DVD choppy in Thinkpad 600E 2645-4BU - Recommendations?

[jtripamer]

[Moderator Edit: Created new thread from post in Official Upgrade Thread in order to keep both threads focused.]

in need of upgrade information/dvd plays very choppy
dvd-rom sd-c2612

[lenmullen]

in need of upgrade information/dvd plays very choppy
dvd-rom sd-c2612

That PC should play DVDs fine. Have you got the color depth set to 16 bit? That helps a lot.

[WarMachine]

Hello,

Here are some tips to have the DVDs played correctly :

1. Verify that DMA mode is activated :

Windows 2000 and XP usually are set up to activate DMA if the drive supports it. To check, right-click My Computer (on the desktop, or on the Start menu in XP) and choose Properties. Select the Hardware tab, click the Device Manager button, and double-click IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Next, double-click the channel (usually Secondary) that the DVD drive is connected to, and click Advanced Settings. The Transfer Mode drop-down list should show DMA if available. If not, fix it.

From : http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/2201p166id113461.htm

Note that you also can uninstall the controller. Windows will reinstall it as soon as you reboot.

2. Change the color depth :

As written by lenmullen, use 16 bits depth. It's better than 24 bits. You'll set this in the Display Properties Panel (See the "Parameters" tab).

3. Freeing resources :

Even if CPU is more important than memory while watching DVDs, it's better to have the maximum memory available. You can free your RAM by disabling services, and by cleaning the MSConfig utility. You should also clean you HDD, and defragment it once a month.

See the following page for the services :

http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm

4. Eventualy try another OS :

Some people will say that DVDs are choppy with W2K, others will say it's choppy with XP. If you can, try the two OSes.



You're talking about upgrade. RAM, HDD and CPU can easily be upgraded.

1. The HDD :

If you want to upgrade your HDD, then consider acquiring a 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm one, not 4200. It should have 8 MB of cache too.

2. The CPU :

If you plan to change the CPU, and willing to use a PIII, instead of a PII, then do not forget to reenable the L2 cache, it's very important for the DVD playing.

3. The RAM :

If you plan to upgrade the RAM, then you must know that your 600E can accept 2x256 MB.

You'll find a list of the 600E that can handle more than 512 MB RAM here :

http://forum.thinkpads.com/posting.php? ... e&p=129062

Hope this will help !



W.

[pianowizard]

in need of upgrade information/dvd plays very choppy

Besides what others have already suggested, you should also downgrade your DVD player software to an older version.

[Davemci]

I had the same problem with a 600E. I ended up buying a Margi card. Mine had a 366MHz CPU.

[WarMachine]

I had the same problem with a 600E. I ended up buying a Margi card. Mine had a 366MHz CPU.

Ooops, I had forgotten the Margi DVD-To-Go PCMCIA card...



W.