AMD Divx System crash

[stealthmonkey]

Hi,
Can someone please help !
Is there any way to work around divx playback freezing after 10-60 seconds
and crashing an AMD system.

Brand new Sony Vaio notebook FX501.
AMD Duron (mobile) 1 Ghz
256 MB Ram
20 GB Hard drive
8 MB ATI 3d rage mobility M1
CD/DVD
Windows XP
Installed the divx 4.12 build 317 and tried playing 10 movies with the playa
and 10 with Windows Media. In both applications only one played for more
than a min. Each time my system crashes with a blue screen and usually hangs
after reboot. I have allot of divx files from my other P.C and have never
had any problems on my P II 350 Mhz system.

I also tried Divx 3.11-- same problem, tried installing Windows 2000 --
same problem.

I have seen this posted a few times, people seem to think its an XP problem
but the conclusion of the thread generally points towards AMD systems.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Barry

[Enchanter]

Maybe you haven't properly installed the drivers for your GPU and motherboard? Try using the latest versions. I've not had any problems playing DivX videos on XP, with all the proper drivers installed of course.

[stealthmonkey]

I tried reinstalling the ATI drivers I got with it, still no luck and ATI don’t supply generic Mobility drivers, Sony support aren’t any use wither when it comes to Driver updates.

Don’t know if its an XP thing, but I know its definitely a common problem on Vaio's or certain AMD's

[Enchanter]

There could be compatibility problems between your hardware too. I used to have this RivaTNT card that wouldn't get along with the motherboard I was using. Everytime I tried playing 3D games, the whole system would just restart by itself within 5-10 minutes of gameplay.

As for Win2K, have you tried using the proper drivers for it and applied Service Pack 2? Try looking around for AMD patches too. I may have seen some around, but never really paid attention though.

[UncasMS]

i had troubles playing divx (all else was fine) when i built my second machine.

the scapegoat was the VIA 4in1 driver!
updating to the latest version did the trick in my case.

check your mobo and chipset drivers as proposed before!

[stealthmonkey]

Thanks for the help guys.

I managed to sort it.

I installed the divx 4.0 codec from http://www.chizzil.com/softdetail.cfm?ID=633
after I uninstalled the divx 4.12 codec.
I read in a newsgroup that someone had the same problem and this sorted it for them.

This seemed to do the trick watched a few and so far so good, just hope the problem doesnt happen again when 5.0 comes out.

Thanks again.

Barry

[Enchanter]

Heard that 5.0 won't be free though...