Can't Play Videos -> Blue Screen

Hey. I've had my PC, which I bought from Mesh Computers, for a couple of months now. Everything was fine up until a couple of weeks ago. Since then, I haven't been able to play videos of any kind. That is to say, I can't load any up, I can still stream just fine. Each time that I have tried the video freezes about a second in and then I get a blue screen saying IRQL not less or equal, and that it's dumping physical memory and all that. I've tried opening the files with DivX, Quicktime and WMP but no joy. I've uninstalled DivX and Quicktime, reinstalled WMP, run virus scans with AdAware, Spybot and Bullguard and been through a malware check on this forum, but nout. I haven't tried opening any video files recently, because I'm not sure how good for my system constantly making it crash is… … Err, help! Any that you can give me is much appreciated. Here are my specs: Xtreme 6850 DX10: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6850 Dual Core Processor(3.0GHz,4MB Cache,1333MHz) Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 Digital / Analogue TV Tuner PCI Card New MESH Midi-TowerATX Case + 550W PSU PCI-Express Mainboard - SLI nForce 650i SLI(C55) - Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad-Core - ATX 4GB DDR2 667MHz Memory -( 4x 1GB ) 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer LightScribe Super Format 18x Dual Layer DVD Writer +R/-R/RW/RAM 2x 256MB nVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT - SLI Configuration 5.1 High Definition onboard sound card - 6 Channel Cinema sound 6x USB 2.0 Ports (8x possible on motherboard) 2x IEEE1394 Firewire (onboard) 1x Gigabit LAN (onboard) Multi-format Memory Card Reader (matx)

Have you tried installing the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack?

But, by the sounds of your problem, it seems like it could be faulty ram or faulty dimm sockets.

I suggest you download Memtest86+ from here.

Go with the iso download and burn it to a disk. Then, enter bios a set to boot from CD, and insert your memtest86+ CD. Once it's started, it is recommended that you allow it to run for at least 7 passes. You can run it for longer, or shorter if you wish.

Let me know what it reports.

Remember to test each individually, and then both together. By any chance, have you tried booting just with once piece of ram to see if you get the same problem? Switch the ram around, and try one at a time, to see if the problem occurs.

——————————-

But, it could be anything really, hardware/software. We need to know the full error messages, what does your event logs tell you? Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer, right click an event round about when a problem occurred > Properties Note down all the info ( ID numbers ect.)

Regards Jason

Hi Jimmy

Not to interfere with Jason Amison's advices, which are all sound. And you should try them all to eliminate any possibilities.

But from your spec's I can see you have 4x1GB sticks of memory.
Do you know if your pagefile have the right setup?

The clue i am using here, is that you mention windows "dumps physical memory".

Before I go in to a lengthy explanation about the right setup, I would have you locate the pagefile, to see if the settings are ok

1: Access control-panel either through start-menu or my computer
2: access system
3: go to the advanced tab
4: Locate performance within the "box" –> Settings
5: advanced tab
6: Locate virtual memory within the "box", click shift / change

You are now in the pagefile setup.

If setup is set to "system administration", all should be fine.

If setup is a defined value. Check that size on start-up is set to atleast minimum recommended, that number will figure at the bottom, under recommended size.

Maximum size is recommended to be no larger than 1.5 x physical memory. In your case 6000mb approximately.

It may be, that this is not the problem, but then we have ruled that out as a possibility, and checked you have the right setup.


Hope you'll solve your problem, so you can get back to gaming. (I figure its a gaming pc with the mighty fine spec's it comes with )

Kind regards Abydos

ps. If you have any question about pagefile, after solving your problem, just ask.

Go with the iso download and burn it to a disk. Then, enter bios a set to boot from CD, and insert your memtest86+ CD. Once it's started, it is recommended that you allow it to run for at least 7 passes. You can run it for longer, or shorter if you wish.

Let me know what it reports.

I've installed the codec, and I'm about to run the CD in a minute, though I have to go out soon. I'll post the report later on, when I get home from work.

But, it could be anything really, hardware/software. We need to know the full error messages, what does your event logs tell you? Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer, right click an event round about when a problem occurred > Properties Note down all the info ( ID numbers ect.)

