Thinkpads Forum

I have the 600E 2645-4AU with 288mb memory. I am trying to get DVD's to play. Right now they are choppy and unwatchable. I have powerdvd 5, that choppy. I just bought the Margi DVD-to-go in hopes of using Windows Player to watch DVD's. The Margi is giving me an error. I have 8X DVD rom installed as well. This is getting frustrating and have read many posts but none seem to give me a straight answer. Should I invest in PowerDVD 4 software and sell the Margi? Thanks. I really want this 600E to play DVD's flawlessly.

You don't need to use Marge DVD-to-go.
If you have DVD-ROM in your 600E,
you can watch any DVD title by using PowereDVD or Window Media Player.

I'm using CyberLink PowerDVD Ver. 2.55
in my 600X (P-III 500) and 600 (P-II 266).

I think PowerDVD is much better than Windows Media Player
at playing DVD titles.

Your processor is too slow. and your L2 cache isen't enough.
I used winDVD when I had a 366MHz CPU in my 600E. and they where a bit choppy. now I have a 500MHz P3 in it, and used too play great, until they started getting really choppy one day. I did system restor, and it fixed the problem, I think some sort of Mcafee update ruined it.

Assuming you don't have a lot of stuff running in the background (viruses, spyware, virus scanning, etc etc) it should run pretty smooth. Check the DVD drive in device manager, or the controller in device manager (I forget which) and make sure your DVD is running in DMA mode. Playback might get choppy if you're set to PIO mode for some reason.

I think the Margi card was zoom video, and only one of the card slots supported it. Make sure it's in the right slot.

ChicagoEric, check your PM. If you have a 366mHz CPU, it's going to be pretty marginal.