Rare hard lock ups with videos with acceleration with an old ATI Radeon 4870 HD video card in a Windows XP Pro. SP3 machine?

[Ant]

Hi!

I am having annoying, rare hard computer lock ups when it comes to
playing videos through local files (MPEG-2 and TS) with various players
(Media Player Classic-Home Cinema, DVB Viewer Pro, and VideoLAN Client
(VLC) Media Player) and streaming Mozilla SeaMonkey v2.0.14 web
browser's Flash. It's not easy to reproduce the hard crash easily since
it is rare and random. I don't need to be using the computer with the
videos playing to reproduce the hard lock ups too. It has been happening
for over a year or so on this old, updated Windows XP Pro. SP3 machine
with a MSI R4870-T2D512 OC Radeon HD (512 MB) PCIe video card from late
2008. More details can be found in
http://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/computers.txt for the primary computer.

I tried upgrading with its various drivers and softwares, but nothing
seems to improve and fix this problem. The only thing that seems to fix
it is disabling video acceleration fully (none) in Windows XP Pro. I
have not seen the hard lock ups for about a month of testings with no
video accerelation. SP3's display properties' troubleshoot tab (no
reboot required). However, this makes display stuff slower and choppier,
unable to use ATI/AMD's CCC, upside down videos for some formats (e.g.,
MPEG-2 and TS), etc. DPC Latency Checker v1.3.0 showed about 1000-2000us
with acceleration for videos. Without acceleration, it is under 250us.
Big differences and maybe the cause?

Here is what I have observed and done so far over the year:
-PC frozen hard and audio stuck (if playing audio) when playing videos
(Flash, MPEG-2, and TS). Requires a reset button push.
-After powering off frozen PC, its computer's front power light is still
on but fans are off.
-Happened when multitasking and idled (MPC-HC after 4.25, 5:37 minutes,
hours, etc.) with SM2 (many or one tab(s)).
-Both MPEG-2 decoders (CyberLink PowerDVD 7 and MainConcept) have choppy
problems, but
-Choppy video and/or audio, and desynched audio related to lock ups?
-Froze in a noisy Marine's Aquarium screen saver once so far.
-Resetted ATI settings to use its defaults (global and each button) in
CCC, deleted profiles, deleted profiles.xml files, and redid profiles.
-Disabled onboard audio in device manager and use MPC's options >
playback > output > audio renderer > null renderer.
-Disabled Dxdiag's audio acceleration options.
-Unplugged speaker cables from onboard audio.
-Uninstalled, ran Drive Sweeper, and installed latest RealTek's audio
driver again (didn't work with previous ones)
-Installed newer Intel chipset drivers.
-Uninstalled K-Lite.
-Ran four registry cleaners and three optimizers.
-Replaced dying 500 GB HDD with a new 1 TB HDD that hold videos.
-Happened with MPEG2, TS, and SM2's streaming Flash videos.
-Happened in MPC-HC, DVB Viewer Pro., and VLC with recorded and live
-MPEG-2 and TS videos only. WMV, MKV, MP4, FLV, etc. don't seem to
reproduce the hard lock ups.
-Happened in both single and clone (DVI + CRT TV) display with just
playing and skipping.
-Happened with a little as 30 minutes to a few days for Windows uptime.
-A few minutes to four hours for playing local videos if reproduced.
-Happened with always on power and minimal setups.
-Happened with VGA 60 hz and 70 hz primary VGA LCD monitor.
-Happened without ATI Stream SDK v2 Developer.
-Happened without ATI Media Codec/Avivo.
-Happened in cold and hot temperatures.
-Happened in both computer usage and idled status.
-It doesn't matter with USB versus/vs. USB+PS2 adapter for mouse.
-Happened with and without ffdshow audio's volume increase.
-Happened with and without bass.
-Upgraded updated IE6 to 7 with all updates.
-Uninstalled and installed latest K-Lite Mega Codecs.
-Uninstalled old MPEG-2 codec and SopCast.
-Uninstalled Firefox v2.0.0.20 and XeroBank web browser.
-Uninstalled DVD Fab.
-Uninstalled VMware Workstation
-Disabled disc drives
-Reinstalled the DirectX 9.0c June 2010.
-Tested DirectX.
-Reinstalled DirectX 9.0c online, but it detected I have the latest.
-Set DirectX display to use 70hz refresh rate.
-Changed CMOS' values (crashed after about 1.5 hours while surfing web
and watching a WMV in MPC):
CPU Vcore values from 1.01875 V to 1.02500
CPU DLL Vcore from 1.375 V to 1.400 V
DIMM Voltage from 1.100 V to 1.125 V
-Uninstalled SilverLight v1.0.0.
-Changed SATA HDD.
-Disabled Catalyst AI.
-Disabled ATI HDMI audio driver.
-Disabled video's "Hardware Accelerator" with two notches left/down from
maximum.
-Disabled DVXA.
-Disabled two dxdiag.exe/DirectX's features (can't disable DirectDraw or
pink display): Direct3D Acceleration and AGP Texture Acceleration
-Disabled HP's startup programs.
-Powered off speakers, CRT TV, and VCR.
-Deleted C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\DRM
-Uninstalled System47 screen saver.
-Disabled IME startups.
-Removed VirtualEarth 3D plugin and upgraded Google Earth
-Disabled rundll32.exe ptipbmf.dll startups.
-Doesn't seem to related to MCD, PuTTY, SecureCRT, PopTray, Pick-A-Tag,
and Trillians.
-Tried disabling ATI's Video's All Settings: Automatic deinterlacing,
dynamic contrast, and enforced smooth video playback.
-Disconnected and replugged speaker cable
-Uninstalled and upgraded RealTek's latest audio and network drivers.
-Uninstalled ATI/AMD's video driver, ran Driver Sweeper, and installed
ATI video driver with a newer one.
-Uninstalled Koi Fish 3D screen saver.
-Muted audio in MPC.
-Checked inside PC. Nothing odd, just dusty. Video card was hot/warm,
but it doesn't matter if it is cold/hot in the room.
-Had no problems for about a month and then they came back. Weird.

