DVD image all 'pixelly'

[trebor]

Not sure if this is the right place for this issue but a friend's DELL Dimension 8200 desktop system with XP PRO suddenly began having problems playing DVD movies. When she tries to use Windows Media Player, she gets an error message saying that "Windows Media Player has encountered a problem and has to close" . When she uses POWER DVD, the dvd movie plays the audio but the image is all "pixelly" for lack of another term. I switched out the actual DVD drive and we are having the same problem with the replacement drive. She has uninstalled and reinstalled both Windows Media Player and PowerDVD. Also, when you put the DVD disk in the drive, normally you could hear it "spin up" but now the lights on the drive blink but nothing else happens. Thanks for any suggestions and help.

[DocWatson]

If there is another optical drive on the system, connected to a different outlet on the motherboard, try disconnecting that and connecting the cable from that drive to the problem DVD drive. If it's the drive that's the problem it will continue to be a problem. If it's the motherboard connection doing this will tell you that. HTH <img src=/S/smile.gif border=0 alt=smile width=15 height=15>

You might also want to take a look here.

[bleduc]

Hi Trebor,
You may want to have your friend check under the Device Manager -> IDE Controllers to see under advanced settings if his 'DMA Mode' is active. I seem to remember that this setting affects the speed that data is accessed from the discs.