Media Players Not Playing Videos

[Tecknomage]

WinXP Pro SP2
Geforce 6600 AGP 256mb
Forceware 93.71 (latest)
DirectX 9.0c
MSI SIS motherboard

All players _are_ latest versions
Windows Media Player 11 (WMP)
Quicktime
RealPlayer


PROBLEM:

I haven't played videos in _years_, so I have no idea of when my
problem started. IMPORTANT - the problem is _only_ with the players,
all my games (like Oblivion, Doom 3, Quake 4, NWN2, Splinter Cell
series, Far Cry, etc.) video is OK.

Last week I tried to play a Quicktime video and the player hung, I had
to use the Task Manager to close it. I finally got the video to play
by setting Video, in the Advanced tab, to Safe Mode (GDI only), aka no
DirectX. Now Quicktime videos play OK.

I then tried WMP playing a WMV file. WMP also hung, but was so bad I
had to do a hard reset of my PC.

RealPlayer can also be set as default for WMV files so I did so.
RealPlayer also hung but did close [X] properly.

Here's what I've tired for fix so far:

1) Downloaded DirectX from MS and reloaded

2) Downloaded WMP Codecs form MS Download and reinstalled

3) Uninstalled/reinstalled nVidia Forceware drivers (after verifying
they are the latest)

4) Contacted nVidia Support for advice, but still waiting answer. Note
that according to their KB there was a problem with a _much_older_
version of Forceware and MSI SIS AGP motherboards.


Note, due to what happened with Quicktime, that it works without
DirectX, this indicates the problem is in the player's interface with
DirectX and video drivers. Something installed and screwed-up a DLL.

Oh, almost forgot, I do run Norton Antivirus and do a full scan
monthly. No problems in that area.



HELP
Other than reinstalling WinXP, which I will not do for this problem,
does anyone have an ideas on a way to fix or find out what is wrong?

 

[Sunny]

Here's what I would suggest:
Click: Start | Run and enter dxdiag. This will tell you your DirectX version
and provide some diagnostics. You should have version 9.0c or later.
Then I would uninstall Real Player and replace it with Real Alternative.
Then uninstall QuickTime and replace it with QuickTime Alternative. You can
find them by Googling "Real Alternative" and "Quicktime Alternative". You
might also want to install the VLC Media Player. (Google "VLC Media
Player"). Read all the installation instructions carefully. You may need to
install additional codecs and software such as DirectShow. These are all
free programs and work quite well for me.

 

[Guest]

Did that. In fact sent the saved file to nVidal Support.

The video diag passed all modes.

Here's what I would suggest:
Click: Start | Run and enter dxdiag. This will tell you your DirectX version
and provide some diagnostics. You should have version 9.0c or later.
Then I would uninstall Real Player and replace it with Real Alternative.
Then uninstall QuickTime and replace it with QuickTime Alternative. You can
find them by Googling "Real Alternative" and "Quicktime Alternative". You
might also want to install the VLC Media Player. (Google "VLC Media
Player"). Read all the installation instructions carefully. You may need to
install additional codecs and software such as DirectShow. These are all
free programs and work quite well for me.

WinXP Pro SP2
Geforce 6600 AGP 256mb
Forceware 93.71 (latest)
DirectX 9.0c
MSI SIS motherboard

All players _are_ latest versions
Windows Media Player 11 (WMP)
Quicktime
RealPlayer


PROBLEM:

I haven't played videos in _years_, so I have no idea of when my
problem started. IMPORTANT - the problem is _only_ with the players,
all my games (like Oblivion, Doom 3, Quake 4, NWN2, Splinter Cell
series, Far Cry, etc.) video is OK.

Last week I tried to play a Quicktime video and the player hung, I had
to use the Task Manager to close it. I finally got the video to play
by setting Video, in the Advanced tab, to Safe Mode (GDI only), aka no
DirectX. Now Quicktime videos play OK.

I then tried WMP playing a WMV file. WMP also hung, but was so bad I
had to do a hard reset of my PC.

RealPlayer can also be set as default for WMV files so I did so.
RealPlayer also hung but did close [X] properly.

Here's what I've tired for fix so far:

1) Downloaded DirectX from MS and reloaded

2) Downloaded WMP Codecs form MS Download and reinstalled

3) Uninstalled/reinstalled nVidia Forceware drivers (after verifying
they are the latest)

4) Contacted nVidia Support for advice, but still waiting answer. Note
that according to their KB there was a problem with a _much_older_
version of Forceware and MSI SIS AGP motherboards.


Note, due to what happened with Quicktime, that it works without
DirectX, this indicates the problem is in the player's interface with
DirectX and video drivers. Something installed and screwed-up a DLL.

Oh, almost forgot, I do run Norton Antivirus and do a full scan
monthly. No problems in that area.



HELP
Other than reinstalling WinXP, which I will not do for this problem,
does anyone have an ideas on a way to fix or find out what is wrong?

