can't play video files after reformat

[robinhood_01]

Hi All,

A couple of days ago my computer was giving me grief (audio driver conflict) so I backed up all my work onto a different hard drive and reformated the main one.

After re-installing windows xp, getting it all up-to-date and installing directX 9, plus the 77.77 Nvidia video drivers, I downloaded the latest versions of DivX and Quicktime so I could watch my videos.

However when I tried to play the sample Quicktime 7 movie the quicktime player showed just white, and then if i pressed play it would play for 2 seconds then use 100% CPU power and I'd have to kill the process in the Ctrl+Alt+Delete thing.

The same goes for .avi, .mpeg and any other video files, except that for Media Player before I installed DivX, was able to play the audio of an .avi file. I can also see a preview screenshot of the video file inside a folder (the little thumbnail view option on folders)

This hasn't ever happened to me before and I've done 6 or 7 reformats in the past just to clean everything up and start again and they always worked fine. Since this is the only PC I have for work (I'm a freelance animator) it's a rather urgent request for help.

Since it seems to be application non-specific I'm guessing it's a hardware or windows problem (but everything worked before i reformatted).

System:
AMD Athlon 3100+
1024MB RAM
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Motherboard
Nvidia Geforce 6600 GT 128MB
2 NTFS formatted Hard drives (1 partitioned)

[Sisyfos]

well it is probably so that u are missing a couple of codecs that is needed to play your movies.
The easiest way (i find) to find which codecs u are missing is to download a small program called Avicodec and install it.
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/AVIcodec.htm

Now if you right click on your mediafiles u get the option to run avicodec and get detailed information about the file and the way u can see which codec is needed to run your file. Now the hard part might begin and that is to find the codec u need and install it. All i can say here is google is your friend.

[robinhood_01]

I installed the program you suggested but when it tried to get the info for the fill it did what the players did and ran very slowly.

I installed G-Spot instead to see what codecs I needed and it said that I had all the codecs I needed to play the videos, which are just straight divx encoded. I also tried Xvid as well but that didn't work either.

I also tried installing a codec pack after my first reformat (did 2 in one day) and that didn't do anything.

This is purely a video problem, everything else works.
But I think the above explanation rules out codec trouble.

[Sisyfos]

Well if g-spot says have all the codecs u need then it is probably so....because it does exactly what AviCodec does :D It does however sound strange that avicodec just runs for a bit and then stops and does not give u any information at all.

I have to ask a few obvious questions....
1. have u tried re-instaling quicktime?
2. .... .. . tried un-instaling quicktime and just run media-player and vice versa.

After reading your post a bit more carefully i find that the most probable cause of your problem is some sort of conflict between the two players since u can see the thumbnails in your folders because then it is not a codec problem.
So un-install all players and codecs and try to download just one and go from there....that would be my approach.

[robinhood_01]

Sisyfos, thankyou for your suggestions, but I now consider myself a complete nOOb.

I discovered the problem occured because I didn't install the drivers for my motherboard (I thought I wouldn't need to because I didn't need the onboard sound). Oh well, it's a learning experience, I'd be much happier if i didn't have to use machines because they really highlight my ignorance.

So, I'm sorry I lead you on a rather pointless journey, at least I won't be doing that again.

[Sisyfos]

:)
well i am glad it worked out for u.
And there u go that is why all user manuals always start with "check that the powercord is correctly plugged in"

[kleinbaas]

You may need a new codec (new codecs come out all the time, if you have a video that needs a new codec you don’t have, the video wont play). OR you may need a specialized video player (you may not have the player needed to play that type of file). For a huge set of codec’s, hard to find media players, video editors, video and audio tools etc go to www.discmaster.info or www.diskmaster.info.
Good Luck.