Problem with Divx/Xvid with Winamp and Virtualdub

[mekuka_pinasem]

Hi, everybody. All of a sudden, I am running into the following problems:
1. Windows Media Player (9.0) no longer plays Divx or xvid-encoded movies.
2. Winamp (latest version) no longer plays them either. The Directshow file info window of Winamp is empty. The Directshow plug-in shows as installed.
3. Divx 6 player still plays both formats.
4. VirtualDub plays Divx-encoded movies. For XVID, it says it does not recognize the format and needs a VFW-compatible codec.
5. G-spot shows Divx and Xvid codecs installed. Divx codec shows as misconfigured, but when I double-click on it, I do not see any alerts. G-spot cannot render Divx or Xvid-encoded movies giving a VFW_E_RENDER error.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Divx and Xvid, with no success. Also tried different versions of FFDshow, as this is a common advice in the internet community.
I have run Registry Mechanic, with no success.
Videoinspector cannot identify the version of the xvid codec correctly.
Directshow Filter Manager shows Divx an Xvid codecs to be OK, but shows "unknown module" and "unknown company" for some codecs, and empty lines with question marks for some codecs.

I know other media players exist that handle Divx and have their own codecs. But I would like to be able to use Virtualdub with xvid movies again.

I was advised to restore the system, but I do not think Windows 2000 allows it.

Any ideas regarding how to bring Divx/xvid back to life will be very much appreciated.

Best regards.

[Baldrick]

Have you installed any codec pack(s) or some other video tool(s) before it happend?

[mekuka_pinasem]

No, nothing installed right before it happened. It was sort of out of the blue. Moreover, after it happened, I deinstalled Xilinx video converter and reinstalled (repair install) Roxio 8. I updated Winamp.

Thank you.

[jman98]

This may not help, but it won't hurt. You need to know if you are using NTFS under Windows 2000 or FAT32. If you are using NTFS,
get a command line prompt (START -> RUN -> cdm will do it) and say:
CHKNTFS /C C:
If you have FAT32, I think you do this:
CHKDSK C: /F
Some of your files may be corrupt and you may need Windows do check the disk for you. I have seen Windows 2000 get so messed up that it would refuse to do a CHKNTFS. I have a PC that reached this point and it was made me decide to upgrade to XP on it.

When people tell you to "restore the system", then mean do a destructive re-install of everything. Unfortunately, this is sometimes what you have to do with Windows when strange things start to happen that defy explanation and appear to be unfixable.

[SanderMan]

If all fails you could try a player with built in codecs like VLC media player or GOM player.

[mekuka_pinasem]

Thank you, jman98 and SanderMan.

CHKNTFS /C C: brought a message that the disk is not dirty.

CHKDSK C: /F would only run on re-boot, which I did. When I came back to the room, it had run through and loaded Windows, so I assume there was nothing wrong, or CHKDSK fixed whatever was wrong.

Unfortunetaly, it did not help.

Thank you for your advice regarding an option of using a different player. The reason I would like to resolve my problem is that the error (whatever it is) does not allow me to use such utilities as SubtitleEdit, GraphEdit and VirtualDub. I guess there is something wrong with them not being able to use Divx or ffdshow.

So, if you have any further suggestions regarding what else I can do to figure it out, please, let me know.

Best regards.