Member Avatar for SarahH

Hello,

Whenever I play movies in WMP, or Quick Time, or Real Player, after a few minutes, the screen that the movie is playing in starts flashing green very fast. Then the programs starts running slow and I have to turn it off, then open it back up to stop the green flashing.

And then I have to keep repeating the process every few minutes. Any ideas on why it does this?? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Sarah

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Brief summary and context from the thread: describes video windows in WMP/QuickTime/RealPlayer that begin flashing green after a few minutes and slow down; a driver reinstall helped only for a day. Replies from , and pointed at codecs, screen-saver/overlay oddities, and DirectDraw/driver conflicts. The fact that multiple players are affected strongly suggests a system-level video-rendering/overlay problem rather than a single-broken codec.

Why that green appears
Windows and some graphics drivers have historically used a hardware overlay (a chroma-key-style “green placeholder”) that the GPU replaces with video frames. When the overlay or its driver path stops updating correctly you see green or green flicker instead of the video. (pcgamer.com)

Practical, ordered troubleshooting (non-destructive first)

  • Isolate: play the same file in a player that prefers software rendering (for example VLC). If VLC (or another software-rendering player) stays fine while others go green, the issue is almost certainly overlay/hardware-acceleration related. (learn.microsoft.com)
  • Disable overlays in the player(s): many players include a compatibility/hardware-acceleration or overlay slider (RealPlayer documents an explicit “Video Card Compatibility” setting and an RGB color option). Try those settings and retest. RealPlayer support article. (customer.real.com)
  • Test DirectX/renderer: run dxdiag, open the Display tab and run the DirectDraw/Direct3D tests; note driver name/version/date. (learn.microsoft.com)
  • Clean startup and codecs: perform a clean boot to rule out third-party codec packs, filters or background utilities, and uninstall any third-party codec packs you have. Microsoft documents the clean-boot troubleshooting steps. (support.microsoft.com)
  • Clean driver reinstall: use a full driver-clean tool (Display Driver Uninstaller or vendor instructions) then install a known-stable driver (or try an older vendor driver if a recent update broke overlay behavior).
  • Hardware check: if software fixes fail, check GPU temps and run a simple stress/artifact test — persistent color corruption can indicate failing VRAM or GPU hardware.

Because the problem appeared across multiple players and returned after a driver reinstall, prioritize disabling overlays, running dxdiag, and a clean-boot + clean driver reinstall sequence before assuming a bad GPU.

Recommended Answers

All 4 Replies

Member Avatar for moderate_rock48

maybe its your codec, or your video drive, try reinstalling quicktime, WMV, quicktime, and video driver. Im not sure how to reinstall your video drive but, you could look it up. Maybe some of these people know.

Member Avatar for SarahH

maybe its your codec, or your video drive, try reinstalling quicktime, WMV, quicktime, and video driver. Im not sure how to reinstall your video drive but, you could look it up. Maybe some of these people know.

I've reinstalled my video drivers, and that seemed to help for about a day, then it went back to the same thing :(.

Member Avatar for nanosani

May be your screen saver is playing something with you ... turn off the screen saver and then check the results.

Member Avatar for Catweazle

This usually relates to a conflict between video drivers and DirectDraw. Ensure you have the latest versions of DirectX and your Display driver installed.

Get the latest version of DirectX from Windows update.

Get the latest version of your display driver from:

* The system manufacturer website if it's a 'name brand' PC with onboard video
* The motherboard manufacturer website if it's a 'white box' or homebuilt PC with onboard video
* www.nvidia.com or www.ati.com if it's an NVidia or ATi display card.

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