VLC will not install on W2K machine

[Leppy99]

I am looking for a replacement for PowerDVD and thought I could install VLC Player v1.1.7 on my Windows 2000 SP4 machine. Well no luck so far. I try to install VLC and about 3/4 of the way through I get a black box(sort of like the command line /DOS screen) with the title "C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\VLC-cache-gen.exe" and then the computer locks up(mouse frozen, no keyboard response) and I have to reset the CPU to get back to a working computer. After rebooting I check and the program is not installed. Any help? See some system specs below: Thanks


Windows 2000 SP4
1.8 Gh P4 processor
1280 Mb usable memory
nVidia FX 5200 video card
PC Tools Firewall
Avira Antivirus
SuperAntispyware

[Lotesdelere]

As staten here: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html
Windows 2000 with SP4 AND UR1 is required.

Download UR1 aka Update Rollup 1 from there:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/d ... 28b324c662

[Leppy99]

Lotesdelere: Thanks for the info, BUT i have had Update Rollup 1 Version 2(KB891861-v2-x86-enu.exe) installed on this machine since September 2005; and that is what the link sends me to. Any other ideas on what to do?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Ok. Use the .zip installer and unzip it.

[Leppy99]

j-b: Thanks for the suggestion, I downloaded the .zip installation file(vlc-1.1.7-win32.zip); unzipped it, BUT it does not give me an installation file(install.exe) to click on. I clicked on 'vlc.exe' but all that did was lock up the computer. Any other ideas? Thanks

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Try older versions of VLC... Try 1.0.5

[Leppy99]

j-b: Again thanks for the suggestion. Here's what happens: I downloaded and installed the program(v1.0.5) as requested. It loaded OK. I tried to run an ".flv" file but it caused the computer to lock up AGAIN, and it changed a bunch of my files extensions on the computer. I deleted the program and am writing to you for additional help. Any more help? Thanks

Dan

[cf001]

Hello,

VLC versions 1.05, 1.16. and 1.1.7 run fine on Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 with all Microsoft updates published before 1st. September 2009 applied. Earlier 1.1 versions install, but I removed them and went back to 1.05 until the bugs with playing Audio CDs were fixed.

When I applied 1.1.7 over the top of 1.1.6 (the installation process uninstalls the prior version), yes I did get the cache-generation command prompt screen, but this disappeared after a few seconds. (This machine is rather fast - dual dual-core Opteron processors, U320 SCSI disks, etc.) If the cache-generation step is looking at fonts, there are 607 font files in my Windows font directory.

Perhaps someone from the VLC team can identify whether any of these components are relevant:
- Windows Installer - I'm running version 3.1.4000.1823
- Microsoft Visual C runtime (mfc80enu.dll) because I'm signed on in English - I'm running version 8.0.50727.762
- Microsoft Visual C runtime (mfc80u.dll) - I'm running version 8.0.50727.762
- Microsoft Visual C runtime (msvcrt.dll) - I'm running version 6.1.9844.0
- Microsoft Visual C runtime (msvcp60.dll) - I'm running version 6.0.8972.0
- Microsoft Visual C runtime (msvcp80.dll) - I'm running version 8.0.50727.1433
- Microsoft Visual C runtime (msvcr80.dll) - I'm running version 8.0.50727.1433

Note that all of the items on the above list have to be upgraded manually from the Windows 2000 SP"5" standard version. According to Process Explorer, all of the above-named Visual C dll's are associated with the main VLC program vlc.exe. I can probably find the Microsoft url to download the appropriate package if you don't have a copy.

I've never tried to trace/analyse an installation process, but I could uninstall and then re-install VLC 1.1.7 to see what steps are performed.

You are, of course, running the installation signed on as an Administrator? (Windows 2000 is nowhere near as flexible as later Windows NT-based versions - especially with regard to writing to the registry.)

Regards,
Charles.

[MichaelMc]

As staten here: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html
Windows 2000 with SP4 AND UR1 is required.

Download UR1 aka Update Rollup 1 from there:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/d ... 28b324c662

Rollup 1 may be a prerequisite of the installer (I don't know) but UR1 is not required to use VLC.

[Leppy99]

Thanks to all who have sent help idea. For now I'm going to put VLC on hold, although I have read and heard it is one of the best video players out there. I took a chance and installed a K-Lite Codec Pack on my Windows 2000 computer. I was having a problem with PowerDVD and my MS DVD player wasn't working. I uninstalled PowerDVD and ran the K-Lite Pack and now my MS DVDplayerr is working just fine. I still have the VLC Player install file saved so in the future I may attempt to install it. Again THANKS TO ALL.

Dan

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Running the vlc.exe from the zip file should work.

[nigol]

For VLC authors:

Is it so necessary to force our use of UR1 for player's fresh releases? Isn't there a way to write the same things working with native 2kSP4 functions and libraries like KMPlayer's authors successfully do? One of the main features of VLC is the perfect playback on a weak hardware configs. On that systems, it's advisably to have a minimal, lightweight set of software, yeah? So why have I roll up another 30 meg pack that, as I had to knew, brought some of it's own issues into my compact and stable working W2k installation (it has really done!) , just to be able to run a player that, theoretically, doesn't need UR's new features to do exactly the same like KMP does?!

Maybe it will be a good idea to make a release, possibly based on 1.0.x, just with codecs updated and minor bug fixed, for use vith native W2kSP4 as it goes on distributive disks. Or, of course, even better is to revise a main release for a subject of tis kind of backward compatibility... Hope dies last, even later than old operating systems

[MichaelMc]

While on topic: Support for Win2k as already been dropped from VLC 1.2.0.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

For VLC authors:

Is it so necessary to force our use of UR1 for player's fresh releases? Isn't there a way to write the same things working with native 2kSP4 functions and libraries like KMPlayer's authors successfully do? One of the main features of VLC is the perfect playback on a weak hardware configs. On that systems, it's advisably to have a minimal, lightweight set of software, yeah? So why have I roll up another 30 meg pack that, as I had to knew, brought some of it's own issues into my compact and stable working W2k installation (it has really done!) , just to be able to run a player that, theoretically, doesn't need UR's new features to do exactly the same like KMP does?!

Maybe it will be a good idea to make a release, possibly based on 1.0.x, just with codecs updated and minor bug fixed, for use vith native W2kSP4 as it goes on distributive disks. Or, of course, even better is to revise a main release for a subject of tis kind of backward compatibility... Hope dies last, even later than old operating systems

Well, it could be an option, but we are very few and doing that on our free time. And Win2k is an old system, that noone is really interested in.

[Leppy99]

Jean-Baptiste: That certainly sounds like an 'elitist attitude' BUT not everyone can afford a new system/operating system. Is it so hard to keep the code up to include the older systems? Well anyway I'm now using WMP 9 for watching DVDs and it works fine for what I need it to do. I was more interested in having a player to convert and let me be able to watch .flv files. But thanks for some of the help you 'tried' to provide.

Dan Leppanen

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Jean-Baptiste: That certainly sounds like an 'elitist attitude'

No, that sounds like we are a very very small team working only on our free time.

Just use 1.0.5 if you can.