Hooked up new monitor - lost sound, CDROM, video

[Some dumb guy]

XP system. Intel 845 chipset. Fastest Intel CPU for this chipset. 1 gig of DDR.

System has been working perfectly. Built it myself.

My old CRT monitor went out.

Bought a new LCD Viewsonic.

Unhooked old monitor and hooked up new one while computer was still running.

Ran into sound and video problems.

The CDROM/burner does not read data files, but will read an audio CD.

I was able to download the installation files for this monitor from the Viewsonic
site. Uninstalled the monitor, rebooted and ran the VS installation program.

Now I have the following symptoms:

When I open WMP9 and instruct it to open a music file I get the following:

"Windows Media Player encountered and unknown error."

When I open Media Player Classic and instruct it to open a music file, the player
looks exactly as it does when playing a music file, but there is no sound. The
counter counts and the little square thing moves from left to right, but there is no
sound.

When I open a .wmv file in WMP9, the video plays fine but there is no audio

When I open a .wmv file in Media Player Classic, the video plays for the first 10
seconds and then freezes. Plus, the video is cropped, as if zoomed in 200%.

Winamp goes 100% CPU and locks the system up.

..flv videos from the net do not play and run the CPU at 100%, locking up the system.

Everything worked perfectly prior to the new monitor.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Jack

 

[Some dumb guy]

XP system. Intel 845 chipset. Fastest Intel CPU for this chipset. 1 gig of DDR.

System has been working perfectly. Built it myself.

My old CRT monitor went out.

Bought a new LCD Viewsonic.

Unhooked old monitor and hooked up new one while computer was still running.

Ran into sound and video problems.

The CDROM/burner does not read data files, but will read an audio CD.

I was able to download the installation files for this monitor from the Viewsonic
site. Uninstalled the monitor, rebooted and ran the VS installation program.

Now I have the following symptoms:

When I open WMP9 and instruct it to open a music file I get the following:

"Windows Media Player encountered and unknown error."

When I open Media Player Classic and instruct it to open a music file, the player
looks exactly as it does when playing a music file, but there is no sound. The
counter counts and the little square thing moves from left to right, but there is no
sound.

When I open a .wmv file in WMP9, the video plays fine but there is no audio

When I open a .wmv file in Media Player Classic, the video plays for the first 10
seconds and then freezes. Plus, the video is cropped, as if zoomed in 200%.

Winamp goes 100% CPU and locks the system up.

.flv videos from the net do not play and run the CPU at 100%, locking up the system.

Everything worked perfectly prior to the new monitor.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Jack

Need to mention... I'm *not* using the monitor speakers. I'm using my old speaker
setup.

This is bizarre behavior that has me thinking nightmare scenario... re-install XP
and end up with the same problem. XP is great because it doesn't require a periodic
re-install like 98. I don't want to go down that road. But so many bizarre symptoms
from a mere monitor swap.

The video card is an Nvidia GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8x

 

[Ron Badour]

The only device that should be plugged in hot (computer running) is the USB
type which your monitor is not. I recommend that you do a system restore
to a point prior to when the problem started. If that doesn't fix it, you
will probably have to do a clean install of XP. If that doesn't do it, you
may have damaged your hardware with the hot plug-in.
--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP
Windows Desktop Experience

 

[Shenan Stanley]

XP system. Intel 845 chipset. Fastest Intel CPU for this chipset. 1
gig of DDR.
System has been working perfectly. Built it myself.

My old CRT monitor went out.

Bought a new LCD Viewsonic.

Unhooked old monitor and hooked up new one while computer was still
running.
Ran into sound and video problems.

The CDROM/burner does not read data files, but will read an audio
CD.
I was able to download the installation files for this monitor from
the Viewsonic site. Uninstalled the monitor, rebooted and ran the
VS installation program.
Now I have the following symptoms:

When I open WMP9 and instruct it to open a music file I get the
following:
"Windows Media Player encountered and unknown error."

When I open Media Player Classic and instruct it to open a music
file, the player looks exactly as it does when playing a music
file, but there is no sound. The counter counts and the little
square thing moves from left to right, but there is no sound.