I really don't want to reinstall Windows from scratch/cleanly to fix
this too. I am hoping someone would have some ideas to try. Maybe the
video card is dying due to its old age? I also don't play computer games
anymore for years, so I don't know if they will crash too. I assume they
will if a 3D screen saver had a hard lock up before. :(

Thank you in advance. :)
--
"The ant has made himself illustrious; Through constant industry
industrious.; So what? Would you be calm and placid; If you were full of
formic acid?" --Ogden Nash (The Ant)
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
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| |o o| |
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Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.

[Jim Beard]

The recommended solution for MS Windows problems is Linux.
Ubuntu/Kubuntu would probably be the best choice for someone
mostly happy with Winblows.

Cheers!

jim b.

--
UNIX is not user unfriendly; it merely
expects users to be computer-friendly.

[Ant]

> The recommended solution for MS Windows problems is Linux.
> Ubuntu/Kubuntu would probably be the best choice for someone
> mostly happy with Winblows.

Not an acceptable solution since I still need Windows for graphics,
videos, etc. I would lose all my old Windows softwares as well that I
still use.
--
Quote of the Week: "PLEASE tell your aardvark that I'm NOT an anthill!" --unknown
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[Stephen H. Fischer]

Hi,

I have seen posts on AVS by a resident HTPC expert suggesting a flakily
power supply may be the cause of the problems like you are seeing.
(11,544 posts and not a moderator.)

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=26

Might expose your problems to more experts with better advice.

SHF (1,082 AVS posts)

"Ant" <a...@zimage.comANT> wrote in message
news:4IydnYtkSfTDwenS...@earthlink.com...
> Hi!
>
> I am having annoying, rare hard computer lock ups ...

[Ant]

Interesting. I have had this Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650 watts ATX12V/EPS12V
SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC power supply
since end of 2010 when it was new. Also, why would having video
acceleration cause these rare lock ups when having none doesn't?


