problems converting movie to dvd

[dave t]

ok, I'm new here please bear with me. I have had this system running for about 1 1/2 years now without any problems at all. I could convert any movie into a dvd no problem. I've used the same codecs for years. Xvid, Divx 3, 4, 5 etc. WMP codecs, Ligos, Intel, Fraunhofer, etc etc. The usual bunch. About 2 weeks ago while trying to make a dvd through nero6 my system locked up. I tried again and it locked up again. There was nothing new either software or hardware added to my system before this. Since that first lock up almost everytime I try to convert to dvd my system locks up. Whether it's from avi, mpeg, wmv. Heres the rub though. I have tried: Nero 6, Windvd creator, Adusoft dvd creator, Winavi convertor, Virtualdub, Nero7, Roxio, Dvdflick, Flavc, divx convertor. All of them lock up at some point. Maybe at 10% into the convert, maybe at 38%, 90% or 2%. My whole system locks up. I have formatted and re-installed XP home on my sata raid 0 drives then only installed Nero6. Nothing else. Still locked up. I have formatted my IDE drive and installed win98se and put Nero6 on. It converted and burned the movie into dvd but there was no sound. It was encoded in dolby. I installed the ac3 codec and it locked up. Now I know it looks like the ac3 codec but I have tried just about every codec available with and without the ac3 codec and I still get problems. Even old movies that I know I shouldn't get problems with I do now. I have tried xp codec pack, K-lite (yes I know I shouldn't) Ace mega codecs, Nimo, Cole's nero plug in, as well as installing individual codecs like ffdshow, vorbis, ogg etc. And I do uninstall old ones before installing any new ones. I also use Vcom's fix-it 4 to clean them out.
On the very rare occasion that I can get to the burning stage ( i tried 3 times to convert a movie recently and it did manage to convert after the 3rd attempt) then my dvd-rw burns no problem. Also I can burn music and data without any problems at all. So actual burning isn't a problem.
I have been tweaking and changing things for 2 weeks now and it's really doing my head in. I would say 90% of the movies I am trying to convert locks my system up. No matter how I set things up it still locks up. If it was one or maybe two movies then I would say they were corrupted but this happens to often for all of the movies to be bad. Also I have ran these movies through Gspot and that says they are fine and I always have at least one corresponding codec.
I have even tried changing my memory around. I have one 512 and one 256 and have taken one out then the other and tried different slots but this did nothing.
I have gone from having no problems at all to nervous breakdown in 2 weeks. lol
Many thanks for any help.

[redwudz]

Hmm... I was going to suggest memory problems, but you seems to have covered that already. It is sounding like a hardware problem, though. You might try memtest 86, just to totally rule out memory. http://www.memtest86.com/

The next thing I am wondering about is what happened 2 weeks ago to start all this? Have you checked CPU temperatures? Does it do this sort of lockup with any other CPU intensive programs?

To rule out most drivers as a problem, boot in 'Safe Mode' and see if the same lockup happens when doing a conversion. If not, it may be a driver issue. If so, then back to hardware.

Other possibilities are a failing power supply or a video card going bad. The video card has nothing to do with the conversions, but can have problems with memory intensive programs.

Also check your BIOS settings. If your motherboard has a hardware monitor page, check your temps and voltages there. And you might check if there is a BIOS upgrade for your motherboard. There is a remote chance something has changed in your BIOS.

You just have to try to rule out everything that not causing the problem through the process of elimination.

And welcome to our forums.

[dave t]

my CPU temp never goes above 60c and normally stays around 48-50c. I use Motherboard Monitor. I'll try that Memtest. I think it may be hardware too but I have no problems at all with anything else. But I do realise that when you convert video etc the CPU runs at 100% so it might be that something is starting to give up. Although the whole system is only 1 1/2 years old. I don't have any video problems and Asus Smartdoctor says temps and voltages are fine. Although rarely a warning message will flash up saying voltage not right or temp not right but I put that down to Smartdoctor having a hiccup as once you go back into set up and click ok it resets itself and is fine. I don't really fancy flashing the bios incase that isn't the problem and I mess it up. lol. I never thought about safe mode although I didn't think you could convert in safe mode but I'll give it a try. Thanks for the reply.

[theewizard]

have you tried this , with one of your older files that has already been converted to DVD, maybe some file you did 3months ago

just to test the system, maybe the new source files are different ?

if that does not work, and you still have the problem, I would be start looking at the hardware, possibly an IO / BUS problem or a hard drive problem or CPU