VLC 2 causes Windows XP to crash

[iogarry]

I was happy using VLC 1 which worked most of the time, but I downloaded VLC 2 when it was offered about a month ago. I am using XP as operating system. The new VLC loads okay, but when I try to watch some files (wmv, mpg, etc.) Windows crashes - I get the blue screen indicating that Windows has shut down "to prevent damage to my computer". Also, sometimes it just reboots the computer. Also, when it has worked I have noticed that I can't save snapshots as jpg files but only as png. I tried downloading a fresh version of VLC 2 thinking maybe the file had gotten corrupted on the way here, but the effects were the same. Thankfully, I still had a backup copy of VLC 1.0.0.0 so I have begun to use that again. However, I would still like to upgrade if it's going to be trouble-free. I find it hard to believe that I'm the only one having this problem.

[AnotherLife]

Probably something to do with hardwar acceleration and your graphics card drivers. Update them.

Or maybe your sound drivers are at fault.

[VLC_help]

JPG saving is known issue, it will be fixed in VLC 2.0.2
The image quality issue should be fixed if you use DirectX video output module
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-2.0 ... _output.3F

[iogarry]

Thank you to the people who responded to my initial post. However, I haven't been able to use either of the suggestions - I have tried to keep my XP up-to-date, downloading everything Microsoft sends my way to that end. Beyond that I don't know how to check, let alone update, hardware acceleration and graphics card drivers, or sound drivers. And everything else in my computer works fine, including VLC 1. The message I get after the crash says "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. The problem seems to be caused by the following file: nv4_mini.sys. An attempt was made to write to read-only memory." There's more, but that might be enough to define the problem -- at least for someone who knows more about Windows XP and VLC 2 than I do.

[VLC_help]

nv4_mini.sys is a NVIDIA driver file.

[Marcoevich]

You cannot solve the problem by downloading windows updates, since the problem is driver related.

According to the file nv4_mini.sys you have an nVidea display card, so you have to download drivers for nVidea.

If you don't know for sure which graphics card you have you can perform the nVidea driver detection scan.. This scan automatically finds the correct drivers for your system. Just follow the easy steps on the screen to install them

[iogarry]

Thanks very much to the people who responded to my concerns. In particular, I did what Marcoevich suggested and while I don't entirely understand what happened, the download from nVidea seemed to solve the problem. VLC 2 works fine now. I have one other concern that maybe someone out there can comment on. When I play a high-resolution file (1080p) the player doesn't work properly - the display is just splotches of colour. My theory is that my computer just isn't fast enough to handle all the information it's getting because if I slow the play speed down, say to half speed, then the picture is fine except, of course, slower. Do I need a newer computer, or is this something I can blame on VLC?

[evasive]

Do you have any information on your computer (age, brand, specifications)? Then we can give an educated guess for starters.

[iogarry]

Okay, specs on my computer: Compaq Preario 6020CA with AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3400+, 2.20 Ghz, 704 MB of RAM. My OS is Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002 Service Pack 3. I think I bought this computer in about 2003. The problem is that high-resolution video files don't play properly. Any help, suggestions, insight, etc. would be much appreciated.

[evasive]

The geforce2 MX graphics in that system cannot handle the decoding of the h264 properly so it's thrown off to your CPU, which is too slow to handle it too. One option would be to put a more recent video card in there, given you have AGP that would be something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814139053

But if you want my honest opinion, I think it's time to start saving for a replacement system. In computer terms, 9 years is a long time...