Fixing XP video codecs

  • Thread starter Thread starter Phil Jones
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Phil Jones

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.
 
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