Ticket Options

Question Profile

Question Details

TICKET ARCHIVE -> Quicktime hangs my system

xltierack - Mar 7, 2007 - 7:55 am

I have a G4 sawtooth with 1 GB of RAM and an OWC Mercury Extreme 1.2 GHz processor upgrade, running OS 10.3.9. Before I upgraded the hardware, playing any sort of video in Quicktime would hang my Mac (freezing the mouse), forcing me to reset the system. Upgrading the RAM and processor has not changed this, and playing video in Quicktime continues to hang the system. The only thing I have yet to try is upgrading the video card (machine currently has the stock AGP video card with 16 MB of VRAM), but based on what I've read are the minimum system requirements for QT I'm having a hard time believing that this is the problem. Am I wrong? Do you have any suggestions? Thanks.

dsr - Mar 7, 2007 - 2:03 pm

Hello Jon,

My name is David, and I will be assisting you. To help determine if this is a software or hardware issue, try running a video file in another application. VLC and MPlayer are good general-purpose media players. If they work, then your problem is a software issue specific to QuickTime. If neither of them works, the problem is in fact related to your hardware and, as you have indicated in your question, will be more difficult to diagnose.

Regards,
David

xltierack - Mar 7, 2007 - 5:52 pm

David,
VLC player crashes almost instantly upon opening a video file. I tried three different files (one .mov and two .avi). It does not, however, hang the entire system as is the case with QT. Thanks for your help with this.

Cheers,
Jon

dsr - Mar 7, 2007 - 6:08 pm

Hi Jon,

It doesn't sound like the culprit is a corrupted plist, but before we rule out software as the cause, try playing the same three video files with both QuickTime and VLC but in another user account on your system. Also, open /Applications/Utilities/Console.app and see if either program left behind a crash log. If so, please copy and paste it (or both) into your response to help me diagnose the problem.

Regards,
David

xltierack - Mar 7, 2007 - 9:55 pm

David,

Okay, switching accounts made no difference. Quicktime left no log (and the only way out once it goes dead is to hit the reset button). VLC left this for the three files in question:

[00000288] main audio output error: couldn't find a filter for the conversion
[00000288] main audio output error: couldn't create audio output pipeline
Error locating symbol - dlcompat: Symbol "_JVTDecoOpen" not found
[00000281] main audio output error: couldn't find a filter for the conversion
[00000281] main audio output error: couldn't create audio output pipeline
Error locating symbol - dlcompat: Symbol "_JVTDecoOpen" not found
[00000285] main audio output error: couldn't find a filter for the conversion
[00000285] main audio output error: couldn't create audio output pipeline
Error locating symbol - dlcompat: Symbol "_JVTDecoOpen" not found

It would seem to suggest missing codecs, based upon my limited understanding of the logs.... however, I managed to get a fourth file (this time an .mp4) to play for a moment in VLC and it crashed with this error:

Error locating symbol - dlcompat: Symbol "_JVTDecoOpen" not found

which also appears in the other crashes. I'm well out of my element at this point. As I understand it, VLC should be able to play an H264 mp4 file without incident. I formatted the last file for use on my iPod so I don't think there's anything unusual about the encoding. Then again, I'm no expert. Either way, QT is always dead shortly after playing something (taking the whole bloody system with it) and VLC doesn't seem to like anything I've opened in it thus far. Where do we go from here?

Cheers,
Jon

dsr - Mar 9, 2007 - 1:59 pm

Hello Jon,

I'm sorry I couldn't get back to you sooner. It appears that the problem is being caused by one of two things:

1. Corruption in a system library that is used by both QuickTime and VLC
2. Faulty hardware

#1 is easier to test for and correct, and judging by your original post, #2 is less likely with your RAM and CPU upgrades. Besides, I'm not a hardware specialist, so let's hope it's #1. I will reopen this ticket for another tech to assist you if the following doesn't work.

I am going to suggest that you reinstall Mac OS X. I know that's usually only suggested by AppleCare representatives who don't know what's wrong, but it would generate brand new System and Library folders. You do not need to go crazy with backing up files because you can use the Archive and Install feature on your Panther CD or DVD (you have it, right?). Make sure to check the option that says something along the lines of "Preserve home folders." This will tell the installer only to replace your System and Library folders, not personal data. Back up anything important that is outside of your home folder. Let's hope it works.

Regards,
David

xltierack - Mar 10, 2007 - 5:37 pm

David,
Anticipating your response I reinstalled OSX from scratch the other night, (all of my important files were on another drive anyway). I did not use a journaled file system this time around but went with a basic UFS instead. Went through all the updates that brought it back up to 10.3.9 and tried to play some files again with the same results. I did some half hearted research afterwards and found somewhere (sadly I didn't save the link) a forum discussion which suggested that OS 10.3 lacks video acceleration support for the ATI Rage 128 video card that is currently installed in my Mac. One of your hardware experts might know the answer to this, and whether it could be the cause of my problem. Let me know and thanks again.

Cheers,
Jon

dsr - Mar 10, 2007 - 8:58 pm

Hi Jon,

I'm sorry that the problem persisted. A little bit of research on my part seems to confirm that ATI Rage 128 does not operate well under Panther. I will reopen this ticket for another tech to assist you. Perhaps someone here can point you to a working driver. If not, you might want to check out the Usenet groups alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati or comp.sys.mac.hardware.video on Google Groups.

Regards,
David

TechSupport - Mar 13, 2007 - 10:00 pm

We apologize for not being able to resolve the issue you asked of us. It is the absolute worst case scenario for us to do this. In our review of why this happens, it generally is related to either the particular issue being addressed or frequently, incomplete or incorrect information provided. We hope by moving your request to the public forums that you will be able to get a solution without leaving you empty handed.

Your ticket has been closed with our support team. Your request has just been posted to Mac OS X System & Mac Software and is available for your viewing at:

http://macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=292572

Again, thank you for using Macosx.com. We hope you will consider using us again in the future.