Blue screen of death when playing DVD's

[Wigglyamps]

Dear all,

I would be grateful if anyone could tell me why my PC goes into the blue screen of death mode when trying to play DVD's, it seems to be OK with Realplayer, but using Windows Media Player or Dell Cine player it instantly falls over.

Also on a slightly related topic, the first time every day that I play Black Ops multiplayer my PC will crash after about 5 minutes, once its been restarted it seems to be OK, very odd.

Thanks in advance for any replies

Wigglyamps

[Parapunter]

A few details on the pc would help, however, in the ball park, it does sound like a video driver issue since you're crashing on two seperate video heavy functions. Graphics drivers can be frequently updated to take into account issues with games & applications, so if it were mine I would update the graphics driver as a first resort.

[Wigglyamps]

Thankyou for that, I will update the driver.

The PC is a Dell dimension E520 with an Intel Pentium D CPU 3.0Ghz with 2046MB RAM and an NVIDIA Geforce 9500 GT graphics card

Wigglyamps

[Parapunter]

Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers (http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us)

[srobarts]

As well as updating drivers it may be worth checking that both the CPU and GPU are not overheating - although 5 mins is a bit quick to overheat.
My sons PC with NVidia card kept crashing, updated the drivers but still a problem. Opened the case and the CPU cooling fins were blocked with fluff as were the GPU cooling fins. A quick blast with an air duster and problem solved. We also found that the GPU cooling fan settings were wrong - the fan would only run at low speed - changed that and according to the temp monitor all temps are well within specs.

[Saab Dastard]

Max. CPU operating temp for the Pentium d is 69.8 or 63.4 C - depending on which core you have, Presler or Smithfield (later).

You would be surprised just how hot GPUs run - max for the 9500 is 105 C!

A coule of useful sites: CPU-World: Microprocessor news, benchmarks, information and pictures (http://www.cpu-world.com), Maximum CPU Temperature | Hardware Secrets (http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Maximum-CPU-Temperature/143) - sadly the latter hasn't been updated for about 4 years.

SD

[AnthonyGA]

When a PC runs normally for a few minutes and then crashes, especially (or exclusively) when it is engaged in compute-intensive activities like video games or playback, overheating is a prime suspect. Inspect all fans (CPU, GPU, case, power supply, any others), and blow out any accumulated dust in the machine. Monitor CPU and GPU temps while the troublesome activity is in progress; if these temps continuously rise, there is a cooling problem. The max temps for CPUs and GPUs vary with the specific chips, so you'd have to look that up.

If it's not hardware, it's usually a device driver, and usually it's a video device driver, since they contain the most complex code and the greatest number of bugs. If the BSOD is extremely troublesome, you can try updating the drivers, but keep in mind that updating drivers may correct some problems but introduce others, and the new problems may be even worse than the old. This is especially true with video drivers.

A problem with video games and playing DVDs very strongly implies either an overheating problem or a video driver bug. If it has only recently appeared in a system that has been running okay in the past, either it's overheating or something has been changed on the machine that has introduced bugs (e.g., a driver update).