Since installing Service Pack 2 movies freeze while running Limewire
 

Hi

I am using a HP Pavilion with XP Home, 512 Ram and a 3 Ghz P4.

All my drivers are up to date.

Whenever I run Limewire and try to watch a movie while Limewire is minimized or maximized windows freezes at random, and I cannot use my mouse or keyboard. This seems to have started ever since downloading SP2. The system never crashes when just watching a movie without running Limewire. I have the latest version of Zonealarm running. This also seems to occur when I have any file sharing program running in the background the system just freezes up at random if I watch any movie file after a while. I have the latest version of WMP and divx and also it seems to occur even if I watch a video with Limewire's built in player.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Make sure u have the most up to date Java (see this thread (click me) and Java can be updated from http://www.java.com/en/download/windows_automatic.jsp

Yet it could also be a Zone Alarm issue! See these following threads: Thread 1 , and thread 2 , and this thread, but especially this link!! (Woops, lost it for a moment.) Hope this helps. I'd suggest that if u update Java the problem may go away, so try that 1st. Good luck.

Do I have to uninstall Java? or can I just download it and it will automatically update itself?

U answered before I finished editing. If you click the Java link, it should update automatically!!!

Thanks I updated hope this helps....

Still no luck :( I also tried uninstalling Zone Alarm and using Sygate personal firewall now.


Any other suggestions? I doubt its my hardware as I just got this laptop last week and updated all the drivers. It doesn't crash any other time except when I play a video and run limewire at the same time. As I said before it also happens when using shareaza and a video at the same time. What I don't get is that it crashes while watching a video in Limewire too :(

On your firewall do you have the proper settings to allow LW

did you try reinstalling limewire, to uninstall you go to add/remove programs and uninstall there, than you delete the files, in the limewire folder, which is usually under program files. and the .limewire folder inside of c:/documents and settings.

Check this & it's link out then. What's your result?

Yeah I can receive incoming connections, XP firewall was always off ,I'm using Sygate and it still crashes really weird huh , It never crashes if I just watch a movie or run limewire alone. A shame considering its a hyper threaded processor. Games run fine also.

So the problem is not really LW. It could very well be an issue with the new WMP version (unless it's a graphics card issue.) If u can run LW alone without problems, then it's a prob with the software by the sounds of it. Freezing on a mac generally suggests incompatibility or a software clash. There are utilities out there that can check for software clashes. U might be more in the know than me for Windows. One I'm aware of is called Conflict Catcher.
I was just thinking, if it's a dual processor, there might be an issue with how some apps cope. Keeping in mind that video is processor hungry (& graphics card needy.) The earlier mac twin processors had dome issues with some apps in a similar way.

Conflict Catcher is for Macintosh?

I beg your pardon! And I had been sure it originated on windows platform. I hate it anyway! It couldn't cope very well with a dual OS system. Let's forget that one. In any case, although that utility is specifically for that purpose, other general file utilities can often pick up on softw conflicts. (I tried to do a search for free ones but only came up with shareware http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Diagnostics/)

Haha I was confused trying to find the windows version of conflict catcher when I read another one of the threads. I was like am I going crazy??

I'd have to say, Windows file utilities are getting way out of bounds for my knowledge. Get a mac instead! - Joke. If you can be a little more patient, I'll see if I can get the attention of an experienced pc user. None r on line at present - so it could take a day/2.

LW & Windows Media Conflicts
 

I read with interest your issues. Bear with me and a couple of questions. When did you install SP2? Was LW and Windows Media player running ok prior to SP2? If it was the conflict is most probably a dual issue. XP SP2 has several new conventions that enhance firewall and other security issues that will conflict with the media player. Make sure your Windows Media Player is the latest version. The problem is not with your graphics card or hardware. It is a conflict that will need to be resolved by another patch from MS. HOWEVER, if you are getting the problem with other P2P's than I'm guessing it is SP2 and the way it deals with the media player. I read in one of the update announcements that there would likely be conflicts with some applications and I recall them directly mentioning P2P's because of the new security updates. You might try restoring to a time prior to your installation of SP2 and see in you still have the issue. You can remove SP2 and restore SP1 until they come out with a fix which I'm guessing will be soon because you aren't the only one with the issue. If you got your laptop from HP directly they won't be much help or sympathetic about .00003 seconds after you tell them it is a P2P conflict. If you are new to MS OS's, in the future I wouldn't run right out and DL any new SP's for a few weeks until all the immediate release issues are worked out. Incidently, I run an AMD Athalon 64 3200+ on a K8T800 Motherboard with 1024MB DDR 3200 have a MD nVidia card with MD C-Media card and don't have any real issues. As a matter of fact, I can run LW full bore and have no degredation on my SBC DSL. One thought occurred to me--Is it the same movie or all movies? Once in a while I get a file that has some hiccups in it.

Hey guys

thanks for the replies. Hmm I will try disabling Hyperthreading , I am wondering tho how much of a performance loss will I get? That was one of the specific things marketed for this laptop, its performance increases with HT when multitasking. Anyway I got this laptop last week and I installed SP2 a few days later considering that SP2 has been around a while now and friends have been telling me that they had no problems with it. Now I could be wrong about this since I did not use the Pc that much prior to installing SP2 I decided to install it since I wanted to get as many fixes and patches in one shot instead of having to use all the cumulative patches. This system came with SP 1 already installed. I know it is odd that it freezes up when P2Ping and watching a movie as my old P3 1Ghz never used to crash when doing more than one p2p and watching movies. Yeah I didn't bother to check with HP support as I knew it would be no help , and I don't want to return this machine as it is very nice and it doesn't seem like its worth the hassle considerin a fix should be out in the future. Anyway I have the latest version of WMP, Java,drivers etc. One thing I use ABC client for bittorrent which doesn't seem to cause the machine to crash while watching a movie. Now I am wondering cuz I know its written in Python, Limewire is written in Javan and my machine freezes , is Shareaza also in java my machine freezes there too. So anyway I have updated Java from the sun site to no avail but interestingly in my Add/remove box I see 2, Java 2 Runtime Env. 1.4.2_03 and 1.4.2_05 Now is this correct seeing that I updated? Is there a way to safely remove and reinstall Java?

btw it occurs in all movies regardless of format even Quicktime.

Sorry for the long read.

Later