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Computer locking up

Hello, my friend is having a little issue with his computer. It locks up during movie playback for a minute or so then keeps playing. It doesn't happen during games though, so I don't think anything is overheating. He said it first started happening when we were watching a movie the other night. My only recommendation is re-installing his video card drivers, don't know if that'll fix it though. Anyone else know what could be causing it?

His original post from his message board

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildcard777

This just started last night and will not stop. My computer keeps locking up frequently. All it will show is my cursor loading something and everything that is open will stop responding for a good 45-60 seconds or longer. For some reason this never happened while playing a game, but this is ridiculous. I have checked the Task Manager to see programs running that are taking up a lot of memory, but nothing is there. I even ran Spybot Search and Destroy to see if any viruses popped up but it claimed that my computer was clean.

I do not know what it could be. I did not download or install anything new recently, this just happened out of the blue. Any ideas for trouble shoothing this are welcome. I really do not think you need my specs for this, but if you really need it...

OS: Vista Ultimate
Graphics: Nvidia Geforce 8600 GT OC 512mb
RAM: 4 gigs (Vista 32bit will only allow 3 though...)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @3.00 GHz 3.00 GHz

Re: Computer locking up

I suggest he try uninstalling all video codecs and decoders (or his codec pack, if he uses one) and installing something like "XP Codec Pack" or some other codec pack. I doubt the problem is with his cpu, another program, or overheating (as you confirmed).
I have had a similar problem before, and it turned out to be a codec pack issue. I uninstalled the codec pack I was using(for those interested, it was CCCP, combined community codec pack) and installed another codec pack (for those interested, XP Codec Pack). After that, I had no issues.

Note: It is most likely a decoder issue, not an actual codec issue. But the codec pack includes decoders like ffdshow and such.

Tell me how that goes.

Re: Computer locking up

I'll tell him to. He said he hasn't installed anything recently, but that doesn't mean something hasn't gone bad and needs a fresh install.

Re: Computer locking up

If he's running an nVidia 7 series mother board (e.g. 750i, 780i, etc.) he should update his BIOS. This video curruption was a common problem until it was fixed with an update. Look on the motherboard manufacturer's website.

Re: Computer locking up

Hmm... Nope, he's running a Gigabyte EP35-DS3L.