Video problems

MathsParMathsPar New
edited April 2007 in Science & Tech
Recently when I've been playing movies on my PC they will be fine for an hour or so then the picture will freeze but the sound carries on. It's the same wether i open it with RealPlayer or Windows Media Player, what do you reckon it is? I've done virus checks and found nothing... maybe it's configuration or something.

By the way I'm average at using computers, know the basics but not that much.

Comments

  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    It sounds to me like your video card's main chip, the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is over heating. Pull the side of your case off, turn the computer off, and inspect the small fan on the video card for dust and lint. If it's dirty, spray it out with canned air or use a small paint brush. If that fan and the heatsink it sits on top of becomes very dirty, the GPU will overheat.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    It could be simpler than that. It is still a good idea to clean your fans, but it may also be your screensaver. If your screensaver is kicking in (because you're just watching while the movie plays) and it's having a problem with the movie player, it could be causeing the problem. I've seen it once before.

    Try disabling the screensaver while you watch the movie once, and see if that does it.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Good idea, CB. Hadn't even crossed my mind.
  • MathsParMathsPar New
    edited March 2007
    Little update, the error message I get when I close the player after it freezes is "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000017) Click OK to exit"

    Tried it without the screensaver, unfortunately didn't fix it. Haven't opened the PC yet, will give that a bash tomorrow. Any other ideas?
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Is this something that just started all the sudden? or is this a new PC?
  • MathsParMathsPar New
    edited March 2007
    Just started all of a sudden, had the PC for a few years and no problems with it really. Installed a new Hard drive in January to replace a faulty one, apart from that the same PC. Only noticed it in the past few weeks, tends to happen about an hour into the video playing.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Hmm... You guys think that could be a memory leak... If it was any other type of application, I would say that a memory leak is likely, but I'm not sure if video would cause the symptoms to show? Perhaps some memtest is in order. :)
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Is it just one movie, or all of them? I've had bad video files do that. Or, the video file might be too big for your laptop to handle. I've had a problem where I had to stop/start a movie every 15 minutes or so, which I wrote off to crappy compression/file size.
  • MathsParMathsPar New
    edited March 2007
    All of them really, tends to happen after it's been playing a while e.g. an hour into a movie or after playing a few tv shows on a playlist for a while. How do you do the memtest thing? Thanks for the help by the way.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2007
    Have you checked the video card's fan for dust and lint yet? That is your first troubleshooting step. While your inside the case, check the CPU's heatsink and fan also. If you find the card and CPU fan need cleaning, the power supply unit will need it also.
  • MathsParMathsPar New
    edited April 2007
    Got rid of all the dust inside, same problem still. With online feeds it is always fine though, is there a way of resetting the video card setting or real player settings to default?
  • JokkeJokke Bergen, Norway Icrontian
    edited April 2007
    What about updating the video drivers?
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