BSODs

[FlipIt]

I still randomly get BSODs. I updated all my drivers to the latest versions, same for DirectX. All I can do is use v.0.8.1, as any later version gives me BSODs.

[DJ]

What is your video card?

What happens when you shut down DirectX within VLC?

VLC's Settings, Preferences, Video, Output Modules and using the pull down to select "Windows GDI video output". Then save, restart VLC and try to call a file.

[StarChild]

I still randomly get BSODs. I updated all my drivers to the latest versions, same for DirectX. All I can do is use v.0.8.1, as any later version gives me BSODs.

What CPU and OS are you using?

When you get a BSoD, is it the quick-reboot kind, or the one that hangs on the blue screen?

If the latter, then look at the very lower right-hand side of the printed message: It'll tell you what application or dll your system is crashing on. Usually, its a kernel mode failure when one application conflicts with another, or when it tries to operate in invalid CPU or memory registers.

If its the quick reboot kind, do a search on your system for the word "dump." Access that folder, and you can generally locate the offending problem. Some dumps are difficult to read, but, with a little persistence, you'll find the offending application.

Cheers!

[FlipIt]

CPU : AMD Duron 800Mhz
OS : Windows XP SP2
Video Card : GeForce 4 MX 420

When I shut down DirectX, the video plays but with dropped frames.

When I get a BSOD, it just sits there with an "IRQ Not less or equal" erroe message, no mention of any file.

By the way, I did set my computer not to automatically restart on a system failure.

[DJ]

Update your video and sound drivers. They should carry a date later than Oct 04.

Shutting down DirectX may be to much for your CPU to handle by itself thus causing the skipped frames depending on the format, container and resolution of the file. You can look at your Task Manager for CPU and available Memory usage.

[FlipIt]

The problem is, the latest drivers for my sound card is dated 6/11/2002. It's a Sound Blaster 128, really old.

[DJ]

All Digital video is follow audio for sync if the audio won't control the video the problem ranges from not playing to skipping frames for the video.

The only thing I do remember for this card is it didn't like the foat32 option in DirectX preferences. Generally Black screen problems are video related and shutting down DirectX (as I had you do) proves this issue.

I didn't have you shut down DirectX for the audio. As we haven't gotten that far yet. For some people resolving the video and DirectX issue is enough to have everything work properly.

[StarChild]

CPU : AMD Duron 800Mhz
OS : Windows XP SP2
Video Card : GeForce 4 MX 420

When I get a BSOD, it just sits there with an "IRQ Not less or equal" erroe message, no mention of any file.

This message?

"DRIVER_IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
****STOP: 0X000000D1 (0X00000000,0X000000002,0X000000000,0XE20D65F9)"

IRQ is an "interrupt request." In this event, you either have an access or resource conflict between two hardware devices, or between two application device drivers, or some combination of these. Check your system properties to see what you have loaded and how/where.

Again, look at the lower right-hand side of the message. It'll tell you the last device or process that tried to access the CPU before it crashed.

As these kind folk continue to mention: Updating your drivers can be a lifesaver...

[avada]

I have the exact same problem. I tried everything but i still get bsod-s.
I have AMD Duron 950, Abit siluro T400 (gf2), Sounblaster audio pci 128, xp sp2. I'm using the driver on abit's webpage, because it works the best.
I'm only getting bsod-s with vlc 0.8.1< and with Mplayer nothing else. It's a shame that these two programs couse bsod-s because these two players has the lowest resource usage, wich is important on this harware.

[avada]

It looks hopeless. If directx video output is selected bsod is guaranteed. The other outputs are not good enough, poor quality and/or high cpu usage. I4m stuck with 0.8.1, and its very annoying that it can't disable the screensaver.

[avada]

[enriquevagu]

Hi all,

I have the same problem. My computer has an Athlon processor (1.2GHz), WinXP and a Geforce2 MX, all of them with the latest available drivers. It suffers from BSODs, specially when full screen is enabled, and after a while (a few minutes, but it is quite random).

Obviously, a program shouldn't be able to shut down the system -- the BSOD is due to some system (kernel, or DirectX) bad behaviour. I wonder if the way that VLC works with VLC might be "strange". I guess that it might be some strange way of working with dropped frames, for example, that caused DirectX to try to render a frame that has been deleted from the memory, causing an out-of-bound failure in some pointer, and a crash in the DirectX module.

Does some developer know something about this? I haven't tried to understand the source code, it is beyond my capabilities (at least, in a short period of time). Any help would be appreciated, as the problem is, obviously, very severe.

[VLC_help]

Programs shouldn't cause Bluescreens, bad drivers and hardware do. What does the bluescren say?

