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QuickTime .MOV + Toshiba + Vista = BSOD

Question Guy writes "Apple QuickTime is involved in a troubling problem that doesn't seem to be addressed by any of the major software and hardware manufacturers involved. On Toshiba machines, such as the Protege Tablet M400s, with Windows Vista installed, opening a locally stored QuickTime .MOV causes instant bluescreen. All other video functions seem to be working in other video playback types — even streaming .MOVs work — and there is little to no 'buzz' on the Net that might push any of the parties to investigate or to play nice together (Microsoft for Vista, Intel for the GMA945 chipset, Toshiba for their custom tablet software, Apple for QuickTime). Help, anyone?"

392 comments

  1. Defective by design by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    An appropriate title for both Vista and Quicktime!

    1. Re:Defective by design by illumin8 · · Score: 1

      An appropriate title for both Vista and Quicktime!
      Is anybody here old enough to remember the saying "DOS ain't done until Lotus won't run!" Well, I wouldn't be surprised if MS is up to their usual tricks with iTunes/Quicktime. It's not very far-fetched to see that even if MS found a bug that was blue-screening Vista whenever Quicktime runs, they wouldn't have much incentive to fix it in a timely manner... I mean, why not let people suffer for a while since they're using your competitor's software.

      iTunes and Quicktime are the biggest threat to MS dominance of the media delivery market. 2+2 doesn't always equal 4, but in most cases it does...
      --
      "When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
    2. Re:Defective by design by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where is the log? what does it says on blue screen ? :)

      ~tony.

  2. Title error... by Khaed · · Score: 5, Funny

    Vista = BSOD

    There, fixed the title for you. :)

    1. Re:Title error... by ivan256 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What would be the Mac equivalent to a Tablet PC?

    2. Re:Title error... by Basehart · · Score: 1

      It hasn't been released yet, so they might have to wait on the dumping the POS bit :-)

    3. Re:Title error... by Tickletaint · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      The iPhone.

      --
      Make Slashdot readable! See journal.
    4. Re:Title error... by marcello_dl · · Score: 1

      ...so I'd suggest you export it as a wmv...
      hmmmm, a nice thing on slashdot is that if you suggested to set up a streaming server and stream .movs from localhost, instead, you'd be taken seriously. don't miss the opportunity.
      --
      ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
    5. Re:Title error... by Tickletaint · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Sorry, how was that offtopic? To elaborate, Apple's answer to the tablet PC would have to be considered an upscaled iPhone, retaining a hi-res display and all the essential features of OS X, including most importantly Inkwell and multitouch.

      If you're particularly literal-minded and you think Apple's answer to the tablet PC would be, as in the PC world, a desktop computer crammed into slab format, then yeah, Apple wouldn't do that. Fortunately.

      --
      Make Slashdot readable! See journal.
    6. Re:Title error... by mgv · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Vista = BSOD

      There, fixed the title for you. :)


      Would it not read more like:

      "A carefully crafted executable, under certain conditions may cause a denial of service attack"

      Its not that quicktime crashes - that's apples fault. Its that the operating system goes down - definitely Microsoft's fault and problem. Although I presume its at least part hardware driver given the machine specific nature.

      After all these years, it shouldn't be that easy to do. Vista was supposed to be the most secure operating system yet. Or so I recall.

      Michael
      --
      There is no cryptographic solution to the problem where the intended receiver and the attacker are the same entity.
    7. Re:Title error... by flyingfsck · · Score: 1

      Hmm, isn't it:
      VISTA = Viruses, Insecurity, Spamware, Trojans & Adware?

      --
      Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
    8. Re:Title error... by WhiteWolf666 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And the iPhone, on which you _cannot_ install software, and which has limited data connectivity options is equivalent to a full blow Tablet PC how?

      I'm an Apple fan, but come on.

      --
      WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
    9. Re:Title error... by CellBlock · · Score: 1

      A desktop crammed into a slab, no, but an iBook, a PowerBook, or a MacBook with a swiveling screen are probably well within their capabilities.

    10. Re:Title error... by Giometrix · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "It's not Apple's problem, and MSFT will be in no hurry to release a patch to allow you to play a rivals filetype, so I'd suggest you export it as a wmv or dump the POS and get a Mac."