I had a go at this, but anything that I clicked properties on only gave me information like this,

Event Type: Error
Event Source: DCOM
Event Category: None
Event ID: 10020
Date: 24/01/2008
Time: 00:46:47
User: N/A
Computer: ARTHUR
Description:
The machine wide Default Launch and Activation security descriptor is invalid. It contains Access Control Entries with permissions that are invalid. The requested action was therefore not performed. This security permission can be corrected using the Component Services administrative tool.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Nothing that seemed too useful? Not sure that's what you wanted.

If setup is set to "system administration", all should be fine.

If setup is a defined value. Check that size on start-up is set to atleast minimum recommended, that number will figure at the bottom, under recommended size.

Maximum size is recommended to be no larger than 1.5 x physical memory. In your case 6000mb approximately.

It may be, that this is not the problem, but then we have ruled that out as a possibility, and checked you have the right setup.


Hope you'll solve your problem, so you can get back to gaming. (I figure its a gaming pc with the mighty fine spec's it comes with )

I must confess to following up until this point, but after that I wasn't too sure what I was looking. So here's a screen cap for you:

[external image: Posted Image]

As for gaming, haha, well, that was the idea… Though maybe, for the time being, it's a good thing in that it's not distracting me from work so much… But that doesn't mean that I can continue like this for much longer!

Many thanks for both of your time and help,


Jim.

Hi again Jimmy

The screendump you show is exactly where you should be.

First off, we fix that pagefile, and then report back if the problem still persist.
No matter the outcome, your pagefile will be fixed to the right value, which is a good thing
in itself.

If you have only one HD partition, use solution 1
If you have two or more HD partitions, use solution 2 (For the specifics around solution2, I'll explain why I want you to do it that way)

Solution 1

Set the Initial size to be 4605mb
Set the Maximum size to be 6000mb

Click ok……..Done!


Solution 2

Set the Initial size and Maximum size for the partition where your OS is installed (C: by default) to be 2100 - 2100 or 3000-3000
as long as they are the same and not below minimum required. You don't have to put very much here, as it will only be used during start-up.

Now highlight your second partition, or if possible the 3rd one. The one with the least data will be optimal.

Set the Initial size and Maximum size as above in Solution 1.

The why's :

When applying a fixed value to your system partition, windows doesn't use CPU power to expand the pagefile at start-up. If Initial size were less, windows would automatically try to expand it to the max, thus making various program start-ups slower, because of less CPU power. (This is even more feelable on slower machines)

Windows will automatically use the partition with the least traffic to execute pagefiling (This is determined by an advanced algorithm of priority, to explain this further i should be a total pc-geek, which i'm not) The partition containing the OS will always be the one with most trafic. So windows will choose your second pagefile after initial start-up. This saves the OS for both writing and reading pagefiling while doing other things on the same partition. In short you make your data reading less stressful for your OS.

The ideal solution is to have a partition only for pagefiling. A pagefile can be fragmented just like any other file, but not if its on a partition on its own. Not all have the space for this kind of luxury. Just make sure that there is a little bit of wee room extra, just in case one have miscalculated.

Thus having partitions look like this as an example: C: Windows D: Games and other data's E: Pagefiling (only)

Let me know if this solved your problem. If not, there are always the other solutions presented by Jason Amison to try

Kind regards Abydos

Yes, Abydos is right. But as ram problems are commonly known, I'm trying to eliminate all possibilities. I'll continue to work along side you until you get this problem resolved. Regards Jason

Solution 1

Set the Initial size to be 4605mb
Set the Maximum size to be 6000mb

Click ok……..Done!

I must admit… One of the things that I've always wondered is why my startup was so slow… Well, not slow, but for a computer that supposadly has 4 gig of Ram, it wasn't exactly the fastest. Logging on would usually take a minute or two. But that was the first difference that I noticed. It was pretty much instant when I logged on. The second difference that I noticed?

I could play a video! Haha!, fantastic. Thank you ever so much, Abydos and Jason, for all of your help. I still rather tentative… Give it a couple of days before I'm certain that I'm out of the woods ;), I'm always kind of wary, but cheers!

