In the meantime, i'll keep reading this.VLC no longer starts playing
Forum rules
Please post only Windows specific questions in this forum category. If you don't know where to post, please read the different forums' rules. Thanks.
Please post only Windows specific questions in this forum category. If you don't know where to post, please read the different forums' rules. Thanks.
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Dhaiwon
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sameproblem
VLC won't play
I am having the same problem. I am running Windows OS. I am not especially computer savvy, so I can't give you a lot of information. My VLC player has been working fine and then suddenly it stopped working. It does exactly as described above. I don't know if it makes any difference, but I also have an Ipod. Maybe the Ipod (ITunes) software is causing a problem?
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sameproblem
VLC won't play
Btw, I have tried everything suggested here to no avail. I have uninstalled and reinstalled several times, no luck. I didn't make any changes to my computer between the time VLC worked and the time it stopped working except upgrading my Ipod software. (That's why I mentioned it.)
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sameproblem
VLC won't play
When I donwloaded IPod/ITunes software, it came with Quicktime Player. The file type associations for Quicktime needed to be unchecked for VLC to work. Try this and then reboot. Good luck.
VLC is a stand alone media player that uses its own libraries to decode media files. It does not uses Direct Show nor does it install any DDLs or other helper files on your system. The additions to your registry are purely to support the file extensions so that you can double or right click within a menu and have the file call the player. So there is nothing special about the install. VLC will run on a system normally without the install version, the .zip or 7z file can be downloaded from VLC's website (IE no Installer).
Should you experience a problem with uninstall (Purely a system problem as VLC uses system resources to accomplish this task) the VLC Directories may be deleted. These directories exist at the following locations: C:\Program Files\VideoLAN, C:\Documents and Settings\Owner (this is you)\Application Data\VLC Erase VLC and C:\Documents and Settings\Owner (this is you)\Application Data\dvdcss, Erase dvdcss. Application Data is a hidden directory so you will need to make it visible.
If you don't want to reinstall VLC the extensions changed in your registry should revert back to there former owners if for some reason this does not occur the registry may be edited with regedit and VLC.EXE may be searched and all instances removed. This would be a wise move even if you plan to reinstall VLC as it does not remember or show your former preferences for options during the Install process.
You can also use the Windows system or another Media player to take back the extensions.
Starting with VLC 0.8.4 the DirectX module was rebuilt, forcing many users to update their video and in some cases the sound card's drivers. This was recommend by Microsoft after SP2 or for those who had upgraded to DirectX 9c. It has also been recommended to be current with the DirectX runtime updates, these are not automatic and the most recent one was in Feb 06 and it will not change the version from 9c.
We are moving into an age of HD video of which VLC is fully capable starting with 480p through 1080p in a fairly wide variety of of formats and containers. Because of this fact many users are experiencing lockup problems. This is not a VLC problem, but instead the system can not handle the the demands in rendering the format. This is another reason for updating your devices. However if you have a slower CPU you may discover that you can only play 480p and not the others. Typically if you can play a DVD you should be able to play 480p (Yet, I am told there are a few exceptions).
There is also a problem that exists on the Internet in Peer to Peer type services. It seems that in many cases the files are miss-labeled, are in archive form and need a utility to dearchive them before they will play, are not media files at all or they are corrupted. Thus making it very difficult for any player to play these. Another simple fact as more and more people make these files they are not necessarily encoded properly and or named properly which unfortunately, gives many players problems.
VLC is very dependent on your system, for fonts, language and uses DirectX to render all types of media files. If there are instabilities about the system, there vary well be evidence of this within VLC. As Audio plus Video and some games can push the limits of our machines.
It is very common when a machine is to slow to handle the media the the CPU goes to 100% it frightens the user as the file has stopped and more often the user tries to close the player, but the system is still not responding, the Task Manager can be opened and VLC will still exist and the system will show that VLC is using all the resources. If you had pressed stop and not closed the player VLC will have released all of the calls to DirectX and it is the systems time to respond and give up the resources because the CPU being at 100% does not realize this and has not responded to it yet. Takes the same time to clear guys you are not helping it. Go have a cup of tea.
