Media Center problems

[Brian Wescombe]

Every time I play an MPEG file and then close Media Center, there's an error
message 'Media Center has stopped working' and 'Media Center is restarting'.
I've also had three BSODs with different error messages (BAD_POOL_HEADER and
IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL).

Also, while video is playing full-screen, if I press the Back button (so the
video is in the bottom corner), the sound is all distorted and plays too
slow.
CD audio is also distorted, but music played from stored albums on the PC is
ok (except when I try to view a slideshow, when it gets distorted again).


I tried to do a Complete PC backup to the day I installed Vista, but the
problem hasn't gone away - I wasn't gettting BSODs on the first install
though (when the backup was created)

Is this likely to be a driver issue? I'm using Creative Audigy 2 beta
drivers (no newer ones available), and the Nvidia drivers provided for
Vista, as the latest ones don't support my graphics card (Geforce 5700).


This has really stumped me, as apart from Media Center everything else is
great!

 

[Dale]

Blue screens are almost always driver or hardware related. I'm not familiar
with the BAD_POOL_HEADER one but I have troubleshot plenty of
IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL blue screens. They have all been driver related.

Have you googled the messages one at a time? Make sure you include the stop
code; that's at least as important as the message.

Dale

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Dale,

You're quite correct. BAD_POOL_HEADER is a driver error. I would guess
either Video or Sound from the description, and between them I would hazard
a bet that it's the Nvidia drivers. There have been a number of problems
with them.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Brian Wescombe]

The Nvidia drivers are the ones provied in Vista RTM, I can't get newer
ones! Unless the earlier Beta drivers are available from Nvidia

Thanks anyway

 

[Guest]

I have to say that the problem might not just be with nVidia drivers, I'm
running a Radeon x1950 xt with the latest ATI drivers, I'm using the onboard
Realtek audio on the ASUS P5W DH Deluxe with WDM drivers and I get a BSOD
when I launch MCE. The only BSOD I've encontered, but it always does it.
I've tried the WDM ATI drivers too, but no luck. Other than MCE everything
runs great. I've played Oblivion and it runs better than on XP.