Subject: From: Date:

DVD-play problems on my WIN98 TI103 Laptop Mark Gilmore Fri, 09 Sep 2005 18:13:20 -0700

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Sorry for posting a question unrelated to ECS, but i'm at a dead-end and 
could really use some advice:
When playing **some** DVDs (brand-new Verbatim discs) on my TI103 laptop 
(WIN98), the video frequently
freezes for minutes at a time (if not forever).
If I try to abort the player, the PC frequently crashes (blue screen).
This is very maddening, esp as I bought the PC mainly to play DVDs :-(,
It worked perfectly for the first 6 months or so.
Anyone have a clue as to what could be causing this ?

I suspect that the DVD player is prone to detecting CRC errors,
and when it detects one, it scans extremely *small* blocks looking for a 
good one.
But I can't find any way of adjusting it's scanning criteria (or just a way 
of disabling CRC checks altogether).

My local tech guy suspected WIN98 corruption, but I use this PC so little 
(and for only playing DVDs).
And as I don't have an install CD, a re-install could easily make it a 
doorstop.

I considered installing SUSE, but their media player does not support DVD 
playback
(and their related web site says that they know of no legal Linux players).

btw, a can of compressed air is on the way (so i can see if a cleaning will 
fix it).

Thanks !

Mark Gilmore

http://OmnipotenceSoftware.com 

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