      Let me get this straight, there's a strong possibility that the issue is being caused by Apple software and you're telling him that he needs to dump his PC and buy a computer made by the manufacturer of that software?

      --
      Download free e-books, lectures, and tutorials at bookgoldmine.com
    11. Re:Title error... by Khaed · · Score: 1

      I have to say, your sig makes that even funnier than it would be under normal circumstances.

    12. Re:Title error... by Tickletaint · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Right now? It isn't. But give it time. The iPhone-tuned features of OS X are far more appropriate to a slate form factor than desktop OS X or Windows Brick—excuse me, Tablet Edition.

      --
      Make Slashdot readable! See journal.
    13. Re:Title error... by Divebus · · Score: 1

      Just the Toshiba machine does this? Maybe someone didn't test it before it all left the factory. QuickTime itself shouldn't be a mystery since the framework was contributed to the MPEG-4 standard... oh... there's another vector... it's a published standard and Microsoft... nevermind.

      --

      Most of the stuff on /. won't survive first contact with facts.
    14. Re:Title error... by Propaganda13 · · Score: 1

      Let me get this straight, one person on one pc has one program the causes a BSOD when it plays one type of format.

      Definitely sounds like Apple, Microsoft, and Toshiba should be rushing to fix this problem.

    15. Re:Title error... by daeg · · Score: 2, Funny

      Going on the idea that the most secure computer is the one never turned on, the most secure operating system is the one never installed.

      Perhaps Microsoft's marketing department consulted a modern day Oracle at Delphi and misunderstood the prediction.

    16. Re:Title error... by Propaganda13 · · Score: 1

      Forgot to mention that the article even points out that the one program is even supported on Vista. In that case, I've got tons of software of unsupported software that won't work either.

    17. Re:Title error... by BorgCopyeditor · · Score: 2, Funny

      You are very close to attaining the Zen of No-Op. Now carry my water for another 5 years, and we'll see how enlightened you get.

      --
      Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
    18. Re:Title error... by pomo+monster · · Score: 1, Troll

      It's marked "Offtopic" because the quality of moderation has gone to shit. Don't lose sleep over it.

    19. Re:Title error... by sarahbau · · Score: 1

      One word: Hackintosh

    20. Re:Title error... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The iPhone-tuned features of OS X are far more appropriate to a slate form factor than desktop OS X or Windows Brick--excuse me, Tablet Edition.

      When are people going to stop insisting that there is *a* right way to do things?

      The iPhone form factor would be better if you want an ultra-portable computer you can carry around with you whereever you go. The Tablet PC form factor is better if you want a bigger screen, for instance (in order of what I think is least to most convincing) if you are giving a presentation and you want to be able to note on the screen, you want to read a ebook, or if you want to take notes in class.

      Both would be very useful in their domain; neither is the be-all, end-all solution. People don't use PDAs instead of laptops or laptops instead of PDAs, and there's a reason for that.

    21. Re:Title error... by 644bd346996 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Vista = BS

      Fixed it for you.

    22. Re:Title error... by wo1verin3 · · Score: 1

      >> What would be the Mac equivalent to a Tablet PC?

      The Axiotron ModBook

    23. Re:Title error... by cronot · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Others have already said it, but I'm gonna say it again anyway: The possibility that Quicktime itself is causing the BSOD is infinitesimally next to zero - no userspace application should bring the OS down directly. Quicktime obviously is triggering the BSOD, but there isn't absolutely any "strong possibility that the issue is being caused by Apple software". The issue is most likely bad drivers - and the fact that the device uses a custom tablet isn't of any help. While Apple probably could work around the problem, they are the last party he should ask for it - The first, and most likely to get his problem resolved is Toshiba. Even if they can't to anything about it directly (i.e., the problem is on Vista), they should at least be able to put some pressure on Microsoft to get it done.

      I do agree, however, that the suggestion the GP gave of dumping the device is overrated.

    24. Re:Title error... by NMerriam · · Score: 2, Informative

      Let me get this straight, there's a strong possibility that the issue is being caused by Apple software


      No, there's a strong possibility that this is being caused by Vista -- the software works fine on XP on the same hardware, and Vista is supposed to be MORE secure and allow less malicious software to affect the basic OS operation, so how is an application or bad file data causing a BSOD? It should only be causing the application to crash.
      --
      Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
    25. Re:Title error... by UncleTogie · · Score: 1

      The Newton...

