Choppy/pixelated divx

[trouble_man]

I recently upgraded from Windows XP to Server 2003, and my video quality seems to have taken a serious hit. Avi movies used to look really good on my old set-up, but now...eh, not so much. First of all, something's wrong with the framerate (or something like that, I'm not too technical when it comes to digital video). Movement within the video seems noticeably choppy, almost as if it weren't processing fast enough (it's not skipping frames or seizing up, but anything moving fast on the screen is a little jumpy). In addition, when I blow up a video to larger than its normal size, it becomes noticeably pixelated/jagged. On my Windows XP set-up my AVI files looked really good blown up, and there really wasn't any noticeable pixelation or blurring. I'm not positive, but I also think the colors seem just a little bit washed-out now.
I've tried installing several different codec packs (plus playing the videos in both Winamp and VLC) and messed with the settings in ffdshow. That's had some interesting effects, but nothing has yet fixed the problem. If there's any other information that would help to diagnose the problem, please let me know and I'll provide it.
Thanks for your help!

Edit: I just realized that ALL the video playing on my comp is having these problems, not just AVI files. mpeg movies have the exact same problem and look just as bad. Thanks again

[anonymez]

welcome to the forum

try updating directx and graphics card drivers

[trouble_man]

I have already updated Direct X in trying to fix the problem actually, but I'll try to update my graphics card drivers and report back. Thanks for the advice and the welcome!

[trouble_man]

Well, neither the installation CD for my graphics card nor the specific update utility on the nvidia website are any use because they both tell me I'm not running the right version of windows, even though the utility i downloaded specifically said it was for Server 2003...I'm e-mailing them right now, but in the meantime is anybody familiar with this particular problem? Many thanks for any help

[Chewy]

server is based on the XP kernel, it wasn't anything drastically new, just a server edition for XP

I would think you have the same old problem with conflicting graphics drivers

you need to run a clean tool and then reload the driver

[trouble_man]

Sorry for being a newbie here, but what clean tool would I use and which driver am I reloading?
I should aslo add that this wasn't actually an upgrade from Windows XP but a fresh install, if that makes any difference.
Thanks

[Chewy]

first off codec packs are nothing but trouble, the bigger the pack and the more packs and you might as well do another clean install

when installing xp or server on an older computer I prefer to leave out the mobo drivers or cd graphics drivers until I see what's really needed. The clean install should be done with the latest service pack slipstreamed. Then I will add just what's missing.

I beta tested server and could see no advantages over xp professional in a non domain setting.

[trouble_man]

Merits or faults of Server aside, I actually didn't install any codec packs until I noticed this problem, and I've uninstalled each of them after they don't fix the problem. It also seems significant that all video formats have the same quality problems. The suggestion to update my graphics card drivers seems like it might be the most important thing to try off the bat, but for some reason the official Server 2003 install package thinks it needs to run on XP. For now, Windows is running on the default drivers it installed for my graphics card. I've e-mailed the support team and hopefully they can help me, but in the meantime any other possible solutions are highly welcome!
And I'll make sure to look into XP Pro some more (I was using Home before)

[Chewy]

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

let's look at your setup
run everest and paste an overclock report(under computer)
leave out all the debug stuff

at least we can get some details

[trouble_man]

Here ya go:

CPU Properties:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4
CPU Alias Northwood, A80532
CPU Stepping C1
Engineering Sample No
CPUID CPU Name Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
CPUID Revision 00000F27h

CPU Speed:
CPU Clock 2386.43 MHz (original: 2400 MHz)
CPU Multiplier 18.0x
CPU FSB 132.58 MHz (original: 133 MHz)
Memory Bus 397.74 MHz

CPU Cache:
L1 Trace Cache 12K Instructions
L1 Data Cache 8 KB
L2 Cache 512 KB (On-Die, ECC, ATC, Full-Speed)

Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID <DMI>
Motherboard Name Dell Dimension 8200

Chipset Properties:
Motherboard Chipset Intel Tehama i850(E)
CAS Access Delay (tCAC) 8T
Row To Column Delay (tRCD) 7T
Roundtrip Channel Delay (tRDLY) 2T

SPD Memory Modules:
RIMM1: Samsung MR16R 1624AF0-CM8 128 MB PC800 RDRAM
RIMM2: Samsung MR16R 1624AF0-CM8 128 MB PC800 RDRAM
RIMM3: Samsung MR16R 1628AF0-CM8 256 MB PC800 RDRAM
RIMM4: Samsung MR16R 1628AF0-CM8 256 MB PC800 RDRAM

BIOS Properties:
System BIOS Date 09/13/02
Video BIOS Date 04/04/06
DMI BIOS Version A09

Graphics Processor Properties:
Video Adapter nVIDIA NV44AGP
GPU Code Name NV44AGP (AGP 4x 10DE / 0222, Rev A1)
GPU Clock 351 MHz
Memory Clock 266 MHz

Let me know what else I can do to help diagnose the problem

[Chewy]

geforce 6200?

drivers from server might not be new enough, what sp are you running?

have a go at the nvidia drivers from their web site, but follow directions about removing the old ones before loading the new

[trouble_man]

Well like I said, the Nvidia video card drivers won't install. The only drivers I have now are the default ones windows installed, so the card isn't really installed all the way. It's in the hardware config and all that, but doesn't have any official Nvidia drivers. I've tried updating them by searching the CD and the files in the folder of the driver install utility that I downloaded from the website (neither of which found any updated drivers). See my post a little ways up for the problems I was having getting the installation of new drivers to work.
I have service pack 1, the only one available for Server.

[Chewy]

since nvidia doesn't list a driver for server than I would think the xp drivers are all there are, unless you try the beta ones

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_winxp_2k_32bit_93.81.html

[trouble_man]

On this page, there actually is a set-up package specifically saying it's for server 2003:

http://evga.com/support/drivers/

However, it gives me the exact same error as the installation CD utiltiy does, saying it will "only run on XP x64" or something like that. I've written Nvidia and I'm awaiting a reply. I've uninstalled all drivers and I'm going to try the download package you linked to. I'll report back in a few minutes.

[Chewy]

I have had my share of troubles with both nvidia and ati drivers and XP

once I get them working I save that installer, try to remember what I did and leave them alone after that

those drivers are for vista and I know it's got a different kernel based on the 64 bit xp pro one but
changed some also