VLC crashes Aero in Windows 7

[TheMW]

Hi,

I found a bug, here's my system:
Windows 7 x64; Aero activated
4GB RAM
Core 2 Quad Q6700

Ati 4870 1 GB + Ati 4550 512MB with 4 FullHD screens attached in extended mode
Catalyst 9.12

system is completely stable

What happens:
- i play a video with vlc (doesn't matter which one)
- on the monitors attached to my primary video card (the 4870) everything runs fine (and dwm.exe has a constant size)
- as soon as i move vlc to a screen attached to the secondary card, the task manager shows, that the dwm.exe (responsible for windows management) needs more and more RAM
- in windowed mode, it returns to its original size of around 60mb after a few seconds, only to start getting bigger again (this repeats in cycles)
- in fullscreen mode however, the dwm.exe gets bigger so fast, that it hits the 1GB limit before it can "reset", which results in windows 7 to change to the basic color scheme (on top of that, it seems like the video update rate gets massively reduced in vlc after that)

- not to forget - other players like windows media player (current version, that comes with windows 7) and media player classic work fine
- and changing VLC's video output to opengl seems to help with the crashing, but videos look kind of judder-ish with that...
if you need additional info, just email me;)

[VLC_help]

Does this happen if you move the VLC to "right" place before starting the video?

[TheMW]

just tried again - and it doesn't matter where i place VLC before starting the video.
i can actually move it around the screens and directly see the impact on dwm.exe's memory need.
its also noticable, that VLC's window size plays a role (small vlc window, small dwm.exe; spanning VLC to almost fullscreen results in dwm.exe needing massively more RAM)

update:
strange, i swapped the monitors from the primary to the secondary card (and vice versa), but the dwm.exe gets bigger on the same physical monitors. (windows and catalyst monitor IDs have changed as well)
upgrading to catalyst 10.1 doesn't change anything.

[VLC_help]

I don't have any clue how we could fix this. (sounds like a driver or Windows bug)

[TheMW]

Too bad, thanks for looking into it anyway.

[droove]

Same issue here, but it only happens if I watch vlc streams.The streams are h.264 encoded, maybe a decoding issue? it happens right before the movie is shown. aero crashes and windows continues in non-aero mode and movie plays without problems ....

I use win7 64

[VLC_help]

Video decoder crash in VLC should crash VLC. And since VLC doesn't use DirectShow decoders, this isn't related to that.

[RickyJack]

I was also having issues with Aero in Win7 64bit. It didn't really crash, it would just switch out of Aero into a Basic theme when I ran full screen or close to full screen. I had hoped that V1.1.0 would fix this issue, but it didn't. I did some Googling and found an old post that suggested going to Tools->Preferences->Video Settings and uncheck "Use hardware YUV->RGB conversions". I did this and the problem went away. I have ATI Radeon 5800 series graphics with Catalyst 10-6.

Hope this helps.

[Samy]

I also ran into problems with VLC and Windows 7,
when i watch hd mkv videos after a while (2-3) hours, everything freezes, and i get really nasty sound on my speakers.
The whole pc is just frozen i can do nothing no ctrl+alt+f4 nothing will help
only thing that helps is a hard reboot.

My system:
VLC version: 1.1.0
Windows 7 64 bit prof
RAM: Kingston 4 gb ddr3 1333
CPU: AMD Phenom x4 955
Mainboard: Gygabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
Graphic: Saphire Radeon HD 4870 toxic
Sound: Onboard Realtec

Edit: Oh and i have also 2 screens atached to my Graphiscard

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Try 1.1.1

[SntaCruz83]

Anyone else that had this issue get it resolved? My setup is almost identical to the OP and still have the same issues.

[davidl]

I actually never had this issue until i installed v1.1.7. Before that, VLC has worked perfectly. Aero just turns off and when i close VLC, it turns back on.

[davidl]

Figured out what was causing my issue. It was the rss downloader Juice. Since it has a bug it had to be run in Win XP compat mode. The aero interface worked still but when running a video VLC forced aero off (or something did). When i turned off compat mode for Juice but turned on Disable visual themes, it fixed the issue. Not sure if it's Juice causing the issue or Windows but it would appear my issue is not VLC related.

Keep up the great work folks!

[Oleksandr]

I have the same problem on Windows 7 x32. Starting VLC with two monitors running turns Aero off and switches it to Basic. After closing Aero immediately returns.

[High-Voltage]

Same problem here...
I first thought it was due to my second graphics card (less powerfull), but it seems to be a problem caused by VLC.

By setting the video output module to "Windows GDI" the problem can be solved, BUT the quality gets really low. When video's are in the native resolution no problem, but when upsampling (e.g. as in full screen video) the borders get really blocked.

I will try RickyJack's solution (disabling the hardware YUV-RGB conversion) later on and report back...


Edit:
Nope, no change with disabling the hardware YUW-RGB conversion.
I'll use Media Player Classic...

[DeNiro]

I too still have the same problem on Windows 7 x32. Starting VLC with two monitors running turns Aero off and switches it to Basic. After closing Aero immediately returns. It is VERY annoying and if nobody has an answer i will switch to another videoplayer.

Mind you, this is on a fresh install of Windows 7 32-bit Home Premium with no other software installed yet.

What exactly is the problem and how do i solve this?

[VLC_help]

DeNiro: you tried other video output modules?
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-1.1 ... _output.3F

[DeNiro]

DeNiro: you tried other video output modules?
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-1.1 ... _output.3F

Yes, i did. Tried everything but still the same problem. Older versions like 1.0.3 (using that one now) do not have this problem. Weird.

[tinodj]

At my place closing firefox helps. Try to start VLC when firefox is closed (check for firefox process in task manager, make sure it is really off)

[philalethes]

My problem is similar. I did fresh install of Win 7 Pro 64 one month ago. VLC is my player of choice and I put in 1.0.5 which worked great. Now VLC runs in compatiblity mode forcing off Aero until VLC quits. That would be tolerable but VLC won't play any video now, just a black screen.
I let VLC upgrade to 1.1.7 and now 1.1.10 and no improvement.
Since it was working before I am suspicious that it is Windows OS.
Another possible link: I forgot to activate my Win 7 and I believe MS starts turning off features like messing with your Aero? At least they used to do that in Vista. So I was 30 days out from the install of Win 7 and wondered if this were related. I activated Win 7 for my genuine stamp but problem has not gone away.
I got a message that I had lost hccutils.dll which is part of the Intel graphix chip. Seems like an upgrade (?) hosed something since I show collateral damage losing a DLL. Restoring the DLL from backup did not help either.

[VLC_help]

You can reset VLC settings by removing %appdata%\vlc folder.

[philalethes]

Update. This computer is crashing badly and I suspect failing hardware. This creeping corruption is no doubt why VLC has problems now when it never did before.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Possibly driver issue.

[DeNiro]

Possibly driver issue.

What/why driver issue?

No other mediaplayer crashes Aero except VLC. But only the latest versions do, version 1.05 for example does NOT crash Aero on the same system.

I cannot possibly see a driver issue here. BTW: Windows 7 detected my Radeon and installed the default drivers.

But again, only the latest VLC player-releases cause this Aero-crash. Older releases and any other media/videoplayers do NOT crash Aero.

[Sébastien Escudier]

No other mediaplayer crashes Aero except VLC. But only the latest versions do, version 1.05 for example does NOT crash Aero on the same system.

Does not prove anything

I cannot possibly see a driver issue here. BTW: Windows 7 detected my Radeon and installed the default drivers.

Trye to update to the latest radeon drivers, and see if it fixes your problem...