      ...and while I'm no fanboy, it DID come out first. ;)

      --
      Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
    26. Re:Title error... by Tickletaint · · Score: 1

      What the hell. Seriously, flamebait?

      --
      Make Slashdot readable! See journal.
    27. Re:Title error... by myowntrueself · · Score: 2, Interesting

      After all these years, it shouldn't be that easy to do. Vista was supposed to be the most secure operating system yet. Or so I recall.

      Maybe from MS's perspective it *is* more secure for the OS to crash... rather than the driver get a buffer overrun leading to priviledge escalation...

      --
      In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
    28. Re:Title error... by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 1

      There will be software for the iphone that you will be able to buy. Apple / ATT will not let pass them buy.

    29. Re:Title error... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As one of the moderators who modded your original post offtopic (the answer is little better than "why are 0.5mm mechanical pencils becoming harder to find?" "use a pen"), I agree that flamebait is stretching it. Though, your "Windows Brick--excuse me, Tablet Edition" is also pushing it a little...

    30. Re:Title error... by Presence2 · · Score: 1

      Perhaps a Newton.. actually was one of the idiots who had one :) Yeah, I know it was a PDA, but if you go by size and weight lol)

    31. Re:Title error... by jseale · · Score: 1

      Just give it a chance fellas! SP1 is coming out real soon and hopefully it wont be as bad as Vista's original release. Well at least it'll get more people to buy Vista anyway.

    32. Re:Title error... by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 1

      It's also not at all binary compatible with the desktop Mac, so even if you _could_ install software, there is none. Because all the most-heralded user level apps for the Mac are closed source.

      But people who don't understand and/or have never used the Tablet PC have their crude caricature-level rendition of it to shield them from reality.

    33. Re:Title error... by Tragek · · Score: 1

      People don't use PDAs instead of laptops


      Surprisingly, they do. I see a large number of people (mainly in arts classes), who come in, whip out their palms and collapsable keyboards and start typing. I think if they keyboard was of sufficient quality, and the synching solution good, it might even be worth it too. I have to say, taking my laptop pretty much rules out me bringing a text without back problems.
    34. Re:Title error... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's probably your sig -- funny, but mods always take themselves too seriously...

    35. Re:Title error... by jeffasselin · · Score: 1

      I'd consider an OS that crashes (panics, BSODs, etc) more secure than one which is afflicted by a buffer overflow in the same situation, for example. It's even better if neither occurs, obviously. Not that I think it's what's happening here anyway.

      --
      If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
    36. Re:Title error... by Malc · · Score: 2, Insightful

      QuickTime could be doing something bad like consuming and not releasing inordinate amounts of graphics resources. Not that I'm going to bother benchmarking it. Look at the way the app looks and behaves - the devs obviously have no clue how to develop for Windows.

    37. Re:Title error... by Khaed · · Score: 2, Funny

      Christ... Flamebait/troll moderators: Grow a sense of humor.

      Flamebait implies, y'know, trying to bait a flame war. I was just being snarky.

      Troll implies, y'know, trolling for replies. I could care less.

      The truth is, Windows Vista, like every other Windows, busted out the gate with a bunch of issues. I hear a lot of negative about it, and not since ME has a system been so reviled by all the non-geeks I know who have used it.

    38. Re:Title error... by faolan_devyn_aodfin · · Score: 1

      There was only one other thing that I enjoyed about Windows Vista besides the off button: "Mahjongg Titans". It was no Kyodai, but it was seriously better than KMahjongg, XMahjongg, and Gnome Mahjongg. C'mon Linux game devs! Let's make a mahjong that's blow your socks off amazing.

      --
      Pagan? Geek? Check out #paganism on Freenode IRC
    39. Re:Title error... by lostguru · · Score: 1

      is called a modbook

      look it up

      --
      Jayne: "These are stone killers, little man. They ain't cuddly like me."
      98% of America's teens drink alcohol, smok
    40. Re:Title error... by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 1

      Huge Brushed Aluminum frames are part of the MPEG-4 standard?!?

