My neighbour is a total newb with PC's, tho I have been teaching him the basics, but he has develped a few problems with video playback. Avi files are really jerky.

I checked his vid card drivers, as I have had an issue like this before, and they are fine and the same version as before, so I uninstalled xvid and divx codecs as they were both throwing up divxdec.dll and xvid.? errors, but stupid xp still leaves a few files behind, xvid.ax being one I believe, and XP will not let me delete them or even replace them during install of new codecs. Is this system file protection in action? Also, just to piss me off, his install of XP is like mine in the fact that safe mode will not work, it just hangs halfway during boot, anyone know a way around this that is not drastic.

I also tried ffdshow, but the playback was still jerky, altho no errors. I installed zoomplayer and bsplayer, but they still play it like shit, altho not as bad as WMP did.

I am convinced the fresh installation of codecs will help/cure the problem, I just need to be able to remove th few files that are not uninstalled or replaced.

*moved*

You got a typo in there Mr potato.

Why not merge the 2 sections BTW? They are pretty similar after all.

They are nothing alike. One is dicussions (ie. a split from general), the other is for help (ie this one)

One is for discussing a new piece of hardware, or for giving advice on perhaps upgrades or thoughts on new OSs. On the other hand, it is not the place to ask "I'm having problems with xyz", that is asking for help Rule of thumb, the forum descriptions tell you where topics should be placed.

That was the idea anyway.

No-one reads those things LOL Might aswell call them small print

Seriously tho, I honestly posted in the wrong section cos when I went to check for replies it was not there LOL

Been a real hectic weekend, guess it is starting to catch up with me now.

I really don't mind that much, I just thought *moved* isn't as helpful as telling peeps why it was moved, kinda like leaving it locked with a message. Anyway, i'll shut up and let someone answer the question.


Have you tried clearing out all his video codecs from control panel (ie. not using add remove programs but Sounds and Audio Devices>hardware>video codecs and removing them there?).

You also need a decent pc to playback divx5 nowadays, but i'm assuming he doesn't have an ancient pc.

Nah, was my mistake anyways.

He has a decent spec system, 2 gig athlon, blah blah, and it was working. He had his kids crash it a few times so I reckon the codecs just got corrupted.

Never realised you could remove them that way, will give it a whirl, cheers mate.

I think its a video card issue. Try new drivers for video card. If its a onboard card look for a new one. Then install codecs and ffdshow.

indeed, but in my experience its only vid card if its a new installation / no drivers have been added. Normally I'd go for a codec/ffdshow conflict somewhere.

He has a built in card, was running on the drivers that came with it, and we re-installed those just to be sure. I am gonna try and remove all traces of the codecs and do a 100% fresh install of the bleeders to see if that helps. Just need to get around those annoying undeletable ones.

an inbuilt gfx accelerator

Is your neighbour a sadist?

I think you just named the problem right there.Masochist would be the more appropriate word though...he is just gonna end up torturing himself with that kind of thing.What's his ram by the way?What is it...a compaq??

It is a custom built rig, has 256 DDR ram, he only uses it for surfing, mail and word processing. Obviously he also watches a few movies too, but nothing that really needs a super hi-spec rig.