New XP Install locks up when opening videos

[ChezDigital]

My hard drive was dying, so I had to replace it and reinstall XP Pro, and I jumped to SP3 when running updates (I held off until now).

I'm trying to open some AVIs that were created in Camtasia so I can join them, but when I click on the file to open, it locks up my whole machine.

Also, when I try to encode one of these in WME, it locked up after a few seconds as well.

Here's how it went down:

First, I started to encode (from Techsmith encoded AVI to WMV) one of the files, and it started alright.
Then, I opened an AVI in VDM, and my machine locked.
I cold booted, then tried to open in VDM again, same thing.
I cold booted again, then started off trying to encode with WME again, and my machine locked up.

Note: I have Camtasia installed, so I know the Techsmith codec is there.

What could be the issue?

Thanks!

- David

[whatsmyname]

It's a new Windows install, so have you put on any codecs to run the video?

I tend to stay away from any codecs pack, ffdshow is all I use and it works well.

[redwudz]

Does it also lock up when you just try to open the file to view or check 'properties'? If so, it does sound like a codec problem. Windows Explorer can cause those sort of lockups when it finds a file it can't identify.

Try installing VLC Media Player and see if those files will open with it. If so, even more likely a codec problem as VLC uses it's own codecs.

I use ffdshow also. It enables play of most files, but is not a codec pack.

[ChezDigital]

Thanks for your responses!

But I can check the Properties with no issue, and I can run AVICodec to check the codecs, even play the videos without problems. So, they open, I just can't edit or save with a different codec.

I think, based on this thread on hardforum, that I have some other issues.