    41. Re:Title error... by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 1

      The Newton.

      --
      "But this one goes to 11!"
    42. Re:Title error... by Divebus · · Score: 1

      Huge Brushed Aluminum frames are part of the MPEG-4 standard?!?

      No, but the file format is. Apple was on the MPEG4 working committee and they contributed the QuickTime architecture to MPEG4. Here's an old PDF that describes it.. If brushed aluminum isn't your style, play the same MPEG4 with RealPlayer instead.

      Oh, Microsoft came up with their own idea of how MPEG4 should work - and that would be only on Windows, so they weren't invited to the party. MPEG4v3 was their first codec before their player was called Windows Media Player (pre WMP7). The same codec is now known as the DivX 3 AVI codec.

      --

      Most of the stuff on /. won't survive first contact with facts.
    43. Re:Title error... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So... consuming and not releasing inordinate amounts of graphic resources... can cause a BSOD?

      You obviously have no clue how to develop for Windows.

    44. Re:Title error... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By that same token Mozilla running amuck when it's not periodically shut down taking down X and indeed causing a kernel panic is also impossible. Apple is at fault for doing something funky. They've got the least complex element of the failure. Toshiba is at fault for doing something illconsidered. Since Vista barely blinks when my nVidia driver stops working. (different computer from my linux box obviously) At most it stops DreamScene when it restarts the display driver. But they've got the most complex set of demands. And indeed they cover a very wide range of options and circumstances. I wistfully remember the days of Norton Antivirus terminating the display drivers on Toshiba laptops, and the OS not bringing it back up. Haha. And now, when it happens 3 times now, it's a flash of black, and honestly doesn't even rise to the level of inconvienence. Now Toshiba, they've got quite the dilemma. But I don't think anyone would obsolve them from having to burn in their hardware with the most common applications. Of which Quicktime would have to be one.

      That said, given the MS complete rewrite of the Vista sound system, I would guess that under those conditions the sound from the quicktime is being prompting a write to a protected area of memory, and rather than fail gracefully, Quicktime horks brutally, and causes Vista to crap out. All in all, I'd probably blame Toshiba. All in all, I'd bet this will show up in other circumstances that involve playing audio on the machines, and will indeed prompt a patch in not too long.

      Much in the same way I don't blame Linux for Soundblaster Live!, I don't blame MS for this.

    45. Re:Title error... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Install Vista on tablet PC. That's how it is equivalent, does fuck all.

    46. Re:Title error... by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      A Tablet PC running Mac OS. I'm planning on trying it with my X60 when Leopard comes out, at least...

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    47. Re:Title error... by tftp · · Score: 1

      If the input is incorrect any sane OS (or a library) would just return an error code.

    48. Re:Title error... by serialdogma · · Score: 1

      But the file format is not crashing the system, it is just sitting on the hard drive and the system is not misbehaving. The problem is playing said file, and that is not defined by the standard; especially if what some people here is saying is true, that it is a video driver problem. This is IMHO not a "M$ hate open standards!1!, evil fags lols" issue.

      On the topic of MSMPEG4, while it did diverge from the standard, I'll be more willing to say this is due to laziness rather then malice, after it was a awful codec on all counts, not just this one.

    49. Re:Title error... by PsychicX · · Score: 1

      I agree that the drivers are at fault; this reeks of a mistake on Intel's part inside the GMA driver. All of the video card manufacturers have been going through hell working on getting things working smoothly in the new driver model. While Apple engineers are generally fairly incompetent at doing actual Windows coding, I'm firmly in the camp that an application should never be able to cause a BSOD.

    50. Re:Title error... by jimicus · · Score: 1

      The possibility that Quicktime itself is causing the BSOD is infinitesimally next to zero - no userspace application should bring the OS down directly. Quicktime obviously is triggering the BSOD, but there isn't absolutely any "strong possibility that the issue is being caused by Apple software". The issue is most likely bad drivers - and the fact that the device uses a custom tablet isn't of any help. While Apple probably could work around the problem, they are the last party he should ask for it - The first, and most likely to get his problem resolved is Toshiba. Even if they can't to anything about it directly (i.e., the problem is on Vista), they should at least be able to put some pressure on Microsoft to get it done.

