Windows Vista DirectShow doesn't work in Vista

Recently I needed to use a capture device with my Acer 32-bit Vista desktop and I discovered that apparently DirectShow doesn't work for me. I verified this by trying a couple of other programs that use DirectShow and I get sound but no picture on all of them. No problem viewing video by other means but for the capture software I really need to know why DirectShow doesn't seem to work for me. I tested the capture package on my XP laptop and it works correctly there, but the laptop drops frames which is why I need to be able to use the faster computer. I tried playing around with some codec packages but no joy and I don't really have any idea what the source of this problem is. Hopefully someone here knows more about it than I do. Thanks for any tips.

 

Thank you for your reply. I don't think it's a software problem. The original program I was trying to use came with a capture device and specifically stated it was Vista compatible. I complained about it and the supplier had it checked and told me it worked fine for them. I also tried running some other programs, such as Super, in DirectShow mode as a test and in all cases I get sound with a blank screen. I don't know why this is happening and I don't know how to fix it. If I play any media file directly with Classic Media Player, VLC, Windows Media Player, etc., it works fine. Just nothing that relies on DirectShow.

 

Thanks for the tips and sorry for not responding sooner. I have multiple problems with this computer which make it difficult for me to follow some suggestions. Some of these stem from the fact that the computer was given to me. The previous owner bent several pins on the cpu after removing it for cleaning due to overheating. He didn't really know what he was doing and finally gave up trying to get the chip back in and dumped the machine. With much patience and the use of white printer paper as a background to verify pin alignment, I was eventually able to reseat the chip and get things working again. That's the history. As far as I can tell, the machine now works fine as far as the hardware is concerned.

However, much of the software came pre-installed and I don't even know what some of it does. The OS was also pre-installed (OEM Acer) so I don't have a disk to upgrade from. I have to work with what's already on the drive and I am cautious about doing anything too radical, because if I lose the ability to boot up, I have no fall-back. The only OS versions I own installation disks for are XP and older. I don't want to lose the Vista that is already installed.

There is some recovery software on the drive but I'm not sure how it works or if it is complete so I have been hesitant to experiment too much. The machine doesn't work right as it is, but it does at least work for some things. I don't want to lose that.

I did try the System File Checker as suggested, but nothing came up. I guess I was hoping there was a codec or something relatively simple I could install that would solve the problem. The machine seems to work fairly well for most things I want except for this irritating issue of not displaying DirectShow video.

At some point I may have to bite the bullet and try to reinstall Vista from the files on the drive but I haven't been ready to face up to that just yet. I'm still hoping I can solve this with a less drastic measure.

Anyway, that's why I haven't tried the in-place upgrade. Any other suggestions would be more than welcome.

 

Thanks for the link. The recovery program doesn't seem to be on the computer so I can't make a disk but I do still have the option to restore to factory defaults on boot-up. I have ordered an external USB drive to back everything up and after that arrives I will try to restore to factory state to see what that does. It appears that the actual restoration data is intact in a vistarecovery folder which contains an 'acerboot' iso along with a lot of other files. It may take me a couple weeks to get to this as I have other demands on my time but I will let you know what happens. Thanks again for your help.

 

I finally solved all of my multiple Vista issues by doing a factory reset and upgrade. I was greatly helped in this by the excellent suggestions and links posted here. I didn't succeed in finding the precise causes of my issues, but at least reinstalling got rid of them and now I can rebuild my system the way I want it. This is the best site there is for solid, practical help with OS issues. Thanks again.