Some users believe the system is frozen and try to close it down and this also takes an extraordinary period of time, go have lunch. But this problem is also not VLC. However this is the time when the write back to disk for VLC occurs is when you close the player, if the CPU is 100% and the system is not responding and the player is closed and or the system is closed down, VLC's configuration file may be corrupted and need rebuilding. Once again this is not a VLC problem.
Many users have said, nothing has changed no software was added or taken away and VLC has stopped responding or won't play the file it did yesterday. Yet they have forgotten to mention trying to play the file that appears to have frozen the machine and closed the player or closed down Windows and in most cases clearing the defaults for the player clears the problem. If the file is truly corrupted clearing the defaults will not work and erasing the configuration directory will be necessary. VLC will rebuild this directory the first time it's opened, this is true for every version of VLC installed or not.
Should you experience a problem with uninstall (Purely a system problem as VLC uses system resources to accomplish this task) the VLC Directories may be deleted. These directories exist at the following locations: C:\Program Files\VideoLAN, C:\Documents and Settings\Owner (this is you)\Application Data\VLC Erase VLC and C:\Documents and Settings\Owner (this is you)\Application Data\dvdcss, Erase dvdcss. Application Data is a hidden directory so you will need to make it visible.
If you don't want to reinstall VLC the extensions changed in your registry should revert back to there former owners if for some reason this does not occur the registry may be edited with regedit and VLC.EXE may be searched and all instances removed. This would be a wise move even if you plan to reinstall VLC as it does not remember or show your former preferences for options during the Install process.
You can also use the Windows system or another Media player to take back the extensions.
Starting with VLC 0.8.4 the DirectX module was rebuilt, forcing many users to update their video and in some cases the sound card's drivers. This was recommend by Microsoft after SP2 or for those who had upgraded to DirectX 9c. It has also been recommended to be current with the DirectX runtime updates, these are not automatic and the most recent one was in Feb 06 and it will not change the version from 9c.
We are moving into an age of HD video of which VLC is fully capable starting with 480p through 1080p in a fairly wide variety of of formats and containers. Because of this fact many users are experiencing lockup problems. This is not a VLC problem, but instead the system can not handle the the demands in rendering the format. This is another reason for updating your devices. However if you have a slower CPU you may discover that you can only play 480p and not the others. Typically if you can play a DVD you should be able to play 480p (Yet, I am told there are a few exceptions).
There is also a problem that exists on the Internet in Peer to Peer type services. It seems that in many cases the files are miss-labeled, are in archive form and need a utility to dearchive them before they will play, are not media files at all or they are corrupted. Thus making it very difficult for any player to play these. Another simple fact as more and more people make these files they are not necessarily encoded properly and or named properly which unfortunately, gives many players problems.
VLC is very dependent on your system, for fonts, language and uses DirectX to render all types of media files. If there are instabilities about the system, there vary well be evidence of this within VLC. As Audio plus Video and some games can push the limits of our machines.
It is very common when a machine is to slow to handle the media the the CPU goes to 100% it frightens the user as the file has stopped and more often the user tries to close the player, but the system is still not responding, the Task Manager can be opened and VLC will still exist and the system will show that VLC is using all the resources. If you had pressed stop and not closed the player VLC will have released all of the calls to DirectX and it is the systems time to respond and give up the resources because the CPU being at 100% does not realize this and has not responded to it yet. Takes the same time to clear guys you are not helping it. Go have a cup of tea.
Some users believe the system is frozen and try to close it down and this also takes an extraordinary period of time, go have lunch. But this problem is also not VLC. However this is the time when the write back to disk for VLC occurs is when you close the player, if the CPU is 100% and the system is not responding and the player is closed and or the system is closed down, VLC's configuration file may be corrupted and need rebuilding. Once again this is not a VLC problem.
Many users have said, nothing has changed no software was added or taken away and VLC has stopped responding or won't play the file it did yesterday. Yet they have forgotten to mention trying to play the file that appears to have frozen the machine and closed the player or closed down Windows and in most cases clearing the defaults for the player clears the problem. If the file is truly corrupted clearing the defaults will not work and erasing the configuration directory will be necessary. VLC will rebuild this directory the first time it's opened, this is true for every version of VLC installed or not.
