reno

Okay, I just got done reformatting both my drives to NTFS, moving my faster 80GB drive to master and my slower 40GB to back-up and media files...now, after installing windows, and after installing driver updates...I downloaded SP1 and ran Blade 2 for the duration...guess what, no skipping.


Now, I've narrowed it down to either my 40GB harddrive having problems, nVidia's drivers (was using the 40.72, now back to 29.42...which are actually faster in UT2003), or some strange tweak that I did. Creative's drivers, amazingly, weren't at fault!

Currently I have turned prefetch off (0) in the registry, and I've fixed my swap file to 768mb on my Windows drive...I'm going to dick around with loading the kernel into memory, expanded system cache and installing StyleXP. Something that may also have actually helped me, is I increased NTFS cluster size from 512kb to 1024kb...who knows...


Do any of you care enough to find out what causes this? Or am I just blubbering without purpose? Otherwise, I'm sticking with my current config, which is nice and stable.

reno

Well, guess what, the problem was fairly simple to alleviate and only took me 3 clean installs to figure out.

After installing SP1 and all the latest drivers (except 29.42s for nvidia) I played blade2 again and still got no problems...then I installed NimoCodec Pack...which did me in, I've narrowed it down to either Huffy UVY or whatever and/or a directshow filter....time to download the divx standalone I guess...I can't believe that was my problem, and I can't believe how much stress that caused.

Hope this helps someone else, be careful installing video/audio codecs!

(note: norton ghost rocks, it's so cool to clone a hard-drive in 20 minutes and save it to CD, make the CD bootable, and be able to restore and image in minutes...whee!)

Necrosis

Strike up another case for "Live and Learn". Feels good to find the problem; just sucks waiting for your hair to grow back in.

reno

...Speaking of scratching, scratch everything I just said...after starting my computer this morning I decided to test a DVD...whaddya know? 15 minutes into it it jerked, 5 minutes after that it jerked again and that time lost sync.

I've put my power profile onto always on and my display/harddrives to always on...I've also turned off the screen saver (which was originally set to 10 mintutes).

Now I have spent three hours with all different DVDs at all different times in the DVD, after mouse activity ceases, it is EXACTLY 15 minutes to the first jerk, and EXACTLY 5 minutes to the next one that loses sync.


I've installed nothing different since my computer was working, which was the first boot after Windows Update was done installing SP1. Does ANYONE have any idea of services or something else that could possibly be running in the background and thinking that my computer was idle? Is there any way to FORCE power dvd to be considered an active window?

This doesn't just happen in PowerDVD, I've used Windows media player and WinDVD to play DVDs and the same thing, after EXACTLY 15 minutes there is a jerk and 5 minutes later, another. There are no programs except for windows running. No Zonealarm, or MBM, or anything else, just the windows processes. Argh...

Necrosis

Have you tried looking for firmware updates for your DVD drive?

__________________________________________________ __

Tell us what you have installed and what order; I do mean everything!!!

Please include sofware versions.

reno

Yeah, no dice though, it's a Pioneer 106s...looked through google and altavista with no firmware updates.


Now, I just re-imaged my drive with my image that WAS working with DVD playback amd tweaked settings how I wanted them and stuff. It is pre-SP1 and pre-.253 revision creative drivers. I'm currently at work but I had someone watch "Fellowship of the Rings" to the end and I'll find out when I get back wether it worked. Then my plan is to install the creative driver update and see if that works...lastly, I'll install SP1....which I'm leaning more and more towards being the problem, considering on the google newsgroups there have been a LOT of reports of horrible DVD playback after SP1 is downloaded....more info in a few hours.

Interestingly enough, typing "stutter power dvd xp" brought a LOT of results from google...I wonder if there is some weird incompatibility that either of the two companies involved either doesn't know about or didn't bother to fix. I know a lot of people here would say "works fine on my machine," but I've seen reports of AMD XP 2100s and Ati 9700s still having the problem, so I believe it's a problem with either Power DVD or XP SP1...but I really won't know for certain until later...man, I've spent MANY hours on this problem....

I'm hoping to nail this thing to SP1...because I really have no need for security updates (rarely on internet at home, have good firewalls/AV programs availabe) so it'd be fine for me to avoid SP1 (windows works fine without it anyway, never downloaded any updates for 98se either...I suck). But not being able to install the latest Creative drivers will enrage me, probably to the point of dual booting my system...which I will loathe.

Anyway, more later.

DallasStar

did you remember to try disabling system restore and indexing service?????? if not, go to start-->run-->"services.msc" and find system restore; disable it; then find indexing service; disable it.

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Starscream

Reno, I noticed in your other thread you have another drive on the same channel as your dvd, and it's running in pio mode 4! Try removing the burner from that channel and setting the dvd drive as master and see how well it plays movies. Make sure dma is on for the dvd drive after you make the changes.

