Videos won't play on any software in Windows XP Professional

[Guest]

Hi guys,

I've recently starting having problems playing videos on my copy of Windows
XP Professional. The problems are independent of the type of video (e.g.
mpeg, avi, etc...) and the player I used to play them (Windows Media Player,
Classic Media Player, Winamp, etc...).

The symptoms are as follows:

When I try to launch the video, the video application freezes, and takes up
100% of the processor. I then need to (painstakingly!) use Task Manager to
kill the process associated with the video player.

I'm looking for a way to diagnose the problem so I can do something about
fixing it. I know this is a very vague post, but does anyone have any
suggestions of where to start?

Many thanks in advance,

Steve.

 

[John Inzer]

Hi guys,

I've recently starting having problems playing videos on my copy of
Windows XP Professional. The problems are independent of the type of
video (e.g. mpeg, avi, etc...) and the player I used to play them
(Windows Media Player, Classic Media Player, Winamp, etc...).

The symptoms are as follows:

When I try to launch the video, the video application freezes, and
takes up 100% of the processor. I then need to (painstakingly!) use
Task Manager to kill the process associated with the video player.

I'm looking for a way to diagnose the problem so I can do something
about fixing it. I know this is a very vague post, but does anyone
have any suggestions of where to start?

Many thanks in advance,

Steve.

=================================

Could it be related to your firewall or
possibly your video driver? Have you
installed new software or updates?

Maybe the following articles will offer
some ideas:

Troubleshooting Windows
Media Player 10
http://tinyurl.com/hkfb8

Troubleshooting Windows
Media Player 11 for Windows XP
http://tinyurl.com/k9pp2

Troubleshooting Video Playback
http://msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/articles/11318.aspx

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Guest]

Hi John,

Thanks very much for your help.

I tried disabling my anti-virus (including firewall) altogether, but the
problem persisted. (Note that the Windows firewall is disabled too.)

I also tried reinstalling the graphics card drivers, but the problem
remained after the reboot.

I have also tried running dxdiag, and that doesn’t show any errors.

As per your links, I’ve tried installing the latest version of DirectX
again, but no luck there either.

I’ve downloaded the “Microsoft Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utilityâ€,
but have no idea what to do with it!

This is really starting to become a problem. Any ideas where to go next? Is
there another group you’d recommend I post in to get another angle on this?

Thanks again,

Steve.

 

[John Inzer]

Hi John,

Thanks very much for your help.

I tried disabling my anti-virus (including firewall) altogether, but
the problem persisted. (Note that the Windows firewall is disabled
too.)

I also tried reinstalling the graphics card drivers, but the problem
remained after the reboot.

I have also tried running dxdiag, and that doesn't show any errors.

As per your links, I've tried installing the latest version of DirectX
again, but no luck there either.

I've downloaded the "Microsoft Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup
Utility", but have no idea what to do with it!

This is really starting to become a problem. Any ideas where to go
next? Is there another group you'd recommend I post in to get another
angle on this?

Thanks again,

Steve.

======================================
If you reduce your Graphics Hardware Acceleration
as per the instructions in the following article and
realize an improvement, it's an indication that you
need to update your video driver:

(263391) How to Change the Graphics
Hardware Acceleration Setting in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263391

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Guest]

Thanks John!

Turning hardware acceleration down does sound like a good plan. However,
there is a problem with the article you linked to. I get this when I click it:

"The Knowledge Base (KB) Article You Requested Is Currently Not Available"

Do you know the correct link, or perhaps you could summarise what I need to
do?

I really appreciate you sticking with me on this.

Many thanks,

Steve.

 

[John Inzer]

Thanks John!

Turning hardware acceleration down does sound like a good plan.
However, there is a problem with the article you linked to. I get
this when I click it:

"The Knowledge Base (KB) Article You Requested Is Currently Not
Available"

Do you know the correct link, or perhaps you could summarise what I
need to do?

I really appreciate you sticking with me on this.

Many thanks,

Steve.

========================================
Sorry about that...

Try this one:

(272193) PI: How to Troubleshoot
Graphics Issues
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=272193

Scroll down to: Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP


--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Guest]

John,

You're a star! Lower the hardware acceleration to one from the bottom allows
me to see videos. I guess it's not good practice to leave it set that low
though, right? At least I have a work around for now...

How would I go about fixing my PC so that I can put the acceleration back up
again?

Here are the details for my graphics card and monitor, as taken from DxDiag:

Card name: WinFast A6600 GT
Manufacturer: Leadtek Research Inc.
Chip type: GeForce 6600 GT
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_00F1&SUBSYS_2011107D&REV_A2
Display Memory: n/a
Current Mode: 1152 x 864 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Iiyama MA901U VisionMaster Pro 452
Monitor Max Res: 1920,1200
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.7777 (English)

....as you can see, it's not a bad card, and although old, my monitor is
decent too. Where would be the best place to get drivers? Should I start with
the graphics card or the monitor?

Thanks again,

Steve.

 

[John Inzer]

John,

You're a star! Lower the hardware acceleration to one from the bottom
allows me to see videos. I guess it's not good practice to leave it
set that low though, right? At least I have a work around for now...

How would I go about fixing my PC so that I can put the acceleration
back up again?

Here are the details for my graphics card and monitor, as taken from
DxDiag:

Card name: WinFast A6600 GT
Manufacturer: Leadtek Research Inc.
Chip type: GeForce 6600 GT
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_00F1&SUBSYS_2011107D&REV_A2
Display Memory: n/a
Current Mode: 1152 x 864 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Iiyama MA901U VisionMaster Pro 452
Monitor Max Res: 1920,1200
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.7777 (English)

...as you can see, it's not a bad card, and although old, my monitor
is decent too. Where would be the best place to get drivers? Should I
start with the graphics card or the monitor?

Thanks again,

Steve.

===================================
Good...an improvement at last.

That means you need to update your video driver.
After the driver is updated...you can return your
Acceleration to Full.

Here's the current driver for: nVidia GeForce 6600 GT

ForceWare Release 162 : July 26, 2007
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_162.18.html

Also read the installation instructions:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/driver_installation_hints.html

Good Luck

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Guest]

Hi John,

Fantastic news! After installing the new driver, I can now play DVDs and
just about every video format under the sun, using under full hardware
acceleration mode.

Thank you very much for your first class support! Really appreciate it.

All the best,

Steve.

 

[John Inzer]

Hi John,

Fantastic news! After installing the new driver, I can now play DVDs
and just about every video format under the sun, using under full
hardware acceleration mode.

Thank you very much for your first class support! Really appreciate
it.

All the best,

Steve.

=========================
You're welcome.

Thanks for the feedback.

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[Guest]

Ok, so I have the same problem. It started sometime after I put in a new hard
drive because after the new video card I was still able to play videos. And
even after the new hard drive there was a day and a half where I could watch
videos and then it went away again. I lowered my acceleration and it
worked...to a degree. MPEG's and WMV's played fine, but AVI's were upside
down. I put a DVD in my drive and the DVD would not play. WINDVD had some
error that said it could not create overlay. I have the latest drivers for my
video card as that was the first thing I did when I installed it. I am at a
loss. Anytime I try to watch anthing other than a Flash video, the computer
runs very slowly because 100% is being used and it takes forever to close the
application if I can even close it; sometimes the computer just reboots. I
don't know if I should wipe my hard drives and start over or what. And I
don't know if this has anything to do with anything, but when I installed the
new Master hard drive it's letter became F while the old, Slave drive changed
from D to C. I guess that doesn't have anything to do with the videos since
lowering the acceleration helped (kind of) solve the issue.