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Dhaiwon
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Akhilla
I got the exact same problem just two hours ago. I finished watching a movie, closed VLC and started up a different movie. The difference being that VLC no longer displayed a picture at all. It resized the size of the video but it was all black. The sound still came out just fine.
I read a bit through this thread(skimming through the first with the people quarreling) and decided to try out changing the output module. To my surprise, it worked! Sort of. The two output modules that work for me now are the OpenGL output module and Windows GDI video output module. The latter is rather blocky and unsightly-looking so I use the OpenGL one.
Some bits of info on that may or my not be of interest to anyone looking into the issue:
VLC 0.84a
Radeon X800XT with Catalyst 6.3 driver version
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
DirectX 9.0c(From Service Pack 2 install-cd)
If you haven't tried what I said, then do so. It may just solve the problem. To you developers that might be reading this, I wish you luck finding out what's causing it.
I read a bit through this thread(skimming through the first with the people quarreling) and decided to try out changing the output module. To my surprise, it worked! Sort of. The two output modules that work for me now are the OpenGL output module and Windows GDI video output module. The latter is rather blocky and unsightly-looking so I use the OpenGL one.
Some bits of info on that may or my not be of interest to anyone looking into the issue:
VLC 0.84a
Radeon X800XT with Catalyst 6.3 driver version
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
DirectX 9.0c(From Service Pack 2 install-cd)
If you haven't tried what I said, then do so. It may just solve the problem. To you developers that might be reading this, I wish you luck finding out what's causing it.
ME TOO
on two differant systems, one running w2k, the other xp
(completely differant hardware configs)
tried with both 0.8.2 and 0.8.4
Things go along fine, then one day pffttt... vlc won't play any movies.
I have poked and prodded it every which way, and the ONLY thing I've found which will clear the problem is a REBOOT (which is a real pain in the a**). On one occasion I spent several hours on the w2k machine trying to get it working again, to no avail. I don't recall why, but I became suspicious it had something to do with the sound subsystem (note, however, that I was still able to play music and watch movies with other players) but that may be a red herring... However, after I rebooted, it worked again.
As it just happened again (this time on my XP box with 0.8.2) here's the messages log. Don't know whether it is relevant or not, but last night I was watching a movie, paused it, and later exited vlc via the Window Close 'X' button (ie I didn't hit Stop first, just exited while Paused). Next time I'm in a position to reboot (which may be a while) I'll see if I can replicate the problem with that sequence.
Here's the log; I inserted a line of equal signs - above it are the messages that were output at 'startup', after it are the messages that were output after I hit the stop button. If you look at the thread times at the end, you will note that even though I let it sit there for 21 minutes, zero kernel or user cpu time was used.
(completely differant hardware configs)
tried with both 0.8.2 and 0.8.4
Things go along fine, then one day pffttt... vlc won't play any movies.
I have poked and prodded it every which way, and the ONLY thing I've found which will clear the problem is a REBOOT (which is a real pain in the a**). On one occasion I spent several hours on the w2k machine trying to get it working again, to no avail. I don't recall why, but I became suspicious it had something to do with the sound subsystem (note, however, that I was still able to play music and watch movies with other players) but that may be a red herring... However, after I rebooted, it worked again.
As it just happened again (this time on my XP box with 0.8.2) here's the messages log. Don't know whether it is relevant or not, but last night I was watching a movie, paused it, and later exited vlc via the Window Close 'X' button (ie I didn't hit Stop first, just exited while Paused). Next time I'm in a position to reboot (which may be a while) I'll see if I can replicate the problem with that sequence.
Here's the log; I inserted a line of equal signs - above it are the messages that were output at 'startup', after it are the messages that were output after I hit the stop button. If you look at the thread times at the end, you will note that even though I let it sit there for 21 minutes, zero kernel or user cpu time was used.