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Dr_bologna

I would make DVD rom Slave and run it on Primary IDE 1 with 80gig drive as Primary Master..
I would make Burner Drive Slave and run it on Secondary IDE with 40gig Drive as Secondary Master.. " keeping in mind that end of IDE cable goes to master and middle section of IDE cable goes to Slave and of course long section of IDE cable going to the motherboard".
(for ppl that don't know this)
I would also partition the 80gig and put windows on a small 5 gig partition [C:] and make [D:] your programs install directory..
After you setup windows and finish making the partitions, then move the page/swap file to the D: directory..
That way if something messes up with windows, you can just scrub windows and reformat C: and put a nice new install on again..
Most of the stuff in D: will stay installed and if not you can just install that program back into the same Directory and everything should be still there like saved stuff and settings..
I just go into the install Directory and send each installed program launch .exe to the desk to as a short cut..
most will continue to keep working with out being reinstalled..
This also keeps you from using Ghost apps, if your shit is messed up and you Ghost it, it will only be messed up again.. or if you have a worm or trojen in the windows regestry or windows Directory..
Don't ask me Why I just said all this shit you all know, Figured there may be something inbetween the lines that might help ring a bell ..
If not sorry to waste space..

reno

Okay, it's the creative driver/soundcard

Installed XP clean, installed all current drivers except for audigy drivers. Original drivers provided on disk DO always sync with video, but there is noticable "ticking" and once in a while audio will cut out and cut in abruptly.

Installed 5.12.1.253 and now audio quality is perfect, but audio goes out of sync in 15-30 minute intervals.

I have already tried everything that everyone has said about DMA, Slave/master relationships, and so on. And I have found I gain faster performance with windows/pagefile installed on same drive, and with my configuration as is.

I've downloaded the PCI latency patch, v. .19 but it doesn't do squat for me.

Write-caching on/off doesn't do anything
Disk Indexing on/off doesn't do anything
System Restore on/off doesn't do anything


If anyone knows how to fix this, it being a creative problem and all, please let me know...I will NOT use the kX drivers, I can't stand to NOT have EAX...

God this sucks, I'm just going to buy a set top DVD and screw my computer as a multimedia device.

UberLord

My settop DVD player sometimes loses sync with audio as well - but mainly on old DVD titles.

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reno

DVD's I've tried so far...

Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
The Matrix
Terminator 2 Ultimate Edition
Caddyshack
Blade
Blade 2

They are all doing it...now, if I turn on the "by SPDIF" function and let my soundcard do the work...and I've switched my cards from dedicated IRQs to sharing (I have heard that the PCI slot next to the vid card sometimes gets priority to other cards on the PCI bus and slows everything down, so I moved my modem down to PCI slot 2)...it seems that the Audigy will be able to do the sound and video just fine, yet the bass response isn't as loud as with "6 speaker" configuration (I have a 4.1 set and the audigy assumes that it's only 4 speaker, since that's the closet I can get).

Oh well, I contacted creative tech support, maybe they can help.

Vampyromaniac

Have ya tried Win98se ?

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reno

... I refuse to revert back to a crippled operating system. As far as I'm concerned, Windows XP is all that and a bag of chips compared to my tricked out Win98SE...it took me 4 years to finally get Win98SE to a point of absolute stability and absolute perfection. As soon as I can get DVD playback to work right, then you can continue my statement.

Man, WinXP is amazing, I was able to run System Shock 1 with SOUNDBLASTER sound on my audigy in compatibility mode! I couldn't even get sound on Win98SE! yaya! (I still play the oldies...like SS and Heretic...I suck)

Time to check my creative assistance account...

Vampyromaniac

Heh, my Dell was shipped to me in that condition
2 years, no problems . . . it ended when I decided to upgrade, and re-installed Windows

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reno

My computer's hardware configuration hasn't remained the same for more than 3 months over the course of seven years, which more than likely aggravated my problems, but when I mean absolute stability I mean "no crashes with 80 million programs in the background and my system overclocked to the beejebus." With WinXP I can overclock higher AND get lower system temperatures...which is nice, because I have that darn doom 3 alpha to play.

reno

Just an Update, I've talked to two of my friends and they say they've experienced the same 10-20 minute jerk, with different effects (one says it gets better the longer he plays a dvd, other says it is just a video/audio jerk with no side effects) and we're all using creative cards, one has a p3 system with intel mobo, other is using amd system with amd mobo.

This sucks, it's probably creative's drivers, in which case, I have no hope. DAMN them for having a card that does everything well, except play dvds!

DarkFoss

Reno Have you tried those Audigy 2 drivers in your rig yet ? I saw your were going to download them in the Audigy thread Those are version 5.12.1.283 . I've found them far superior to any previous versions, dvd playback and gaming with eax . UT2K3 sounds great even EverQuest no longer stutters at all and sounds better than ever I've watched several dvd's as well including Lord of the Rings and no lagging or crashing noted here.

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reno

If the file size gets below 40 megs, or can you get the AUDDRVPACK.exe from creative.com?

I shall check!

DarkFoss

I believe the AUDDRVPACK.exe from creatives site is the 253 version .Personally I didn't care much for it. I had better luck with the full version released on the Compaq site in August.
The whole file from the Audigy 2 disk is 247megs but the driver file in audio folder is 70 megs. If the nt and win 98/me files and language folders are deleted it drops the folder to 38 megs . I haven't seen any stripped down versions available though.
I don't have win rar since I own winzip it's been hard to justify getting rar for the express purpose of opening drivers. Unfortunately winzip can only compress the files to 10 megs still too much to e-mail

reno

Guess what everyone! Even with the Audigy 2 drivers (.283 revision) it STILL jerks, even worse, it's every 5 minutes now!

Yay!


BUT, I fixed my problem...I disconnected my NTFS drive, reformatted my FAT32 drive in to two partitions, installed win98se, used the 40.72 drivers for nvidia, used the audigy 2 drivers for my audigy, and used the via 4.43 4in1s and guess what! Perfect playback!


I hate creative, their WinXP drivers are total ass munch for DVD...but I just can't part with EAX 3! It's a catch 22!



Anyway, I started a thread in the off topic forum about how in the hell I get the boot loader to link to the right thingy...please help a newb dual booter!