dvd drive can't play all dvd's and sometimes skips and lags

[Blizzard596]

I have an Acer 1680 notebook with a QSI SBW242c CDRW/DVD drive. I've been having trouble playing some DVD movies. Some play without any problem, while some play very slow and laggy, and even others simply will not play at all.

Regular CDs play and burn without trouble.

 

[Nitestick]

is this a new problem or has the laptop been like this the whole time you have owned it?

 

[Blizzard596]

I believe it's been this way since I've had it. I got this laptop at the beginning of the summer but was busy all summer and only played like 3 movies in it, all of which worked fine. It wasn't until a couple of months later I first had trouble. Considering I never made any changes to it during that time, I would guess it's done this from the beginning.

 

[sPlAtOiD]

Make sure your unhooked from the internet.And shut off your virus scanner.And how many icons are there in the right side of your taskbar.Those are all running programs.If you have alot shut them off.And when your done reboot and they will all start back up.

 

[Blizzard596]

Sorry it's none of that either. Already checked.
I reformatted once and it still does it. I don't think it's a matter of installed programs but could be a driver issue. I can't find drivers anywhere to try an update.

 

[RicoDirenzo]

How much video memory in that laptop? Sound to me like it's either your hardare acceleration settings or your low on video memory and your video is beginning to run in swap.

 

[Blizzard596]

It is a 64mb Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME (I think it's shared memory)

I have 512mb of system memory but only 496mb shows in the general properties. Could this mean the video is only sharing 16mb instead of 64?

 

[Blizzard596]

Just checked bios settings and the video memory was set on 16mb, but only allows a max of 32. I changed it to 32 but that didn't fix anything. Why would bios only allow up to 32 but the graphics controller properties in windows shows it to be a 64mb? 32 built in and 32 shared, maybe?

I just now tried a movie and the drive just searches but never picks up anything. I guess it would just keep spinning and searching forever if I'd let it.