DVD software will not load certain retail DVDs

[Go Mifune]

Hi!

I've looked through the forums/site but haven't found an answer; forgive me if this is something trivial/easily fixed (actually, I'm hoping it is

About a month ago my mobo melted down so I got a new one put in (SiS 730S) and was happy to see that it had an AGP slot (the previous one in my NetVista did not). So I put in a 128MB Radeon 9000 Pro card in the expectation of greater performance.

The problem I have now is that certain DVDs have insane trouble getting played on my DVD-ROM drive. Usually, the FBI/company logo screen will play but then the player will freeze/stop responding (whether it's MP9, DVMatics, PowerDVD etc). Most of my other DVDs will still play fine. These are all retail discs, not burns/rips. Once every 100 tries or so I can get an episode to play from the troubled discs but it's not consistent. The specific discs giving me trouble right now are Speed Racer (the one with the rubber tire sleeve) and Transformers box set 1 & 2. The TF boxes played fine before so I don't know what's up. I managed to watch a fair chunk of the TF box 1 extras yesterday but then the player stopped responding. As far as I can tell, I've been having this problem since putting in the Radeon. I've already sold my old card (GeForce 2 MX440) so I'm pretty much stuck with the Radeon. I don't understand how a video card could affect the DVD software, and only with certain DVDs at that, but it's the only reference point I have at the moment. Here's my current set-up:

AMD Athlon XP1200+
SiS 730S mobo
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 128MB
384MB RAM PC133
Win XP Pro
LG DVD-ROM DRD8120b
DirectX 9.0b

Except for the new mobo and video card, everything is about 2 years old, I've updated everything I can think of...

Anything I should be doing/looking for? Any more info I should provide to determine the cause? Like I said, this problem only occurs with certain DVDs that worked fine before/work fine on other players.

Any help is appreciated!

[Dhruv]

Hey Go Mifune,
I'm pretty sure that your problem is related to the motherboard itself (I don't believe that a video card should prevent DVDs from playing, especially one which is superior to your prior one - I may be wrong though), so I'd suggest updating your motherboard drivers and system BIOS if you haven't already done so. If that fails, then my suggestion would be to open up your PC and make sure that everything is installed correctly.
Let us know how it goes,

[Go Mifune]

Thanks for the advice Dhruv!

Unfortunately, after doing so, the same problem is occuring. New drivers & bios installed, everything looks fine inside the tower too, but still, certain DVDs lock up that never did so before and still work fine on other players. Should I just attribute this to an unlucky incompatibility somewhere in my set-up? I even tried remove all my system devices, then letting XP re-install them, but...nothing. Oh well, at least I can save some coin by not buying any new DVDs (until I get around to buying a new stand-alone player anyway )

[Guidoo]

Go Mifune,

Another possibility is that your dvd drive needs a bios update. But I dont think thats the answer in this case as having already checked LG's site and found no update available.

You didn't specify whether or not these particular dvds worked on your drive or not prior to your meltdown. If they did it's possible that your drive suffered damage as well, or it could simply be that the lens of your drive needs cleaning.

I had a similar experience with some "Voltron" dvds, turned out that for some reason my old Toshiba drive just didn't like them as the dvds worked fine in other pc s. I bought a new drive and my troubles disappeared.

keep us up to date

[Go Mifune]

Sorry 'bout that - yeah, all my DVDs played fine before the mobo switch, and now, only some do while others cause any DVD software to stop responding. Hmmm...I hadn't thought of that, but maybe the mobo meltdown did some damage as you said, Guidoo. It's the only explanation so far that makes sense to me, as everything else (updates, cleaning the drive etc.) hasn't helped. Thanks for the reply!

[lgh529]

If it isn't the motherboard, then I suspect that there was a problem with the upgrade. When you replace a motherboard, there are always a million new drivers that get reconfigured; stuff that you never think about or deal with, like the timing drivers, etc. Sometimes, if you don't format your hard drive and start with a fresh install of the OS, it gets screwed up.

Did you reinstall the OS? If not, try running Norton Windoctor to see if it can find any weird things wrong. Make sure that you enable the undo. This has royally screwed up my computer in the past.

Just a thought.

[theDruid]

I agree with lgh529... when you change something as significant as the mobo or CPU, it's a pretty good idea to do a clean install of Windows.

Make sure you've backed everything up blah blah blah...

I'd be surprised if this wasn't your problem - Windows configures itself for your hardware setup when it is installed. Although it's generally very good at updating drivers etc.. for new components, something as fundamental as the mobo/chipset really calls for a clean install.

cheers,
mcdruid.

[p0rnLiME]

Some DVDs have protection from gfx cards that has TV-Out (Try to play with PowerDVD and you will propably get a message regarding it ).

Did that solve your problem? Hope so...

[RabidDog]

yes pornlime is correct I have major problem with my mx460, it has tv out, but THere is no tv connected, yet t still comes up with the protected dvd bullshit.("cannot play protected dvd on this player") This is both win media player and power dvd! argh. LOTR 1 plays well , no protection, The core does not, protection. Plus the core is defective halfway thru!!

[Delerious]

yes pornlime is correct I have major problem with my mx460, it has tv out, but THere is no tv connected, yet t still comes up with the protected dvd bullshit.("cannot play protected dvd on this player") This is both win media player and power dvd! argh. LOTR 1 plays well , no protection, The core does not, protection. Plus the core is defective halfway thru!!

Don't know if this will help. If you have enough free hard drive space; rip the DVD to an ISO using DVD Decrypter, mount the ISO using Daemon Tools (or Alcohol 120% if you bought that), start PowerDVD and hit CTRL-O to select source - point it to the virtual drive where the image is mounted. You'll probably have to unmount the image file before you delete it - unless you have a couple TB free and want to keep it on your hard drive.

Hope that helps
J

[Go Mifune]

I finally managed to format my hard drive and re-install XP. Bit of a hassle as my drive would not boot the XP CD so I had to "find" the 6-floppy boot method.

My DVD-ROM actually loads the problem DVDs now! I've managed to watch all of Transformers Season 1. BUT...there are still some occasional lock-ups (argh!)...like when going to a root menu etc. It has also locked up once when loading a DVD. Basically, my DVD-ROM still screws up...but less than before:P

Well, a small victory nonetheless. Thanks to all who replied; it's helped a lot. Hopefully I can get back to near-flawless DVD watching again soon (by buying a TV and stand-alone player most likely