WinDVD has stopped working

[natakuc4]

Problem:

WinDVD 9:

WinDVD MFC Application has stopped working
A problem has caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

WinDVD 2010:

WinDVD has stopped working
A problem has caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

Solution:

Disable the ATI High Definition Audio Device in the device manager (or similar unused sound devices that may come with graphics cards/integrated audio), WinDVD will launch without crashing. Note a disabled/unplugged device in windows sound and playback devices does not work, it has to be done via device manager.

WinDVD must recognise that a sound device is enabled only via the device manager and in actual fact does not recognise when a sound device is disabled/unplugged in the windows sound and playback devices. This could be a common problem end users may experience, I suggest you fix it in a patch.

Edited for quick reference. 30/06/2011





Original Post below:
Okay so when I first got the system I installed WinDVD 9 and then the trial for WinDVD 2010. Both worked fine. I had some bug with some games due to having multiple monitors (WinDVD was always fine), I reset my computer to factory settings. Now

WinDVD 2010 works when no DVD is in the drive, as soon as it reads DVD:

WinDVD has stopped working
A problem has caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

So I decided to install WinDVD 9, I have a license key for it but its on the trial just now, no point activating unless it works but alas it doesn't similar problem.

WinDVD 9 works when no DVD is in the drive, as soon as it reads the DVD:

WinDVD MFC Application has stopped working
A problem has caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

So I put my computer back to factory settings and tried to reinstall WinDVD straight after installing SP1. No joy.

System specs: Dell XPS8300, Windows 7 Ultimate x64, i7-2600 CPU, 6Gb of RAM installed soon to be 12Gb, ATI Radeon 5770 graphics card, 2 E176FP Monitors, Optiarc DVD+- RW AD-7250H and Creative Xi-Fi Soundblaster. (Same computer so should not be a hardware problem.)

PowerDVD 11 trial also crashed but Media Player and VLC played my DVDs fine.

I tried installing it in XP Mode but I am getting.

WinDVD.exe - Application Error
The application failed to initalise properly (0xc0000142). Click OK to terminate the application.

So looks like the software has no functionality for me, WinDVD can't play a DVD. :S The XP Mode I will try to readjust the RAM etc. but I really should not have to resort to running the program in XP Mode.

Any ideas?

[natakuc4]

As a side note, it can play .AVI files fine, but not a DVD and is not the DVDs I am using because they work in the laptop with WinDVD 2010.

[teknisyan]

This appears to be caused by conflicting program. You may want to check if there programs that are running on the background that can conflict with WinDVD. Like a burning program, and also check if there are components of a game that is setup to run whenever you start the computer. You can also try going to MS CONFIG > SERVICES tab > check hide all Microsoft SERVICES then disable all option. Once that is done, try and use WinDVD and see if it is running, if it is, then enable each of the services and testing WinDVD everytime you enable one. This way you can isolate which program causes the conflict.

If all else fails, I suggest that you call the corel support in your area.

[natakuc4]

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately they did not bear fruit. I did disable, Dell Stage, Roxio services, Integrated Audio.
I also set it on to start on a selective startup only loading system services and unfortunately the problem persists.

[natakuc4]

So I fixed the problem. I will most my solution here, incase anyone has similar problems.

Originally I had realtek integrated audio, also in my device manager I had ATI High Definition Audio Device and Intel Audio. When I first installed my soundcard (Creative Xi-Fi Soundblaster) I disabled all of these in the device manager. I subsequently found the setting to disable onboard audio in BIOs and my system was set up that way everything worked.

This time when I installed Windows, I already had the BIOs setting disabled, so I never bothered with the device manager, everything worked. The ATI DP Sound Output in windows sound and playback devices was disabled. Media player, media centre, VLC player, chrome all functioned properly. WinDVD 9/2010 crashed upon launch.

When the Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio and the ATI High Definition Audio Device are both enabled in device manager, WinDVD 9, 2010 crash upon launch. Therefore the two devices must somehow confuse WinDVD, despite the fact that one of them is disabled in the Sound and Playback Devices.

