[adifrank]

Hi. I'm working on a video project in China.
Its a strange video project in which we are purposely shooting the video with a small USB video camera. The camera was bought here in China.
The camera packaging states that it will work with Windows XP/Vista/Win7 and there is no need to install a driver for it to work, yet it also came with a CD containing a driver which is supposed to enable better quality video from the camera.

I'm working on a Dell Studio 1555 laptop, running Windows XP with SP3. I plugged in the web cam and as it said on the packaging, the camera works straight out of the box, without having to first install any sort of driver. To this point, all is OK.

Then I tried installing the software/driver that came on the CD with the camera, since it is supposed to enable higher quality video.

I installed the driver. Then I shot some video using the video capture software that was installed on my computer when installing the driver.

When capturing with this software I am asked first where to save the captured video files. I selected a a subfolder on my E: drive. E:\My Videos\OCAT Project

Here's where strange things started happening.
First of all the video capture software started working strangely. It would often crash while attempting to browse to the appropriate capture folder and set it as the folder to where the video files should be saved.
Then after finally successfully selecting the OCAT Project folder as the capture folder, the software would stall for about 10 seconds before eventually recovering and making itself finally ready to record.

I somehow managed to cope with the crashes and stalls and completed shooting the project.

Later in the evening I wanted to view the .avi clips that we shot during the day. Here's when the next strange thing started happening. When navigating to the OCAT Project folder the Explorer, a message would pop up saying that Explorer had to shut itself down and after a few seconds Explorer crashes. All open Explorer windows just disappear.

When trying to navigate to different folders, other than the folder where I saved the video - there's absolutely no problem. But when trying to navigate to the OCAT Project folder - Explorer crashes every time. Sometimes it even freezes my whole system and I need to restart.

When browsing to my OCAT Project folder using Adobe Bridge - there's no problem. I can play the .avi files perfectly on my media players and all is fine. But then when attempting to use my Windows folder system to get to the .avi files - crash.

Since I didn't quite trust this cheap Chinese webcam and it's software, I made sure to create a system restore point before installing the software. I uninstalled the software using Revo Uninstall, removing all leftover files that it found on my registry. Then I restored my system using Windows System Restore. The system restore process was successful, yet the problem did not go away. The software is gone, but Explorer keeps crashing every time I attempt to open the folder in which I saved those .avi files using the software that came with the webcam.

If anyone thinks they might know how to help me get my computer back to it's normal healthy state - I'd be extremely thankful.

THX.

Edited by adifrank, 05 October 2010 - 11:19 AM.

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http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed

Install this please and then open the avi file to cause the crash and then open this.

[Macboatmaster]

http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed

Install this please and then open the avi file to cause the crash and then open this.

[The Skeptic]

Try to open the folder in safe mode and move the files to a new folder with a different name. Don't move any file which looks suspicious or is related to the questionable software. Try to open the files in the new folder. If it works, delete the original folder.

If not successful try to do the same with Puppy Linux which you can download, burn to a CD and create a bootable CD.

[adifrank]

Hi. Macboatmaster and Skeptic, thanks for the replies. I haven't tried any of your suggestions just yet.
Meanwhile what I DID do is move all the .avi files that were created with the dubious capture software I installed to a sub-folder, within My Videos folder. I succeeded in doing this by using Adobe Bridge rather than the Windows explorer.

After doing this, I am now able to open the My Videos folder where these .avi files previously resided. So it seems its not a problem with any particular folder but rather the files themselves.

When attempting to open the new sub-folder where the .avi files currently exist - explorer crashes as before. So crashing is consistent when opening a folder where one or more of these .avi files are stored.

I believe it is not all the .avi files because during the shooting process of this video project I checked and played some of the files to see how they look - and there was no problem when doing so. Yet, as I stated before, the capture software was acting strangely. It was crashing and locking up when I would browse from its "save as..." dialogue to the folder in which I want to save the captured video files. Somehow I think the two things are connected.

I found a post on some forum from about 6 years ago with some similarities. Not sure if it is relevant.
http://www.moviecode...i-problem-3588/

I'll try to test out your suggested methods a bit later and report back. Thanks again!

[Macboatmaster]

Two thoughts.

1. Was the software you installed the one for your XP.
Software frequently comes as XP 32bit and XP64bit.
Also are you certain you have not installed the Vista software. Usually there are choices for which software to install.
Hope that is not insulting to you, but the mistake has been made before.

