AVIs Causing Windows 7 to Freeze

[the white rabbit]

I may be having the same problem. Although I haven't run a video on it, every time I try to rate the system it hangs on "assessing windows media decoding performance". I also have a low end video card on a Lenovo X41 tablet (Intel 915GM).

Yep, that sounds like exactly the problem we're having.

And an update: I was wrong, VLC player *can* play video without it locking the system up. Still, I really hope this gets sorted out for low-end hardware because Windows 7 really seems like it'll run well, otherwise.

[the white rabbit]

Ok, so VLC has given me some good info to help figure out where the problem is. It's a problem with DirectX acceleration, and contrary to what I thought, it's just the display that locks. Or at least the sound keeps playing in VLC.

Anyway, what I did was go into the video preferences and try different output options. DirectX 3D acceleration worked, but just DirectX acceleration caused the lock we've all been experiencing.

So does anyone know of a way to repair fireplace the version of DirectX we're using so it might be compatible with lower-end hardware?

[the white rabbit]

No luck getting anywhere with this. The work-around I'm using is house VLC for video and disable acceleration for anything that I know will lock up the graphics.

I suppose we should all file bug reports (once the beata goes public, of course).

[Beta Master]

Ok, so VLC has given me some good info to help figure out where the problem is. It's a problem with DirectX acceleration, and contrary to what I thought, it's just the display that locks. Or at least the sound keeps playing in VLC.

Anyway, what I did was go into the video preferences and try different output options. DirectX 3D acceleration worked, but just DirectX acceleration caused the lock we've all been experiencing.

So does anyone know of a way to repair fireplace the version of DirectX we're using so it might be compatible with lower-end hardware?

Ugh. Im starting to think that my GPU is just too outdated. There is not even VISTA support for the ATI Mobility Radeon 9200. If I could get a working Vista driver all bets would say it would work with Win 7.

Anyone getting any traction with this issue?

[fastolfe]

I still have 6956 on another partition but unfortunately Build 7000 doesn't give me a boot manager to access it. Any ideas how?

If you assign a drive letter to the partition (or it already has one), you can try using EasyBCD. Although it was made for Vista, Windows 7 has a very similar boot manager system, so you can run it with "Run As Administrator" and/or "Vista Compatibility". Without those enabled, running it completely locked it up.

Ugh. Im starting to think that my GPU is just too outdated. There is not even VISTA support for the ATI Mobility Radeon 9200. If I could get a working Vista driver all bets would say it would work with Win 7.

Anyone getting any traction with this issue?

I had a Radeon 9250 256mb PCI and had the same problem. I know that the problem did not occur until build 6956. I don't quite remember, but I think I got it to work with a modded driver.

Look at this list: http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?id=24

I used the NGO driver (v1.6.6), but if that doesn't work you might want to try some of the others. Just remember that since support for R200 GPUs was taken out of catalyst in 6.7, you can only use drivers based on Catalyst version 6.6 or earlier. You may also try to install the driver with "Run As Administrator" and "Vista Compatibility"/"XP Compatibility".

I've also noticed that even though I've upgraded to a Radeon HD4830, it locks up randomly when I use Google Chrome....

Edited January 9, 2009 by fastolfe

[the white rabbit]

I'll give another shot to getting a vista driver to work with my Geforce4 Go 420 32mb. I think the problem could be the XP vs Vista display driver model , and maybe even something to do with WARP (the DX10 software rasterizer).

Of course, if this does fix *this* issue, then I've got to try to find a way to fix rotation for my tablet. But one problem at a time.

But I am going to wait until I get the public beta later today before I do anymore fiddling because I've done a lot of regedit-ing and fiddling with dx files while trying to make this work, and I'd like to start from a clean install.

[Ironman273]

Since this is video card related I'll post this little weird thing. I tried it on a laptop with an ATI mobile X1400 card. It downloaded an updated X1400 driver from Windows Update but I wasn't getting Aero so I ran the Assessment Utility. The card came back as a 1.0 with no Aero capability. I knew the card wasn't that bad. On a whim I decided to download the Catalyst drivers from the ATI website expecting them not to work on a laptop like they haven't in the past. They installed fine and my video rating went up to 3.2, which enabled Aero. Is ATI not locking out their mobile chips anymore?