One more question though, if you don't mind. What made this change come about? Why would it suddenly happen after six weeks?

Anyway, the time that both of you have given to help me is massively appreciated, the kindest regards,


Jim.

Well, it looks like I did speak too soon… Best never to get your hopes up, eh! I loaded a video, fine… Loaded a couple more, fine… I left it for a short while, I opened one just a minute ago with WMP (I'd been opening them with the codec package before) and… Yep. Blue screen. I just tried another without using WMP and the same thing happened… Argh! Oh well. At least my computer is now running faster, generally! Shall I try running Memtest now? I'll have to do it tomorrow morning though, I didn't get a chance before work and I'm exhausted, I should really go to bed. Sigh. Thanks again, Jim.

Yes, it would be advisable to run memtest, so we can determine whether it's a ram problem.

Is your system still getting blue screens, crashes ect?

If so, have a read of this thread here, then if your still having blue screens ect, attach 5 or 6 of your latest minidumps.

Regards Jason

Yep, still blue screening whenever I open a video. I ran the first test on the link that you gave me, everything was fine. I haven't had a chance to run Memtest yet, I was fresh out of blank CD's. I had to go out today and buy some. I'll get back to you tomorrow with what it reports. Cheers, Jim

Ok, not a problem at all.

I'm not so good at reading minidumps, but my good friend Howard who made that thread linked above is, and he'll be able to tell you where it is crashing.

I could get him come over here, or you can make a new thread over Removed with your Memtest results and 5 or 6 of your latest minidumps.

Regards Jason

Right, well, I ran Memtest, but had no idea it would take so long. I need my computer for work, so I left it on while I was at uni but had to exit it once I got home. I could only run for three passes, but it didn't find any errors. I'll leave it running through the night tonight, and post if it does get anything tomorrow. But in the mean time, I figured I'd post my minidumps. I just tried to attach them though, and it said that I'm not permitted to upload that type of file? Cheers, Jim.

Then WTT musn't have the .dmp extension allowed.

If that's the case, make a post Removed

Regards Jason

Hi Jimmy

Not to interfere with Jason Amison's advices, which are all sound. And you should try them all to eliminate any possibilities.

But from your spec's I can see you have 4x1GB sticks of memory.
Do you know if your pagefile have the right setup?

The clue i am using here, is that you mention windows "dumps physical memory".

Before I go in to a lengthy explanation about the right setup, I would have you locate the pagefile, to see if the settings are ok

1: Access control-panel either through start-menu or my computer
2: access system
3: go to the advanced tab
4: Locate performance within the "box" –> Settings
5: advanced tab
6: Locate virtual memory within the "box", click shift / change

You are now in the pagefile setup.

If setup is set to "system administration", all should be fine.

If setup is a defined value. Check that size on start-up is set to atleast minimum recommended, that number will figure at the bottom, under recommended size.

Maximum size is recommended to be no larger than 1.5 x physical memory. In your case 6000mb approximately.

It may be, that this is not the problem, but then we have ruled that out as a possibility, and checked you have the right setup.


Hope you'll solve your problem, so you can get back to gaming. (I figure its a gaming pc with the mighty fine spec's it comes with )

Kind regards Abydos

ps. If you have any question about pagefile, after solving your problem, just ask.

hey bro me too  i get blue screen each nd everytym i play a video  im  using duo core2 2.13 ghz nd a 2gb ram

Hi obie trax, and welcome to the WTT forum,

Sorry to hear of the troubles with your computer.

 

As this topic was started over 6 years ago It would be better for you to start your own new topic giving full details of your computer, make and model number, operating system and level of service pack, and a list of the symptoms, when it happens, what other applications are running, what was altered immediately before the problems started,( software update, additions, hardware changes etc)

If you are getting error mesagges or blue screens then the exact wording is very helpful and should enable us to provide the best possible assistance…

 

tip:…. a cheap digital camera is useful for taking a snapshot of the screen you are seeing and then uplift the image to the forum here so we can see what is going on..

 

Regards

paws