Comments on: Video killed the computer

Question: Video killed the computer

daninnj — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 15:14:47 -0800

Video crashes my computer after I bought a new video card. How do I fix it?

I recently purchased a GeForce 6200 OC (256mb) from Best Buy two days ago. While many things run smooth (Google Earth works like a charm), any video player (realone, WMP, VLC) playing any video format crashes the computer. Windows Media Player says "Connecting" when trying to play a video and if I move the mouse, the pointer takes about five seconds to move. The computer moves slowly, and if I manage to exit WMP, everything turns back to normal after a few minutes. The video never shows up. The other players do the exact same thing.

I installed the drivers from the CD and the new drivers from nVidia's site and I have the same problem. I emailed BFG Tech and they said to reinstall Windows Media Player, but that didn't work. A new codec pack didn't work either.

My computer:
HP Pavilion 552
Processor: AMD Athlon 2000+ (1.66Ghz)
RAM: 768mb
Driver: 7.7.5.0 (but I tried the latest also: 7.7.7.0)
OS: Windows XP Home SP2 with the current updates

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 15:30:41 -0800

Just some troubleshooting ideas:

Disable hardware acceleration, bus mastering, z-buffering (Display Properties / Settings / Advanced / "Options" or something similar)
Try a different color depth
Try Media Player Classic
Uninstall any after-market video codecs, then reinstall them.

By: whatisish

whatisish — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 16:17:26 -0800

Perhaps?

By: daninnj

daninnj — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 17:36:58 -0800

I tried everything but nothing really worked. On the hardware acceleration slider, I slid it to "Disable all Direct Draw and Direct3D accelerations, as well as cursor and advanced drawing accelerations," and it worked, but poorly. I slid it to the next one, that only disables the cursor and advanced drawing" and it doesn't work. Maybe a problem with DirectX? I have the latest.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 19:23:39 -0800

Wait, so it works when you disable Direct3D acceleration? That's great! I mean, it's great that you've isolated the problem. Now you just need to fix it.

Re-enable Direct3D. Now, run the DirectX diagnostic program. It's called dxdiag.exe. Go to the Display tab and run the video tests.

Report any errors you get.

Also, you wouldn't by change have an MSI motherboard, would you? If so, you'll need to download MSI's GeForce 6-series driver for XP.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 19:31:29 -0800

One more idea: go back to an even earlier driver, like this one.

By: MrMulan

MrMulan — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:12:53 -0800

Make sure your power supply is adequate

By: daninnj

daninnj — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 08:38:28 -0800

No problems found.
DirectDraw test results: All tests were successful.
Direct3D 7 test results: All tests were successful.
Direct3D 8 test results: All tests were successful.
Direct3D 9 test results: All tests were successful.

Anyway, I formatted my computer (it needed a major cleanup anyway) and I'm still having the same problem.

I don't have an MSI motherboard and that driver doesn't work. I'll have to check on the power supply.

By: whatisish

whatisish — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 11:25:22 -0800

When your computer gets laggy, pull up the Task Manager and see what (if anything) is hogging the resources. Is it rscmpt.exe?

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 12:34:35 -0800

Direct3D 9 test results: All tests were successful.

Damn. As MrMulan suggested... what's your power supply rated at? I've heard a couple of reports of system instability with under-powered cards. You tried the old driver, right (not the MSI one, but the other one)?

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 13:23:32 -0800

Also, the latest drivers appear to be these (78.11). Finally, try using Driver Cleaner to remove your old ATI drivers. Instructions found at the link.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 04:10:08 -0800

Anything?

By: daninnj

daninnj — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 11:56:01 -0800

My power supply is 200W, and a power supply tool online says my power I'm using is about 270. I use I'm gonna have to upgrade that.

The driver doesn't work and Driver Cleaner doesn't also. Probably the power supply.

By: daninnj

daninnj — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 11:56:24 -0800

I use = I guess

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 15:43:14 -0800

Yeah, that's a good suspicion. Choose quality (Antec and the like) over quantity (800 Watts of PURE POWER! $10.00 while supply last!)

By: daninnj

daninnj — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 20:07:05 -0800

Update to anyone who reads this: After another mefite got in contact with me a few days ago, I updated my motherboard driver and it seems to be working smoothly. Woohoo!

Anyway, I did get a 300W power supply (Mine was a special size) and that didn't help.