 

[Guest]

Here's what I would suggest:


Then I would uninstall Real Player and replace it with Real Alternative.
Then uninstall QuickTime and replace it with QuickTime Alternative. You can
find them by Googling "Real Alternative" and "Quicktime Alternative". You
might also want to install the VLC Media Player. (Google "VLC Media
Player"). Read all the installation instructions carefully. You may need to
install additional codecs and software such as DirectShow. These are all
free programs and work quite well for me.

I've tried VLC Media Player, has same problem playing WMV files.

The problem is deeper than the players themselves.

Thanks anyway.

WinXP Pro SP2
Geforce 6600 AGP 256mb
Forceware 93.71 (latest)
DirectX 9.0c
MSI SIS motherboard

All players _are_ latest versions
Windows Media Player 11 (WMP)
Quicktime
RealPlayer


PROBLEM:

I haven't played videos in _years_, so I have no idea of when my
problem started. IMPORTANT - the problem is _only_ with the players,
all my games (like Oblivion, Doom 3, Quake 4, NWN2, Splinter Cell
series, Far Cry, etc.) video is OK.

Last week I tried to play a Quicktime video and the player hung, I had
to use the Task Manager to close it. I finally got the video to play
by setting Video, in the Advanced tab, to Safe Mode (GDI only), aka no
DirectX. Now Quicktime videos play OK.

I then tried WMP playing a WMV file. WMP also hung, but was so bad I
had to do a hard reset of my PC.

RealPlayer can also be set as default for WMV files so I did so.
RealPlayer also hung but did close [X] properly.

Here's what I've tired for fix so far:

1) Downloaded DirectX from MS and reloaded

2) Downloaded WMP Codecs form MS Download and reinstalled

3) Uninstalled/reinstalled nVidia Forceware drivers (after verifying
they are the latest)

4) Contacted nVidia Support for advice, but still waiting answer. Note
that according to their KB there was a problem with a _much_older_
version of Forceware and MSI SIS AGP motherboards.


Note, due to what happened with Quicktime, that it works without
DirectX, this indicates the problem is in the player's interface with
DirectX and video drivers. Something installed and screwed-up a DLL.

Oh, almost forgot, I do run Norton Antivirus and do a full scan
monthly. No problems in that area.



HELP
Other than reinstalling WinXP, which I will not do for this problem,
does anyone have an ideas on a way to fix or find out what is wrong?

 

[Sunny]

You might find a clue if you look at Event Viewer in Administrative Tools.
Also Device Manager might show you a problem.
And you could set a Restore Point and then run System File Checker to see if
it can replace any corrupt system files. (Enter "sfc /scannow" at a DOS
prompt.)

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[Tecknomage]

You might find a clue if you look at Event Viewer in Administrative Tools.
Also Device Manager might show you a problem.

Thanks for reminding me, but unfortunately Device Manager shows no
problems & there are no errors in any Event Log pertaining to the
media players.

I didn't expect any error Event entries. This problem hangs the
player in question, so there is no Error Trap executed for reporting.

And you could set a Restore Point and then run System File Checker to see if
it can replace any corrupt system files. (Enter "sfc /scannow" at a DOS
prompt.)

I'll have to try this one. Thanks again.

 

[Tecknomage]

Thanks for reminding me, but unfortunately Device Manager shows no
problems & there are no errors in any Event Log pertaining to the
media players.

I didn't expect any error Event entries. This problem hangs the
player in question, so there is no Error Trap executed for reporting.




I'll have to try this one. Thanks again.

Nice utility. Also found SIGVERIF.EXE link on the MS KB for SFC.
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...ddocs/en-us/system_file_checker.mspx?mfr=true

Unfortunately running SFC did _not_ fix my media player + video
problem.

Does anyone have a list of all DLL used by media players for videos?
Reminder, the problem has to be with a DLL used by _all_ players when
playing videos like WMV.

 

[Guest]

Original problem: ALL my media players locked up when trying to play videos

Good news, nVidia provided a fix.

Bad news, the fix is....

"Please install the driver version 84.21, which is the most compatible
driver for GeForce 6600GT graphics card."

Installing Forceware 84.21 did in fact fix the video play in ALL my media
players (WMP, Quicktime, Realplayer). They all play videos without a hitch.

NOTE - This issue/problem MAY be confined to MSI SiS AGP motherboards (which
is what I have) and GeForce 6600. I say this because nVidia's KB has an
article stating that there was a problem with this video card and this
motherboard using 6x.xx drivers. The article pointed to a fix driver. So I
suspect the problem I had using 9x.xx drivers MAY have been in the same
category.

I did ask (pointed out) to nVidia as to why downloading an upgraded driver,
using their WEB page, ends up giving me a driver that does NOT work properly.
Their drivers are suppose to be universal.

SPECS:
MSI 648Max SiS motherboard
GeForce 6600GT AGP 256mb
WinXP Pro SP2
DirectX 9.0c
Latest versions of Windows Media Player (WMP), Quicktime, Realplayer