2. Are all the AVI files ONLY ones you have created on the shooting. If you have downloaded any, are they the ones that cause the crash.

AND IF YOU RUN my suggestion we may just get a better idea of what is causing the crash. It is not certain that we will but it is worth a try.
It may not of course be the avi file. It may be the program that opens that file or indeed it may be a case of updating drivers.

[adifrank]

Two thoughts.

1. Was the software you installed the one for your XP.
Software frequently comes as XP 32bit and XP64bit.
Also are you certain you have not installed the Vista software. Usually there are choices for which software to install.
Hope that is not insulting to you, but the mistake has been made before.

No insult taken
Here is a description of what exists on this cd-rom that came with the webcam:
4 folders titled: 10M Soft, 12M Soft, Driver, video
10M Soft contains one file: 1000W.exe
12M Soft contains one file: DEF-299B_D111708.exe
Driver contains one file: setup.exe
the folder title video contains an additional folder titled exoo299B which has a bunch of files and folders in it - some dll files and two exe files (titled: Dzplayer.exe and exooB.exe) among others.

I have no idea what the 10M and 12M folders are. The folder titled video looked to me like some kind of additional bundled video software. And I just assumed that the setup.exe file inside the Driver folder is the installation file I need to install the driver. After installing this - it did in fact seem to improve the video quality of the webcam as it stated and it did install that video capture software. So everything looked alright to me, until the crashing started to occur.

The only information is what is printed on the packaging which is:
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Windows XP SP2 or Vista / Linux / Mac OS 10.2
In any case, after experiencing these crashes I uninstalled this software and used Windows System Restore to restore back to the point just prior to installing this driver. So as far as I can tell, it should not be on my system now.

2. Are all the AVI files ONLY ones you have created on the shooting. If you have downloaded any, are they the ones that cause the crash.

Yes. During shooting I used only the mentioned webcam using the capture software that came with it.

AND IF YOU RUN my suggestion we may just get a better idea of what is causing the crash. It is not certain that we will but it is worth a try.
It may not of course be the avi file. It may be the program that opens that file or indeed it may be a case of updating drivers.

I downloaded and installed WhoCrashed. I then purposely navigated (using explorer file browser) to navigate to the folder in which the webcam .avi files exist. As expected, after about 3 seconds I got the message saying that explorer has to shut down. There were some extra details which I copy/pasted into notepad. Here they are:

AppName: explorer.exe AppVer: 6.0.2900.5512 ModName: shmedia.dll
ModVer: 6.0.2900.5512 Offset: 0000ac54

After the explorer window disappeared, I then ran WhoCrashed. The results under ANALYSIS were as follows:
Crash dump directory: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump
Crash dumps are enabled on your computer.
No valid crash dumps have been found on your computer

I'd like to point out and further stress the fact that I am doing absolutely NOTHING with these .avi files when explorer crashes. I don't try to play them, or import them or copy or delete them. All I do is plainly open the folder (in the explorer window) in which they sit.
Then, after a few seconds I get the crash message and the explorer window closes and disappears (along with any other explorer window which happened to be open).

Try to open the folder in safe mode and move the files to a new folder with a different name. Don't move any file which looks suspicious or is related to the questionable software. Try to open the files in the new folder. If it works, delete the original folder.

I tried. The problem occurs also when in safe mode.

If not successful try to do the same with Puppy Linux which you can download, burn to a CD and create a bootable CD.

Not sure how to do this... what exactly do I do with the bootable CD?

Skeptic, Macboatmaster, did any of you happen to take a peek at that link I posted to the thread which deals with similar problems? Do you think that my problem is related to what they say there? Or do you think that this is a different issue?

[adifrank]

UPDATE:
I decided to try and test the files one by one to see if the problem is with one or several or all the files. There are a total of 22 .avi files.
Using Adobe Bridge which seems to handle the files without a problem - I moved the first .avi file to a different folder and then tried navigating to that new folder using explorer and noted if it crashes or not.
I then did the same with the 2nd .avi file and then the 3rd, etc.

After checking all 22 files the results show that only the first two files cause explorer to crash. In other words, after having excluded the first two .avi files from the rest of the bunch - I was then able to navigate to the folder with the 20 remaining files without a problem.

So it seems that two .avi files are posing problems for explorer causing it to crash.

Another thing to note - Navigating to the specific "bad" .avi files with Adobe Bridge, it seems they will not play using VLC media player. The other "good" 20 files play perfectly with VLC player.

