My PC.

[VFE]

Hi folks,

I used to be able to play DVD's on my PC (Windows 98) but for some reason they will no longer play. I have been through all the angles of attack I can think of to get the DVD to play but no joy.

I know this is a long shot but does anyone have any quick idea's to put forward as to what may be causing this problem.

I have a DVD I bought today waiting to be watched and it's annoying. :(

Cheers,

VFE.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

VFE,

Win9x Kernals are famous for corrupting system files. The first thing to try is deleting the DVD Drive from your Device Manager. Let Win98 reboot and see if it adds it back when the OS posts.

If that does not work there are several other steps we can try.

Take Care,

Capt. Richard J. Gentil, Pres.
Naples Air Center, Inc.
Custom Computers of Naples, Inc.

[VFE]

Thanks for that Richard! It has done the trick!

VFE.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

VFE,

That is great news!

Take Care,

Richard

[Golden Runways]

It's not just me then that's having various annoyances at the moment. My computer seems to go in cycles of being poorly and well. At the moment it's poorly.

My DVDs will not play either. The Cybelink PowerDVD software will play audio CDs, MPEGS, and VCDs, but is currently refusing DVDs.

Device manager says the drive is functioning ok, and has no new driver updates. It's a Samsung SD-612S.

Running Windows ME. V2.55 PowerDVD.

Do you think the same "remove" from device manager will work?

[Golden Runways]

Thanks TCS,

might have found a few pointers. Particularly that I had a faulty battery, and problems with CMOS/BIOS. Although they are, as far as I know resolved, this is perhaps linked. The DMA option is still checked.

Will try having a look on BIOS.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Golden Runways,

If you are going though "cycles of being poorly and well" it might be time to install your OS again. Before you do that, please list all the specs on your Hardware. You are running WinME, how long has it been since you installed WinME and was it a fresh install from the CABs or an upgrade?

Take Care,

Richard

[Golden Runways]

Hello Richard.

Wish I was down in Naples. Better than the Italian version, and I like that one lots!

Think my current poorly cycle is mostly due to the arrival of AOL 8!

AMD Duron 850, ECS K7S5A, SIS 0735 chipset, 512Mb DDR ram, NVIDIA GeForce2 MX100/200 (32MB).

Samsung DVD-ROM SD-612S, drive version SB05, DMA enabled. It is the secondary master.

The refusal to play DVDs seemed to coincide with the CMOS problem. It played them fine before. I have progressed as far as getting the first 30 secs of DVD play back, and then it crashes.

Windows ME was a fresh install. Will "remove" from device manager be any use? In BIOS it is set to auto detect the drive. By deleting, and letting windows detect on reboot, is this similar to when it detects new hardware eg printers/scanners etc? Might try to test some other playback software, as still awaiting support from Cyberlink.

I am building up to re-flashing the BIOS, as it currently only supports 1.4 Ghz CPu, the latest BIOS supports Athlon XPs @ 2+. However it looks formidable to me at present. And I am yellow like custard.

Thanks!

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Golden Runways,

If you wanted to try another DVD Player, try:

NVDVD from nVidia (http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=nvdvd_downloadtrial)

I do not believe deleting your DVD Drive and adding it back in will help you since you crash 30 sec in to a DVD.

I was looking over the BIOS Revisions for your Motherboard and one of them listed this fix:


1. Fixed RealMagic DVD decoder of PC Card(EM8300) responsed invalid bus/dev/func number during POST
2. Fixed RAID card (kurokutosikou ATA100PCI) couldn't work properly

That was BIOS k7s5a020626 for K7S5A for PSB Ver 3.1 (Not sure if that was your PCB Rev or not). I know you are not using a hardware decoder, but there could be some issues with the BIOS and DVD Playback.

If you are going to Flash to the latest BIOS (which I highly recommend, from the BIOS History I was looking at), I would be happy to help you with Flashing.

Flashing is a fairly straight forward process, but it is critical that you do it properly.

1) Write Down all the Settings in your BIOS.
2) Create a Bootable Floppy
3) Download the new BIOS and Flash Utility.
4) Unzip the BIOS to the Floppy and copy the Flash Utility to the Floppy.
5) Reboot the computer with the Floppy in the Drive.
6) Run the Flash Utility and when it prompts you list the name of the BIOS Program on the Floppy.
7) When it is done reboot and go in to the BIOS.
8) Load Setup Defaults
9) Go back in to the BIOS and put all your settings back.

Now you are done.

Important Note: You must let the BIOS Flash Utility Finish Flashing once it starts. If you shut off your computer mid Flash, you will turn your motherboard into an expensive Keychain!

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. It might be time to re-install WinME again.