On one of my systems under XP Pro / Service Pack 2/ Pentium 4 - CPU 2.01GHz
- RAM 768, videos and DVDs playback is jerky, sound out of sync with images,
and frequent freezes of both. Whatever is the media player I used: Windows
Media Player, Real Player, VLC media player, InterVideo DVD Player, and
many other video playing programs. The problem also occurs in videos embedded
in web pages.
For sure,
there is something wrong with the graphic card. The hardware
itself or the drivers. It could also be CODECS
problem. Or something to do with Adobe Flash Media
Player - as embedded videos make use of that piece of software.
Therefore, in order to troubleshoot, we have to explore
four lanes for solutions: (1) Detect what is (eventually)
wrong with the graphic card; (2) Investigate the CODECS (Compressing
Decompressing Software) to see if the right (efficient) one is installed on
the system; (3) make
sure that Adobe Flash Media Player latest update/ upgrade is installed, and
(4) verify that there is no memory-leak when
playing videos.
Current issue deals with (possible)
problems linked to the graphic card.
PART I: UPDATE YOUR GRAPHIC CARD DRIVERS TO THE RIGHT ONES
COMPATIBLE WITH YOUR SYSTEM
Internet Explorer loads slowly, which is strange
as Microsoft security fixes are up-to-date - and set to be automatically
performed through Windows Security Center (see Control Panel.)
This is odd, as the computer is broadband (cable) connected to the Internet.
Further, several other applications load very slowly. That is also strange,
as RAM amounts
to 768MB and RAM/memory's allocation to loaded applications is efficiently
managed by Cacheman
XP [12, 23, 27, 87]
to minimize memory-leak.
Further, the graphic card had been upgraded to a new brand GeForce
6200 series / 128MB
DDR2 TV + DVI Output, which boasts HD video playback without skips,
superb picture clarity, without double images and blurring or distortions
- and still the playback of videos and DVDs remained jerky. Sound and media
streaming alike. Very odd as the graphic card package shipped with
updated drivers.
Searching knowledge-bases and forums on the Internet, I noticed that jerky
video playback annoyance is experienced by thousand of people. And that there
is a problem choosing the right GeForce's forceWare as per following links:
[1, 2, 3].
On linked page 1 it
is advised to use a series of ForceWare to solve the problem - version 8.4.2.1
is listed, which is exactly
the version that shipped with the new brand GeForce 6200. [To verify
your graphic card driver version, perform the following sequence (XP
PRo): Start / Control Panel / System / Device Manager / Display Adapter / Choose
your Display Adapter / Highlight
it / Right Click and choose Properties / Driver.]
The logic deduction: either the graphic hardware GeForce 6200 is flawed, or
its ForceWare (driver) version 8.4.2.1 is not the one that should be installed
on the system.
Further research led to Nvidia
support page, which put
side by side (1) U.S. English and (2) International
languages (including UK English) versions (8.4.2.1) of the ForceWare.
That is when I saw the light and understood that I may not
have installed the right driver (ForceWare).
Indeed, the Operating System XP PRO is U.S.
English.
And I bought the graphic card in Europe with UK English
language installation disk. Therefore,
if the installed ForceWare version is 8.4.2.1, it is UK English version and
not U.S. English version - the later one being the one that should be more
suitable for the operating system.
Thus to find out if above deduction is true, I performed uninstall of the International
version (UK English) performing the
following sequence: Start/ Control Panel/ Add Remove Applications / Nvidia
Driver, and installed the U.S. English version 8.4.2.1. Subsequently, Microsoft
Internet Explorer loads smoothly and fast - as well as other applications.
Conclusion: One should always install drivers
compatible with the language version of the Operating System. Sound like an
obvious statement, but it is not so in this particular case, because "normally"
there should not be difference between U.S. English and UK English versions
of a hardware's drivers.
However, videos' playback remained jerky - less freezes, but still discrepancies
between sound and images from time to time, for videos embedded in webpages
or DVDs played from DVD player. Therefore, further troubleshooting would be
necessary to fine tune up the system to smoothly playback videos and DVDs.
Next delivery (Issue
98 - June 15, 2007)
will discuss Part II: Install Additional Codecs To The Original Ones
Shipped With Windows XP
-
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Africabiz
Online's Copyright 1997-2008 by Dr.
Quenum & Associates ,
registered at Yahoo's Newsletters Directory as Africabiz and
at following RSS Feed Directories as http://businessafrica.net/africabiz/rss/rss1.xml
.
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