[Beta Master]

Since this is video card related I'll post this little weird thing. I tried it on a laptop with an ATI mobile X1400 card. It downloaded an updated X1400 driver from Windows Update but I wasn't getting Aero so I ran the Assessment Utility. The card came back as a 1.0 with no Aero capability. I knew the card wasn't that bad. On a whim I decided to download the Catalyst drivers from the ATI website expecting them not to work on a laptop like they haven't in the past. They installed fine and my video rating went up to 3.2, which enabled Aero. Is ATI not locking out their mobile chips anymore?

Ive spent the last 4 days playing with various Catalyst versions, custom driver files, etc to no avail at all. I simply think I will never gain support in win 7 due to outdated hw :(. I have an ATI Mobility Radeon 9200.

No Aero, PC comes back as a 1.0 :(!!! :( Windows Update installs some BS Mobility Radeon 9000 WDDM driver that cuases my display to go nuts!

Here is the driver info installed by MS. On my screen when that driver is installed i have lines EVERYHWERE and a double immage. I dont know where else to look for help on this issue.

[ursus]

Lads, will be watching and waiting for you.

Hope you can solve that. I got much older Mobility 7500 which barely worked in Vista.

Hopefully some of you can make Mobility 9*** work

[bmhome1]

855 chipset with Geoforce 32MB worked perfectly for video (WMP even played DVD's with nice interface) running Win7 6801. 7000 locks up any video. Definitely new issue specific to 7000. Sad to see.

[dirka]

I'm having the same problem with 7000. Any avi video I play hard locks up my laptop. I wasn't having this problem in 6801. I'm using a Dell XPS laptop with intel 915gm graphics card. Everything else runs great so this is a huge bummer and the only reason i haven't moved completely to 7.

[ursus]

Not sure, guys, that this'd help, but because I needed to watch :) some TV series and was too lazy to switch back HD with Vista, I did the following to make .avi work (after numerous freezes). Disclaimer: it is case-by-case basis and more of an example rather than a solution... I myself waiting for a more constructive solution

- install old drivers for my old Mobility Radeon 7500 (it is even older than most of you have) and I used, I think, XP's WDM drivers from Mobility Radeon 9000.

- uninstall latest Vista codec pack (because someone above said that W7 already has good package of its own)

- install VLC player, go to Preferences --> Video and turn off acceleration

- associate avi with VLC and start video...

the following happens: in windowed mode audio is present but no video at all (not even sluggish), then I make it full screen and video runs fine... It does work and with no problems, delays nor lines.

there is a catch, on several occasions I tried scrolling through video and it caused freezing when I tried double click in full-screen mode to return to video and also when I tested played video by scrolling back and forth. So there are certain bugs still present, however it is at least something to get started... try it out as a temp measure

dont give up on W7, like I was about to (cause being able to watch video is important for me)

I did not try playing DVDs, only avi/mpgs

Edited January 10, 2009 by ursus

[bidzer]

So what driver is everyone using for the Intel 915GM? I'm using the default one that build 7000 installed. I can't find another compatabile one. It's only reporting 8MB of memory. Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm very happy with the performance of the OS right now.

Thanks

[the white rabbit]

I got video to work with vlc WITH accelereration, as I mentioned above--as long as I don't pick directx (though directx 3d works).

I've tried a lot of vista drivers from laptopvideo2go, and those that install give me a code 43 error (something about windows detecting a problem and stopping the device).

VLC is a good work around, but I really hope this is fixed for the RTM version. Let's all report it as a bug in the meantime

[ursus]

How about codec packs, are they present (did you install K Lite or Vista Pack)?

I got video to work with vlc WITH accelereration, as I mentioned above--as long as I don't pick directx (though directx 3d works).

I've tried a lot of vista drivers from laptopvideo2go, and those that install give me a code 43 error (something about windows detecting a problem and stopping the device).

