My Laptop freezes while playing video

[Alan_152]

Did you ever get around to trying my suggestion on changing the default mouse IRQ to a non-shared one (like IRQ3)?

[Phanos]

Hi Roger Faucher,

already upgrade my memory last year. I add another 512MB module and now my laptop has 768 MB(640 Main + 128 graphic card).

The problem existed before and it still exist now :). I was thinking of upgrading my computer ram though. Do you know if the company you are referring to can shipped memory into Europe since this is were I live?

Thanks

King Regards,

Phanos

[Phanos]

Hi Alan,

i would also like to thank you for the reply. By default are you referring to the laptop touchpad? If yes the no I can not change that since windows XP does not allow changes in the irq settings without first formating and disabling the ACPI while setting winXP.

I am afraid that formating is out of the question now. I cannot affort to loose any of my work since I am on a tight schedule. :).

What I did tried many times was to disable the touchpad and remove its drivers, by even after rebooting the problem persisted. I am not sure if this is equivalence to changing the irq though?

Thanks

King Regards,

Phanos

[Roger Faucher]

Phanos:

http://www.crucial.com/crucial/pvtcontent/international.asp

Make a great day!

Roger

[Phanos]

Hi Roger Faucher,

thanks :)

Kind Regards,

Phanos

[Alan_152]

I had not anticipated that you couldn't change the IRQ in the device manager. My setup allows me to do that, but having looked around a little bit I see that some setups do not allow that at all. Sorry about that.

Maybe you can attack it from another angle -- can you change the IRQ on the video device?

[Phanos]

Hi Alan,

no I can't. Basically it does not seems that I change any of the IRQs of any f the devices of my laptop. :)

Kind Regards,

Phanos

[Alan_152]

I'm pretty much convinced that you have an IRQ sharing issue. But if you can't change things in the device manager, you'll have to change them in BIOS (which may need a reflash to a new version OR you'll have to lose some functionality).

[Phanos]

Hi Alan,

thanks a lot for your support and info. I already have the latest bios for my laptop. These might seem strange to you but I can not change any setting regarding the IRQ through the bios setup.

I think, according to something that I have read on some website some time ago, the only way to go is to format your hard drive, and during the first screen of the windoxs XP setup to disable the ACPI.

Please tell me where do you think is the conflict that might be causing this. As I said before I can not format my hard drive right now, but perhaps later this will be possible, so it will be good think to know.

Kind Regards,

Phanos

[Tom Johnson_10]

Phanos,

I still have my compaq nx9110 under warrenty but at this time I don't want to send it back for them to "repair". I did invoke Con Ad's system cache change and that seemed to help a lot.

I think it might be memory or driver problems. I upgraded my memory when I bought it and used memory from one of the major vendors with timings supposedly correct etc....but who knows. I have 1gb of mem in my system.

The IRQ question might be something to look for but you would think everyone with our machines would have similar problems

I did update the driver from the HP site. would you check to see what version video adapter driver you have installed in your nx9110. mine is 6.14.10.6436 dated 5-15-04. Oddly the driver at the HP web site lists a different number and newer date but I am sure this one is the one that actually got up loaded.

Also... I have been to the ATI web site and see that they have newer drivers for their notebook adaptors but they are bundled up with other software called catalyst. I don't dare experiment with that yet but might get there in the future if I still have problems. If you are interested in that you might contact them. I see that the video drivers can be downloaded separeatly but have not idea if they would work with our machines.
Let me know what you find. As I said before the change in to system cache helped me some..but I have only had that change for a few days.


thanks Tom Johnson

[Phanos]

Hi Tom Johnson,

I have upgraded my laptop last year through an HP distributor, so my ram is, as far as I can tell, from HP. Besides the problem occurred even before I upgrade my ram.

We do have the same driver for our graphic card. I upgrade to this driver some time ago hopping to solve this annoying freezing problem, but I end up with more problems.

At first the drivers would not install. The application that tried to install the drivers kept locking up and I had to stop it through task manager. After trying a couple of times and restarting a few times my laptop, I got it working. However in the beginning I was getting a lot of blue screens, (stop error according to windows), but eventually for some reasons their frequency became to rare and now I can use my laptop even that from time to time I do yet blue screens.

I will try to contact ATI next week hopping that they will be able to help. If I do find something I will post it here and let you know.

Thanks for the reply

Kind Regards,

Phanos

[Phanos]

Hi Tom Johnson,

I just went to the ATI website. It seems that the ATI does not have telephone or email support for mobility radeon graphic card for laptop/notebooks.

Also in the list of model that are supported by catalyst, our graphic card model "mobility radeon 9000" is not included.

