Syzygy plays on desktops, not on laptops?!

[benza]

Hi there,

I've created a project in Maestro with a link to a website, a mailto: link and button that starts an executable (see http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65384). It was a DVD9, so I shrunk it with DVDshrink and burned it with Nero. So far so good...

I've created an executable that would give the user the possibility to install ASPI drivers (I've used a batchfile to install ASPI drivers for the right OS automatically), play the DVD-Video, starts an application or exit the program.

I tested the DVD-R on different PC's. When ASPI drivers are/were installed, the DVD-Video plays/played perfectly (some loading times, but acceptable). I've tested it on Win2K and XP Home/Pro.

I tested it on my laptop, but Windows XP gave an error: syzygy.exe has created an error and will be shut. All information is being lost bla bla bla (you've probably seen them before ;)). I've reinstalled my laptop with XP, inserted the DVD-R, installed the ASPI drivers and pressed the button to play the DVD-Video: same error message! Did some testing on some collegues laptops (all XP), all errors! I've tested some more on Desktop PC's (all XP): no errors!

OK, weird! I've done some research:

If its not XP, it has to be some hardware "conflicts/problems" then:

All laptops had Ati Radeon videocard except one (that one had a Geforce), but all gave errors. Could not be the videocard or driver then.
Chipset issue? Some got VIA, some got Ali, Some got Intel: all gave erros
Shared videomemory giving problems? Tested it on a desktop with shared videomemory, no problems!

This problem is keeping me busy for almost 3 weeks now, and it's driving me mad! Does any of you fellow syzygy users had simular problems with laptops, or does anybody have some other idea of what it could be? I thought laptops were identical to PC's, but probably that is not true!

Hope you guys (and girls!) can help me. Thnx in advance

Benza

[benza]

Nobody knows?

[Arky]

Hi Benza, this sounds very strange. I need you to try something for me first:

Please copy the Syzygy player files to the ROOT of your laptop hardrive partition of choice (for example C:\ ).

NOW try to play a DVD project from your laptop and see if you still get Syzygy errors. My gut instinct was originally that it was an XP-incompatibility issue, but you claim that Syzygy runs fine under XP on your desktop, so this possibility is discounted. Therefore, I wish to establish if there is some kind of read-error problem relating to the Syzygy player on your DVD-R disk, even though this does not appear to cause any problems on your desktop. Just humour me on this - as with all these weird little video problems, a little constructive trial and error is often useful for the purposes of elimination.

I'm afraid this is going to be a pain, but it seems the logical method to discover your problem.

This is not my only idea as to what may be going on, but please try it first, and we'll go from there.

I should just point out that most of my authoring is done on a laptop (running Win2k at present) and my Syzygy projects have always worked fine in the past (I tend not to use Syzygy now because I like to use AC3 soundtracks).


Arky ;o)



N.B.

There isn't any point in copying/ripping all the contents of that DVD-R to the harddrive of your laptop (in it's CURRENT state), because the URL functionality of your project will be pointing to assets in the DVD:\ directory, rather than (for example) the C:\ directory.

[benza]

Hi Arky,

I've continued my testing after my last posts, some updates:

- When Syzygy is copied on a local drive, I still get the same error message. Even when I copy the AUDIO_TS/VIDEO_TS folder to my harddrive.
- I did a test with mplayer classic, but that one also gave an error on startup.

Al used audio on the DVD was AC3 coverted to MP2 (because syzygy can't handle AC3, as you allready mentioned), but the motionmenu's are WAV's. But can that be the problem? It plays perfectly on any(!) Windows XP desktop (as long there are ASPI drivers there).

Personaly I think it has something to do with hardware (maybe some special ACPI setting on laptops?).

I will tray AIDA32 (www.aida32.hu) to get some more detailed hardware information on the 4 laptops I've tested it on. Hope that shows something we don't know (yet ;-))

Thnx for thinking with me!