Playing any video file causes PC to hang

[AMC]

Using XP with SP2, Athlon XP2400+, 1Gig RAM, GEForce 6600 128Mb graphics
card, On board C Media sound.

Until recently everything was fine. But now I cannot play any type of video
file. Tried MPEG's and AVI's etc. Also tried Windows Media Player,
Quicktime and Real Player. In every case the player says its "loading or
connecting", the processor usage hits 100% then any mouse movements or
keystrokes just slow down and eventually the PC grinds to a halt and has to
be restarted.

I've checked out MS's KB, tried downloading new codecs, reinstalled the
players. But still no joy. The files them selves are ok as they play on
another XP machine.

Really at a loss with this one. Any help appreciated .

Andrew

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Purchase and install a decent sound card.

Example:

Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit
http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=206&product=10315

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

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:

| Using XP with SP2, Athlon XP2400+, 1Gig RAM, GEForce 6600 128Mb graphics
| card, On board C Media sound.
|
| Until recently everything was fine. But now I cannot play any type of video
| file. Tried MPEG's and AVI's etc. Also tried Windows Media Player,
| Quicktime and Real Player. In every case the player says its "loading or
| connecting", the processor usage hits 100% then any mouse movements or
| keystrokes just slow down and eventually the PC grinds to a halt and has to
| be restarted.
|
| I've checked out MS's KB, tried downloading new codecs, reinstalled the
| players. But still no joy. The files them selves are ok as they play on
| another XP machine.
|
| Really at a loss with this one. Any help appreciated .
|
| Andrew

 

[AMC]

Fair point, but why should I suspect my on board sound is the problem when
it worked fine until a week ago, and the other PC's all use on board sound
and play videos without any problem. Replacing the card may not solve the
problem.

 

[Steve N.]

Purchase and install a decent sound card.

Example:

Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit
http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=206&product=10315

What the heck does the sound card have to do with it?

Steve

 

[bxf]

You have the problem using players that process completely different
types of video (WMP, QT, RP), so I cannot imagine either a CODEC or
file issue, for example.

I think the only option you have left is a System Restore to go back to
a date that everything worked properly.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Onboard sound chips use the CPU's resources abundantly.
It may be that your sound chip is defective on that particular
PC. That is why I suggested installing a good PCI-based
sound card.

Did you try reinstalling the drivers for your onboard audio?
The latest ones are available from the manufacturer's web site
of your PC or motherboard.

System Requirements for Windows Media Player 10
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/mp10/readme.aspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Fair point, but why should I suspect my on board sound is the problem when
| it worked fine until a week ago, and the other PC's all use on board sound
| and play videos without any problem. Replacing the card may not solve the
| problem.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

Using XP with SP2, Athlon XP2400+, 1Gig RAM, GEForce 6600 128Mb graphics
card, On board C Media sound.

Until recently everything was fine. But now I cannot play any type of video
file. Tried MPEG's and AVI's etc. Also tried Windows Media Player,
Quicktime and Real Player. In every case the player says its "loading or
connecting", the processor usage hits 100% then any mouse movements or
keystrokes just slow down and eventually the PC grinds to a halt and has to
be restarted.

I've checked out MS's KB, tried downloading new codecs, reinstalled the
players. But still no joy. The files them selves are ok as they play on
another XP machine.

Sure sounds like a toxic codec - that could pollute a variety of media
players, if not all of them. See www.nirsoft.net for a free tool that
can manage codecs, i.e. list and reversably disable them.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/mmview.html

I'd also check shell extensions, especially if you have trouble when a
media file is highlighted or listed without being "opened":

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html

There's a lot more cool integration managers at NirSoft

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Fri, 14 Oct 2005 12:12:18 -0500, "Carey Frisch [MVP]"

Onboard sound chips use the CPU's resources abundantly.
It may be that your sound chip is defective on that particular
PC. That is why I suggested installing a good PCI-based
sound card.

If that's the case, test it by setting the existing sound to "disable
in this profile" via Device Manager. This may "work" by preventing
any attempt to play the media file (a misleading result), but OTOH if
the media files now play just fine, then you've pinned it down to bad
sound hardware or drivers and you know where to dig. It could still
be a bad codec though, i.e. one that's "badness" is hidden when it is
not attempting to make sound.

I have to say, I've not seen any problems with on-board sound, after
building a number of PCs with Intel chipset mobos that use this. The
overhead doesn't seem to be an issue on recent systems either. The
only time I've had to use (serious) add-on sound hardware is due to
unacceptable latency when playing back multiple recorded digital
tracks while recording new ones, with Cubase etc. For that, one needs
sound hardware with explicit support for Cuebase's driver model.

 

[AMC]

Unfortunately, still no progress. I have tried running a specimen MPEG file
on another PC with the same on-board sound and it works fine, so I guess
that eliminates the sound card issue.