On 3/29/2012 4:08 PM PT, Stephen H. Fischer typed:

> Hi,
>
> I have seen posts on AVS by a resident HTPC expert suggesting a flakily
> power supply may be the cause of the problems like you are seeing.
> (11,544 posts and not a moderator.)
>
> http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=26
>
> Might expose your problems to more experts with better advice.
>
> SHF (1,082 AVS posts)
>
> "Ant" <a...@zimage.comANT> wrote in message
> news:4IydnYtkSfTDwenS...@earthlink.com...
>> Hi!
>>
>> I am having annoying, rare hard computer lock ups ...
>>
>> Thank you in advance. :)
--

"Ants live safely till they have gotten wings." --unknown

[Jim Beard]

Perhaps more heat generated due to more intense processing
activity? Or the extra current draw exceeding the power supply's
ability to consistently provide?

But a 650-watt power supply really should not have such problems.
Of course, it is possible for the voltage/current on a specific
set of rails to be out of spec while the rest of the thing is
fine. A bad connection could do that. But I would not fool
around with a power supply unless I knew exactly what I was
doing, even with the thing disconnected from the mains.

Puzzling.

jim b.

On 03/30/2012 02:28 AM, Ant wrote:
> Interesting. I have had this Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650 watts
> ATX12V/EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active
> PFC power supply since end of 2010 when it was new. Also, why
> would having video acceleration cause these rare lock ups when
> having none doesn't?
>
>
> On 3/29/2012 4:08 PM PT, Stephen H. Fischer typed:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have seen posts on AVS by a resident HTPC expert suggesting a
>> flakily
>> power supply may be the cause of the problems like you are seeing.
>> (11,544 posts and not a moderator.)
>>
>> http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=26
>>
>> Might expose your problems to more experts with better advice.
>>
>> SHF (1,082 AVS posts)
>>
>> "Ant" <a...@zimage.comANT> wrote in message
>> news:4IydnYtkSfTDwenS...@earthlink.com...
>>> Hi!
>>>
>>> I am having annoying, rare hard computer lock ups ...
>>>
>>> Thank you in advance. :)


--

[Ant]

Yeah, I don't think it would be a power issue. I wished there was a
bootable disc or USB flash media to test this issue out with full video
acceleration with videos.


On 3/30/2012 5:30 AM PT, Jim Beard typed:

"Did the ant fall off the toilet seat because she was pissed off?" --unknown

[yukonron]

It could be a resource problem. How much ram do you have? you might have
a rootkit trojan thats messing up your resources. Try downloading and
runnig TDSSKILLER Anti-rootkit utility
http://support.kaspersky.com/faq/?qid=208283363 it's free from
Kaspersky. You could also check your processes in you task manager and
disable unnecessary processes to free up some ram. You can disable them
in your control panel or by running msconfig. I've been using windows 7
64bit for quite awhile now but I seem to remember that xp 32bit can't
use more than 3 gig's of ram. http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00015.htm So
you might have to disable some unnecessary programs or find out what's
causing a conflict by disabling programs by trial and error. Certain
antivirus programs are ram hungry norton and avg use alot of ram. If all
else fails I would upgrade to windows 7 if your system can handle it.
You won't lose your files and programs as long as you don't do a clean
install. I've heard alot of windows 7bashing on this forum by people who
don't know it but Ive been using it for over a year now and it's way
better than xp

[Ant]

I have 6 GB of RAM. I already scanned with the latest versions of and
updated MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware, SuperAntiSpyware, The Cleaner,
SpyBot S&D, and Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (mrt.exe's full
scan). I highly doubt it is those. Why would I have no hard lock up
problems with the video acceleration completely disabled?

FYI, uninstalling and clearing out left overs to downgrade back to v9.7
driver did not fix the problem. Currently with the latest v12.3 driver,
I am underclocking my GPU clock settings to 500 MHz and memory clock
settings to 500 Mhz through enabled AMD Overdrive to see if that fix it
since we know having video acceleration is making my PC lock up hard.
They are the lowest I can go.

Now, I noticed loading, unloading, and playing embedded Flash videos
show flickers with these low values. I don't mind them if it fixes my
lock ups! So far so good after five hours, but it it still too early...


