hang: AAC/AC3 audio on Nforce3 with Realtek AC'97 driver

[virus_found]

This has already been for two or free years (for all the time I use VLC, don't remember exactly). I've been using VLC nightlies and releases, I've updated my Realtek AC'97 drivers (from version 3.86 to 4.06 nowadays), I've reinstalled Windows (though, they all were XPs SP2). But bug has always existed for me. I post about it only now, because I didn't know the cause of all this, I thought, videocard (or drivers for it) were guilty. But now I know steps to reproduce

Steps to reproduce:
1. install some old motherboard with nVIDIA nForce3 250 (CK8S) chipset with Realtek ALC655 onboard (actually, don't do it );
2. setup any of Realtek AC'97 drivers;
3. set your audio Hardware acceleration to Full (4/4) or Standard (3/4) (Control Panel >> Sound and Audio Devices >> Volume tab >> Advanced... button in the bottom >> Performance tab);
4. setup any version of VLC (yes, any, the latest release and todays nightly are included in "any"), default settings;
5. open some movie with AAC or AC3 audio stream(s) (avi, mkv, mp4, vob containers are affected, maybe others too), maybe, even m4a (audio container with ALAC) counts too, haven't tried, I'm afraid for my system;
6. then stop it (not pause), or open another video in the same window (thus closing the first) or kill VLC process.

Actual results:
In 2-3 seconds after closing the system completely hangs. Reboot is the only solution. (So, if you once open such video, you know, that Windows won't be restarted normally this session, point.)

Expected results:
Normal closing of VLC or video without such disasters.

Such a gruesome behaviour isn't seen in any other media player. I've tried Light Alloy, WMP, MPC, Winamp, Crystal Player, Zoom Player (though, almost all of them are DirectShow only). And I've figured out recently, that having Hardware acceleration set to Basic (2/4) or None (1/4) helps to avoid the hang.
Hope, this helps. Ask everything you want about my system or whatever, that might help the investigation

[VLC_help]

You have tried Waveout audio output module in VLC?
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-0.9 ... _anomalies

[virus_found]

I've just tried Waveout with nightly and 0.9.9 release (they performed identically). I deleted the whole "vlc" folder with settings, cache, etc. All settings were default everywhere, except for audio output module. I tried wmv file (which normally goes with default DirectX output without issues) and mp4 file (affected by the bug I described in the first post). In all cases the result is the same:

I had no hang. VLC was closed normally. But short after closing (2-3 seconds) the system started to go mad. Some windows ceased to respond, taskbar responded only from time to time, some applications wouldn't start, left mouse button started to select files as if I pressed ctrl key with it, etc. And windows wouldn't be shut down normally, I had pressed "Turn off the computer", but nothing happed, I had to push reset.

EDIT>
Edited the whole post.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

This is clearly a driver issue.

[atm64]

This is exactly the same problem that I reported here a short time ago - viewtopic.php?f=14&t=56881&p=196176#p196014

I have a Asus K8N mainboard with Nvidia nForce3 250 chipset. There are no problems with any other players.

You say this is a driver issue. Well, what should I do? I have already installed the latest drivers for the nForce3 250 chipset (version 5.11), but Nvidia doesn't make driver updates any more.

[VLC_help]

Well, what should I do?

Buy another sound device.

[atm64]

Well, what should I do?

Buy another sound device.

No, thank you.

My mainboard has on-board sound, and I don't intend to buy a new PC just because VLC player appears to be incompatible with certain hardware configurations. I have now deinstalled VLC and will use another video player.

[devzero]

i have hit by this issue, too

i have a "K7N2 Delta2 Platinum" and tried the latest drivers from msi:
http://de.msi.com/index.php?func=downlo ... rod_no=592
" Driver version for Win98/WinMe/Win2000/WinXP: 5.10.00.6230"
and i also tried the latest driver from realtek site:http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dow ... Down=false

The problem was fixed by using an older driver (wdm_a374.exe) i found somewhere on the net.

apparently, we`re not alone:
hatetep://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=43597&hilit=realtek+crash
hatetep://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=65814&hilit=realtek+hang

i can also workaround the problem by setting the hardware accelleration in audio control panel below "standard".

the problem can be reproduced with an Ac3 Audio-only file.
you may get one exampe ac3 file from http://www.kellyindustries.com/download ... _48khz.zip

whenever this file ends playing or you stop playing manually/close the player, your windows system freezes after 2-3 seconds.

i think this is a bug in the realtek driver and if we can prove that the driver is wrong, maybe msi or realtek will do something about it.

can we enable some tracemode in VLC to see how it is communicating with the audio hw?
i tried --verbose=<some high value> , but there is not too much we can see. just unloading modules on exit and then "bang".....

i believe more more people have this problem, as realtek/ac97 is not too exotic, afaik.

that thing did cost me most of the evening to find out and to analyze/fix. the hardest part was to find out that it was the audio driver........