100% CPU playing video in any player

[Fortwilliam]

Anyone any idea why playing a video in any player, Windows Media, Real Player, Pixela or Windows Media Classic makes the program hang with CPU usage showing 100%.

 

The quickest way to get out of the program is to have it pre-selected in Task Manager under Processes.

 

I have 1GB memory and 22GB free disk space with no other programs running.

 

Flash videos on the internet play fine.

 

Because the problem is 'global' I don't think that the settings in any particular player can be at fault.

 

Losing what little hair I have left.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi,

The flash player running files off the net OK, I assume from the likes of Youtube, is throwing me here, so I have to ask is it only videos, or if using media player to play an ordinary sound file, music etc does the problem occur then.?

[Fortwilliam]

Music files play fine.

[Plastic Nev]

OK, what machine is it, make and model, also do you have a graphics card installed or is it the internal (motherboard) graphics?

It looks like it may be a graphics driver issue, so we need to know a bit more to find a suitable download site for drivers.

[Fortwilliam]

Thanks for your further reply, the info you requested:

 

Model: Tiny Computers MS-6741 1.0

OS: Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (build 2600)

Main Circuit Board - MSI MS-6741 1.0

Processor

2.40 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64

128 kilobyte primary memory cache

512 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Bus Clock: 200 megahertz

 

BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. Version 07.00T 04/02/01

Drive

196.72 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity

23.21 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

Memory – 1GB

Pagefile - 1524MB

Graphics Card - NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS

Driver: 9.1.4.7

This driver for the graphics card is not the latest. Some time ago, around the start of the year, I uninstalled the driver and installed the latest driver. Big problems with an 'infinite loop' error each time I tried to play Warcraft. After a lot of research I reinstalled the old driver and Warcraft played fine. From recollection the new driver was trying to make the card over-perform.

I'm truly not sure if this is when my problems with videos began, but you have certainly got me thinking.

Any further thoughts?

Regards.

[maynardvdm]

Hi

 

Did you try this driver: GeForce/ION Driver Release 186

[Fortwilliam]

Hi again,

 

Tried the driver you suggested and have my videos back. Yeah!!

 

BUT my Warcraft is hanging again :confused:.

 

Need my Warcraft, withdrawal symptoms already :D.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi again,

Not being a gamer, I am only guessing here, but you say this happened previously, so you rolled back the driver to a previous version as it seemed the new driver was over working the graphics card.

 

Makes me wonder if the graphics card is up to the job of running that game, and whether it may pay to upgrade to a better card.

 

That is only a guess mind, and willing to be put right by someone with more knowledge on games and graphics.

Nev.

[Fortwilliam]

Thanks for that. The graphics card worked fine until I did the original driver update. It worked fine again after I did the roll back.

 

It works now with the latest driver in OpenGL mode but the framerate is very low.

 

When I return from holiday I think I will do a clean install of XP.

 

Thanks again.