Error message: Create overlay failed blah blah blah.....HELP!?

I have the same overlay failure message with my computer.
When I click on the link to the article provided in Dell-Karell's reply, I do get an error message telling me that the page cannot be found.
So an error message in an error message doesn't help me.
Please help me !

Thanks in advance,

VDW

VDW,

Here is the article:
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Why do I receive the error "Create Overlay Failed" when starting WinDVD?

Problem
When you start WinDVD, the following error message may appear:
Create Overlay failed. Please lower your screen resolution or color depth and try again.

Discussion
The Create Overlay error can be a result of incorrect video settings or a result of another software application that has disabled Direct3D functionality.

Solution
Dellä Inspironä 2500 Computers

If you are using an Inspiron 2500 computer and receive this error, refer to the following Dell Knowledge Base Articles:

TT1047953 "The Error Message "Create Overlay Failed" May Appear When Attempting to Use WinDVD (v.2.1.45) on a Dell Inspiron 2500 Portable Computer with an External CRT Monitor Attached"
FA1049938 "Why do I receive the error message "Create Overlay failed" when I start WinDVD on my Dell Inspiron 2500 computer while using the LCD display?"
Verify the Video Settings are Correct

Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
The Control Panel window appears.
Double-click Display.
The Display Properties window appears.
Click the Settings tab.
Under Screen area, click and drag to move the slider to the native resolution for your LCD display.

NOTE: For additional information regarding the correct native resolution for the LCD, refer to Dell Knowledge Base Article: FA1047221 "What are the different portable LCD and flat panel monitor screen resolutions?"

Under Colors, click to select High Color (16 Bit).
Click Apply.
Set Hardware Acceleration to Full

Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Operating System
Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
The Control Panel window appears.
Double-click Display.
The Display Properties window appears.
Click the Settings tab.
Click the Advanced button.
Click the Troubleshooting tab.
Under Hardware Acceleration, click and drag to move the slider to Full.
Click OK.
Click OK again.

Windows 98
Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
The Control Panel window appears.
Double-click the System icon.
The System Properties window appears.
Click the Performance tab.
Click the Graphics button.
The Advanced Graphics Settings window appears.
Click and drag to move the slider to Full.
Click OK.

Disable Microsoft NetMeeting®
Microsoft NetMeeting will disable Direct3D functionality if it is running. If the NetMeeting icon is in the system tray (Figure 1), verify that Remote Desktop Sharing is not enabled. To do this, perform the following steps:
Right-click the NetMeeting icon in the system tray.
Left-click Turn off Remote Desktop Sharing.
Attempt to launch WinDVD again.

If the error still occurs, proceed to the next step.
Click the Start button, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to Communications (or to Internet Tools on some systems), and then click NetMeeting.
Cick the Tools menu and then click Options.
Click the Video tab, and in the Sending and receiving video section, click to uncheck Automatically receive video at the start of each call.
Click OK to apply the settings.
Click the Tools menu and then click Options.
Click the Video tab, and in the Sending and receiving video section, click to check Automatically receive video at the start of each call.
Click OK to apply the settings.
Click OK to exit the NetMeeting software.
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Having the same problem with a D600 Latitude.  Options are not the same.  Any suggestions?

Dgmiter,

1.Uninstall and reinstall your DVD player software.
2.Make sure you have the latest patches for the software.
3.Try setting your screen resolution to 1024X768 or lower.
4.Make sure hardware acceleration is set to full.
5.Try stopping all background applications.
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**Clearing the Startup Folder.**
Click on (Start,Programs,)
Find the (Startup) folder, and right click the mouse button over it.
You should get a small gray windows.
Go down to "Explore" and left click on "Explore"
You should get a "Startup" window that is split in two.
High light and delete all the icons on the right hand side of the Window.

**Using MSconfig to stop all background programs.**
Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, type msconfig, and then click OK.
The System Configuration Utility starts.
Click the General tab, and then click Selective Startup.
Under Selective Startup, click to clear the following check boxes:
Process SYSTEM.INI file
Process WIN.INI file
Load Startup Items

Then...
Click the Startup tab.
Uncheck every entry.
Left-click on "Apply" and then left-click on "OK."
A message will appear stating that "For the changes to take place, the system must be restarted." Left-click on the "OK" button, and the system will begin the restart.

If the problem stops, you must then isolate the cause of it.
Using msconfig again, to back to the startup tab.
Recheck one entry click Apply, OK, and reboot the system.
Keep using this process until you find the entry that is causing the problem.
Once you have found that entry, leave it unchecked and recheck everything else.
Click Apply, Ok, and reboot the system for the last time.
"Process of elimination"...

If having problems with an application or driver, it is best to try and reload
the application or driver. If reloading the application or driver does not fix the
problem, then you may want to leave it unchecked under the startup tab.
You may also want to check and see if there is an updated version of that
application or driver.

Msconfig can be used to stop all programs from loading at startup to free up system resources.
The true intention of MSconfig is to be used as a troubleshooting tool to isolate programs that may be causing problems.

**Delete old dos/legacy configuration files.**
Search the system for these files, delete them.
Autoexec.bat
Config.sys
Win.ini
-Delete "All" the files and folders in the ( C:\Windows\Temp ) and
( C:\Windows\Temporary Internet Files ) folder.
Search the system for any ( *.TMP ) files, and delete them.