Code: Select all
main debug: adding playlist item `\\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi' ( \\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi )
main debug: creating new input thread
main debug: waiting for thread completion
main debug: thread 3548 (input) created at priority 1 (src/input/input.c:230)
main debug: `\\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi' gives access `' demux `' path `\\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi'
main debug: creating demux: access='' demux='' path='\\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi'
main debug: looking for access_demux module: 1 candidate
main debug: creating access '' path='\\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi'
main debug: looking for access2 module: 4 candidates
vcd debug: trying .cue file: \\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.cue
access_file debug: opening file `\\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi'
main debug: using access2 module "access_file"
main debug: pre buffering
main debug: received first data for our buffer
main debug: prebuffering done 1408981 bytes in 0s - 3090 kbytes/s
main debug: creating demux: access='' demux='' path='\\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi'
main debug: looking for demux2 module: 38 candidates
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:46464952 (RIFF) size:733012840 pos:0
avi debug: found LIST chunk: 'AVI '
avi debug: <list 'AVI '>
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:5453494c (LIST) size:8830 pos:12
avi debug: found LIST chunk: 'hdrl'
avi debug: <list 'hdrl'>
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:68697661 (avih) size:56 pos:24
avi debug: avih: streams:2 flags: HAS_INDEX IS_INTERLEAVED 560x400
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:5453494c (LIST) size:4244 pos:88
avi debug: found LIST chunk: 'strl'
avi debug: <list 'strl'>
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:68727473 (strh) size:56 pos:100
avi debug: strh: type:vids handler:0x64697678 samplesize:0 29.97fps
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:66727473 (strf) size:40 pos:164
avi debug: strf: video:XVID 560x400 planes:1 12bpp
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:4b4e554a (JUNK) size:4120 pos:212
avi debug: </list 'strl'>
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:5453494c (LIST) size:4234 pos:4340
avi debug: found LIST chunk: 'strl'
avi debug: <list 'strl'>
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:68727473 (strh) size:56 pos:4352
avi debug: strh: type:auds handler:0x00000000 samplesize:576 41.67fps
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:66727473 (strf) size:30 pos:4416
avi debug: strf: audio:0x0055 channels:2 48000Hz 0bits/sample 187kb/s
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:4b4e554a (JUNK) size:4120 pos:4454
avi debug: </list 'strl'>
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:5453494c (LIST) size:260 pos:8582
avi debug: found LIST chunk: 'odml'
avi debug: <list 'odml'>
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:686c6d64 (dmlh) size:248 pos:8594
avi warning: unknown chunk (not loaded)
avi debug: </list 'odml'>
avi debug: </list 'hdrl'>
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:5453494c (LIST) size:54 pos:8850
avi debug: found LIST chunk: 'INFO'
avi debug: <list 'INFO'>
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:54465349 (ISFT) size:42 pos:8862
avi debug: ISFT: software : FairUse Wizard - http://fairusewizard.com
avi debug: </list 'INFO'>
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:4b4e554a (JUNK) size:1320 pos:8912
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:5453494c (LIST) size:729044112 pos:10240
avi debug: skipping movi chunk
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:31786469 (idx1) size:3958480 pos:729054360
avi debug: idx1: index entry:247405
avi debug: </list 'AVI '>
avi debug: found Chunk fourcc:4b4e554a (JUNK) size:1160 pos:733012848
avi debug: * LIST-root size:733014016 pos:0
avi debug: + RIFF-AVI size:733012840 pos:0
avi debug: | + LIST-hdrl size:8830 pos:12
avi debug: | | + avih size:56 pos:24
avi debug: | | + LIST-strl size:4244 pos:88
avi debug: | | | + strh size:56 pos:100
avi debug: | | | + strf size:40 pos:164
avi debug: | | | + JUNK size:4120 pos:212
avi debug: | | + LIST-strl size:4234 pos:4340
avi debug: | | | + strh size:56 pos:4352
avi debug: | | | + strf size:30 pos:4416
avi debug: | | | + JUNK size:4120 pos:4454
