pc hangs during video playback

[simonh]

Hi all,

I recently built myself a new tower and installed a fresh copy of windows 7 home on a new hdd, everything is fine with it except that when i try to watch videos, after a short period of time, the video will freeze along with the rest of my pc.

 

I cant close the media player, ctrl-alt-del wont work and sometimes the mouse wont work either. If i just leave everything alone for 5-10 minutes then the pc will jump back to life but the video is then slow and choppy.

 

When building my new pc i used the RAM from my old tower and couple of old HDD's but apart from that everything is new so im a little stumped.

 

I've tried VLC, WMP and MPC and am having the same problems with them all.

 

thanks

 

simon

Edited December 14, 2010 by simonh

[Dalo Harkin]

Have you tried checking the RAM?

 

Have you looked in event viewer?

[simonh]

I have looked in event viewer though it doesn't make alot of sense to me and im not sure what to check the ram for. it says i have 4gb of which 3 is usable though it said that on my last pc.

[simonh]

anyone else?

[Jelly Bean]

Hello Simon.

 

Please could you post the hardware specifications of your computers hardware for us as this can help us rule in or out an issue.

[simonh]

Hi Jelly Bean

 

yeah my specs are

 

Motherboard - Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. G41M-ES2L

Processor - 2.93 gigahertz Intel Core2 Duo

Ram - 4GB ( 2GB's twice)

Graphics Card - GeForce 9600 GT

HDD - 3 totaling 4TB

 

hope that helps

 

simon

[RandyL]

What type of RAM are you using? The Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. G41M-ES2L specs call for Dual channel DDR2 1066(OC).

GA-G41M-ES2L (rev. 1.0) - GIGABYTE - Product - Motherboard - Overview

[RandyL]

It might be your graphics card. The system requirements are:

 

Power Requirements:

600W Minimum Power Supply

6-Pin Power Connectors

 

Operating System Requirements:

Microsoft Windows 98

Microsoft Windows 2000

Microsoft Windows ME

Microsoft Windows XP

Microsoft Windows Vista

Linux

Unix

 

The product specifications can also be found at this link.

Graphic Cards - NVIDIA GeForce® 9 Series - NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT

[simonh]

It might be your graphics card. The system requirements are:

 

Power Requirements:

600W Minimum Power Supply

6-Pin Power Connectors

 

Operating System Requirements:

Microsoft Windows 98

Microsoft Windows 2000

Microsoft Windows ME

Microsoft Windows XP

Microsoft Windows Vista

Linux

Unix

 

The product specifications can also be found at this link.

Graphic Cards - NVIDIA GeForce® 9 Series - NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT

 

I really hope not, that'd be quite a waste of money.

 

i did look into the RAM thing, im not sure what the exact specs are but i did the memory diagnostic and it came back with errors so i'm hoping it's just a case of needing an upgrade.

 

where do i find out my psu wattage?

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, at the moment I am hanging my hat on the RAM being the fault, at the prices it won't be too expensive to buy two new sticks of the correct type as quoted by Randy.

 

The power supply rating in watts should be on the label attached to the power supply, and is the only place you will find it. If that label is missing you are stuck, as it is one of the few things the BIOS or operating system doesn't have the capabilities to find normally.

Nev.

[RandyL]

I have to agree with Nev. If you have RAM errors it is the most likely. After all you did say you are using the old RAM.

[simonh]

Hi everyone, thanks for your help thus far, can anyone reccommend a website to buy components from as im haveing trouble finding the RAM i need on the high street.

 

And it turns out my psu is 530W is that gonna be a problem also?

[RandyL]

I use Crucial for memory. As for the PSU the card does call for 600W minimum. I can't say for sure if 530W is enough.

[Plastic Nev]

If as Randy says the graphics card needs 600 watts, then to be sure there is enough left to run the rest of the machine you need a PSU rated at least to 750 watts, better if higher, and I would suggest looking at the highest powered PSU that you can afford and will fit the case.

 

I have used Crucial in the past, present weather conditions in the UK excepted, the delivery times are good and their products are well worth the investment.

Nev.

[simonh]

Cool, thank you everyone for your help , i'll post back when i've picked up the RAM and let you know how i get on

[simonh]

Well it would appear that the problem is still there, put my new RAM in today and it's still hanging. Ran another diagnostic and the errors have gone so thats something at least.

 

Couple of things I forgot to mention before, The hangs are less frequent when I turn the aero theme off and it only seems to occur when using a media player. streaming, for example, is fine although there have been one or two instances with other programs.