      Ah, bless.

      I bet you that the people on Toshiba's tech support line don't have anything like this in their script. So they'll resort to the closest thing they can find - if the computer's crashing, reinstall Windows. If it still crashes, it's a hardware.... oh, it only crashes when you play back things in Quicktime? Sorry, we don't support Quicktime (click).

      I have yet to see the idea that a driver provided on the system could be the cause of such crashes (and therefore merits being escalated to the team maintaining the driver) making it into a tech support script.

      Of course, what will happen now is someone will relate a tale of a tech support issue they raised with Toshiba which did get escalated to an appropriate team and an updated driver was made available a week later.

    51. Re:Title error... by FireFury03 · · Score: 1

      Troll implies, y'know, trolling for replies. I could care less.

      Surely if you could care less then that means you care?

    52. Re:Title error... by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      This is the casual attitude about mere apps crashing a modern operating system that has driven many of us to more rigorously evaluated operating systems.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    53. Re:Title error... by Khaed · · Score: 1

      agh, yeah.

      That should be "couldn't care less." But I'm an idiot sometimes.

    54. Re:Title error... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Etch-a-Sketch

    55. Re:Title error... by Pollardito · · Score: 1

      I'd consider an OS that crashes (panics, BSODs, etc) more secure than one which is afflicted by a buffer overflow in the same situation, for example. this seems like a false comparison, since if the OS were actually purposefully catching a buffer overflow it should be able to at least confine the crash to the app using that buffer and not the entire system. since neither of these scenarios should be chosen on purpose, it's like saying you'd rather be stabbed than step on a land mine
  3. VLC by DrYak · · Score: 2, Informative

    You may try with VLC media player.
    Works very well with tons of formats.
    Uses its own codecs.
    Free and open source.
    Available for Windows (and also Mac OS X and Linux).

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:VLC by gsfprez · · Score: 1, Informative

      i had massive BSOD problems trying to use VLC in Vista. YMMV.

      I don't see on the VLC page that VLC is compatible with vista - is there something i'm missing?

      --
      guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
    2. Re:VLC by renegadesx · · Score: 0

      Xine with all the right codecs for me is still the best media player around

      Multiple front ends: Xine-UI, Totem, Kaffeine, gXine etc
      Support for any format avaliable (wmv, qt, h.264, divx, xvid)
      Doesnt crash itself OR the OS
      Plays DVD's
      Look hard enough you can also get Windows and OSX versions as well

      --
      Make SELinux enforcing again!
    3. Re:VLC by plasmacutter · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      i had massive BSOD problems trying to use VLC in Vista. YMMV.

      I don't see on the VLC page that VLC is compatible with vista - is there something i'm missing?


      the part where you, being a slashdot user, logically realize vista was not ready for public release, then revert back to windows xp?
      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
    4. Re:VLC by wellingj · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think you are missing the point.... not much *IS* compatible with Vista.
      wow... what a role reversal with Linux...
      next thing you know my dad is going to make me cookies and my mom will make me build a fence...

    5. Re:VLC by taoman1 · · Score: 1

      TFA article says that VLC works fine.

      --
      Where is the Undo button for my life? Not to mention the Esc key.
    6. Re:VLC by DrYak · · Score: 1

      I don't see on the VLC page that VLC is compatible with vista - is there something i'm missing?


      There's a couple of minor bugs that where fixed in 0.8.6b according to the changelog. Now picture should play with the Direct3D output plugin, even when in Aero mode.
      Haven't test it, though.
      --
      "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    7. Re:VLC by StrahdVZ · · Score: 1

      Or try Quicktime Alternative? Won't help itunes but at least you might get some .mov viewing out of it.

      (someone linked Real Alternative below but thats no use in this situation)

    8. Re:VLC by greviant · · Score: 1

      Vista sacrifices backwards compatibility for real progress. While M$ failed to deliver the real progress, the sentiment shouldn't be made fun of. Wait for every piece of software made for XP to be ported to Vista before you call it "ready for public release", and you'll never get a new OS.

    9. Re:VLC by Nataku564 · · Score: 1

      Slight modification - never get a new _Windows_ OS - which I am not all that sad about.

