"Hey, I finally got my dvd drive working with a replacement and now I'm having problems with the actual playback. I installed the bundled dvd player software and the playback seems to get as far as bringing up a list of chapters but then crashes with a simple windows error report with the option to send it to microsoft. The same thing happens when I try playing itback in media player... I can't get anymore information than this, does anyone have any ideas as to what could be causing this? Has anyone else experienced this? Any help would be much appreciated,"
I just reformatted my 8000 and reinstalled everything and ran into the same problem with the WinDVD bundle patched to ver. 2.8 for WinXP. It almost appears to be a conflict with the video driver. I've been thinking about buying PowerDVD to install as a replacement. I've already uninstalled and reinstalled the DVD player three or four times with no change.
I joined this forum to post specifically about this problem! I'm glad I'm not alone with this--it is so frustrating. When I try to play a dvd on my cd/dvd-rom with windvd, windows media player, real player, quicktime, you name it... same problem. I've sent the complimentary error reports to the software companies when their dvd palying software abruptly shuts down after a few preliminary screens but I have found no fix for this.
I've tried unistalling and reinstalling various players but to no avail. I know in the beginning, when this laptop was new and nothing was downloaded onto it, it worked fine. I'm starting to wonder if was something related to media playing that I downloaded that's got my computer confused. For instance, I downloaded DivX so I could watch various .avi files. Before I knew that DivX would do the trick, I had downloaded (and paid for) Indeo XP that supposedly helps decode certain media files.
If anybody knows how to fix this problem (DELL techs, anyone?) please let us know. This computer is still pretty new and to not have a major device like my dvd-rom not work property sure makes my DELL look bad.
After a detailed search of these forums, I found the problem for my system. I had NetMeeting activated. Once I shut that program down, the DVD player worked as advertised. Apparently, this problem can be created by pcAnywhere and other programs which take or can take control of the display.
Simply by turning it off on the status bar and then hitting Ctl-Alt-Del and going to the Processes tab to make sure that no part of it was remnant in memory. You can always fire it back up again after using the DVD player.
Apparently, there are a number of posible program conflicts. I would suspect anything that allows remote access to the desktop such as NetMeeting, pcAnywhere, Remote Desktop Client. Turn off all of these, even the remote access for technical assistance that Microsoft turns on by default (I always turn off anything that will give anyone remote access to my system no matter what just as a security measure). You will find some of these in Control Panel - System - Remote. Others will depend on your software setup.
I have found, as a rule, the best way to run system intensive applications such as DVD Players is to shut down everything else. If you need to be on the net and work on a spreadsheet, you really shouldn't be watching movies anyway. Just shut down everything that isn't needed to run Windows. Use MSCONFIG to shut down automatically starting processes. You can always reactivate them later.
Now, if you can't find anything conflicting, you could have a driver conflict or other problem. Make sure there are no IRQ conflicts as well.
I did find that WinDVD 2.8 will work on my Inspiron 8000, but not on my Insprion 8200, but WinDVD 4.1 will work on both, so there could be other incompatibilities as well.
Though I have NetMeeting, it is not something I have consciously used and is not on my status bar. Though two of the folder contents were "accessed" since the moment I turned the computer on (and have been on the Internet), they were not listed under Processes in Windows Task Manager. Could there be similar DVD deterring processes that are not NetMeeting?
Read your post that you paid for and downloaded Indeo Video Playback XP that supposedly helps certain media files. Was it worth it? Or should I take a pass and just play my video file with the Windows Media Player that came with XP Home Edition? Thanks.
bacillus
2 Intern
•
14.4K Posts
0
October 3rd, 2003 19:00
schmieg
335 Posts
0
October 7th, 2003 13:00
"Hey, I finally got my dvd drive working with a replacement and now I'm having problems with the actual playback. I installed the bundled dvd player software and the playback seems to get as far as bringing up a list of chapters but then crashes with a simple windows error report with the option to send it to microsoft. The same thing happens when I try playing itback in media player... I can't get anymore information than this, does anyone have any ideas as to what could be causing this? Has anyone else experienced this? Any help would be much appreciated,"
I just reformatted my 8000 and reinstalled everything and ran into the same problem with the WinDVD bundle patched to ver. 2.8 for WinXP. It almost appears to be a conflict with the video driver. I've been thinking about buying PowerDVD to install as a replacement. I've already uninstalled and reinstalled the DVD player three or four times with no change.
KonoNeko
2 Posts
0
October 10th, 2003 18:00
I joined this forum to post specifically about this problem! I'm glad I'm not alone with this--it is so frustrating. When I try to play a dvd on my cd/dvd-rom with windvd, windows media player, real player, quicktime, you name it... same problem. I've sent the complimentary error reports to the software companies when their dvd palying software abruptly shuts down after a few preliminary screens but I have found no fix for this.
I've tried unistalling and reinstalling various players but to no avail. I know in the beginning, when this laptop was new and nothing was downloaded onto it, it worked fine. I'm starting to wonder if was something related to media playing that I downloaded that's got my computer confused. For instance, I downloaded DivX so I could watch various .avi files. Before I knew that DivX would do the trick, I had downloaded (and paid for) Indeo XP that supposedly helps decode certain media files.
If anybody knows how to fix this problem (DELL techs, anyone?) please let us know. This computer is still pretty new and to not have a major device like my dvd-rom not work property sure makes my DELL look bad.
schmieg
335 Posts
0
October 10th, 2003 18:00
After a detailed search of these forums, I found the problem for my system. I had NetMeeting activated. Once I shut that program down, the DVD player worked as advertised. Apparently, this problem can be created by pcAnywhere and other programs which take or can take control of the display.
Don't know if this helps you, but I hope it does.
JohanR
1 Message
0
October 10th, 2003 20:00
Hi Smieg,
I have a similar problem. How do you deactivate NetMeeting ?
JohanR
schmieg
335 Posts
0
October 11th, 2003 04:00
schmieg
335 Posts
0
October 13th, 2003 13:00
Apparently, there are a number of posible program conflicts. I would suspect anything that allows remote access to the desktop such as NetMeeting, pcAnywhere, Remote Desktop Client. Turn off all of these, even the remote access for technical assistance that Microsoft turns on by default (I always turn off anything that will give anyone remote access to my system no matter what just as a security measure). You will find some of these in Control Panel - System - Remote. Others will depend on your software setup.
I have found, as a rule, the best way to run system intensive applications such as DVD Players is to shut down everything else. If you need to be on the net and work on a spreadsheet, you really shouldn't be watching movies anyway. Just shut down everything that isn't needed to run Windows. Use MSCONFIG to shut down automatically starting processes. You can always reactivate them later.
Now, if you can't find anything conflicting, you could have a driver conflict or other problem. Make sure there are no IRQ conflicts as well.
I did find that WinDVD 2.8 will work on my Inspiron 8000, but not on my Insprion 8200, but WinDVD 4.1 will work on both, so there could be other incompatibilities as well.
Hope this helps.
KonoNeko
2 Posts
0
October 13th, 2003 13:00
Though I have NetMeeting, it is not something I have consciously used and is not on my status bar. Though two of the folder contents were "accessed" since the moment I turned the computer on (and have been on the Internet), they were not listed under Processes in Windows Task Manager. Could there be similar DVD deterring processes that are not NetMeeting?
Tedford
1 Message
0
January 18th, 2004 15:00
KonoNeko:
Read your post that you paid for and downloaded Indeo Video Playback XP that supposedly helps certain media files. Was it worth it? Or should I take a pass and just play my video file with the Windows Media Player that came with XP Home Edition? Thanks.