avi debug: | | + LIST-odml size:260 pos:8582
avi debug: | | | + dmlh size:248 pos:8594
avi debug: | + LIST-INFO size:54 pos:8850
avi debug: | | + ISFT size:42 pos:8862
avi debug: | + JUNK size:1320 pos:8912
avi debug: | + LIST-movi size:729044112 pos:10240
avi debug: | + idx1 size:3958480 pos:729054360
avi debug: + JUNK size:1160 pos:733012848
avi debug: AVIH: 2 stream, flags HAS_INDEX IS_INTERLEAVED
avi debug: stream[0] rate:30000 scale:1001 samplesize:0
avi debug: stream[0] video(XVID) 560x400 12bpp 29.970030fps
main debug: selecting program id=0
avi debug: stream[1] rate:24000 scale:576 samplesize:576
avi debug: stream[1] audio(0x55) 2 channels 48000Hz 0bits
avi debug: stream[0] created 123710 index entries
avi debug: stream[1] created 123695 index entries
avi debug: stream[0] length:4127 (based on index)
avi debug: stream[1] length:4127 (based on index)
main debug: using demux2 module "avi"
main debug: looking for a subtitle file in \\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\
main debug: looking for decoder module: 24 candidates
ffmpeg debug: libavcodec initialized (interface 4756 )
ffmpeg debug: postprocessing disabled
ffmpeg debug: ffmpeg codec (MPEG-4 Video) started
main debug: using decoder module "ffmpeg"
main debug: thread 3620 (decoder) created at priority 0 (src/input/decoder.c:159)
main debug: looking for decoder module: 24 candidates
main debug: using decoder module "mpeg_audio"
main debug: thread 3640 (decoder) created at priority 2 (src/input/decoder.c:159)
main debug: meta information:
main debug: - 'Setting' = ' HAS_INDEX IS_INTERLEAVED'
main debug: `\\Wrtsl54gs\imdb250\Duck.Soup.1933\Duck Soup.avi' successfully opened
avi debug: old:0 < new 0
=========================================
main debug: control type=0
main debug: control: stopping input
main debug: closing input
avi debug: free chunk avih
avi debug: free chunk strh
avi debug: free chunk strf
avi debug: free chunk JUNK
avi debug: free chunk LIST
avi debug: free chunk strh
avi debug: free chunk strf
avi debug: free chunk JUNK
avi debug: free chunk LIST
avi warning: unknown chunk (not unloaded)
avi debug: free chunk LIST
avi debug: free chunk LIST
avi debug: free chunk ISFT
avi debug: free chunk LIST
avi debug: free chunk JUNK
avi debug: free chunk LIST
avi debug: free chunk idx1
avi debug: free chunk RIFF
avi debug: free chunk JUNK
avi debug: free chunk LIST
main debug: unlocking module "avi"
main debug: unlocking module "access_file"
ffmpeg debug: ffmpeg codec (MPEG-4 Video) stopped
main debug: unlocking module "ffmpeg"
main debug: thread times: real 21m39.969264s, kernel 0m0.000000s, user 0m0.000000s
main debug: thread 3620 joined (src/input/decoder.c:191)
main debug: killing decoder fourcc `XVID', 1 PES in FIFO
main debug: unlocking module "mpeg_audio"
main debug: thread times: real 21m39.979278s, kernel 0m0.000000s, user 0m0.000000s
main debug: thread 3640 joined (src/input/decoder.c:191)
main debug: killing decoder fourcc `mpga', 0 PES in FIFO
main debug: thread times: real 21m42.402763s, kernel 0m0.070100s, user 0m0.100144s
main debug: thread 3548 joined (src/input/input.c:386)
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Saribro
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Saribro
It is always best to use the add/remove programs. However. using regedit and searching VLC.EXE, then removing all instances will make the program disappear from the add/remove menu.Just for the sake of adding information i dont own anything realplayer related
As of deleting all the stuff from the directories and editing the register, will that remove it from the Add/Remove software menu or would i need to get a separate utility for that?
Try updating your video drivers or if you havn't updated DirectX since SP2 the last runtime update was Feb 06 it is not automatic nor does the version change from 9cI got the exact same problem just two hours ago. I finished watching a movie, closed VLC and started up a different movie. The difference being that VLC no longer displayed a picture at all. It resized the size of the video but it was all black. The sound still came out just fine.
I read a bit through this thread(skimming through the first with the people quarreling) and decided to try out changing the output module. To my surprise, it worked! Sort of. The two output modules that work for me now are the OpenGL output module and Windows GDI video output module. The latter is rather blocky and unsightly-looking so I use the OpenGL one.