On 3/29/2012 6:55 PM PT, yukonron typed:

--
"Ants can lift up to 50 times their own weight. And your monitor is
missing. Time to bring out the bugspray." --BBspot's Geek Horoscopes
(2/28/2003)

[testeur]

Do you have more than 4 cores on your processor ?

There is a bug in this case in DirectX that may crash the system

=> apply fix WindowsXP-KB953028-x86-ENU.exe

Olivier

[Ant]

On 5/4/2012 1:12 PM PT, testeur typed:

> Do you have more than 4 cores on your processor ?
>
> There is a bug in this case in DirectX that may crash the system
>
> => apply fix WindowsXP-KB953028-x86-ENU.exe

I have four cores + HT cores. Does that count?
--
o/~ All the little ants are marching, red and black antennae waving...
they all do it the same... they all do it the same... way... o/~ --Ants
Marching song by Dave Matthews Band

[Ant]

On 5/4/2012 3:12 PM PT, Ant typed:

>> Do you have more than 4 cores on your processor ?
>>
>> There is a bug in this case in DirectX that may crash the system
>>
>> => apply fix WindowsXP-KB953028-x86-ENU.exe
>
> I have four cores + HT cores. Does that count?

According to it, my current installed Windows XP Pro. SP3's files show
its D3d9.dll as v5.3.2600.5512 and dated 4/14/2008 5:41 AM. How do I get
this KB file? I don't see an option to download it. :(

Confused!
--
"Have I told you how much I like ants, huh? Especially fried in a subtle
blend of mech fluid and grated gears?" --Rampage to Inferno,
"Transmutate" in Transformers (Beast Wars)

[testeur]

See : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953028

Olivier

[Ant]

On 5/5/2012 3:03 AM PT, testeur typed:

> See : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953028

Thanks. I missed its tiny download link at the top. I hope this works
(had to reboot for it)! I wonder why MS never released it in its
official updated DirectX 9.0c and/or MS Updates if it came out in 2008! :/
--
"A centipede is an ant made to Canadian/government specs." --unknown

[Ant]

On 5/4/2012 3:12 PM PT, Ant typed:

>> Do you have more than 4 cores on your processor ?
>>
>> There is a bug in this case in DirectX that may crash the system
>>
>> => apply fix WindowsXP-KB953028-x86-ENU.exe
>

> I have four cores + HT cores. Does that count?

Nope, that hotfix did not fix the problem. I finally got a lock up
overnight after 31 minutes of playing a MPEG-2 video. :(
--
"Why would you want a glow in the dark ant farm?" --Leonard; "They do
some of their best work at night." --Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory
S4E4 (The Hot Troll Deviation).

[Ant]

On 5/10/2012 3:11 AM PT, Ant typed:

>>> Do you have more than 4 cores on your processor ?
>>>
>>> There is a bug in this case in DirectX that may crash the system
>>>
>>> => apply fix WindowsXP-KB953028-x86-ENU.exe
>>
>> I have four cores + HT cores. Does that count?
>
> Nope, that hotfix did not fix the problem. I finally got a lock up
> overnight after 31 minutes of playing a MPEG-2 video. :(

Boo! I just had another lock up, but this time it was from a HQ MP4
video file! Sheesh! Disabling VPU doesn't fix it so back to very low
clock cycles tests. [sighs]
--
"We now go live to Ollie Williams in Channel 5 traffic chopper. What's
scene?" --Tom Tucker. "Everyone looks like ants!" "That is probably
because you're up so high." from Family Guy.

/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.

A song is/was playing on this computer: Nagz - Budai Rakpart

[Ant]

On 5/10/2012 3:11 AM PT, Ant typed:

>>> Do you have more than 4 cores on your processor ?
>>>
>>> There is a bug in this case in DirectX that may crash the system
>>>
>>> => apply fix WindowsXP-KB953028-x86-ENU.exe
>>
>> I have four cores + HT cores. Does that count?
>
> Nope, that hotfix did not fix the problem. I finally got a lock up
> overnight after 31 minutes of playing a MPEG-2 video. :(

Boo! I just had another lock up, but this time it was from a HQ MP4
video file! Sheesh! Disabling VPU doesn't fix it so back to very low

clock cycles tests. [sighs] Also, I am still using this hotfix. So two
times already. :(
--
"God is a mean kid sitting on an ant-hill with a magnifying glass, and
I'm the ant." --Bruce Nolan (Bruce Almighty movie)

/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.