Currenly I am not going to check either if these drivers can also wok with our laptop. This laptop has enough problems as it is :). But I will keep looking. :)

Kind Regards,

Phanos

[Doubtfire]

Phanos,

I also have the same laptop. I can use Real Player, Windows Media Player and Quicktime with no issues.
When I use Intervideo WinDVD 4 I can play the introduction ads, use my USB Logitech MS700 mouse to bypass the chapters but as soon as I click on play for the main movie it freezes. I also have to hard boot the laptop as no response is received from any keystrokes.
I do not use the touchpad ever - when I am on the road I use a Logitech compact cordless laptop mouse. My laptop is under warranty however they want the thing for several weeks with no loaner, unfortunately it is my business and I can't afford the loss of it.
I am not a regular DVD user, just happened to try and use it on the weekend and ran into issues. I ended up playing it with Windows Media Player however you could tell the difference in resolution.
I was already setup with the changes that Con Ad indicated.

Just wondering if anyone has any other suggestions (yes I have all the latest and greatest). Running 1.256 GB of RAM, all other devices are standard HP issue.

Thanks a bunch :)
Doubt

[Phanos]

Hi Doubtfire,

if your laptop freezes only when you press the play button of windvd then your problem might be related to that particular problem. I suppose you try to uninstall and and reinstall the windvd player, right?

Try installing some other program for playing dvds and see if that works ok. Also try checking your hard disk for errors.

I do not have that much memory on my laptop. I have only 768MB of ram, so I do not know if I get more than 1 GB ram will at least fix my windows media player, real player and quick time player issues :).


Hope you fix your problem. I know how annoying can it get.

Kind Regards,

Phanos

[Mindzablank]

Although an IRQ (interrupt request) conflict on the motherboard power supplies between the mouse and graphics card may be the issue, there is another possibility to explore regarding the graphics card capabilities. There may be a different model/spec of graphics card fitted in a laptop compared to similar laptops, explaining why some have the 'media freeze' issue, and others do not.

On my PC I have to switch off Direct Draw Acceleration or every media file will freeze the mouse when played - the media file will not continue to play video, only sound, and the mouse pointer sticks, making the computer unusable without a reboot. As to why it should do this when a mouse is moved while a movie is successfully playing on a laptop it may be related to the fact that a mouse screen pointer requires output from the graphics card at the same time as the movie is placing high demand.

Type dxdiag into Start/Run and on the Display tab disable 'Direct Draw Acceleration' and see if this cures the problem. You can always set it back again. The downside of disabling it may be that some programs requiring it, for example Nero Showtime, may not function, but on my PC all other media players work (Realplayer, VLC, DIVX, PowerDVD, Mediaplayer etc).

[Phanos]

Dear Mindzablank,

thanks for the reply. I have tried your suggestion and after two hours of movie playback no freezing occurred so far :). I will test it for a couple of days more to make sure that this is actually a fix for me regarding this problem. I had in the past thought that I had solved this problem but after a day or two the problem reappeared for no obvious reason.

I only have two questions for you regarding your suggestion please. The first question is that if my laptop has such a problem why others with the same laptop do not have reported similar issues? I mean there must be a lot of people that must have this model, shouldnâ t at lease a lot of them have experience similar issues. And secondly I already have contact HP support a couple of months ago and they told me that they tested this particular model with no problems. How is this possible? I mean shouldnâ t all the models have the same graphic card and therefore the same problem?

Do you mean that the same laptop models can be shipped with different graphic cards? Hope you can shed a little more light to this problem because we really need it. This problem is very annoying.

Thanks a lot.

Phanos

[Mindzablank]

Yes, during a production run the same model of a laptop may have a series of slightly different motherboards fitted which may have different built-in graphics chips, or they may have different modules or memory expansion chips manually fitted on the motherboard by the laptop assembly factory before shipping to retailer/customer. It's an area of laptop design where manufacturers often skimp and save - small, low resolution laptop screens don't usually require high spec graphics capabilities (unless designed as a media centre 'desktop replacement').

Software could also explain differences in performance - for example you used a Linux installation without this problem - that may be explained by Direct X (which includes Direct Draw) being a Windows feature. Or other users may be using a monitor/laptop screen set to a low resolution & refresh rate/luminence which isn't overburdening the graphics system.

[Phanos]

Hi Mindzablank,

thank a lot for the reply. Yes this would explain why my laptop works great while playing video in Linux but freezes while playing video in windows. Why they produce a laptop which is design for microsoft windows XP but works better in Linux that I don't understand :).

After two days no freezing occurred so far :). I have used many video files that in the past they had freeze my computer almost immediately. Also I was able to play TV (using a tv card that I bought recently) and browse the internet at the same time without any freezing.

My only problem now is that when the direct draw is disable the tv quality is lower than when the direct draw is enable, but for now I can live with that. I can always enable the direct draw when I want to watch tv in full screen or capture some tv program on my hard drive.

Mindzablank I only have one more question for you please. Do you think that this problem will ever go away entirely? I mean could it be fix with a driver or bios update or something? It will be nice to actually be able to rid this problem entirely.

For now I am sticking with your fix though. It sures is better to hae that does not freeze than one that does :).

Again thanks a lot,

Phanos

[Doubtfire]

Hi Mindzablank,

Tried your options and it is not working for me. I am getting the error "Create Overlay Failed. Please lower your screen resolution or colour depth and try again." Not sure if it is because I am using a widescreen monitor - tried a bunch a of things. Went to 1024x768 (I run 1280x800) reduced colour, checked my dx colour settings and nothing really to change there. I did have it working once with Direct Draw on the regular tab set with the performance to use hardware acceleration (although I think it reset the settings you advised to turn off). However it was not playing the screen only the sound and I could move the mouse around.

