DVD drive problem

[spiritfire]

Aite peeps,

Got a problem with my dvd drive. it'll run any cd format fine eg. video cd, cdr/w, normal cdroms, no probs wat so ever. it will also run dvd discs which are not movie specific, ie. they have their own fromt ends like the PCGAMER dvd cover mounts etc.
the problem comes when i try to play any dvd movie using it. the programs ive tried are ati multimedia center dvd player and Power DVD. both programs give me the exact same error message :- 'either of the following has occured - 1) your sound card is not installed. 2)the video overlay is unavailable. 3)not enough video memory.' i dont get it cause my sound card IS installed and working fine in every way (except for a few french drivers but they have never made any difference) The drive did used to work when i first built the pc last summer cause i remember having a few james bond films off a m8 and they ran fine in both power dvd and the ati player. i havent changed any hardware since then, but i have re built once and re-formatted 3 times. ive checked the cabling countless times within the past few months, everything is as it was when i first built it.

My specs are as follows :-

Athlon T-bird 1.2 200fsb
ECS K7VZA socket A mobo revision 1.0 (the 200fsb version)
ATI Radeon 32 DDR agp not overclocked rite now
Sound blaster Live! 1024
512 SDRAM Branded
40.2 gig HD 5,200rpm
12x DVD PIONEER drive
2x external CDRW
Diamond Supra express 56e modem
win 98se OS

Anyone got any answers? i have a feeling this is prolly a mistake on my part and not a hardware problem as the original drive broke (a while after it stopped palyin dvd movies which wasnt the problem)it was replaced and the movie problem never went away with the new drive.

[HAL9000]

I was getting the same errors with Windows ME, except there was one more that I would get about the permissions level to view the movie. Every time a reboot would fix it, so I got in the habit of rebooting before watching a DVD. I haven't had the problem since switching to Windows XP.

[spiritfire]

ive tried re-booting countless times but still no difference. i dont really want to upgrade to xp, 1 cause its a bitch having to get a copy of it and 2 cause ive just managed to get the rig running smoothly at the mo, so i dont wanna go throw a huge xp sized spanner in the works :P

any ideas on a fix without an upgrade?

[RJ]

A friend of mine. . and myself, we both had that error once. The problem was that the overlay was not available. Not sure how we fixed it. . but try update the graphics drivers. I think that fixed it.
Also install the new via 4-in-1 drivers. Might be a problem with the AGP driver maybe.

RJ

[pam123]

Your problem sounds a lot like mine. Like you I run W98se only in my case the problems came after the drive had trouble with one DVD. I've reinstalled everything and windows says it's fine but it won't play movies though it will play anything else. I'm ordering a new drive but if you replaced your drive and still had the same problem it doesn't look good at all.
We may have a software problem but I can't thnk what it could be.
Ideas anyone?

[RJ]

Yes... overlay not available. Pure and simple. Had nothing to do with the drive. . as the drive reads well.
I just can't remember how I fixed it. . it was long time ago.

RJ

[Blakhart]

Fancy asking Pioneer about the issue?
Right, get on with it then...


Cheers!

[pam123]

The Pioneer web site doesn't appear to consider this sort of thing a problem.
My guess is they decided it was a Windows hassle. If anyone had more luck than I with them please post.
If anyone found it on the Windows website I'd appreciate knowing where. Thanks.

[pam123]

I just got my drive working again and I thought you might be interested.
First, choose System Information from Accessories. Then choose System File Checker from the tools menu. Click the start button and windows will check to see if any of it's files are corrupted ( I had a messed up registry file 32dll. something or other ). You'll need your windows' cd, if windows finds a corrupted file it will use the cd to over-write it.
If your problems are less dire than mine this may be all it takes to bring your drive back.
In my case the DVD stopped ignoring any movie disk and began reporting the usual: No Soundcard is installed, No video overlay, not enough video memory.
Now comes the weird part, it works but I'm not sure why. Or rather it works because it replaces what isn't there but I would have thought it would cause a conflict. I installed WinDVD 2000. The ATI player with my Radeon card now works perfectly. If both players come up at the same time ( you can usually avoid this by clicking on the ATI DVD befor you insert the disk ), close the WinDVD.
On no account install or attempt to use the PC Friendly DVD software that sometimes appears on dvds. HTH
If anyone can tell me exactly what's going on with this I'd be grateful. Since you can custom install WinDVD I could simply use the part I need instead of the whole thing.