computer freeze with avi to wmv or ati avi to divx conversion

[cdraider]

I would like to thank all the intelligent people out there who can help me out with these problems. recently got a new system rebuilt- amd xp2200+, abit kx7-333, 512mb crucial ram, 100gb 7200rpm hds, abit siluro geforce mx, etc. everytime I tried to use the windows media encoder to convert avi files originally captured by ati all in wonder card to wmv. the computer freezes after about 5 seconds. also tried using divx 5.02, virtualdub and tried to convert ati avi to divx avi. still no luck. please help. I personally do not think it is a hardware issue. the system runs on w98 se. since the hardware is so fast may be just os prob. also if wanted to convert dvd to divx which os to use is better win 2k or xp professional. thanks very much
cdraider

 

[AnAndAustin]

Well WinXP is superior to Win2000, in fact the marketing blurb and a few fancy bells and whistles aside, WinXP is essentially Win2000 with a newer service pack. Win98SE should still do you proud though, I would point my finger at some wierd compression algorithm used by ATI which is causing your problem. Some facts to consider, are you o/c'ing anything, if so set them back to defaults as encoding will really stress your system, still unlikely if it happens so quickly after encoding. I take it you can run multiple loops of 3Dmark2001SE and other stressful 3D games or burn-in progs, if they all run without a glitch that should rule out hw probs. Trying a few different progs would rule out a rpob with a particular prog so that would only leave some wierd rthing with Windows itself. I do know that Windows98 was never designed to manage more than 256MB of RAM, this could be causing you some wierd fproblems and if you have 2 DIMMs in there try taking one of them out. Another thing to try is entering BIOS and setting the RAM timings (latency etc) to the higher (and therefore slower) settings, the perf diff is pretty minimal, as usual with alteration of BIOS settings keep a strict log of what you change from and to so you can change things back if they don't help.

As a final note, what gfx card are you using? You say GF MX,if you have any gaming aspirations whatsoever then you really should consider a GF3TI200 or Rad8500LE as a minimum, they are under $100 and miles better than any GF MX card, even the GF4MX460 (marginally faster than a GF2TI). That XP2200+ will be almost entirely wasted for gaming otherwise, a GF4TI4200-128MB should be a consideration, they o/c to either 4400 or 4600 speeds and are great all-rounders and fantastic value. Of course gaming for some is a of secondary importance (or less) and if this is the case for you, don't worry. Just bear in mind that an XP2200+ & GF4MX will perf worse for gaming than an XP1600+ & GF4TI.

 

[cdraider]

thank you an andaustin for the wonderful advice. I have already installed the following direct x 8.1, new via 4 in 1 driver, nvidia newest drivers, reinstalled abit siluro vid drivers, reinstalled win media encoder. just ungraded the system from a tbird 1ghz with abit mb and never had problems with ati avi to wmv conversion even with slow cas 3 pc 133 ram. I am running out of ideas short of upgrading to win xp but that has its own problems as well. please help me and solve this computer freezing problem. also what programs can you dl to test the system for potential hardware glitches. lots of forums talked about intrinsic instability of the via 333 chipset. if I had anticipated this problem, should have upgraded to intel based system. thanks very much.
cdraider:disgust: