I have had some lingering problems on my computer that I have sort of put up
with, but I have just tried to get the game "rise of nations" installed, and
it exits abruptly during startup (and I've done the 14 things on Microsoft's
help page for this game). I'm wondering if the lingering problems are
causing this.

The problems I have noticed on my 1.8GHx P4 machine running XP SP2 are:

1) Going to Device Manager and opening up Video Codecs. It comes up with the
"General" tab OK, but clicking the "properties" tab, causes it to crash with
the "Windows needs to close this task, do you want to send Report" dialog,
followed a few seconds later by "Dr Watson has experienced an error, and
needs to close, etc etc".
2) Regardless of the application (media player, games, etc) most video
formats (including MPEG, AVI) play upside down!
3) I notice that apple Quicktime movie playback is very jerky

I don't know if these three things are interrelated or not, but I thought
I'd explain all the funny things going on, if that helps.

I'm at the point where it seems that I'll have to reinstall XP from scratch
and rebuild my applications and data (a depressing thought). I just don't
know how to go about repairing problems in XP.

Can anybody help?

I am using a virus program (Comp Assoc. EZ Antivirus) + AdAware + S&D.

Thanks! Phil

Have you installed any codec packages? These often come with loads of
crapware and are often no good. If you need a certain codec, it's best to
find it out and install just it.
Also, lots of video apps on one machine can fight for supremeacy and this
can often cause problems.

--
Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Media
www.myvideoproblems.co.uk
www.dvds2treasure.com
www.simplydv.com


"Phil Jones" <someone@microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:dkm04h$7ld$1@otis.netspace.net.au...
>I have had some lingering problems on my computer that I have sort of put
>up with, but I have just tried to get the game "rise of nations" installed,
>and it exits abruptly during startup (and I've done the 14 things on
>Microsoft's help page for this game). I'm wondering if the lingering
>problems are causing this.
>
> The problems I have noticed on my 1.8GHx P4 machine running XP SP2 are:
>
> 1) Going to Device Manager and opening up Video Codecs. It comes up with
> the "General" tab OK, but clicking the "properties" tab, causes it to
> crash with the "Windows needs to close this task, do you want to send
> Report" dialog, followed a few seconds later by "Dr Watson has experienced
> an error, and needs to close, etc etc".
> 2) Regardless of the application (media player, games, etc) most video
> formats (including MPEG, AVI) play upside down!
> 3) I notice that apple Quicktime movie playback is very jerky
>
> I don't know if these three things are interrelated or not, but I thought
> I'd explain all the funny things going on, if that helps.
>
> I'm at the point where it seems that I'll have to reinstall XP from
> scratch and rebuild my applications and data (a depressing thought). I
> just don't know how to go about repairing problems in XP.
>
> Can anybody help?
>
> I am using a virus program (Comp Assoc. EZ Antivirus) + AdAware + S&D.
>
> Thanks! Phil
>

Thanks, Graham.

I have just discovered that my son installed a whole heap of codecs about a
year ago, for no reason other than they were there to be installed! Codec
packs, too, which I gather are a very bad idea.

I've uninstalled them, and my problems have gone away.

Thanks, again.

"Graham Hughes" <graham.hughes@dvds2treasure.co.uk> wrote in message
news:OYdukO54FHA.1276@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Have you installed any codec packages? These often come with loads of
> crapware and are often no good. If you need a certain codec, it's best to
> find it out and install just it.
> Also, lots of video apps on one machine can fight for supremeacy and this
> can often cause problems.
>
> --
> Graham Hughes
> MVP Digital Media
> www.myvideoproblems.co.uk
> www.dvds2treasure.com
> www.simplydv.com
>
>
> "Phil Jones" <someone@microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:dkm04h$7ld$1@otis.netspace.net.au...
>>I have had some lingering problems on my computer that I have sort of put
>>up with, but I have just tried to get the game "rise of nations"
>>installed, and it exits abruptly during startup (and I've done the 14
>>things on Microsoft's help page for this game). I'm wondering if the
>>lingering problems are causing this.
>>
>> The problems I have noticed on my 1.8GHx P4 machine running XP SP2 are:
>>
>> 1) Going to Device Manager and opening up Video Codecs. It comes up with
>> the "General" tab OK, but clicking the "properties" tab, causes it to
>> crash with the "Windows needs to close this task, do you want to send
>> Report" dialog, followed a few seconds later by "Dr Watson has
>> experienced an error, and needs to close, etc etc".
>> 2) Regardless of the application (media player, games, etc) most video
>> formats (including MPEG, AVI) play upside down!
>> 3) I notice that apple Quicktime movie playback is very jerky
>>
>> I don't know if these three things are interrelated or not, but I thought
>> I'd explain all the funny things going on, if that helps.
>>
>> I'm at the point where it seems that I'll have to reinstall XP from
>> scratch and rebuild my applications and data (a depressing thought). I
>> just don't know how to go about repairing problems in XP.
>>
>> Can anybody help?
>>
>> I am using a virus program (Comp Assoc. EZ Antivirus) + AdAware + S&D.
>>
>> Thanks! Phil
>>
>
>