directdraw - system hangs!

I can't play windows movie files. The movie will freeze after a few seconds and the computer will not respond to anything. I tested directdraw in the directX diagnostics page - it froze on the test with the bouncing white box, and needed to be rebooted. I am also having a lot of trouble with the computer hanging whilst on the internet - I have to type this message in notepad and paste it into the bbs because the computer freezes after typing a few lines in the message text box! (three times!) It seems to browse ok though... Funnily enough, I can play quicktime movies.
my system: intel P3 450MHz, win 98 SE, 256MB RAM, directX7, Nvidia TNT2 Pro64 with 32Meg Ram.
I first noticed this after I installed DirectX 8 and DivX 5.02 player. I uninstalled these (used directx buster) and also updated my display driver to the latest Nvidia detonater40 driver. All system files check out OK, all directX drivers and files OK, reinstalled original display drivers, uninstalled and reinstalled my video card, all to no avail. Updated windows media player to ver 9, tried disabling direct draw, lowering video acceleration, adjusting buffers etc. Nothing works. I am sure it is not a hardware problem, but I am at a loss as to which driver(s) could be causing this.

I don't want to have to reinstall windows!

Thanks for any help!

 

Hi doddee
Welcome to the boards! I'll tread very lightly here, as it's no secret I bite at all things hardware related.
Have you been into device manager to check for any yellow splats? Have you gone through safe mode and fremoved any duplicate entries in Device manager?

Daizy

 

Hello if Daizy agrees
I'd install directx 9 > now that its not beta

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en

I'd get ride of apples quicktime to
I had it once and it didnt want to go away --
But thats just my opinion..

I dont think there is any way to uninstall any directx safely
without corrupting something----unless with win me or xp you use system restore--before hand

After Daizys suggestions --have you installed the latest and greatest drivers for you'r card ?
" "lowering video acceleration" "
But have you reduced screen resolutions ?

Good luck and let us know
Lonny

 

Thanks for taking the time to think about this.

Daizy, there are no yellow splats. I checked for duplicate enties as you sugested and found only one: "activemovie MCI driver" was listed twice. removed one and rebooted - no change.

Lonny, I do have the very latest display driver from Nvidia. I have also tried DirectX 9 without luck. My normal screen resolution is high color[16 bit] @ 1024 x 768. I lowered it to 256 colors @ 800 x 600 but it made no difference.

I think the bottom line is that direct draw doesn't appear to be working properly (as evidenced by the test failure) and that is why the windows movie files will not play. Prior to this I had no troubles playing these files. Does anyone think it could possibly be the video card itself?? I don't really see how it could be, as everything else works OK, but that only leaves a driver error. Given that the display driver is the latest available (and has been reinstalled several times) that only leaves directX (which has also been installed several times, and reports no errors).

What have I missed?? and what would YOU do next?

Thanks, and keeping racking those brains!

 

" " "I don't want to have to reinstall windows" "

Dont get frustrated.
I know this at first appears a dounting task > But

Have you done this yet ?
Resourses
Here's some homework on system resources.
Useing msconfig to eliminate unessesary startups
Go to start run type msconfig hit ok
Be carefull --leave anything from ms alone basicly
If not found at one site try another --If in doubt leave.
http://ww2.whidbey.net/djdenham/Uncheck.htm
http://www.3feetunder.com/krick/startup/list.html
http://www.pcisys.net/~ravnos2/techinfo/MSConfig.htm
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

Lonny