If I disable the ATI High Definition Audio Device in the device manager, WinDVD launches without crashing and I can use the Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio, conversely if I disable the Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio I can run WinDVD with the ATI High Definition Device Enabled (but get no sound).

I am not even sure what the ATI High Definition Audio Device is, sound on my graphics card or something, that only works when I use HTMI cables?

However I guess this is some sort of glitch in the fact that WinDVD recognises that a sound device is enabled only via the device manager and in actual fact does not recognise when a sound device is disabled/unplugged in the windows sound and playback devices. Now I seen especially on CNET and Amazon, the ratings for WinDVD state that it doesn't work due to various bugs they have. I have seen actually some people report the same thing as me, i.e. an error message upon launch saying WinDVD isn't working. I am therefore not suprised if this is a common issue, since you tried to help me Abiel and are part of Corel support services, I suggest you fix this problem in the next patch. Thanks.

[Beaves]

ATI audio is from the video card i take it you have a ATI video card. you may have to d-load the latest video drives for you card and they will include the audio drivers for that port on the video card. its separate from your sound card its independent and only deals with the video card that has the function i would try new drivers for video card and see if it fixes the issue.

[natakuc4]

Hi Beaves

Thanks for the suggestions.

I downloaded the latest driver from the ATI website, it failed to install correctly and all it did was lower my Graphics and Gaming graphics in Windows Performance Information and Tools from 7.4 to 6.9. It also changed ATI High Definition Device to AMD High Definition Device but the problem persisted. I must need only the Dell specific driver (which I have the latest). I therefore system restored to the time before I installed it.

I do not think it is a driver problem anyway:

As I said if I disable my Xi-Fi Soundblaster and enable the ATI High Definition Audio Device, WinDVD will launch fine (without sound as I have no HDMI cables attached). No other programs are effected by both devices being enabled in device manager.
I do not seem to need the ATI High Definition Audio Device as I am not using any HDMI cables so I will just leave it disabled for now. If I switch to my integrated audio Realtek I think it launches fine but this is of course much worse sound than the soundcard.
If I use HDMI cables in the future and the screen/TV has its own speakers I guess I will need to disable the soundblaster and use the TV's sound. I'll worry about that bridge if I come to it.
Again I will note Windows Sound and Playback Devices shows that ATI DP Output is not plugged in so even with this being enabled in device manager, because its not plugged in it shouldn't interfere with any other programs.
It seems to be only WinDVD that suffers but it runs fine when either or device are disabled i.e. it appears WinDVD is not reading the settings from Windows Sound and Playback Devices. I am not exactly sure why this is the case or what is going on, my fix isn't entirely satisfactory but at least I can run WinDVD.

[schabelf]

I developed this same problem and had to disable the ATI high def video and Realtec high def audio (which is on the motherboard) leaving my sound card. WinDVD will now play disks again. My question is why this problem suddenly developed. My system has had no hardware changes and has been working well with WinDVD causing no problems for several years. I had installed several new programs just prior to developing this problem, an upgrade to the Windows Live suite of programs and VLC media player. Uninstalling them did not solve the problem. So why did WinDVD not mind having 3 audio devices for all that time and then suddenly stopped working?

[natakuc4]

In the end I decided to not use the Dell factory settings and instead done a total clean install of windows. I installed SP1 and IE9 straight after installing windows. I installed most the drivers from the Dell website but I used the driver from the creative website for my soundcard and the driver from the ATI website for my graphics card. I installed them in the correct order.

The factory settings had all the Dell drivers installed (except the soundcard which I added manually) but no SP1 and IE9. I think installing SP1 after the drivers causes some conflict with either the ATI or Realtek or both drivers.

In my case having the Dell drivers opposed to the latest version from the Creative/ATI website might of been a problem. However I think installing the SP1/IE9 after the drivers was the issue. The ATI/realtek drivers seem to be unsettled after the installation of SP1. Anyway now I don't have this problem and my games don't seem to crash anymore.

It is interesting how it seems to effect WinDVD instantly and make games crash (not instantly). Note the above fix for WinDVD did not prevent games from crashing.