Help, I'm stumped

[bugaboo]

I installed a new nvidia tnt2 card in my compaq 7485 running windows 98 following all instructions to the letter. I even had disabled and deleted the driver for the onboard vid card first. After that I no longer have a picture. I can play cd's, vcd's, games and other assorted software just fine, but can not get a pic off a DVD. I have since reformatted getting rid of all that compaq goop of an operating system and went to win XP. I have also upgraded my DVD hardware that is XP compatible. I have even removed the new nvidia card and re installed the old trident blade and still no pic off a DVD. Someone suggested I try your fine site here. I believe I need to get a codec of some sort, but have no clue where to get it. I would have thought that win XP or any of the dvd drivers or dvd player software would have had it included.

[setarip]

Do you have any software DVD player(s) installed (such as WinDVD, PowerDVD)?

[bugaboo]

I currently have WIN DVD, Direct DVD from Orion Studios and the standard Media Player 7 installed. I have the cd for the WIN DVD. I used to have the compaq DVD player. To date none of them would show the picture off a DVD.

[setarip]

I just want to make certain that I'm understanding you correctly:

1) Are you saying that you can play VCDs (Video CDs) on your DVD player - and the video DOES show on your monitor?

2) Or are you, by any chance, playing the VCDs on a CD player or burner?

[bugaboo]

I am running it in the DVD ROM drive. This is now the second DVD drive I have used with the same results. The first drive worked fine until I installed the nvidia tnt2 card. I have never tried to play them in the CDRW. Everything plays great except for anything that has DVD encoding on it. Vcd's play fine as do mixed media CD's as long as they do not use DVD encoding. The pic's on the VCD's is ok, the sound is a little choppy though.

[setarip]

I've heard of Compaq's being unforgiving regarding harware and O/S-related changes, but this is remarkable! Have you tried contacting Compaq (online or phone)?

By the way, do you get audio from the DVDs, if you simply doubleclick on a .VOB file?

[bugaboo]

Yes I have been in contact with Compaq.... with far from satisfying results. They have no idea how to fix it. All they did was keep throwing new drivers at me (this was BEFORE I removed all the compaq goop) They would tell me to go into the BIOS and registry and all sorts of other stuff with them on the phone walking me through it... nothing worked. The last email I got from them said that they would have the programers look at the problem (they took snapshots from my system). This has been going on for about 4 months now. I have replaced about everything inside the machine exept the motherboard, processor, soundcard and HD.

Yes I can hear the audio portion of the DVD's and VCD's ok, it is a little choppy, but I can hear it. It was choppy before I started all this.... in fact a choppy playback and sound was what made me want to change the video card in the first place. I thought a video card that had 32 mb of mem and a 256 cache would be better than the 8 that was in there.

Thanks for letting me rant! lol

I'm about ready to do this to the machine!

[setarip]

Sorry I wasn't able to be of any real assistance - but I do commiserate fairly well ;>}

[bugaboo]

Thanks anyway! I do appreciate any efforts. Somewhere there is an answer..... short of taking a shotgun to the machine. If anyone has any ideas (however odd they may seem) please let me know. With my luck it is something sooooo simple that I'm gonna hate myself for not thinking of it.