Knowledge Base

Kids: Screen Turns White or Computer Hangs When Playing Videos

Article ID: 135729

Article Last Modified on 11/24/2003

the operating system: Microsoft Windows 3.0a
Microsoft Windows 3.1 Standard Edition
Microsoft Windows 3.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Explorapedia: The World of Nature 1.2
Microsoft Explorapedia series: World of People for Windows 1.0
Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Explores the Solar System
Microsoft Windows 3.11 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q135729

SYMPTOMS

When you select a topic that features a video (.avi) in one of the programs listed at the top of this article, your computer may stop responding (hang) or the screen may fade to white.

This behavior has been reported on Compaq Presario and Compaq Prolinea computers.

It has also been reported that Windows 3.x may quit and exit you to the MS- DOS command prompt.

RESOLUTION

NOTE: The following steps involve editing .ini files. For more information about how to perform this task in Windows, see your Windows printed documentation or online Help.

To resolve the problem, do the following:

On the File menu in Program Manager, click Run.
On the command line, type the following and click OK:
Sysedit
Click the Win.ini file in the System Configuration Editor.
Locate the [Drawdib] section in the Win.ini file. If one doesn't already exist, create it.
In the [Drawdib] section, insert the following line:
dva=0
On the File menu in the System Configuration Editor, click Exit.
When you are prompted to save the Win.ini, click Yes.
Exit, then restart Windows.

After following these steps, the programs listed at the top of this article should run successfully.

MORE INFORMATION

The "dva=0" entry turns off direct video access (DVA) and DCI. DVA and DCI allow video images to be sent directly to the screen. If a program detects the display type incorrectly, problems can occur using DVA and DCI. Some of these problems can be severe (such as general protection (GP) faults in Gdi.exe). When you turn off DVA and DCI, video images must be drawn through GDI. Although using GDI can be slower than direct access, it is safer.

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Keywords: KB135729