 

Does anyone know why it say's that only 3 of my 4Gb of RAM is usable?

[RandyL]

If all the RAM is exactly the same and is the correct RAM according to Crucial and all are brand new then it might be a faulty stick even though new or even a bad slot.

 

As noted before your PSU is weak for the card and 4GB is minimal for Windows 7 if you ask me.

 

It sounds like you have multiple resource and hardware issues. Things to consider:

 

Not enough RAM.

Need a bigger PSU.

Software installed and running at startup.

 

Have you tried reinstalling Windows 7? I assume you have all of the Windows 7 disks. Is that correct?

[Plastic Nev]

Hum, just one little thing comes to mind here, does that motherboard have a graphics chip of it's own? if so has it been turned off? ,

A way to find out that may answer the original question as well, is remove the graphics card, then plug the monitor into the port on the motherboard. If the internal graphics are still on, the monitor will work, plus if the monitor still freezes after a short period it will also rule out a fault on the card.

 

I assume the card is either PCIE or similar, these have their own memory and don't need to use the computers own RAM, however on board graphics chips do use the system RAM, which results in it showing some RAM out of the total not usable because the internal graphics have collared some for itself.

Turning off the internal graphics once the card is fitted should then allow most of system RAM to show as usable, though the operating system itself pinches a bit too. Turning it off will also rule out any conflict between the two graphics systems, which may be the reason for your problem in the first place.

I will add as an edit as I have just remembered, some graphics cards automatically turn off the internal or mother board graphics but others do not. To turn the internal graphics off if the card hasn't, it should be showing in the BIOS and where and how to disable it.

Nev.

[simonh]

Well i was going to have a go today at following the steps explained by Plastic Nev but it would seem that the problem has stopped, hasnt hung for about 3-4 days even though I've been trying to work the RAM really hard by having many apps open and running at the same time.

 

Bit of slow down which I'm guessing goes back to what Randyl was saying about the PSU etc.

 

I do have the windows discs Randyl but I was kinda hioping that would be the last resort although as it was a fresh install anyway, do you really think that would be the difference?

[RandyL]

That shouldn't be neccesary.

[simonh]

Right, it's a few months now since I upgraded my power supply and my RAM but I think I may have been off the mark when writing my original posts.

 

I've notice that there doesn't have to be any foreground programs running for my pc to freeze, I've come home from work a few times and had to wait a few minutes before I can do anything with it.

 

The PC seems to go to sleep, the only sound I hear when it freezes is the fan until life comes back and then I hear some whirring and clicking which is the same sound that I hear when trying to empty my recycle bin or access HDD's that aren't the main.

 

If I do want to watch a program or listen to music without hanging then I have to keep the machine "ticking over" by running something in the background like a virus scan and even then it will occasionally hang briefly making more whirring and clicking noises but for the most part I can watch things for as long as the scan is going.

 

Hope this can help some people identify what my problem is because i'm beginning to suspect the HDD's.

 

Thanks

[Plastic Nev]

Hi again, thanks for coming back to let us know and that there is still a problem.

You may be right and the main HDD is playing up and maybe even sticking. The odd noises suggest a HDD problem.

However, this may sound strange, but please bear with me. I found something similar happening a few weeks ago when viewing either video of my own stuff done on the video camera etc, or much worse when trying a Youtube download. The first thing I did was open task manager and have a look at what might be hogging resources and found Firefox was using some incredibly high amount of memory, which as I watched the amount kept climbing. (well over 900,000K) I therefore closed Firefox. Straight away end of problem.

Since then Firefox have issued an update which appears to have cured the problem to some extent, though memory usage is still a bit high for my liking but at least the computer is usable while Firefox is open.

 

I mention all of this just to point out that there may be something similar in your case which is hogging a large amount of RAM memory.

To get to task manager just type "Task Manager" in the search box after clicking start, then select "View running processes with Task Manager" When the window opens, select the "Processes" tab. Have a look down the list under Memory and look for anything using more than 200,000K

 

Nev.

[simonh]

Hi Nev,

 

Unfortunately there isn't anything running that high even with VLC and chrome open, the highest is about 60-70,000k. I never did do that thing you suggested with the graphics card. Do you think that would still be relevant?

[Plastic Nev]

If the motherboard does have on board graphics, it may be worth pulling the card out and trying the on board, it is worth looking over anyway just to rule out the card.

Nev.

[simonh]

ok, i'll have a go and get back to you