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Video filescrashing Windows

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by dellboy1

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I've been having major problems playing mpeg2 videos recently. For no apparent reason the videos start to play but then i get a blue screen crash. When Windows restarts i get a message saying that Windows has recovered from a major error.

To start with i thought this was a problem with Studio v11.1.1 which i use to create videos. i was capturing some video via a DV camcorder when it suddenly stopped & crashed windows.

Ive had long discussions with Pinnacle as i thought that was where the problem lay. I reinstalled Studio a couple of times & took advice from Pinnacle but nothing worked.

I then tried playing some older videos using WMP & found that i got the same crash as when capturing with Studio. This also occured with Real Player.The files play ok on another pc though.

Still suspecting Studio I uninstalled it but still had same problems playing back videos.

Gave up in the end & did a complete re-install of Windows using an image that I knew was OK. However i still have the same problem!!!! - im completely mystified as to what is causing this.

Incidntally sometimes videos play fine on the new image & then another time the same video will crash windows!!!!

Please let me have your suggestions!!!

8 replies

by computercookie

Video, Processor,MB and RAM!

Also have you looked in the event viewer.

by dellboy1

I have a 512mb pcie video card EN8500GT, 2gb RAM 667mhz DDR2, Intel quad core processor 2.4ghz 1066fsb.

by Former member

Which one it is is anybody's guess. Do an in place repair, then reinstall the drivers for your hardware. If this does not work, then you will have to reinstall each piece of software you have by working backwards from the most recently installed software.

by dellboy1

OK - I thought that might be a problem as the videos play ok on other XP machines. The problem only seems to have occured recently which is why I thought a reinstall to an earlier basic image might have worked.

How would I go about doing an in place repair? - I've not come across that term before.

I'm wondering if it might just be easier to reinstall Windows from scratch? On the other hand is there an underlying reason as to why the driver has become corrupted which I need to avoid when doing a re-install - difficult I guess when I don't know which driver it is!!

by computercookie

there is a driver 20.2MB date 30/08/2007, at the ASUS website, although I've downloaded a new approx 46 MB from Nvidia, which I found when I installed vista and another whilst I'm preparing to install XP 64bit.

How old is you computer, it is alway a good idea to do a complete reinstall at least once a year(I normally do 2-3 and create new image, only use them in an emergency).

To do an in-place reinstallation, if you don't have time to do a format and reinstall, use method 2;

How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341/EN-US/

Method 2: Repair install of Windows XP by starting your computer from the Windows XP CD
To reinstall Windows XP by starting your computer from the Windows XP CD, follow these steps: 1. Insert the Windows XP CD into your computer's CD drive or DVD drive, and then restart your computer.
2. When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message appears on the screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD.

Note Your computer must be configured to start from the CD drive or DVD drive. For more information about how to configure your computer to start from the CD drive or DVD drive, see your computer's documentation or contact your computer manufacturer.
3. You receive the following message on the Welcome to Setup screen that appears:
This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft Windows XP to run on your computer:

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

To repair a Windows XP installation by using Recovery Console, press R.

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.
4. Press ENTER to set up Windows XP.
5. On the Windows XP Licensing Agreement screen, press F8 to agree to the license agreement.
6. Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP is selected in the box, and then press R to repair Windows XP.

Note If Windows XP was preinstalled on your computer, and you do not have the Repair option, contact your computer manufacturer to make sure that you have the installation CD for a repair install.
7. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to reinstall Windows XP. After you repair Windows XP, you may have to reactivate your copy of Windows XP.

by dellboy1

thanks for the advice above, however none of them worked!

I only built this PC in December 07 so its the the first install. I tried installing a basic image I'd saved when I did the original build - contained SP2, basic MB & graphics drivers plus some Hauppauge software. I have a feeling it might be the Hauppauage sw thats causing the problem so I've not installed it this time.

So far its working with video files OK, I'm making sure I'm taking an image each time I install a new app or device in the hope that I might be able to isolate the corrupt driver!

I can't even trust System Restore as sometimes it crashes Windows so badly it won't recover even after 10 reboots or safe mode rebooting.

You mention only using images in an emergency - does this mean they are not as stable as a fresh install? BTW I'm using Norton Ghost v5 to make the images.

by Former member

Uninstall all external cards not needed to operate computer such as tv card, sound card, etc. Also uninstall drivers for same. Restore Bios to defaults needed to operate computer. Test to see if machine operates correctly, if so, power down insert next card and repeat.

This will localize the card that is causing the problem. Once you find the card causing the problem, first find the most recent driver from the manufacturers website and install that. If this fails, look at the resources in the device manager to determine if there is a memory or interupt conflict. It is ok for devices to share the same interrupt but not the same memory addresses. From here you need to determine if the card is defective or if the driver is defective or if there is a memory or interrupt conflict.

You mentioned a tv card. Be careful, the Haugepage cards have two different sets of drivers and it is easy to install the wrong one.

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