VERY strange: PC always freezes when hitting on STOP durig DVD-playback

[toppapagal]

Hi, you there!

I made 3 completely fresh installations of WinXP Pro SP2 on my PC ( I tried even 3 versions of WinXP Pro SP2, I mean 3 different sources/cd's with different cd-keys ) and the result was the same:
Always when I stop the playback of a DVD (like DVD-folder on the PC disk or DVD-disk in the drive - no matter),hitting on the Stop-button, the computer FREEZES !?

I tried it with software like PowerDVD 5, 6 and 7 and with InterVideo WinDVD 7 and 8 and still the result was the same: hitting on the Stop-button always freezed/blocked the computer.
Even after fresh installation without putting any codecs! Even the Task-Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) could not help out. I always had to restart the computer.

Coud someone give me a piece of advice? I'll be very grateful!
Many thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[foxfire]

I hope someone replies to this, as I have exactly the same problem. I think it's a graphics freeze. One day everything was working & the next day, this. May have been an update. Works fine in safe mode.

[Bjs]

There's a couple of things not mentioned here that should have been included ...

Drive model involved .
Directx version installed .
Media type ... originals vs copies (dvd- / dvd+) .

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I could rattle on here , but that's included down below ... just a few idea's to check out in your own time .

1:

Freeze's indicate a possible drive issue , but because the system itself actually freeze's completely when you stop the playback , I'd be looking at the power supply itself first ... could be developing issue .

If it's anything less than 450watt's ... then consider replacing it soon ... esspecially if it has been hot of late .

2:

Motherboard :

A: Clean out dust first .
B: Clean ram and slots on motherboard ... reinsert firmly
C: Clean addon cards , and slot's ... reinsert firmly
D: Check cable's for acurate fit .
E: Clean the drive using a quality len's cleaner .
F: Remove all non-essential usb connected device's .

As the pc works normal ... faulty heat sink compound is non-issue .

Update directx , and vga drivers .
Reboot and try again .

Note : Leave any non-essential addon card's out of system till problem is resolved .

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Also beware of ms update's ... a few have been complete screwups ... people must like being guinea pigs ...

Install os , basic system drivers , then register .
Now ... make a backup image ASAP .

Then you can mess with update's all you like ... if trouble strike's ... you can revert back to a clean registered "working" xp system .

[Capmaster]

I would look closely at the memory

Clean it as Bjs suggests - double-check the motherboard vendor site for RAM compatibility with your MB.

If your BIOS allows tweaking the timing settings, try slowing it down a bit.

I don't think it's a power supply size issue. A single Athlon, one graphics card and one HD ...a good 250W supply ought to be plenty.

However, if the PS output is noisy, that could also cause the problems you see. If you have another PS, try swapping it in and repeating.

[foxfire]

This is strictly a software issue. It doesn't matter if there is an actual DVD involved; I often play the files from my hd. (DirectX 9.0c).
The DVD's never freeze during play. The freeze occurs about 3 seconds after closing out the software program, whether it is WMP, PowerDVD, jetAudio, whatever. It appears to be a graphics freeze, because if I am moving my mouse I will see more than one cursor after freezing.
<ctrl-alt-del> won't recover; only a hard restart will work.
The problem goes away if I start up in either msconfig diagnostic or safe modes.
I have upgraded XP-SP2, cleaned out all drivers, reinstalled the players, etc.

[Soopafresh]

Directshow drivers perhaps? Try it with Mplayer gui

http://www1.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/win32/MPlayer-1.0rc1-gui.zip

or VLC which doesn't rely on Directshow.

[InXess]

Try a different video card drivers and/or different video card driver installation set. Seems like a hardware issue (if what you say is complete). At least, re-seat your video card.
I'd definitely scan HDD for bad blocks, check system/CPU temp. and move memory chips to different slots

[foxfire]

Thanks for the replies. The more I thought about it, the more I felt it was a driver conflict. I had already uninstalled NVidea's display adapter, since that seemed to be where the problem was, but it didn't help.

Mostly out of frustration, I used the program 'Your Uninstaller!' and proceeded to remove every NVidea driver on my machine, including ethernet & IDE/ATAPI.

That was when I noticed that disc 3 of my install CD set was cracked, & that was where the drivers were! I scrambled around my hd & found a network driver that at least got me back online. I finally got Device Manager clean, one driver at a time, while checking PowerDVD at each step. So far, so good, but three of my drivers are still sadly out of date.

As I push ahead, I'm sure I will reproduce the problem, but at least this time I will know the cause. (I am thinking that it will turn out to be an Audio driver.)

Thanks again for the help & encouragement; it gave me new incentive.

[InXess]

If driver is incomplete due to disk read problems you don't need to uninstall just reinstall all the drivers from the net (manuf. website) incl. audio. Don't forget about DirectX.

[Dr. DOS]

I was reinstalling xp SP1 on a laptop a few months back and ran into the same problem. Lock-up at various times including AVI / MPEG playback of videos. Turned out it was the video card drivers in my case.

[foxfire]

Well, I have the answer. It turned out to be the new Realtek AC'97 A3.96 audio driver, dated Nov 23, 2006. This same version was also named A3.95, for a while, (maybe the pre-release beta), so it could possibly be the same culprit that begat this thread.

It is supposedly Vista compatible, but in my case it isn't XP compatible. I went back to A3.92 (Aug 18, 2006) & everything works well. I see that http://www.DriverAgent.com no longer flags A3.92 as bad; they just put a yellow exclamation mark by it, advising you not to upgrade unless you have a problem. Now they tell me!

Thanks again for all of the replies,