OK, I’m running Windows XP with an ATI All-In-Wonder DV video card with a 1.2 ghz AMD processor and a little generic DVD-rom that came with my previous computer, a Dell.
Whenever I tried to play a DVD in any program, I got the same problem - the program would simply stop responding entirely and I would have to close it down.
I got the Sonic Cineplayer DVD Decoder pack, which microsoft recommends to fix this problem, but it didn’t change anything. My DVD drive reads games and music CDs just fine, and my programs play them, so I think my DVD drive is working fine. When I go to My Computer or look with Windows Media Player, the title of the DVD shows up, as though it was able to read and understand the content well enough to see the title. So what’s up with no playback?
Any suggestions would be appreciated, as my small but distinguished DVD collection is languishing on the shelf, and the local video rentery is no doubt on the verge of bankrupcy from my lack of business.
Have you been downloading Windows updates from the Microsoft Windows Update page? Have you tried finding out if you have the latest drivers for the DVD drive?
Optical drives of any kind - CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-RW - don’t need drivers. If you ask me, it sounds like your DVD drive is kaput. Have you been able to try another drive??
That’s exactly what happened to me when my DVD-ROM died. In fact, I put it in another computer where it still reads CDs just fine, it just hasn’t been able to read a DVD in over a year. DVD-ROMs are very cheap nowadays, it sounds like its time to invest in a new one.
Actually, isn’t there a windows xp issue with dvd’s on some systems? I seem to recall an update or two addressing dvd playback…damn…don’t have an xp installation in front of me right now to doublecheck. You might try windows update. If that doesn’t work, THEN try a new drive.
I think at this point I’d blame ATI if I were you. I say this 'cause I spent several hours last night trying to fix a similar problem.
I had an ATI all-in-wonder 128 card which was a few years old. Played DVD wonderfully, was a little slow on games. I upgraded to the All-in-wonder Radeon 8500, which was top-of-the-line until the 9700 came out a few weeks ago.
It plays games great, but the DVD playback sucks. The problem is really weird, every minute or so, the movie appears to kinda fast forward for a secondor two. Really annoying. And, coincidentally, ATI’s real-person phone tech support is “unavailable due to maintenance upgrades” so they just keep sending me the same tired 'ol FAQ full of things I’m supposed to check which could cause the problem, which I already checked.