Vista - Videos Freezing In Vista x64 solved! FINALLy after months of headaches

DISABLE AERO THEME..Switch to Basic...my problems are all gone... EVERY SINGLE time i would open WMP or POWERDVD and switched to fullscreen the videos would start and after 2 or 3 sec the WHOLE system would freeze and i couldnt even get out of fullscreen.. it would just LOCK UP completely and i would have to hard reboot.. this issue was KILLING me... ..oh and forget about trying dreamscene.. if i had dreamscene running after like 10-15 min it wouold also freeze my computer.. so at first i thought disabling dreamscene would fix my probs... but it didnt...i tried a suugestion by someone on here to get media player classic the CCC( community codec pack) and even that would freeze...it froze less than WMP but still would happen..

the only thing is as much as it not THAT important ..ill miss aero, even thought it was such a minimal thing..hopefully windows 7 will fix many of the issues vista STILL has... i love vista..have stuck with it from the very beginning..but they have to fix these ttypes of issues..my problems NEVER HAD TO DO WITH SLI..sli was not at fault ..an di was already thinking of going ATI cuz of this.. go figure

hope this helps anyone else...


ps: this used to happen to me in 32bit but only once in a blue moon.. i noticed the problems more frequently when i upgraded to 64bit... i dont really wanna go back to 32bit so im glad i found my answer..after so SO MUCH trial and errors

Hi EmulatorX, welcome to the board. Congrats and thanks for sharing your accomplishment. Please post back periodically on your system status.

Hi EmulatorX,

I notice that you have SP2 Beta. Did you have the problem prior to you installing this? I don't have any problems with DreamScene or WMP (I don't have PowerDVD).

yes problems where just as persistant b4 installing sp2 beta...its actually one of teh reasons i decided to try sp2 beta to see if the problems would disappear but same problem... i tried everything i have my mobo bios up to date , i even tried going back to an older bios.. tried all kinds of video drivers.. tried different media players... the only thing that has fixed my issue was disabling aero... im testing WINDOW BLINDS by stardock..they have soom cool themes that "act" like aero but are not really..

This thread cannot be marked as solved.

For one simple reason: Your solution is a bit like curing the disease by killing the patient! Turning of Aero has done nothing but hide the problem.

My suggeestion to you would be to go to your graphics card manufacturers website, and then download and install the latest NON-BETA drivers. Do the same for your motherboard.

You may also have bad Video Codecs installed. I've been using the Vista Codec Pack for nearly 2 years now (alomost as long as I've had Vista x64), and I've had no problems.

Get it here: Vista Codec Package Homepage (VCP)

Good to hear you've found a work around. But *ahem* did you try disabling SLI ?

I'd also think twice about going ATI if your considering Xfire and x64. It was broken in 8.10 hotfix, is still broken in 8.11 and may not be fixed in 8.12 (single cards are fine)

Hi EmulatorX,

I have just had a look at your System Specs and I notice that you are using 2 PSUs. I recommend that you replace these with just a single unit - 1,000W+ units are available. For a PSU to work effectively, it must be correctly loaded. That means that the main ATX cable must be plugged in. Since, obviously, both of these cables cannot be in use, it does mean that the unit where the cable isn't being used is not loaded correctly (one of the 3.3V lines in this connector is also used to provide feedback to the PSU regarding loading factors). This in turn means that the power on the other cables is not as stable as it should be, leading to problems when the loading on them varies. This is OK if they are just used to power case fans, but if they are used to power other components it can cause problems. In addition, you will have problems caused by electrical continuity with the ground line.

hey guys thanks for all your responses..i've tried everything u guys mentioned aside from the dual psu possibly being the problem..but with aero disabled i dont have ANY issue...the dual psu's are 650 watt( powering MOBO,CPU, GPU's) 550 watt ( powering everything else HDD's FANS, USB devices, dvd roms etc etc) , i've tried WHQL video drivers..sound drivers..bios updates.. ALL CODECS out there and i make sure not to have all of them installed at the same time.. i know that can cause issues.... but why disabling aero completely solves all my problems? i dont know .... after disabling it i have not had one lock up at all from ANY player ( power dvd, wmp, etc etc), and the lock up never happened during intense 3d gaming, i really doubt the pus is the problem... as i've seen other people with the same exact issue and i doubt it was the psu at fault, i have tried disabling SLI and still no good... i know SLI isnt the issue cuz all is fine right now with sli enabled and aero disabled..

see this thread i saw right here on vista forums of other people complaining of the same issue.. apparently their issue was never followed up on or resolved please read this thread..its identical to my problem : System hangs and freezes from playing Videos

The one thing you haven't mentioned is whether or not yo've tried physically removing one of your graphics cards, and running it not with SLI disabled, but with no SLI at all on the hardware level. If the problem persists, then try using the other graphics card also on it's own.

The reason being why you have no problems with Aero disabled is possibly because there is no longer as much load on the graphics driver as there would be with it enabled. It is likely that Aero, combined with the resources required to play the videos is just simply too much for the graphics driver to deal with. It does not matter which player you use. At some point, they all go through the graphics card driver anyway, which provides the hardware video decoding functions.

Or, there could be a hardware issue. Perhaps the two cards you are using are not 100% compatible with each other? SLI works best really when you are using two graphics cards from the same generation GPU, preferably identical, both each with the same BIOS revisions. In that regard, do you also have the latest BIOS for your motherboard?

You also appear to have a fair number of codecs installed. This problem is elusive enough to not rule out any possibility. Perhaps you have some kind of conflict happening here? Uninstall as many of the codecs as possible, and install ONLY those that you require.

hey there.. well i havent tried removing the gfx cards really..but i refuse to believe they are the issue..NOT that i dont believe in your suggestions..its that many of the things u mentioned aside from removing each card and testing individually..i have already tried.... BOTH cards are identical in every way ( bios, clocks, model #'s), had it been the gfx cards hardware issue, i'd have problems with rendering or performance in games ( which i dont). I have tried disabling SLI, have also removed ( uninstalled) one of the cards in the device manager ( i know its not the same as physically removing). as far as codecs are concerned.. i DO NOT have many different types of codecs install just 1.. from the vista components..( by shark). Also not sure if i mentioned it, but even running dreamscene created the same freezing issue.. ( and as far as i can remember..back with the first retail version of vista 32bit i was always able to be running dreamscene with no issues..)