DVD Software

[PhilSlick]

Well, I knew that I would be back, but I didn't think it would be this quick. I'm helping my fiance's dad out this time on an older computer that he has that use to be mine. It's a Gateway 400 with Win 98, AMD K-6 400MHZ processor, 128mb RAM and if there is anything else needed let me know.

Here is the problem, He has Cinemaster 99 on the computer, version 2.0.36.6150, which I was given by Gateway soon after I had problems playing other DVDs. Great software huh? When I had the Matrix it would mess up, glitch, and do some other interesting stuff like freeze all together. Well, this one doesn't do that, but it seems that it has a problem with things that are copywrighted by what I read. When I play it you can hear the sound and see the main menu, but there is no video. What you see instead are diagonal yellow and black alternating bars with three captions in the center saying macrovision 1, macrovision 2 and macrovision 3. By what I read this has something to do with the copy protection on the DVD. I have no problem playing the Fugutive and some other movies, but Pearl Harbor and The Bourne Identity, just to name two, are giving me problems.

I just now uninstalled and reinstalled the DVD player and am still having problems. What baffels me now more than anything is when I put the Matrix in it's now doing the same thing. There never was a problem with this before so now I really have no clue what's going on. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks again guys.

[PhilSlick]

Never mind guys. I feel kinda dumb on this one. Instead of looking around a little more I just got frustrated and gave up. This wasn't exactly what I planned on doing with my day so I wanted to get it done fast and it didn't work out that way. Seems the only problem was the wrong display driver. For some reason the one that's on ATI didn't work so I got lucky and was able to pull it from the Gateway site. I'm surprised they have the information for a computer this old, well from 99, on there. Sorry for waisting a post on here and thanks for all who looked.

[PhilSlick]

Ok, I thought that I was done with this, but I guess not. After I installed the drivers everything seemed fine, but now it's freezing. I can watch it for a while and then it will freeze the entire system. The only way I can get out of it is by shutting the system down completely. Man, how I don't miss 98. I don't know if it's a problem with 98, but I know that I got the blue screen of death a couple of times. I really don't miss that.

Anyway, I watched the movie twice and it froze in two different places so I don't think it has anything to do with parts of the DVD. The power options are set for the monitor to turn off after 15min and the hard drive to shut off after 1hr. Could this have anything to do with it, or should the DVD player actually cancel this out? Thanks.

[PrntRhd]

I would suggest more RAM for one thing.
:rolleyes:

[PhilSlick]

Yeah, the RAM isn't great on this thing, heck it might actually even be at 256, but I would have to check that, but unless I would run another program then it would never give me any problems. Until the Matrix came out that is. Probably don't want to hear that I have PC100 in it, well PC133 but it doesn't pick it up. After having to do a reinstall of the OS it seems that it's going to give me problems. Guess we can't win them all.

What's even worse is in my fiance's computer we have 256MB in there. Not great, but not terrible either. Here's the thing, it's also PC133 but here are the specs on hers: P4 1.8Ghz, ATI Radeon 8500, on board sound, 48x 12x 48x CDRW, DVD ROM, Win XP Home and blah blah blah. You get the point. Just to cheap right now to get better RAM I guess, and with a computer as old as the other one, there is no getting new RAM. Keeping trying to talk them into letting me build them new systems, or at least get new ones, but they are older and stubborn so they are going to stick with Win 98 and 400MHz systems. Oh well.

[PrntRhd]

Actually Best Buy has PC 100 RAM by PNY on their ads this weekend, FYI.

I usually price check at Crucial.com to see if price is fair. Quality at Crucial has always been first class.

Also
Belarc Advisor (http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html)can check amount of RAM quickly.

[PhilSlick]

Well thank you for the info. I actually know where to check the RAM, I just was being lazy at the time of posting, poor excuse I know, so I posted what I thought it was. I'll still have to check that if really needed. Or maybe I'll just post it when I check it either or.

If it does have the 256 then I won't be able to put anymore in that one since that's the max. Kinda sad huh? This one on the other hand goes up to 2GB, but I would rather put the PC2700 in it not the PC133 that it can also take. Best Buy also has a deal on this so I may be getting that sometime in the near future.