comp only freezes when watching a video

E

Erganomulos

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 19, 2001
Messages
213
Ok, so I don't want to get into the details unless it would really help. I would like a push in the right direction because I have no idea what could be causing this.

Any time I watch a video (Blu-Ray, DVD, internet video, divx from any hard drive), my computer will freeze. Sometimes 5mins into watching, other times a lot longer. I have World of Warcraft installed on a secondary hdd in raid 0 and I can run that all day with out any issues. I have checked to see if anything is scalding hot inside the comp, but nothing is.

Is it memory? HDD? Video Cards?

Things I have tried: memory tests... all say their "fine"; SmartCheck don't get me started on that program as it is very user un-friendly
 
Erganomulos said:
Ok, so I don't want to get into the details unless it would really help. I would like a push in the right direction because I have no idea what could be causing this.

Any time I watch a video (Blu-Ray, DVD, internet video, divx from any hard drive), my computer will freeze. Sometimes 5mins into watching, other times a lot longer. I have World of Warcraft installed on a secondary hdd in raid 0 and I can run that all day with out any issues. I have checked to see if anything is scalding hot inside the comp, but nothing is.

Is it memory? HDD? Video Cards?

Things I have tried: memory tests... all say their "fine"; SmartCheck don't get me started on that program as it is very user un-friendly
Click to expand...
I used to have the same prob with my old 3400+ with an agp 6200. Played games just fine for hours, but after streaming a video on my hdd for a few minutes, the whole thing would just freeze. I even tried downclocking the card a bunch, but no difference. Couldnt do anything but shut it down manually. Worked fine after i took out the vid card though.
 
I need to ask the obvious because you forgot to tell us it :)
Have you tried other drivers?
Are you overclocked? If so, does it do it when not clocked?
 
I'm using nvida 8800gts x2 in SLI with driver version 185.85... should I use an older version?

nothing is overclocked
 
Give another driver a try, there are always odd bugs so its worth a go.

For example, I have an odd problem with all the 185 series drivers.
If my USB mouse/keyboard are plugged in a particular USB port, the machine will time them out while booting windows for a few minutes (with a black screen).
When Windows has eventually loaded, if I unplug the cable and refit, everything works great.
Rolling back to any 182 series driver or earlier works great too.

So now I dont use that USB port for my keyboard/mouse and have no other issues with the 185 drivers :)
 
again, I was watching a video when I needed to pause it... when I came back, it was frozen. This is getting weirder by the day.
 
Try a driver cleaner, there may be leftovers from previous drivers causing issues and if that doesnt work, try an even earlier driver to see if it can help.
Are you using a codec pack?
 
I used a driver cleaner, but I'll go back even further. I am not using a codec pack. I'm using VLC for DVDs and files like I always have and never had a problem.
 
Maybe VLC is corrupt.
Uninstall, delete any leftovers and reinstall latest version.
 
How have you installed codecs for the other players?

Consider that it is possible something is corrupt that is used by all the players, maybe something to do with the GDI (Windows, DirectX...).
There is a very outside chance that all of the players "are" corrupt or have a separate issue that results in similar problems, but like you I would never look at that so early in an investigation.
If your CPU or memory is overclocked, declock them and see if that helps.
ie the files may be being corrupted after being read from the drive.
I just built a machine (for a friend) that appeared to run everything already installed just fine when clocked, but installing new programs always resulted in corrupt file reports. Backing off the overclock fixed it.
Faulty (ie clocked too high) CPU or memory can give strange results.

Try this if you dont want to change anything on the hardware side:
Install Windows on a spare hard drive, use the latest drivers and see if it will work ok.
If it can you know its a software issue.
If it doesnt work, its likely to be hardware/connections or one of the latest drivers or software you are using that is causing problems.
You can troubleshoot it easier with your new install as long as you remember everything you have done.
 
Erganomulos said:
I'm using nvida 8800gts x2 in SLI with driver version 185.85... should I use an older version?

nothing is overclocked
Click to expand...

I have run into this problem before with NVIDIA chipset based boards running SLI. Try disabling SLI while watching video. This always worked for me.
 
Dan_D said:
I have run into this problem before with NVIDIA chipset based boards running SLI. Try disabling SLI while watching video. This always worked for me.
Click to expand...

now that's more like it... but I have had my vid cards in SLI with my last MoBo and never had this problem
 
okay, so I tried the whole disabling SLI... yeah, still did it. We watched the Waterfront DVD in VLC with no problems. NO PROBLEMS!! Then put in Cool Hand Luke and 10 mins into it, BAM! Frozen with the last millisecond of sound looping. Nothing is even hot in my case. At this point the only thing constant is the hard drive... this sucks
 
Erganomulos said:
I'm using nvida 8800gts x2 in SLI with driver version 185.85... should I use an older version?

nothing is overclocked
Click to expand...


are you using the 8800GTS g80 or g92? i havent read the whole thread yet but wanted to make sure i asked before i forgot.. because if its the g80.. then you need to disable hardware accel since it only supports mpeg 2 hardware accel and could be the reason its causing the crashing.. if its the g92 then thats not the issue.. also try disabling SLI and see if it makes a difference..


and now ill finish reading the thread and update my post if neccessary..

edit.. ok read through the whole post.. i see you are using VLC.. in all honesty.. its time to update your media player(VLC is ancient and grown out of its usefulness) and try using MPC-HC and see what happens..

i notice you said your are playing dvd's.. are you playing them directly from the hard drive or from a disc.. if so id blame your optical drive and not the hard drive.. sounds like the optical drive is dying to me if so..
 
I wonder if its the sound system playing up.
Check the soundcard chip or sound chip on the mobo to see if its getting hot.
If not hot, see if there is a newer sound driver.

Update DirectX as this updates Directsound too and also might sort the problem if it is a video related issue.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
are you using the 8800GTS g80 or g92? i havent read the whole thread yet but wanted to make sure i asked before i forgot.. because if its the g80.. then you need to disable hardware accel since it only supports mpeg 2 hardware accel and could be the reason its causing the crashing.. if its the g92 then thats not the issue.. also try disabling SLI and see if it makes a difference..


and now ill finish reading the thread and update my post if neccessary..

edit.. ok read through the whole post.. i see you are using VLC.. in all honesty.. its time to update your media player(VLC is ancient and grown out of its usefulness) and try using MPC-HC and see what happens..

i notice you said your are playing dvd's.. are you playing them directly from the hard drive or from a disc.. if so id blame your optical drive and not the hard drive.. sounds like the optical drive is dying to me if so..
Click to expand...

The crashes were happening with both disk and file media. I thought it was my optical drive at first too but then the same thing was happening when I played videos from disk and then also from streaming videos on the internet. I will try MPC-HC.

If you notied one of my previous posts, disabling SLI did not prevent freezing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top