VLC is a good work around, but I really hope this is fixed for the RTM version. Let's all report it as a bug in the meantime

[Unknown_97784568745]

Ive spent the last 4 days playing with various Catalyst versions, custom driver files, etc to no avail at all. I simply think I will never gain support in win 7 due to outdated hw :(. I have an ATI Mobility Radeon 9200.

No Aero, PC comes back as a 1.0 :(!!! :( Windows Update installs some BS Mobility Radeon 9000 WDDM driver that cuases my display to go nuts!

Here is the driver info installed by MS. On my screen when that driver is installed i have lines EVERYHWERE and a double immage. I dont know where else to look for help on this issue.

I also commented on your other post. No DirectX 9 compatible GPU = No Aero.

[Undefineed]

I get laggy video playback in fullscreen. Don't ask me why, but i've always had this in Vista+7 now. Only real work around i had (to Windows Media Player/Winamp[for video playback as well]) was to use media player classic from www.cccp-project.net. That works fine and some how got windows media to play videos fullscreen without lag. Now all that remains is Winamp tho, i can live with mediaplayer/classic for vids :)

[TDQuiksilver]

The Intel 945GM in my notebook has been working perfectly with Windows 7 so far. I'm so happy there is no need to install codecs. AVI's seem to be slightly off the audio though.

[sookyboo]

This is from Microsoft:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/D...ase%20Notes.htm

Video drivers

Systems which use XDDM drivers may completely stop responding in certain scenarios. The computer will not respond to CTRL+ALT+DELETE and you will have to cycle the power to restart the computer, with the attendant risk of loss of unsaved data.

Some activities which have been demonstrated to trigger this issue include, but are not limited to:

Using Winsat.exe or using the Rate and improve your computer?s performance tool.

Changing multi-monitor configurations

DVD or other video playback

To avoid this, do not use XDDM drivers, but find an appropriate WDDM driver instead. If your video chipset does not have a WDDM driver (such as the Intel 915), use a VGA driver or an GPU that supports WDDM drivers.

If this issue occurs at setup, either avoid unattended setup or uninstall the XDDM driver and use a VGA driver until setup is complete.

[sookyboo]

XPDM vs. WDDM

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd229906(VS.85).aspx

This may help if you have WPF problems...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa970912.aspx

Disable WPF Hardware Acceleration:

DWORD HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Avalon.Graphics\DisableHWAcceleration = 1

[the white rabbit]

So it is a driver model issue.

At least MS is aware of it, and hopefully it'll be fixed before RTM. Thanks for the info.

[sookyboo]

At least MS is aware of it, and hopefully it'll be fixed before RTM. Thanks for the info.

No problem, I think it will be fixed before RTM.

[cromas]

I may be having the same problem. Although I haven't run a video on it, every time I try to rate the system it hangs on "assessing windows media decoding performance". I also have a low end video card on a Lenovo X41 tablet (Intel 915GM).

I'm using the same computer and having the same issue. Mine also locks up in Explorer when I browse a folder with AVIs, and some other instances.

In my case, setting the hardware acceleration slider to the third notch (from the left) resolved the issues. This notch is the one with the "Disable all DirectDraw and Direct3D accelerations" description. Obviously the graphics performance goes to crap, but at least the system remains usable, and the performance should still be better than with the default VGA driver. Also, doing it this way preserves the screen rotation feature, important for tablet users.

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

Might be a little late, but I was having a issue with this too - it doesnt lock up per-se, but instead had a second or two where the video would run at 5fps or so, then go back to normal.

Anyway, in ure device manager, chances are your missing a driver for sm bus controller. I found that downloading the drivers and installing them seemed to make that problem go away, and the video lag is now gone.

The drivers are located here: http://uswave.net/windows7/intel-smbus-drivers.zip

I hope this helps you all, haven't tested on any other machine, but I know it works with my specs in sig.

[KamaL]

I'm having the same problem on an old HP Zt3000 series laptop with ATI Radeon 9200 GPU.

Win 7 is running simply gr8 on it, apart from this bug.

I hope they'll fix it in the next release.