It looks as though I have two corrupt .avi files and that this is what is causing the crashes. I can now open the folder containing the good 20 .avi files and work with them which is GOOD news, yet now I have a new concern - whether or not the two "bad" files can somehow be fixed?

Is this a matter I should take up at a different forum which deals with video files and such? Or do you think this is still the right place for this sort of issue?

THX

[Macboatmaster]

Personally I do not think it worthwhile downloading puupy linux for the sake of checking if that will open just two Avi files
However if you wish to it is an ISO file and you need an ISO burning programme.
I have attached the links.
BurnCDCC http://www.terabyteu...ds/burncdcc.zip
Puppy http://distro.ibibli...fulldrivers.iso
Actually the same links just direct to you as The Skeptic provided.
It is very useful to have just in case XP will not load one day and you can boot with this and recover all your data very easily.

If the drive is mechanically working but the OS won't boot then Puppy can get access to the data.

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....

put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....puppy will boot and run totally in ram...if your hardware is is good working order you will know...
after you get it running and your at the desktop...you take the puppy linux cd out and then you can use the burner to copy all your data to cd/dvds
you can also use it to backup your data to a external usb harddrive..just have it hooked to the computer when you boot up with puppy...

==========================
quick guide for saving data...music..files on a system that will not boot using puppy Linux..


after you get to puppy desktop..
click on the drives icon...looks like a flash drive...top row..it will list all the drives connected to

your computer...

click on the red icon for the drive you want to mount...in this case its a flash drive ...puppy will

mount the drive..the drive icon turns green when its mounted...
minimize the drives mounter window..you will need it again in a few minutes..
drag the right edge of it sideways to shrink it to its narrowest size...about half the width of the screen...then drag the window to the right edge of the screen...

now click on the icon that looks like a filing cabinet (kind of yellow) on the main drive...it should
already be green..
you will see a list of all the folders on the main drive Usually your C: drive..shrink that window to
the narrowest you can..about half the width of the screen...drag that window to the left side of the screen...
at this point you should have 2 windows open on your desktop..the flash drive on the right side..
go back to the folders on the C: drive...click on the documents and settings folder...then your user
name or all users..find the folders that has your data..
drag and drop the folder with the data you want to make copies of to the flash drive window...

your options are to move ..copy ect...JUST COPY..if its to big you will have to open the folder and
drag and drop individual files until the flash drive is full...(I have a 120 GB external USB drive for
big data recovery jobs and a 4 GB flash drive for the smaller jobs)..after you get the files copied to
the flash drive...
Click on the drives mounter you minimized earlier
UNMOUNT THE FLASH DRIVE by clicking on the green icon..you will once in awhile get error messages when
unmouting the drive..ignore them..when the flash drive icon turns red again its safe to remove the
flash drive..trot on over (stroll if you want to look cool) to another computer and plug in the flash

drive and copy all the data files ( I drag and drop) to the other computer..
make sure the other computer can read them...

now delete the data on the flash drive...take it back to the misbehaving computer and plug it in

again..click on the drives icon again and repeat until you have all your data transferred to the working
system..

Thanks to happyrock

Here is a link to AVI file checkers, although I MUST STRESS that I have not used them and cannot vouch for their value or installation safety
http://avi.software....i-file-checker/

Edited by Macboatmaster, 04 October 2010 - 12:42 PM.

[The Skeptic]

I think you did very well by salvaging 20 out of 22 files. There is no need for Puppy Linux because you managed to accomplish what I aimed to by other means.

Had I been in your position I would get rid of the two corrupted files and the dubious program which probably created the problem in the first place.

I don't know of any way to repair the corrupted files. If they are irreplaceable keep trying. If not, wipe them off.

[adifrank]

Hi. To conclude this thread...

As I've posted before, with the help of Adobe Bridge, I eventually managed access the folder in which the corrupted AVI files resided and which were causing explorer to crash. Using Adobe Bridge I secluded the bad files from the good ones, so to at least have access to the .avi files that were usable.

I tried a few AVI fixing software applications to try and repair the two corrupted files. No success with either of them. So for now I'm trying to manage without the two bad files.

I later came across this web page which addresses what seems to be a similar situation - Windows Explorer Crashes When Opening Folder With Corrupted Video Files. I tried the suggested solution and - IT WORKED !

So if anyone is reading this, facing the same problem and possibly without Adobe Bridge - try following the simple instructions in link above.

Cheers! and thanks Macboatmaster and The Skeptic for your support!

[The Skeptic]

Thanks for letting us know.