To restore the computer to use a normal startup, start the System Configuration Utility, click the General tab, click Normal Startup - load all device drivers and services, click OK, and then click Restart.
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KWalsh,

Portable systems use a docked and undocked profile for the different hardware that is detected
in each state. So, you may have to perform the same steps that you tried while docked, to solve
the problem while undocked.
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Troubleshooting "Create Overlay failed" error message:

Problem:
When you start WinDVD, the following error message may appear:
Create Overlay failed. Please lower your screen resolution or color depth and try again.

Solution:
1.Verify the Video Settings are Correct for your display adapter.
Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
The Control Panel window appears.
Double-click Display.
The Display Properties window appears.
Click the Settings tab.
Under Screen area, click and drag to move the slider to the native resolution for your LCD display.
NOTE: For additional information regarding the correct native resolution for the LCD, refer to Dell Knowledge Base Article: FA1047221 "What are the different portable LCD and flat panel monitor screen resolutions?"
NOTE: Some DVD decoders do not support a resolution above 800X600 or 1024X768.
Under Colors, click to select High Color (16 Bit).
If the Color is already set to 16-Bit, then try 32-Bit instead.
Click Apply.

2.Set Hardware Acceleration to Full
--Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Operating System
Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
The Control Panel window appears.
Double-click Display.
The Display Properties window appears.
Click the Settings tab.
Click the Advanced button.
Click the Troubleshooting tab.
Under Hardware Acceleration, click and drag to move the slider to Full.
Click OK.
Click OK again.

--Windows 98
Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
The Control Panel window appears.
Double-click the System icon.
The System Properties window appears.
Click the Performance tab.
Click the Graphics button.
The Advanced Graphics Settings window appears.
Click and drag to move the slider to Full.
Click OK.

3.Disable Microsoft NetMeeting® if you are using it.
Microsoft NetMeeting will disable Direct3D functionality if it is running.
If the NetMeeting icon is in the system tray, verify that Remote Desktop Sharing is not enabled.
To do this, perform the following steps:
Right-click the NetMeeting icon in the system tray.
Left-click Turn off Remote Desktop Sharing.
Attempt to launch WinDVD again.
--If the error still occurs, proceed to the next step.
Click the Start button, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to Communications (or to Internet Tools on some systems), and then click NetMeeting.
Cick the Tools menu and then click Options.
Click the Video tab, and in the Sending and receiving video section, click to uncheck Automatically receive video at the start of each call.
Click OK to apply the settings.
Click the Tools menu and then click Options.
Click the Video tab, and in the Sending and receiving video section, click to check Automatically receive video at the start of each call.
Click OK to apply the settings.
Click OK to exit the NetMeeting software.

Note: Any "Remove Desktop or Remote Management" software may cause a problem with the DVD decoder software.
Another example of such software is Funk Proxy, which is used for remote diagnostics of users as well as remote desktop for users.
Laplink Gold with a version lower than version 11.5, has also been reported to cause this error message.

4.Install the latest video drivers and bios updates for your system.
5.Remove and reinstall your DVD decoding software.
6.Download and install the latest patches for your DVD decoding software.
Patches for WinDVD or PowerDVD can be downloaded from the Dell downloads page.
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I am receiving the following message on my Dell 8250 Dimension Desktop when I attempt to play a DVD using WinDVD:  "Create Overlay Failed...Please lower your screen resolution or color depth and try again."

I've tried lower both without success.  I also do not have Netmeeting or MSN Messenger installed but I did notice that there are a few Netmeeting files in a Netmeeting program folder.

What should I do?

Vqworks,

What software is installed on the system?
Can you provide a list?

Doesn't NetMeeting silently install automatically with some versions of Internet Explorer and/or Windows 2000? What I've found on our machines (Lat C640, Win2000, IE5.5 or IE6) is that WinDVD would hang on "Creat Overlay..." until I went in and completed the Netmeeting setup so that I had access to check the option "automatically recieve video". Now it works fine. 

Current software & drivers include:

Nero Express

Nero InCD

Intervideo WinDVD 4 & WinDVD Creator (The original player was a Cyberlink Software with decoding for six channels - I was unable to locate the installation CD or a similar setup file on the Dell site so I installed WinDVD as a substitute.

The correct Dell M782p drivers for my monitor & the correct 64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce4 MX420 w/TV out video drivers

Pinnacle Edition 4.5 video editing software

Musicmatch Jukebox 7.5

McAfee Viruscan

Microsoft Office 97 - Only with Word & Excel components installed

 

For some reason the error message appears regardless of the resolution setting.

 

 

Thank You For Your Help,

vqworks

Message Edited by vqworks on 01-25-2004 01:49 PM

I have seen this problem on a Latitude C610 also. It was caused by the graphics accelerator slider being turned down completely, which turned the 3d mode off. Moving the acceleration slider back on full fixed this error.

I was having a problem with DVD's freezing on this system within minutes of playback, or if the screen was minimized and maximized during playback. Updating the ATI Radeon driver to version 6.14.1.6292 solved the freezing problem.