A song is/was playing on this computer: PACO - The Truth of the MIND

[Ant]

FYI, it is related to video acceleration. If I completely disable it
through XP SP3's display properties, then no more hard lock ups for
months. Obviously, display performances, videos, etc. don't work or
slowly. I am using that as a temporary workaround for now.


On 3/29/2012 5:58 AM PT, Ant typed:

"... Let's go pour these (peas from a can) onto an anthill I've found."
--Strong Bad (Witness the Cheatar! episode)

/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.

A song is/was playing on this computer: MECANO Associates, inc. - Asteroid

[Ant]

I forgot to follow up! OK, downgrading back to v8.10 showed no more lock
ups AND no time/clock slow downs with DVI when playing videos. Over
Christmas 2012 break, I narrowed the driver down to v9.4 that was the
last driver that did not have problems. :/ I could not figure out what
caused these problems in v9.5 release notes. :(


On 9/8/2012 11:03 AM PT, Ant typed:

"... human societies send their young men to war, weaver-ant societies
send their old ladies." --Wilson and Holldobler

/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.

[Ed Light]

On 1/4/2013 11:15 PM, Ant wrote:
> I forgot to follow up! OK, downgrading back to v8.10 showed no more lock
> ups AND no time/clock slow downs with DVI when playing videos. Over
> Christmas 2012 break, I narrowed the driver down to v9.4 that was the
> last driver that did not have problems. :/ I could not figure out what
> caused these problems in v9.5 release notes. :(

Have you tried 12.4?
Are you uninstalling the old drivers in the Win XP program uninstall
list, rebooting, then installing the new one?
--
Ed Light

Better World News TV Channel:
http://realnews.com

Iraq Veterans Against the War and Related:
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http://couragetoresist.org
http://antiwar.com

Send spam to the FTC at
sp...@uce.gov
Thanks, robots.

[Ant]

On 1/7/2013 3:25 PM PT, Ed Light typed:

>> I forgot to follow up! OK, downgrading back to v8.10 showed no more lock
>> ups AND no time/clock slow downs with DVI when playing videos. Over
>> Christmas 2012 break, I narrowed the driver down to v9.4 that was the
>> last driver that did not have problems. :/ I could not figure out what
>> caused these problems in v9.5 release notes. :(
>
> Have you tried 12.4?
> Are you uninstalling the old drivers in the Win XP program uninstall
> list, rebooting, then installing the new one?

Yep to all. I even used those driver cleaners (Fusion and Sweeper). FYI,
it seems like others had this problem according to my old
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?p=1337124889 forum thread
(more details than in this newsgroup thread). :( Oh well, no more
upgrading ATI/AMD video drivers for this 4+ years old video card in it.
--
"Yeah, what's left of it. I was in the militia -- national guard...
That's good! Wasn't any war any more than there's war between men and
ants." --stranger; "And we're eat-able ants. I found that out... What
will they do with us?" --Pierson from H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds

[Ant]

I forgot to follow up on this old issue! Ever since Christmas eve
(12/24) in 2012, I finally found the highest old driver version to use
to fix my other issues as shown in
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33994195 ... I have been
using v9.4.

So far, I only have had two hard lock ups while surfing the web right
after watching Flash videos in my Mozilla's SeaMonkey v2.x web browsers.
None during any videos so far. The latest incident was last night when I
had corrupted mouse cursor since yesterday morning (did not feel like
rebooting). I had this rare corrupted mouse issue for over four years
IIRC. I don't know if they are related. I did notice changing video
acceleration one notch lower fixes it. Putting it back to max again,
then makes it corrupted again.

At least the hard lock ups were way less than before with the newer
drivers.

--
Quote of the Week: "Even the ant has his (her) bite." --Turkish
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org (Personal Web Site)

/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |

\ _ / Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail. If crediting,

( ) then please kindly use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.