Crash, then No AVI

[John Rofrano]

Since other applications are affected (not just VMS) I think you are heading in the right direction with re-installing the codec. Do you have a system restore point that you can restore to? Have you tried totally uninstalling the codec, rebooting the computer, deleting any remaining codec files (because they might still be there) and then re-installing fresh?

If all else fails, you could re-render the clips using the Quicktime Animation codec. This is what I use for all of my 3D renders because it supports Alpha Channel for transparent overlays in Vegas and is very efficient for compressing animation.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Steve Rhoden]

Yeah, seems a codec mishap.
Have you simply tried restarting the computer after the reinstall.

Steve Rhoden
Creative Director
TNX EFFECTS STUDIOS.

[Carol Steinel]

Thanks for the responses.

Yes, I restarted after uninstalling, then installed, and restarted again.

I tried a system restore, but an attempt to the most recent restore point failed (I’ll try again this morning with a different restore point).

John — in terms of “remaining codec files” — do you mean stray files for the Multimedia codec? If that’s the case, do I need to look for them anywhere else but the Morgan file in Program Files? I’ll give that a try, in any case.

[Carol Steinel]

I did another uninstall and checked to see that all the Morgan files in Program Files were eliminated after restart. They were.

Reinstalled and restarted. No luck.

Any other suggestions?

These files will play in Quicktime but no in any windows program (I have since checked in Ulead and Intervideo, and when trying to check them in Windows Movie Maker, I discovered that it’s crashing on start-up, so maybe there’s a Windows file that’s corrupt). Any leads would be appreciated if anyone knows which codec might be the culprit (or if anyone knows of a simple way to reinstall basic XP codecs without going one by one).

I’ll post a solution if I find it, as I’ve read a lot of questions about avi files becoming broken suddenly.

[Steve Rhoden]

Ok Carol,
Run a disc check to fix any corrupt files that maybe causing this
trouble: follow instructions…..

Click start on your task bar.
Click run.
Type in: chkdsk c:/f (type exactly as written)
When a black screen comes up, type y for yes, then enter.
Repeat this process twice, then restart your computer.

When booting back up leave it and let it run its check disc process.
Let me know if this helps.

Steve Rhoden
Creative Director
TNX EFFECTS STUDIOS.

[John Rofrano]

> John — in terms of “remaining codec files” — do you mean stray files for the Multimedia codec? If that’s the case, do I need to look for them anywhere else but the Morgan file in Program Files? I’ll give that a try, in any case.

That and in the \Windows\System32\ folder. I had a problem uninstalling the Panasonic DV codec where it would deregister itself but not remove the files in the windows system folders and then when windows would reboot, it would see the files and re-register them again. I had to hunt for them and delete them but it sounds like you may have a corrupt file.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Carol Steinel]

Thanks again to you both. I’ll run the check disk and see what it turns up — also, John — I’ll do some sleuthing on extra files in system32 folder for Morgan Multimedia — since I don’t have a complete index of what files it installs (and where), I’ll need to do another reinstall to see the log or find this info on the web.

It’ll be a bit before I can do these things today — a girl’s gotta work, ya know! 😉

But thanks for your help. I’ll post back with results.

[Carol Steinel]

OK — here’s the update. I ran checkdisk and it did find one allocation error (which it fixed). Then I uninstalled and reinstalled Morgan Multimedia again — but got this error in the install log:

“Could not load: C:\WINDOWS\System32\M3JPEGdec.ax
Could not load: C:\WINDOWS\System32\M3JPEGenc.ax”

Searched and searched on this error and found nothing.

The final, last-ditch (why didn’t I try this earlier!?!?!?) solution was a restart to “last known good configuration” (my searches for M3JPEGdec.ax on the C drive had turned up a copy in the last good config folder) — a hope and a prayer kind of attempt, but it worked.

I’m current-imaging the C drive as I type, and will set a restore point here.

Slightly frustrated that I didn’t really get to the bottom of it all — I never found the precise file corruption or missing codec (I like to know wotthehell went wrong when this stuff happens, just in case I don’t get “lucky” in the future — I know, I know, it’s a sickness), but since I’m in the middle of a big project, I’m just glad that it worked. Movie Maker is still crashing, but that’s a problem that I will solve another day (I never use it and only opened it to see if the avi problem was system-wide, and suspect that it’s Windows’ problem, since I saw a lot of similar issues in my google adventures since yesterday).

AVIs now showing in Vegas, and playing in Windows Media Player and Real Player.

Phew!

Thanks a million for your help. I don’t post here much because I’ve generally found my answer in an archived post.

[Steve Rhoden]

Glad you found the solution Carol,
Happy editing.

Steve Rhoden
Creative Director
TNX EFFECTS STUDIOS.

[John Rofrano]

Yea glad you got it all working again.

I have Acronis Trueimage running on my PC and every morning when I boot the computer it does a system backup (just system files). Once a month (on the first) it does a full backup and then every day it does an incremental backup. This way I can restore to any day I want for an entire month if needed. You never know when you will need to restore but you can always bet it will be when you’re under a deadline! 😉

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com