When I open a .wmv file in WMP9, the video plays fine but there is
no audio
When I open a .wmv file in Media Player Classic, the video plays
for the first 10 seconds and then freezes. Plus, the video is
cropped, as if zoomed in 200%.
Winamp goes 100% CPU and locks the system up.

.flv videos from the net do not play and run the CPU at 100%,
locking up the system.
Everything worked perfectly prior to the new monitor.

Need to mention... I'm *not* using the monitor speakers. I'm using
my old speaker setup.

This is bizarre behavior that has me thinking nightmare scenario...
re-install XP and end up with the same problem. XP is great because
it doesn't require a periodic re-install like 98. I don't want to
go down that road. But so many bizarre symptoms from a mere monitor
swap.
The video card is an Nvidia GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8x

The only device that should be plugged in hot (computer running) is
the USB type which your monitor is not. I recommend that you do a
system restore to a point prior to when the problem started. If
that doesn't fix it, you will probably have to do a clean install
of XP. If that doesn't do it, you may have damaged your hardware
with the hot plug-in.

While probably *technically* correct - in all my years of computer support -
I have not had problem hot-swapping monitors.

Mice/Keyboard, okay, the PS/2 motherboards could - on occassion - fry the
mainboard in a hot-swap (or even just plugging a keyboard in after
power-up.)

I'd lean more towards some driver issues and a series of coincidences/short
memory syndrome/not having actually done some of the things being tried now
for some time prior to the incident and now blaming the incident... etc.

The system restore point - good plan. Restore to a point BEFORE you
installed the monitor. Do not install any drivers - just go with PnP for
now.

Then again - the system (given the video card alone) is far from new. The
slightest 'jar' could have fried the mainboard.

However- I would turn everything off, unhook all cables, open it up and
clean it out (compressed air all the dust out) as well as making sure all
the cards/etc are properly seated (push everything down and secure it,
perhaps removing and reseating each device that goes in a slot/port) and
that you are getting clean power (just using a plain power strip? get a UPS
with AVR technology and plug the computer and monitor into the battery
backup ports.)

 

[Ron Badour]

Hi Shenan,

While probably *technically* correct - in all my years of computer
support - I have not had problem hot-swapping monitors.

It may not have caused you problems but if it wasn't for bad luck, I would
not have any luck at all so I therefore avoid all hot-swaps (except USB)

However- I would turn everything off, unhook all cables, open it up and
clean it out (compressed air all the dust out) as well as making sure all
the cards/etc are properly seated (push everything down and secure it,
perhaps removing and reseating each device that goes in a slot/port) and
that you are getting clean power (just using a plain power strip? get a
UPS with AVR technology and plug the computer and monitor into the battery
backup ports.)

It is amazing how many folks do not use a battery back up. I have two for
my PCs and one for the HDTV. I have an extra UPS on my work bench for
computers that I work on. Small investments that protect my larger
investments.

--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP
Windows Desktop Experience

 

[Some dumb guy]

The only device that should be plugged in hot (computer running) is the USB
type which your monitor is not. I recommend that you do a system restore
to a point prior to when the problem started. If that doesn't fix it, you
will probably have to do a clean install of XP. If that doesn't do it, you
may have damaged your hardware with the hot plug-in.

For some reason, even though I have system restore set to monitor the drive, no
restore points were available except the one created after installing the monitor
drivers.

The CDROM/burner began reading data discs after I shut down the power and
reconnected a DVD drive as slave to the CDROM/burner. The DVD drive could read the
disc with no problem and the CDROM/burner could now read it as well.



Many hours later... the DVD drive and the CD burner drive began not to respond to
the button that opens their respective trays. Explorer.exe would freeze up upon
opening and could only be closed by terminating the process.

I disabled the DVD drive and the CD burner drive and now sound and video is back. I
can play sound and video files on the hard drive. I suspect a resource conflict
between the new monitor and either the drives or the IDE channel that they are on.

The hardware seems to be in good shape.

I may be able to get this resolved without a reinstall of XP.

Thanks for the help and I will post any new discoveries.