Some bits of info on that may or my not be of interest to anyone looking into the issue:
VLC 0.84a
Radeon X800XT with Catalyst 6.3 driver version
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
DirectX 9.0c(From Service Pack 2 install-cd)
If you haven't tried what I said, then do so. It may just solve the problem. To you developers that might be reading this, I wish you luck finding out what's causing it.
Shutting down DirecX as you have done is the best indication of this and is not a VLC problem.
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vlcillin
kill the zombie
Everytime VLC or some other video player hangs on me, I check if there's a zombie VLC task (VLC instance that didn't terminate properly). In most cases there is. These VLC zombies also disable the Windows screensaver. They're a real pest.
I drive a stake through its heart
and everything's fine again.
I drive a stake through its heart
and everything's fine again.Re: kill the zombie
I used to see this one randomly, where the program would close but Task Manager would still list it IE the program was not released properly. I'm not quite sure if it was a Microsoft update or a newer version of VLC, but the only time I have had this happen in recent months is when the file I'm trying to play is corrupted and or the processor utilazation has gone to 100% and even then most of the time it will clear itself.Everytime VLC or some other video player hangs on me, I check if there's a zombie VLC task (VLC instance that didn't terminate properly). In most cases there is. These VLC zombies also disable the Windows screensaver. They're a real pest.
I drive a stake through its heart
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Guest
Thx, although the reason i asked in the first place is cuz i cannot use add/remove programs to remove it so i will be forced to use a different method when i need to get rid of/replace itIt is always best to use the add/remove programs. However. using regedit and searching VLC.EXE, then removing all instances will make the program disappear from the add/remove menu.Just for the sake of adding information i dont own anything realplayer related
As of deleting all the stuff from the directories and editing the register, will that remove it from the Add/Remove software menu or would i need to get a separate utility for that?
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Dhaiwon
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Chronophaser
I've gotten this exact same problem, and also only after uptime goes over a month. The first time it happened, it first occurred when I tried to open a video from within eMule (which normally just opens files with the OS default), so I suspected that. But now it seems the problem is VLC itself. All other media players I have seem to work fine (if somewhat laggy). And while VLC is "trying" to play things, some other screen elements (the cursor while typing this, for example) flicker, indicating *something* is happening. I've tried uninstalling, clearing registry of references to VLC, and reinstalling... even tried the standalone .zip of an older version, all to no avail. It seems VLC just won't work after a certain uptime.At last, someone with the same problem ! So it's not just my system.
Another thing that may be worth mentioning: Both times this situation occured on me, I had 4 week+ uptimes. I don't know if that matters at all, but any similarities in the situation are better than none at all.
Of interesting note: when I tried to play a video, then tried to play an audio file from the same VLC instance, a "VLC (Hardware YUV overlay DirectX output)" window appears, and stays open.
and for the record, my system stats:
OS:(WinXP Professional 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build #2600)) ¤ Up:(1m 3d 9h 22m 17s) ¤ CPU:(1 CPU - AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (Barton), 2.08 GHz, L1: 64KB L2: 512KB (5% Load)) ¤ Mem:(Usage: 865/1536MB (56.32%) ¤ (||||||----)) ¤ HD:(Total/Free: 757.28/129.04GB)
Video Card: (DIAMOND S120 256MB) ¤ Sound Card: (Philips Sound Agent 2)
(taken from a mIRC system info script, because I'm lazy
)Best of luck to the developers in isolating this bug.
I have a friend that is equally lazy! In fact if it weren't for the automatic scans for virus and spy-ware this would not get done either. So he never clears the caches, in fact even though I have showed him, he still doesn't know where they all are. He never turns off the machine and never defragments the hard drive and doesn't know how to run chkdsk with the /f option. The only reason he is current with updates is because I did it, he refuses to realize that there is more to automatic updates than turning it on. After about a month the machine becomes a slug and things begin NOT to work. It seems that DirectX related programs are the first to go. But everything is more than just a little laggy, but instead of doing anything about it he will wait until I come over or will pay $50 to have someone else (in his words) fix it.
I don't see how this is a VLC related issue. VLC is very system dependent. If there are problems with the system, there is a very good chance there will be problems with VLC. Plus what you are suggesting is for the developers to find a machine that does this and wait a month to experience the problem then try to fix something that could very easily is out of the realm of the program.
