[DaveyC]

I've had a longstanding problem with my computer crashing whenever I play .wmv videos and I have exhausted the forum search function and the possibilities of Google.

Some time ago when I wanted to play a game I was prompted to update my video card drivers (ATI Radeon 700). Since then my computer has frozen up whenever I play .wmv videos, followed by beeps on every keystroke. Other symptoms are the screens displayed as windows loads appearing slightly distorted.

I have tried installing old versions of the driver to see if going back in time helps. I have also visited the ATI support pages to follow their advice, but I think it is slightly beyond my capabilities/confidence to fiddle around with their suggestions without guidance.

Below is an extract from what I assume is the relevant part of the reports on Everest. Happy to run a better one if necessary as this problem is driving me nuts.

--------[ EVEREST Home Edition © 2003-2005 Lavalys, Inc. ]------------------------------------------------------------

Version EVEREST v2.20.405
Homepage http://www.lavalys.com/
Report Type Report Wizard
Computer 7E66D63 (Dave's Magic Box)
Generator User
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition 5.1.2600 (WinXP Retail)
Date 2008-07-15
Time 23:20


--------[ Summary ]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name 7E66D63 (Dave's Magic Box)
User Name User

Motherboard:
CPU Type Unknown, 1500 MHz (9 x 167) 2200+
Motherboard Name ASRock K7S8X v3 (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 3 DDR DIMM, Audio, LAN)
Motherboard Chipset SiS 746FX
System Memory 512 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type AMI (06/25/04)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter RADEON 7000 SERIES (64 MB)
Video Adapter RADEON 7000 SERIES (64 MB)
3D Accelerator ATI RV100 DDR
Monitor Plug and Play Monitor [NoDB] (17028608)




All help will be very much appreciated. Look forward to reply.

[Advertisements]

Greetings DaveyC

Sorry to hear about your troubles with playing wmv files.

A couple of thoughts; You should narrow it down to "What Media players" are crashing. Does it work in any of them? Do you have more than one? (ie Winamp, or Nero showtime, VLC, Windows Media player, ect.) Try them out. You want to have in hand that infomation if all or one or none gives you the same errors.

Did you install extra codecs (compressor/decompressors) for media? If so the chances are if you installed some kind of codec pack, it could be the WMV is running through multiple filters. One of them maybe is causing the crash.

Could be you have a corrupted codec drivers. Look to reinstall the Windows media codecs.

What can you do?

Repair the failing media player by uninstalling and reinstalling it, or remove extra codec packs.

If you want a tool to see what codecs are on your computer and perhaps give you an insight I would recomend a tool

Called SHERLOCK-The Codec Detective. Link-------------->http://www.updatexp....-detective.html

It will create a list of Codecs and their locations. See if you have duplicates or non-microsoft ones. Look for the wmv ones for sure.

This is about as far as I can take you on this. Others maybe able to help you further once you have some more information in hand.

Good Luck

Kaz.

[Kazzoo]

Greetings DaveyC

Sorry to hear about your troubles with playing wmv files.

A couple of thoughts; You should narrow it down to "What Media players" are crashing. Does it work in any of them? Do you have more than one? (ie Winamp, or Nero showtime, VLC, Windows Media player, ect.) Try them out. You want to have in hand that infomation if all or one or none gives you the same errors.

Did you install extra codecs (compressor/decompressors) for media? If so the chances are if you installed some kind of codec pack, it could be the WMV is running through multiple filters. One of them maybe is causing the crash.

Could be you have a corrupted codec drivers. Look to reinstall the Windows media codecs.

What can you do?

Repair the failing media player by uninstalling and reinstalling it, or remove extra codec packs.

If you want a tool to see what codecs are on your computer and perhaps give you an insight I would recomend a tool

Called SHERLOCK-The Codec Detective. Link-------------->http://www.updatexp....-detective.html

It will create a list of Codecs and their locations. See if you have duplicates or non-microsoft ones. Look for the wmv ones for sure.

This is about as far as I can take you on this. Others maybe able to help you further once you have some more information in hand.

Good Luck

Kaz.

[DaveyC]

Cheers for the help Kaz.

I have attached the report from sherlock, I'm not really sure how top use the information in it so if any geeks could give me a nudge in the right directiion that would be very much appreciated.

I only ever use Windows media player really, but installed VLC to see if the same happens - yes it does.

In the past I have tried uninstalling WMP and reinstalling it but no change (and have also gone back to WMP 10 but thats just a personal preference issue).

I know there is a guide on the forum somewhere about doing a more thorough uninstall, but I am turned off the idea up to now as I have a rather large media collection, and have done a lot of work managing it, which I don't really want to lose. I should also probably add some information that has made me think it is a hardware issue and not a Codec one...

...In the past I have found that by completely removing the display driver so that on startup the "found new hardware wizard" opens, I can actually watch .wmv, just with compromized display quality.

It seems to me (from my research) that the only way to reinstall the windows media codecs for WMP 10 + is to reinstall the pleayer, but WMP10 isn't available from the microsoft download site, so it would mean updating to 11, which I have done in the past and has not helped.

Attached Files

•  Codecs.txt   30.19KB   320 downloads

[Kazzoo]

Greetings DaveyC

Took a quick look at the attachment and appears all Wmv are from microsoft and not any third parties. Does not mean that they are not damaged.

I am sure as well if you go for a player installation you would end up with Windows media player 11. Would be one way of getting the codecs all over again. I understand it would most likely want to re-arange your libraries and that is something you wish to avoid.

Now that you have WMV's crashing no matter what player you use, how about other video media? Mpeg2 , Divx, avi, ect...
If the others are good, sure would point to a software issue.

Till you can get it sorted which way the problem lies, is it a software fault or a hardware one, you may continue to chase this one around.

All in all, this might be the time to consider your Data backup plan if you start messing around with the software or hardware.

If I am not mistaken, you have two video cards. Why not try them individually and see if you have any success. See if you can beg, borrow or try a different video Card that is known good. See if that solves the issue.

If the problem is deeper than video cards and starts pointing at the main board, you may need some diagnostic software to dig out the fault. All the ones I know I use at my place of employment and are all paid corporate versions so I have no retail recomendations.

Good Luck

Kaz

[DaveyC]

Hi,

I have left this one alone for a while as I haven't had the time but there are some developments...

I have moved all of my documents to a new hard drive, partly to free up some much needed storage space and partly to get it away from the C: so that I can really get suck into the problems I have.

I have since removed media player as per http://www.geekstogo...er-t101331.html

This hasn't resolved the problem at all though. I have however been considering a dual boot with Ubuntu, and have tried it out without installing on the Live CD (my other problem is in the OS board). I have found that I can view my video files without the system locking up, which would lead me to believe that it is not a hardware issue.

What I am unsure of is whether removing Media player in the way above will have fixed any codecs if they are the issue. I am fairly sure it is not the Driver as I have uninstalled and reinstalled numerous times.

I'm pretty sure I don't have 2 Graphics cards though (unless I have missed a trick?) - just my very poor Radeon AGP card. My motherboard doesn't have integrated graphics as far as I am aware.

Any idea what else could be the issue?

DaveyC

[DaveyC]

Just to finish this thread off (as I hate it when you are searching for answers on net/forums and the solution isn't included), I installed a PNY GeForce 6200 Graphics card that cost £30 and everything works just fine again. I still don't know what caused the problem, but it's all fixed now.