Thinkpad 600e DVD playback

[OldManClayton]

Ages ago, I traded in my Thinkpad 600e's CD drive for a DVD drive. It played DVD's fine. Now, a few years and many breakdowns later, I'm having some trouble. I've switched out hard drives three times, reinstalled as many different windows versions as do exist, and toted this little thing everywhere countless times. It's showing some wear and tear. So, I reformatted and installed windows 2000. Now, I assumed that, the windows installation being new, it would play DVD's just as well as it used to. Problem. O_o It's not working. I installed PowerDVD, and it plays so jerkily as to the point of not being watchable. I thought PowerDVD shared it's codec with windows media player, but apparently not. And, VLC player surely won't run fast enough on this ancient thing.

So, why is it now, that with a new windows installation the DVD player is still not running fast enough? Is it hardware failure? Surely it can't be because of the different hard drive... I was hoping to at least put this faithful old thing to use as a DVD player and word processor.

[joester]

Is it possible that you are using a different screen resolution?

My 600E had the same issue, and I found that if I switch the resolution to 800X600, it would play fine. 1024X768, and ...Ewww.

Another possibility is that there was a difference between an older (the original?) driver for the video VS. the one you have installed now.

Yet another would be that the video chip and supporting circuitry are just showing their age.

Joe

[BillP]

I use the Mediamatics DVDExpress software on my 600E and it works fine without changing the screen to 800 x 600. Check the items below and change/upgrade as needed.

Download DirectX 9 from the Microsoft site and install it.

Click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Display -> Settings and set the video to 16 bit High Color, not 24 bit True Color.

Open the Device Manager, click the + box next to IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, and select Secondary IDE Channel. In the toolbar select Properties and then select the Advanced Settings tab. The Transfer Mode must be set to DMA, not PIO.

[OldManClayton]

I already switched the display settings to 16 bit... but when I tried 800x600, it went into that weird stretched look that it's done ever since I first got it. It's like the driver has trouble stretching the pixels uniformly, so everything looks whopper-jawed. Other computers don't do that for me. Anyway, I tried playing the DVD in 800x600 mode anyway, and it just used a windows media player-esque visualizer. O_o

I have no clue anymore which display driver is right. I've downloaded them from Windows update, lenovo's site, driverguide... It operates, so I guess it's right.

I also set the DMA thing... it says "DMA if available". I checked it, and it didn't help. So it must not be available.

This is a rather interesting problem...

[Davemci]

Isn't there an option on PowerDVD to turn on DMA for your DVD drive? Sounds like it may not be turned on.

[OldManClayton]

Yea, when I first ran it it did some sort of diagnostic that asked to turn on DMA. It must not be available.

[pkiff]

when I tried 800x600, it went into that weird stretched look that it's done ever since I first got it. It's like the driver has trouble stretching the pixels uniformly, so everything looks whopper-jawed.

I think this stretching is a result of something called "screen expansion" being enabled. You can disable screen expansion in the Thinkpad Configuration utility under the LCD options. You can also control this using a Fn key combo, but I forget which one...Fn+F11 or Fn+F8?

Not sure about fixing your original problem with DVD playback.

Phil.

[u.mac]

Try an old original DVD.

If nothing will work, get a Dell/Margi DVD-card or Pentium III processor (you must have PC100 RAM).

[OldManClayton]

Try an old original DVD.

If nothing will work, get a Dell/Margi DVD-card or Pentium III processor (you must have PC100 RAM).

Original DVD? O_o

I checked that DVD card you mentioned... Does it absolutely have to be a Pentium III? The site I found said only a Pentium and 10MB or RAM are needed... If I were to get it, is it compatible with 16-bit card slots as well (For another computer)? I doubt it, but it's worth asking.

[OldManClayton]

when I tried 800x600, it went into that weird stretched look that it's done ever since I first got it. It's like the driver has trouble stretching the pixels uniformly, so everything looks whopper-jawed.

I think this stretching is a result of something called "screen expansion" being enabled. You can disable screen expansion in the Thinkpad Configuration utility under the LCD options. You can also control this using a Fn key combo, but I forget which one...Fn+F11 or Fn+F8?

Not sure about fixing your original problem with DVD playback.

Phil.

I disabled it. Thanks ABUNCH. That's been bugging me for years! XD

[Rick Aguinaldo]

The Dell/Margi DVD-card works well with a Pentium-II powered 600e. The hardware accelerator plays DVD's smoothly, even better than my Pentium-III powered 600x and T20. I have not been successful in making the Margi card work on Pentium-III powered machines (mod'ed 600e, 600x and T20) using Win XP.. On those machines, I get the video all right but no audio, even after installing the recommended Win XP driver.

[OldManClayton]

Hmmm... Well, the DVD playback is a little less unwatchable, but it could still be better. I don't know if I want to buy one of those things, though...

[hjanzen]

You may give the free program VideoLAN a try.
It is very low on resourses and usefull on the older Thinkpads.
Hans

[OldManClayton]

And, VLC player surely won't run fast enough on this ancient thing.

I've heard of faster thinkpads than mine having trouble with it. I'll give it a try, though.