 

[Bob Lucas]

For some reason, even though I have system restore set to monitor the
drive, no
restore points were available except the one created after installing
the monitor
drivers.

The CDROM/burner began reading data discs after I shut down the power
and
reconnected a DVD drive as slave to the CDROM/burner. The DVD drive
could read the
disc with no problem and the CDROM/burner could now read it as well.



Many hours later... the DVD drive and the CD burner drive began not to
respond to the button that opens their respective trays. Explorer.exe
would freeze up upon opening and could only be closed by terminating
the process.

I disabled the DVD drive and the CD burner drive and now sound and
video is back. I can play sound and video files on the hard drive. I
suspect a resource conflict between the new monitor and either the
drives or the IDE channel that they are on.

The hardware seems to be in good shape.

I may be able to get this resolved without a reinstall of XP.

Thanks for the help and I will post any new discoveries.

A resource conflict is a distinct possibility. Also check for conflicts
cause by unplugged / hidden devices. A Google search against "hidden
hardware device" will provide additional information.

Enable Device Manager to show hidden devices. You may discover that
your old monitor is listed - and has been allocated resources required
by other hardware.

Having enabled Device Manager to show hidden devices, check whether
there are any conflicts? If so, create a System Restore Point (in case
you need to undo your changes). Then, right click on any conflicting
items that are no longer connected to your computer - and uninstall
these items.

If that doesn't resolve the problem, you could also try the following.

Open Device Manager. Right click on the DVD drive and uninstall the
hardware. Also uninstall the CD drive. Then, re-boot your computer.

Following the re-boot, Win XP should detect these items - and re-install
them as new plug & play devices (using native Win XP drivers).

Reinstallation might allocate different resources to these items - and
resolve IRQ, DMA or other conflicts.

 

[Some dumb guy]

The only device that should be plugged in hot (computer running) is the USB
type which your monitor is not. I recommend that you do a system restore
to a point prior to when the problem started. If that doesn't fix it, you
will probably have to do a clean install of XP. If that doesn't do it, you
may have damaged your hardware with the hot plug-in.

Ron,

It could be that a drive cable issue was involved. For whatever reason, a previously
working CD burner would not read the installation CD for the new, hot-swapped
monitor. After powering down, I hooked up a an unused and disconnected DVD drive and
it read the disc. Since I don't work on computers full time, but only as I need to
to build maintain and upgrade my systems, I managed to get the cable to the slave
and master cd/dvd drives hooked up ass backwards. It didn't help that when 80 wire
cables came out, the old custom of hooking the master to the middle changed to
hooking it up to the end. Just found that out. It might explain some of the problems
I have been having with cd/dvd drive performance over the years.

Disabling the cd/dvd drives solved the problem of no sound and screwed up video, so
I just started changing things around until I chased down the problem.

Jack

 

[Some dumb guy]

A resource conflict is a distinct possibility. Also check for conflicts
cause by unplugged / hidden devices. A Google search against "hidden
hardware device" will provide additional information.

Enable Device Manager to show hidden devices. You may discover that
your old monitor is listed - and has been allocated resources required
by other hardware.

Having enabled Device Manager to show hidden devices, check whether
there are any conflicts? If so, create a System Restore Point (in case
you need to undo your changes). Then, right click on any conflicting
items that are no longer connected to your computer - and uninstall
these items.

If that doesn't resolve the problem, you could also try the following.

Open Device Manager. Right click on the DVD drive and uninstall the
hardware. Also uninstall the CD drive. Then, re-boot your computer.

Following the re-boot, Win XP should detect these items - and re-install
them as new plug & play devices (using native Win XP drivers).

Reinstallation might allocate different resources to these items - and
resolve IRQ, DMA or other conflicts.

Bob, I got it worked out. See my last reply to Ron in this thread.

I tried all the things that you suggested. Uninstalling the cd/dvd drives made the
problems disappear, so it was then a matter of troubleshooting the drives and their
cables and connections.

Thanks, Jack

 

[Ron Badour]

Great--thanks for the feedback.

--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP
Windows Desktop Experience