Videos locking / freezing computer totally.

[Perkele]

Heya, altrough this is my first post on the forums, I've been reading your articles quite a bit in the past. :)

So, here's my odd problem.

When I try to watch any video with Windows Media Player 9 / 11 or with BSPlayer or with DivX Player or with etc etc. My computer slows down, everything starts showing up laggy, I can't bring a simple window up from be background because it freezes, I can't close the player I'm trying to watch and I have to wait couple of minutes for the start menu to pop up after I've pressed it. Even the task manager wont come up. Eventually my screen starts blinking and in some extreme cases my whole computer automatically restarts itself without a warning.

Only players capable of playing videos on my computer are Winamp and Flash Based (/ Java Based?) browser video players (Youtube, Break.com, etc.)

Computer specs:

- Windows XP SP 2
- GeForce 6600 GT 128 MB, AVG.
- Intel Pentium 4, 3.2 GHz.
- 512 MB DDR 400 Ram.
- AsRock 775i65GV Motherboard.

Please help me, I've had this problem for god knows how long and I'm sick of it. Thanks. :|

[Raymond]

Does it happen on ALL video when you play using bsplayer, wmp 9/11, divx player?

From the specs of your computer, it looks like your RAM is a little low. But nevertheless, 512 should be sufficient to play video files.

[Perkele]

What I've tried, it does. MPEG, AVI, DVD Movies.

I just tried booting my computer in the safe mode, all videos play normally there, no freezing or nothing. What could be the problem?

Tried using VLC media player and Media Player Classic, same freezing there.

Also tried installing and uninstalling different codec packs, no help there.

[Raymond]

If Safe Mode plays fine... it "might" be your video card drivers.

Download PC Wizard to find out what video card you're using and let us know.
http://www.cpuid.org/download/pcw2007_v173.exe

Then go to Start -> Run and type dxdiag
Let us know what version of DirectX is installed.

[Perkele]

Video Card: Nvidia Corp GeForce 6600 GT 128 mb, AVG based.

Direct X 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

I think I found something while checking my Video Card Driver out from dxdiag:

- "The file nv4_disp.dll is not digitally signed, which means that it has not been tested by Microsoft's Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL). You may be able to get a WHQL logo'd driver from the hardware manufacturer."

I think I have a beta driver for my GeForce, can't remember exactly did I install it. Dowloading the latest driver from Nvidia as we speak.

[Perkele]

Downgraded from the Beta-driver (93.81) down to the latest stable driver (93.71), that didn't have any effect on the freezing.

But then, I went Desktop Properties -> Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Troubleshoot and dragged the Hardware Acceleration bar all the way to the minium. Accepted these setttings, my screen blinked once (probably because it disables all advanced features used), tried playing a video with MP 11, worked perfectly. (Slow framerate though, may have been caused by the disabling of the hardware acceleration.)

So, the question remains, what is the problem?

[Raymond]

One more question, have you installed any codec packs?

Also, can you check your BIOS, see if there's a part called CACHE where you can set Write Through or Write Back. Something like the picture below.

[Perkele]

I've deleted all of my previous codec packs, removed all traces of them from the registery and downloaded the ffdshow-codec pack, the fastest one around. http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/codecs_and_filters/ffdshow.cfm

I couldn't locate anything like that from the BIOS-Properties. But I wrote down the text said below the "MAIN"-tab. There was one thing interesting that hit my sight.

.
.
.
Prosessor type: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.2 GHz
Prosessor speed: 3.2 GHz
Cache Size: 0KB
.
.
.

Is this meant to be like this?

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot to mention earlier, seems like Windows Live Messenger has the same effect as the video watching for my computer, a total freeze. Had to downgrade to MSN Messenger, no problems with that.

[Perkele]

Anyone..?

[woody]

Well, if the BIOS doesn't think that your processor has any cache memory, that would definitely cause the problems you are having.

Right now, I would recommend resetting the BIOS. Maybe after that it will recognize your processors correct specs.

EDIT: if you need help in understanding how to reset the BIOS, tell us what motherboard you are using.