does the same thing.

CDs play fine even in WMP.

 

[aford10]

Check the transfer mode
device manager-->IDE channel-->properties-->advanced-->set transfer mode to DMA

 

[ram1009]

Check the transfer mode
device manager-->IDE channel-->properties-->advanced-->set transfer mode to DMA

All 4 devices are already set to "DMA if available".

 

[aford10]

You can try the drive manufacturers website to see if there are new DVD drivers or firmware.

 

[ram1009]

You can try the drive manufacturers website to see if there are new DVD drivers or firmware.

Probably worth a try, however these drives were working perfectly on a diffwerent HDD running XP Home in the same computer.

 

[aford10]

There may be nothing physically wrong w/ the drives. XP home and Pro and the 2 different HD's likely had some different drivers installed.

Other than a failing drive, I'm not sure what else it could be.

 

[ram1009]

There may be nothing physically wrong w/ the drives. XP home and Pro and the 2 different HD's likely had some different drivers installed.

Other than a failing drive, I'm not sure what else it could be.

I'm stumped too. As I said the drives were running fine on XP Home on another HDD so I don't see how changing the HDD & OS could harm the drives. I feel like it must be something with XP because even VLC media player freezes. I'll probably have to reformat again. What a PITA.

 

[aford10]

Changing the HD's means losing all the codecs, drivers, and updates that were done. I'm not saying that's what it is, but it's worth a shot.

You could try the drive in a different PC to verify that DVD's still play ok in it.

 

[ram1009]

Changing the HD's means losing all the codecs, drivers, and updates that were done. I'm not saying that's what it is, but it's worth a shot.

You could try the drive in a different PC to verify that DVD's still play ok in it.

I'll have to find another IDE machine. My others are all SATA.

 

[aford10]

Even most newer boards still have 1 IDE port. If there's another machine, you should be able to slap it in.

 

[ram1009]

Quick update: I hacve upgraded WMP to v11 and it now plays DVDs OK. I've installed Mplayer and it's OK too. The only one that doesn't play is VLC. It still freezes instantly.