Recently,within the past week or so, my computer has been having trouble playing videos.

I start playback and eventually the computer will freeze up, audio will stutter endlessly, and I am forced to hard boot. Last time it happened I got through about 10 minutes of a movie before it froze up.

I have run ant-virus, spyware, cleaned my registry. I am suspecting something hardware related but I don't really know where to begin.

Any ideas?

11/12/2010 10:59:51 PM

Sounds like your GPU is overheating. laptop or desktop?

11/12/2010 11:36:48 PM

Desktop.

Do you think my video card fan might have crapped out? If so is that something I can replace without having to replace the entire video card?

11/12/2010 11:43:39 PM

probably not

also you may try checking your codecs, like installing the latest SVN of ffdshow-tryout

11/13/2010 12:24:57 AM

Don't think it's codecs, I've watched endless movies/tv shows in various formats. I have tried to watch videos that I have successfully gotten to play in the past with no luck. Lot's of google hits mentioned codecs, but I don't think lack of codecs is going to cause a freeze where your only option is hard booting.

11/13/2010 12:34:15 AM

it's not lack of codecs

just inefficient ones

with ffdshow my MPGs and AVIs play like a dream, even though my PC already had codecs for them right out of the box

11/13/2010 12:47:07 AM

My question is why did they play fine last week and not this week? I really don't think it has to do with codecs.

11/13/2010 12:59:51 AM

Try a different video player like vlc, if you not already using it.

[Edited on November 13, 2010 at 1:08 AM. Reason : .]

11/13/2010 1:08:01 AM

^^oh ok

better look for a new video card then

11/13/2010 1:10:23 AM

^^ Yea I use VLC as my primary player.

11/13/2010 1:31:56 AM

now I feel like a dum-dum hed

with VLC the system's DirectShow codecs aren't used, so even if you never installed ffdshow it won't matter (btw VLC is basically a shell over FFMPEG anyway)

11/13/2010 1:44:28 AM

use GPU-Z to monitor your card temp. Start a video, pop over to GPU-Z, and you'll know within a few minutes if it's the problem.

11/13/2010 2:46:44 AM

I ran GPU-Z, here are the initial readings:

NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS

GPU Core Clock: 675 MHz
GPU Memory Clock: 1008 MHz
GPU Shader Clock: 1458 MHz
GPU Temperature: 59C
Fan Speed: 30%

I was able to play approximately 30 minutes of video before it froze. End temperature was 64C, which still doesn't seem that high.

[Edited on November 13, 2010 at 9:49 AM. Reason : .]

11/13/2010 9:42:54 AM

I prefer GOMPlayer over VLC. CCCP usually for the broad spectrum of codecs.

11/13/2010 11:30:26 AM

Your card should be ok through the low 80's at least. CPU ok?

11/13/2010 6:01:41 PM

I've tried running GPU-Z and CPU-Z concurrently while playing a movie in VLC a couple times but I haven't had it freeze up on me. Imagine that.

What should I be looking for in CPU-Z?

I'll see if I can get it to fail while the programs are running and report the findings. Any other programs I should run?

11/15/2010 2:36:14 PM

Dont use CPU-Z use Hardware Monitor (same maker, diff program) CPU-z shows your stats but not temps. Hardware monitor should show all temps from all over the box, including your gpu.

64 is still on the low side. I have that card. But yes this is a heat issue. Check all your fans, youve got one thats dead probably.

Are you using EVGAs Precision app?

11/15/2010 3:20:59 PM

Just ran Hardware Monitor and these are the results I got when it froze (had to go back and add em since it froze ):



And no I haven't tried that EVGA Precision App

[Edited on November 15, 2010 at 4:19 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on November 15, 2010 at 4:21 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on November 15, 2010 at 4:23 PM. Reason : .]

11/15/2010 4:18:51 PM