My suggestion is to donate the machine to the VLC team in its present condition, but don't be surprised if the fix shows up here in this forum and is not a programing issue or bug within VLC.
I don't see how this is a VLC related issue. VLC is very system dependent. If there are problems with the system, there is a very good chance there will be problems with VLC. Plus what you are suggesting is for the developers to find a machine that does this and wait a month to experience the problem then try to fix something that could very easily is out of the realm of the program.
My suggestion is to donate the machine to the VLC team in its present condition, but don't be surprised if the fix shows up here in this forum and is not a programing issue or bug within VLC.
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Dhaiwon
Well it doesnt really matter what causes it. Since the error is experienced on VLC anyone who gets it will come here looking for a solution, so even if the solution is within the realm the system, it would still be highly useful to know what part of the system and how to solve it, in this forum 
Admittedly, it might take a while, or forever(that is never) until such a definiton of error is found
Admittedly, it might take a while, or forever(that is never) until such a definiton of error is found
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plugh
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Chronophaser
Oh, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the problem is something not in VLC. In fact, I'm quite certain the actual cause of the problem is something in the system that causes DirectX to go wonky after enough uptime.
The thing, though, is that VLC is the only player I know of that's affected by this issue. Thus, I'd assume other media players have ways to deal with the problem, or use DirectX in such a way that the problem is not apparent. Therefore, even if VLC itself isn't the problem, it's still a todo task for developers to make it not be affected by the problem.
And with that, I noticed something else. Around the time VLC stopped working, the mouseover popup text for taskbar buttons started appearing incorrectly, showing up *under* the taskbar. I don't know if that is something handled by DirectX, or if it has any relation to the problem whatsoever, but it seemed worth mentioning.
The thing, though, is that VLC is the only player I know of that's affected by this issue. Thus, I'd assume other media players have ways to deal with the problem, or use DirectX in such a way that the problem is not apparent. Therefore, even if VLC itself isn't the problem, it's still a todo task for developers to make it not be affected by the problem.
And with that, I noticed something else. Around the time VLC stopped working, the mouseover popup text for taskbar buttons started appearing incorrectly, showing up *under* the taskbar. I don't know if that is something handled by DirectX, or if it has any relation to the problem whatsoever, but it seemed worth mentioning.
Intresting! I first ran across the problem noted above, but VLC was not installed on that system. All media players were effected. Perhaps VLC more so because it is very system dependent and the fact that it is a packet player unlike any other player in existence. I suppose it is also possible that different hardware is posing a bit different end result, however I believe the underling problem is the same.Oh, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the problem is something not in VLC. In fact, I'm quite certain the actual cause of the problem is something in the system that causes DirectX to go wonky after enough uptime.
The thing, though, is that VLC is the only player I know of that's affected by this issue. Thus, I'd assume other media players have ways to deal with the problem, or use DirectX in such a way that the problem is not apparent. Therefore, even if VLC itself isn't the problem, it's still a todo task for developers to make it not be affected by the problem.
And with that, I noticed something else. Around the time VLC stopped working, the mouseover popup text for taskbar buttons started appearing incorrectly, showing up *under* the taskbar. I don't know if that is something handled by DirectX, or if it has any relation to the problem whatsoever, but it seemed worth mentioning.
I believe that it was mentioned that it is recommended to be current with DirectX. The last runtime update was in Feb 06 and is not automatic nor will the version change from 9c.
I realize that Microsoft claims that you never need to shut down your machine using XP. But they sure do it allot when you update and that wasn't supposed to be necessary. I don't think I have run across anyone that has made it beyond the month mark without some kind of major problem. Personally I consider this a mute issue given that (in my opinion) the NTFS file system is not stable enough for any operating system to be run indefinitely. Running XP from the days of early NT shows clearly that the self repair of the NTFS file system does not work and while form time to time Microsoft will acknowledge it, they have never fixed it.
My W2K machine was last rebooted 1/25/06, when I did a disk image backup. My XP box was last rebooted 3/14/06, when I upgraded a hard drive. Note that I have a UPS (got tired of losing my work on power glitches), and that I 'hibernate' the systems (rather than 'shutdown') when I want to power them down. Things do occasionally get a little bonkers, particularly with the Windows shell, but that is easy to fix via the task manager (ie kill and restart the Explorer process).
