PC crash on video playback.

[dedknedy]

I hope someone here can help me out, or at least point me in the right direction.

During any kind of video file play back my computer will crash. I have no problems playing back a DVD, only divx, and MPEG. I get no error message or memory dump. Just a screen with garbage, and looping audio until I power off. I've updated all my drivers, and have the latest firmware updates. Other than video everything works great, I just built this PC a few weeks ago and am completely baffled by this.

I've tried playback with WMP9, WMP10, WMP Classic, and the Divx player. My hardware specs are listed below:

Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 (OC'd to 2.8) 34 degrees idle/41 degrees full load.
Corsair XMS2 SLI 2GB 800
nVidia GeForce 7950 GT 512MB
2 250GB Seagate Barracudas RAID 0
Realtek On-board Audio 5.1

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[guns1inger]

Try VLC
also, use G-Spot to confirm exactly what the content is.

Finally, perhaps try Filmerit to see if your codecs are broken.

[dedknedy]

Thanks for the advice. I've updated to the latest divx codec after trying the xvid codec with the same result. For some reason I think it may have something to do with the AC3 filter, as it seems to only happen during playback of 5.1 but i'll need to do more testing...

One more question... would you recommend me getting my video card drivers from the card manufacture, or from nVidia directly?
Right now I'm using the official nVidia drivers.

[guns1inger]

Most cards nowadays come straight from the reference boards, so unless yours has something very specific added to it you should have no problem with the Nvidia reference drivers.

VLC doesn't use the installed codecs, as it travels with it's own decoders for most formats. If these videos don't crash under VLC then try uninstalling AC3Filter, rebooting, then installing a new copy.

[crusty]

Sounds like a codec conflict you could try installing ACE MEGA codec pack that worked for me.

[mats.hogberg]

Sounds like a codec conflict you could try installing ACE MEGA codec pack

No, for f*cks sake! Don't ever install a codec pack! It's bound to screw your system even worse.

/Mats

[guns1inger]

Third one today to recommend codec packs. Do we need to add this to the forums rules somewhere ?

[Bjs]

Codec packs are bad news for newbies or the inexperienced , but not a problem for those with experience , and a hot backup image of the system comes very handy .

The newest divx codec made a mess of playback here last time , so get rid of it to start with and try again .

So the rule should be , if your new , and someone says "install a codec pack" , dont do it .

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As for video chipsets , these come in different models / specs .

Those with special features should be aquired from the company that released it .

Then the next problem arrives .

You have the latest drivers from nvidia , yet an older release may be more suited for your particular unit .

Remember , the major issue with asus vivo's , nvidia chipset , and macrovision a few years ago where users had to roll back their drivers to older driver package releases .

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Make sure internal cards in motherboard are installed correctly .

Onboard agp + agp slot + pci1 = shared resources , only one may be used and installed .
Pci2 / pci3 = shared resources , only one may have a device installed .
Pci4 / pci5 = shared resources , as above .

Make sure this is correct , before accessing the rest of the system .



.

[mats.hogberg]

Codec packs are bad news for newbies or the inexperienced

...and the experienced user wouldn't dream of even touching them.

/Mats

[gsing]

... and the experienced users have once been newbies themselves... and some of them (incl. me) would have saved a lot of time if they would have been told that codec packs are to be avoided. So a sticky or some collection of dreadful reports by users who messed up their machine would be welcome.

[mats.hogberg]

... and the experienced users have once been newbies themselves... and some of them (incl. me) would have saved a lot of time if they would have been told that codec packs are to be avoided

Been there, done that. Won't do it again. Almost had me go "Format C:" at one point. Never managed to fully restore functionality until I upgraded to a new Windows version.

/Mats

[dedknedy]

I installed media player classic a while back, maybe that had something to do with it.
But in any case. I installed VLC and watched two hour long length divx movies with no problem last night.. I don't know if my problem is fixed, or i'm just working around it but I really don't care at this point, as long as it's working.

Where has this player been all my life? I love it. Thanks a lot.

[Bjs]

Never had an issue with codec packs because I have always done an extensive search on whats about to be installed , and in some cases , specific inclussions where disabled , because the same codec was already installed and without faults .

I think there was something way back about g400 video chipsets with upside down video for some reason , not having that particular chipset would tell the user , not to install it in the first place .

Of course , that would mean the end user knew what was in their pc , and how to access such information before making such decissions , before acting .

Its the same treatment ms updates get , only installed after I have personally , checked what they are for , not just because they have been received because of ms's generosity for using a legal os .

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dedknedy : Your problem is not fixed , and while you can play videos without issue using vlc , wait till you get involved in anything video encoding related , thats where you will get caught out .

Fixing it correctly first is best option .