DVD problem (fails to play)

[Kaoru]

The other day I got some new DVDs, so I put them in the DVD player in my comp to see them.

Something odd happened, instead of playing automatically like they DVDs usually do on my computer, nothing happened or a window would open up with the seperate audio and video folders shown.

Puzzled, but not put out yet, I manually told Windows Media player to play the DVD--but instead I got a mostly Gray screen with about 1/4 of the screen on the bottom Green. Sometimes the screen is just black as well.

The main menu won't show up, and it won't really play at all--in fact, the only sound I hear is broken and lasts only for about 2 seconds.

It's not just Windows Media Player either. DivX player won't read it, Interactive DVD player won't read it either.

I did put a new DVD read/writer into the computer last night--however the exact same problem happens--which means it's a software/program problem rather than a hardware problem. The DVD read/writer will in fact play Audio CDs and CDs with avi files on them--it just seems to get stuck on the DVDs

After going to the control panel and looking at the DVD read/writer, it says that there's nothing wrong with it. I updated the firmware as well and this still seems to have no effect.

All plugs inside the PC box are in correctly, and my computer sees that the hardware is there.

I want to emphasize that the DVDs worked on my computer before. It's just that at some point in time from the last time I played a DVD (which was a while ago) until now, something happened and now I can't anymore.

Perhaps I'm missing a certain file needed for my computer to know what to do with the data it gets from the DVD or maybe something has become corrupted--and if that's the case, what can I do?

If anyone can help me fix this problem or suggest things that I could to do try to fix it, I'd be very grateful.

Thanks for your time,


~ Kaoru

[Whyzman]

You might want to try reinstalling the DVD driver...In Device Manager highlight the errant drive and click the REMOVE button. Reboot and let Windoze reinstall the DVD...

Then, have you attempted to remove the DVD decoder software?? Under the Add/Remove programs I would suspect that you'll find the software listed there. Go through the uninstall and then reinstall the software...

It certainly is possible that something's has decided that it wants to go on its own merry way...

Almost forgot, welcome tohttp://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif Forums!

[Kaoru]

Thanks for the suggestions and welcome Whyzman,


I went to the device manager and uninstalled the drive -- but windows just reinstalled it all by itself really quickly, before I could even restart the computer.

So, then I looked in the add/remove programs and I couldn't anything that said anything about a DVD decoder that I could find.... perhaps someone has some suggestions of what I can look for in particular? The only thing that I could see was my codec stuff (DivX and Xvid)--but that shouldn't do anything in regard to DVDs...

I looked up the driver information on my computer and it does indeed look a bit old... Here's what my computer said:

Driver Date: 7/1/2001
Driver version: 5.1.2535.0

C:\Windows\system32\Drivers\cdrom.sys
C:\Windows\system32\Drivers\imapi.sys
C:\Windows\system32\Drivers\NTIDrvr.sys
C:\Windows\system32\Drivers\Pfc.sys
C:\Windows\system32\Drivers\redbook.sys
C:\Windows\system32\Drivers\storprop.dll

Are these normal driver files? -___-; I'm sorry, I'm not too knowledgable on this sort of thing...


Here's some information on my DVD read/write hardware and where it says that I can download drivers.... except I don't see any drivers that I can download--only firmware.
http://www.btc.com.tw/english/3-1-4driver_download_dvd_dual.htm


I'm guessing that something got corrupted at some point--it happened a while ago to my Pinnacle Studios program and I had to reinstall it.


Again, thank you for your time and to anyone who can help me,


~ Kaoru

[Whyzman]

It may not say anything about being DVD decoder software, but usually something related to DVD...such as PowerDVD, DirectDVD, etc.,

Usually, the DVD software is on a CD-ROM and comes packaged with the DVD player.

What Operating System are you using?

If WindowsXP:

http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/howto-22.html

[Kaoru]

Yes, I'm running Windows XP

I followed the link and followd the instructions

It claims that I have no DVD decoders..... is this the problem then? Did I have DVD decoders before and now they're gone? (because I could play DVDs before..)