Like I said before not like I use it alot but drives me nuts to have something on my pc that wont work regardless.

[Mindzablank]

Hi doubtfire,

That screen message appears to be a common WinDVD issue, and is often attributed to a conflict with Windows NetMeeting.

NetMeeting allows authorised remote access to your desktop, rather like a limited network over the internet, together with a webcam video teleconferencing facility (which will be where the graphics overlay is implicated), and it is enabled by default.

If you never use it as part of your business activity, disable it. Click Start/Settings/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services. Double click on NetMeeting Remote. On the General tab select Disable from the drop down menu on Startup Type. Click Apply. Reboot the laptop.

If that doesn't fix the problem, a switch from WinDVD to PowerDVD may be the answer - both Phanos and myself are using PowerDVD with Direct Draw disabled. You can download a 30-day free trial version from : http://www.powerdvd.com-http.com/download-7.html

or -

As you already have Realplayer installed, but have poor quality DVD playback, read questions 4 & 6 on this link about picture quality and how to disable 'Optimized Video' in Realplayer.
http://service.real.com/help/faq/rp8/rpb8back.html

Presently, with this enabled, Realplayer may be fooled into thinking you have a better graphics system than you have.

[Mindzablank]

Hi Phanos,

Is your laptop display setting set to its highest, which I should imagine is either 16 or 24 bit? (Right click desktop/Properties/Settings)

To try and permanently correct the Direct Draw issue, so you can leave it enabled, you could try updating DirectX from Microsoft. It *may* help resolve the issue - no guarantee it will, but is perhaps worth trying.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.mspx

When installed, and you've rebooted your laptop, it will probably display a few windows advising a codec or driver isn't Microsoft certified. Make a note of these and then you can find newer versions for those, either from the hardware manufacturer's website or by googling the exact file name.

Your current installation of DirectX should display uncertified drivers in the Notes footer of the DXDiag 'Directx Drivers' tab.

See this link for a fuller explanation.

http://www.updatexp.com/directx-diagnostic-tool.html

[Phanos]

Hi Mindzablank,

I apologize for the long delay to respond back but I have been extremely busy lately. Thanks a lot for your replies, they have been very helpful :).

I tried your suggestion about the directX but it didn't worked, I already had the latest version of directX for some time now and I have the latest drivers for my manufactureâ s website as well. Also I can not find any uncertified drivers in the notes footer of the DXDiag Directx Drivers Tab. Are you sure that after installing the directx that a message will appear to inform me that the drivers are not Microsoft certified?

Yes I do use the highest resolution possible at my laptop. 1280 x 800 at 32 bit. (There are only 16 and 32 bit available here). Do you think that by lowering my resolution or colour quality will fix the problem? To be quit honest when I try watch a tv program on my laptop and the resolution and colour quality is set to highest, I get horizontal lines on a part of the tv window surface, and some other part of the laptopâ s screen. This problem seems to be degraded when I lower the colour settings, but does not seems to go away entirely. Also this problem is found under linux as well.

Thanks,

Phanos

[Bassam_1]

Hi,

I own an HP Pavilion z5000 and I have the same exact problem, I have tried everything mention and I finally got my laptop to stop freezing up when watching or playing something. However I was wonder if there are any other options besides disabling directdraw. It takes away from the quality of the DVDs playing and also if the video is not on top of everything else, even the DVD player menu, it will freeze.

[westek12]

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@Mindzablank wrote:
Although an IRQ (interrupt request) conflict on the motherboard power supplies between the mouse and graphics card may be the issue, there is another possibility to explore regarding the graphics card capabilities. There may be a different model/spec of graphics card fitted in a laptop compared to similar laptops, explaining why some have the 'media freeze' issue, and others do not.

On my PC I have to switch off Direct Draw Acceleration or every media file will freeze the mouse when played - the media file will not continue to play video, only sound, and the mouse pointer sticks, making the computer unusable without a reboot. As to why it should do this when a mouse is moved while a movie is successfully playing on a laptop it may be related to the fact that a mouse screen pointer requires output from the graphics card at the same time as the movie is placing high demand.

Type dxdiag into Start/Run and on the Display tab disable 'Direct Draw Acceleration' and see if this cures the problem. You can always set it back again. The downside of disabling it may be that some programs requiring it, for example Nero Showtime, may not function, but on my PC all other media players work (Realplayer, VLC, DIVX, PowerDVD, Mediaplayer etc).

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Mindzablank! You little bisquit eater you. Ok, tell me me what you want and I will get it for you. Huh? Want a cake? I will bake you a cake and send it to you. What kind do you like? Whats that, you would rather have a 12 pack of your favorite beer? No problem. I will pack it up and send it to you my man (or woman). I know, assuming that you are the former, I think we should all pitch in and buy you a weekend pass at the Mustang Ranch in Las Vegas. Any way, thank you ( and Phanos) for pulling this year-long thorn outta my keister.