Does Movie Maker Crash on you?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Kelly
  • Start date Start date
J

John Kelly

Hello there,

You sound as though you are suffering from a codec problem. There are two root
causes and below you will find the solution for each together with some notes
on other issues.

1)

The one stop solution for that is a program called Rename Codecs and it is
available from my web site (Free). Make sure you check out the FAQ, on the
site, on what it does and how to run it (That will take about one minute of
your time!!) All the info you need is on the web site.

This reassuringly safe to use program requires no knowledge on your part about
what it is doing or how it is doing it or what it is doing it too!!! neither do
you need to know where any of these files are or whether it is safe to rename
them or not.....and best of all, ITS FREE !!!

2)

If this does not solve your problem then try the following out...it has proved
to be a successful procedure for a variety of problems.

1) Download the full version of DirectX Ver 9.0b, Media Player 9 and Movie
Maker 2.

2) Reboot you computer and Install DirectX

3) Reboot again and install Windows Media Player 9

4) Reboot yet again and install Movie Maker 2

5) Reboot one more time

Yes it sounds very tedious, but if you want to be certain all file locks are
removed so that the correct files can be installed this is the way you have to
go.

It is very important that you only download the full versions of these programs
and that you DO NOT attempt an install over the internet.

Other Notes
===========

There is in my view some very bad advice floating around that tells you to
unregister the offending codec. If you take this advise be warned that
unregistering any file and doing it wrong will more than likely stop the
program that file belongs to from working all together and may in an extreme
situation cause your entire XP system to fail. This is true whether you make a
mistake using the Registry editor or the registration program itself, one
mistake and you are potentially in deep trouble. Whatever you unregister in
this manner has to be restored and you should take note that the registration
of a codec can often involve more than one registry entry. If you are expert in
these matters you will have no problem.

I have also found that MP3, Mpeg and Jpeg files can cause problems, So...

Convert all MP3 to WAV

Convert all MPeg to AVI

Convert all Jpeg to BMP

For Video Conversion you should also check out the Knowledge Base Section of my
"Great Links" One of the website's in there "Video Help" has the best
collection of useful information I have yet come across on converting between
the various formats together with links to the software needed.
 
Check the Problem Solving > Acceleration and Codecs page of my site.
--
PapaJohn
Movie Maker 2: www.papajohn.org
PhotoStory 2: www.photostory.papajohn.org
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Lauramonte said:
Hi John, Thanks for the advise and I did everything you said. Went into
Click to expand...
your website and downloaded Rename Codecs, dowloaded DirectX, Media Player 9
& Movie Maker 2, while reboot between each download and it still crashes
when I try to add the transition and/or title. From what I've been reading
on this board, many people are having problems w/Movie Maker 2. Any other
suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Should I remove the movie maker 2
and reinstall it????
 
Hi there,
Sounds like a real problem then.
If you renamed all of the codecs and it still crashes you have in effect
discounted all the more usual problems.
How old is your computer? and what Graphics card do you have?
I learned the hard way that the driver for the graphics card can be a real
problem....if you downloaded it from Microsoft. The machine I use for Graphics
orientated jobs has a quite fast graphics card with Video IN and OUT as well as
DV IN and OUT. You may be thinking what does that have to do with me...well,
the lesson I learned was that you should NEVER trust the generic drivers that
Microsoft provide...in the same way that Movie Maker falls over if everything
is not exactly right...so do their drivers and you may never be aware of it.
The driver for my card from Microsoft was of a more recent version than the one
it came with and I therefore assumed it would be OK....It was not. I did some
checking and found a driver from the OEM that was more recent than the one it
came with but less recent than the one from Microsoft......
All three drivers worked ok for your run of the mill stuff but only one worked
at all when it came to programs like Movie Maker. From stories I have heard it
seems that this is often the case. So, go to the manufacturers website and
download the latest version that they supply. It may well seem out of date when
compared to what you already have but give it a try anyway....you can always
Roll Back to your present driver.

Whilst on the site of the OEM, you should also check out any bulletins that are
there where OpenGL or DirectX are referred too.
You should remember also remember that the very limited short term measure of
restricting or turning off your graphics card acceleration capabilities also
means that you slow down all other programs that require that
acceleration...its much better to solve the problem rather than making do with
restrictive work-around's.
 
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