[enriquevagu]

Hi all,

It is obvious that a user program shouldn't generate a BSOD!! The BSOD says on most cases that it has found an invalid operation, concretely a STOP instruction. Sometimes, however, there is a problem with an IRQ, which I do not remember right now. It seems that Athlon processors are not 100% compatible with x86!! I know that AMD64 processors follow a slightly different memory consistency model than the x86-based ones (see http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8212), but the x86 AMD models SHOULD be compatible with Intel ones. I know that consistency has to do with parallel systems, but it might have some effect if we consider the processor, the DMA and the graphic card as different elements that are accessing the same shared memory. As a note, I have the latest version for all of my system drivers, and no other program generates a BSOD on my WinXP system. However, this problem is clearly related with a bug in some other module (card driver, DirectX or whatsoever), as the program's non-privileged code should never be able to generate a system crash.

I have not found the concrete source of the problem. However, I have found some configuration which does not crashes my computer. Particularly, there are two things that can be configured regarding the CPU type:

- The processor extensions (MMX, SSE, etc)
- The memcpy routine selected.

Regarding the processor extensions, my AMD Athlon has the four first options in the "advanced" options for CPU: FPU, MMX, 3dNow! and MMX-EXT. The Athlon line does not have SSE nor SSE2, as reported by Sandra. I have tried the log interface and VLC detects the options: 486, 586 and all of the previous ones, so it seems to work properly

Regarding the memory copy routine: The "default" option selects MMX-EXT (according to the log). I do not know exactly the differece between them, I have had no time to search the code, but I have found an old changeset log page (https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/changeset/1260) that states the following regarding memcpy options:

Borrowed MPlayer's fast memcpy() routines. Best is autodetected, choose
"--memcpy <whatever>" to choose one from c, mmx, mmxext or 3dn.
Please test! Especially Athlon users.

Thus, it seems that there might be some problem with Athlon processors that has not been detected. However, it seems to be quite a hard bug, as the program randomly crases the whole machine.

I have found the following safe configuration for my AMD Athlon processor:
- Disable SSE and SSE2 in the Advanced --> Cpu Features tab (Within the advanced options). The program detects these as not available, but I unset them "just in case".
- Change the default option in Advanced --> Memory copy module, from "default" to "MMX".

I intend to report this as a bug, I am currently dealing with the trac tool, but I can not find a clear help page for newbies on the system. I will try to post more information as I can make more tries. Note that testing is very long, as a crash clearly shows a problematic configuration, but not crashing on a while does not mean that there is a problem.

If someone can hint me in the tries to perform, I would thank the help and try to collaborate in order to isolate the issue. Meanwhile, I advice Athlon owners to modify those options.

Regards

[psyburn]

Well I've been frustrated with this since I replacing my Radeon 9550 with a GeForce 6200 (both AGP mind you)

I was using VLC as my media player and upgraded from 0.8.1 to 0.8.5 just after changing the graphics cards.

Before I go on I'll describe my machine:
Iwill KK266 Motherboard
AMD Athlon 1.2GHz
384mb RAM (128,256 PC-133)
Maxtor 30GB
Maxtor 60GB
Lite-On DVD-ROM 16x
Lite-On CD-RW 24x
Antec 300w Powersupply
Geforce 6200 128mb 4x/8x (running at 4x)
Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit
Intel EtherExpress Pro
NEC USB 2.0 PCI card

==================

Now mind you, I had never had problems before with my setup with the Radeon 9550

Tinkering around, I finally got down to 2 programs having problems
Need For Speed Underground 2 and VLC.
NFSU2 can wait till later, but VLC seemed to be the only program left with any problems.

Enriquevagu, I think you've got it. I'm running your settings right now, however, I'm using the 3DNow! memcpy option

I ran into one regedit hack that increased the time till reboot but didn't fix it.

I have all the latest drivers, except Forceware.
Forceware is held at 77.77 as any other version just caused more problems.

EDIT: sorry for thread necromancing

EDIT: Windows 2000 Professional SP4 is my Operating System

[VLC_help]

psyburn: have you updated your AGP/GART driver? And I suggest http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_84.21.html those drivers.

[psyburn]

Yes I bloody well updated my AGP drivers, Latest VIA 4-in-1 availible and half of the reboots went away.

These settings suggested have kept my system from not rebooting while using VLC.

After updating all the drivers except Forceware the system runs as expected, sans NFSU2.
Upgrading the Forceware to the latest just craps out the system.

Mind you I had no such problems form my Radeon 9550 and I bought this card for its price in urgency. ($40 shipped from Newegg)

In my search Ifound this thread and as such am following up.