If so, what DVD decoders should I get/where can I get them? And once I get them, what folders to I put it in to make sure everything functions properly?

Again, thank you Whyzman, you're so helpful! ^___^ (and, thanks for being patient with me)



~ Kaoru

[Whyzman]

Do you see any DVD software in ADD/REMOVE as I inquired above?

I certainly would seem that you had DVD software that was playing your DVDs...for some reason they must be either corrupted or there's some problem with them loading...

Where can you get them...well, they are nearly always supplied with the DVD player on an included CD-ROM...

[Kaoru]

Nope, I did not see any DVD software in the add/remove programs list.

My DVD read/writer did come with something called Power DVD and I just tried installing that a few minutes ago. I then ran that decoder check and it finally said I had one--but, when I tried to play the DVD (one that I've played on my computer before this whole mess) the program just froze. Windows Media player won't open it either.

So, I'm thinking that maybe it's the driver files since it still didn't work when I got a decoder...




~ Kaoru

[Whyzman]

PowerDVD is what we're looking for, that is your software DVD decoder...

I'm pretty sure that the hardware drivers for the DVD player itself are pretty generic and WinXP has them for you. That's probably why when you removed the player in Device Manager Windows replaced them so quickly...

I would suggest entering SAFEMODE and checking Device Manager for the possibility that there are more than one instance of your DVD player under the heading CD-ROM...if there are, REMOVE all instances and let Windows reinstall...

Also, check in ADD/REMOVE while in SAFEMODE and see if your DVD software is in there...if it is, then remove it and reinstall

[Kaoru]

Okie, so I reinstalled Power DVD again (which is a player)

All it seems to do is provide a DVD decoder for me because acutally using it to play DVDs doesn't seem to work.

In fact, I think Power DVD seems to make things worse--if that's possible. (Things freeze very badly with Power DVD)

I tried uninstalling and then reinstalling my hardware in safe mode--still no effect.

When I went to device manager and took a look at what I had, I only saw my DVD read/writer listed once, and my CD read/writer listed once.

I'm starting to get a bit desperate now... what else might I look at to see what could be wrong? Perhaps a memory problem? I do have quite a bit of data on my computer--but only in one of the drives (C: ) I have about 1 GB left in there (and that's where my programs usually run from)

Is there perhaps a program out there that can check if any of my critical files are corrupted?

Also, if I take some screenshots of my computer and it's settings, would that help?

I thank everyone who's taken the time to take a look at this thread--and especially Whyzman for helping me. If anyone has any suggestions or knows why I'm experiencing this problem I'd be very grateful if you might share them with me,


~ Kaoru

[Whyzman]

You can have a look at your memory by downloading:

http://www.memtest86.com/

This is a self-booting download that you put onto a floppy and run

Also, you can download your harddrive manufacturer's diagnostics from their web site and also run these to check the integrity of your harddrive.

Here's also a possibility:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q306084

[no-mbr]

Don't know if this could be related, but quite a few of the DVD player, driver setup packages come bundled with ad/spyware. If you don't know your way around the taskmanager and appropriate processes, I could see a corrupted installation (in process) as the reason for your troubles. I mean, that another program is trying to install or phone home just as you start your DVD player software.

If you know how, go to msinfo32, select software, select "loaded modules" --see what's registerd, is it known dll, microsoft? And of course also review running tasks. Spybot, or ad-aware should work, but sometimes a single .dll file can be felt behind that these programs won't warn about if it isn't registered correctly.

[Kaoru]

Hi

Yes, I'm ressurrecting this old thread.

Unfortunately, this problem still hasn't gone away on my computer. Even after I did a major overhaul and freed up some space on my computer.

no-mbr, I did what you suggested, but I'm going to have to admit that the list of .dll files and such that did come up might as well have been gibberish to me as I'm not too certain about what they mean and such.

Are there certain things I should look out for? I don't have a spybot program, but I shall looking into getting one and see if that solves my problem.

Does anyone else have any insight into why I suddenly can't watch DVDs on my computer even though I was able to before?

Thanks


~ Kaoru