This vlc hang problem should be easy to track down, given sufficient debug/trace info. I mean, some critical thread is apparently waiting for some resource (a mutex, a lock, a handle, ...) that the system can't grant vlc any more; something that only vlc uses, or that vlc uses in some unique fashion.
As I haven't rebooted my xp box since vlc went south, is there anything the devos would like checked? There should be a way to find out what threads are active and the program counter addresses at which they are stalled. Assuming there was a windows build with debug symbol table info, it shouldn't be that hard to find out what is going on...
This vlc hang problem should be easy to track down, given sufficient debug/trace info. I mean, some critical thread is apparently waiting for some resource (a mutex, a lock, a handle, ...) that the system can't grant vlc any more; something that only vlc uses, or that vlc uses in some unique fashion.
As I haven't rebooted my xp box since vlc went south, is there anything the devos would like checked? There should be a way to find out what threads are active and the program counter addresses at which they are stalled. Assuming there was a windows build with debug symbol table info, it shouldn't be that hard to find out what is going on...
This still may be a problem as I know Killing Explorer in the Task Manager and then reloading it does NOT restore all of the functions. However, Logging out and back in (I believe) does, provided that the settings for logging are not using "fast user switching" which is the default.
Using hibernate is the same as not shutting down the machine except for wear and tear on the machine. IE many functions are not renewed or reset. Microsoft recommends shutting down servers one a month and running chkdsk with the /f option, clearing the caches and defraging the hard disk. This corrects the NTFS problem mentioned earlier and everything is renewed. But most ITs have found problems before the month period has expired. Requiring more frequent maintenance.
So what is it that you would like the developers to look for when others have looked and failed to come up with a resolve??
Using hibernate is the same as not shutting down the machine except for wear and tear on the machine. IE many functions are not renewed or reset. Microsoft recommends shutting down servers one a month and running chkdsk with the /f option, clearing the caches and defraging the hard disk. This corrects the NTFS problem mentioned earlier and everything is renewed. But most ITs have found problems before the month period has expired. Requiring more frequent maintenance.
So what is it that you would like the developers to look for when others have looked and failed to come up with a resolve??
re: uptime/hibernates/etc - basically, my point is I don't reboot unless/until I HAVE to, and I seldom am forced to by OS issues.
It sort of slipped my mind, but I just realized that actually BOTH my systems are currently experiencing this problem. I had forgotten that vlc had glitched on my w2k box a couple months ago (I don't watch videos on that one much), and as I haven't rebooted that one since january...
This is a problem that doesn't occur frequently, but I have at hand two systems, with differant hardware and OSes, that are experiencing the problem, and given my "work habits" they will probably remain in this state for a while.
By the way, the w2k system has MS Visual Studio 6 C++ installed with the various debugging tools, if that is of any help. IIRC it also has most of the resource kit tools installed as well.
I can understand why fixing a problem like this, where there isn't any apparent way to MAKE it occur, can be difficult. But as I have two systems in this state, here's their chance collect info on the problem.
Are they interested?
It sort of slipped my mind, but I just realized that actually BOTH my systems are currently experiencing this problem. I had forgotten that vlc had glitched on my w2k box a couple months ago (I don't watch videos on that one much), and as I haven't rebooted that one since january...
I am OFFERING to run debug versions / do whatever they might want that would assist them in tracking down why vlc decides to just stop working when other players on the same systems continue to do so. IMHO, a key step is to identify where in the code it is sitting when it gets into this 'I'm just going to sit here and do nothing' state.So what is it that you would like the developers to look for when others have looked and failed to come up with a resolve??
This is a problem that doesn't occur frequently, but I have at hand two systems, with differant hardware and OSes, that are experiencing the problem, and given my "work habits" they will probably remain in this state for a while.
By the way, the w2k system has MS Visual Studio 6 C++ installed with the various debugging tools, if that is of any help. IIRC it also has most of the resource kit tools installed as well.
I can understand why fixing a problem like this, where there isn't any apparent way to MAKE it occur, can be difficult. But as I have two systems in this state, here's their chance collect info on the problem.
Are they interested?
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