Acer 5600 laptop - struggling to play DVDs

[Maccy]

Girlfriend's laptop again!

I upgraded the RAM to 2gb last week which seems to have helped with boot-up time and general applications, but a few weeks ago it seems to have struggled to play DVDs. It will play the first minute or 2 and then freeze every few seconds for about 5 seconds.

There's about 20gb free on the hard disc, could this be the issue? I've run a few disc cleanup applications, registry fixers and tried to defrag etc but it hasn't helped.
The only other thing I could think of doing would be doing a full reinstall which isn't really ideal!

Any other suggestions would be great!

 

[XCougar]

What are you using to play the dvd's?

Its not a buffer issue is it?

Did you have this problem before you upgraded?

 

[beermonster]

Also check on the IDE controller in device manager that its running in DMA mode.

 

[Maccy]

Using Power DVD player, the problem was there before I upgraded the RAM.

I'll have a look on Sunday night when I get back to see if the IDE controller is in DMA mode.

 

[XCougar]

Using Power DVD player, the problem was there before I upgraded the RAM.

I'll have a look on Sunday night when I get back to see if the IDE controller is in DMA mode.

Have you tried a different media player? Like VLC media player?

 

[Aod]

Using Power DVD player, the problem was there before I upgraded the RAM.

I'll have a look on Sunday night when I get back to see if the IDE controller is in DMA mode.

i had a similar problem on an old laptop when using power DVD.

try using windows Media player!

 

[Maccy]

Will give VLC a go, also I thought you had to buy a DVD codec to watch DVDs on WMP?

 

[XCougar]

Will give VLC a go, also I thought you had to buy a DVD codec to watch DVDs on WMP?

Ive never heard of that. =|

It may be that your dvd player is locked to a certain region though?