    10. Re:VLC by Beyond_GoodandEvil · · Score: 1

      Vista sacrifices backwards compatibility for real progress. While M$ failed to deliver the real progress, the sentiment shouldn't be made fun of.
      Riiiight, b/c sacrificing A to get B, but not delivering B either isn't something to make fun of. And why wouldn't I make fun of Vista again?

      --
      I laughed at the weak who considered themselves good because they lacked claws.
  4. BSOD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So the BSOD is back?
    I heard there actually isn't one in Vista.

    1. Re:BSOD by notanatheist · · Score: 1

      You heard wrong. There is supposed to be a "Red Screen of Death" too which is for more 'critical' errors. As if a BSOD wasn't bad enough?! I've seen quite a few Vista BSODs already. Spysweeper is good at crashing Vista for one.

      Is the original poster's problem isolated or repeatable across machines? I'd hate to think a corrupt MOV is causing the issue but some n00b is crying to the Slashdot crowd because he doesn't know how to format the damn drive and install linux.

    2. Re:BSOD by Twisted64 · · Score: 1

      There absolutely is - I've only seen one so far, but it's officially called a "blue screen" error now.

      --
      Consciousness is a myth. Trust me.
  5. never gets old by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Help, anyone?

    You can find a patch for this problem here.

    1. Re:never gets old by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 0

      You can find a patch for this problem here.

      I think Apple and Microsoft have a patch for your patch here and here. :)

    2. Re:never gets old by Mr.+Vage · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Ha! I love how Linux is always the instant fix on Slashdot. I've had more trouble with Linux than with Windows on 3 of my computers.

      • Problem 1: A few distros of Linux and my Dell. Had problems with the graphics chipset and I couldn't start Linux. Windows had problems, but was able to run at 640x480, 16 colors until I was able to download the updated driver.
      • Problem 2: I have an old PII laptop with 128 MB of RAM. I figured Linux would be faster than Windows. I still don't know if it actually is. I did some searches for a light Linux distro and found Kubuntu. I loaded it into my laptop and all I got was a blank desktop.
      • Problem 3: Ubuntu 6.10 and my custom built computer. I needed use Linux to unbrick my Sansa. I had to compile a program on it, but needed to download some packages first. I couldn't download them. Why? Ubuntu didn't recognize the on-board LAN. I had to get the NIC from my Dell to get it to work.
      • Problem 4: Edgy didn't like me, I thought the Fawn might. Nope, seems that Fawns like FDDs, too bad I don't have one. No fix yet for this it seems.

      So, in conclusion:
      Windows = :)
      Linux = >:(

    3. Re:never gets old by jlarocco · · Score: 1

      And I've had nothing but endless headaches, hardware compatibility problems, and rampant crashes when I use Windows. Nobody cares. Your inability to run Linux isn't very interesting.

    4. Re:never gets old by mabinogi · · Score: 1

      That's not a lot of use if this is a hardware problem.

      --
      Advanced users are users too!
    5. Re:never gets old by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      Because Linux has such great tablet support?

      I don't mind these snarky, moronic "Linux is the answer to everything" posts, on the assumption that the author is trying to be funny. What I mind is that they get modded up EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

      Jokes are only funny the first time, Mods. The four-thousandth time? Not funny.

  6. Sounds like User Error? by Rosyna · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It says "playing a .MOV file". A .mov (MooV) file is a container format for codecs. iTunes doesn't use a "QuickTime Player" it uses QuickTime.

    It almost sounds like a particular driver or something is crashing when trying to do hardware acceleration of a particular codec (like H.264). The author seems like they're shooting bullets of blame in a wild and uncontrollable manner.

    1. Re:Sounds like User Error? by MasamuneXGP · · Score: 1

      Seconded. This is just more undeserved Vista-bashing. This isn't Windows 98; software that doesn't involve hardware drivers just don't cause BSODs anymore. Likely this is a specific codec trying to install some sort of wacky driver to get hardware acceleration.

    2. Re:Sounds like User Error? by manekineko2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Is this seriously a request for tech support from a single user being reported as if its news? This is really a brave new world of MS bashing.

      Maybe there is no "buzz" for this issue because it is limited to only this user? Or even if it affects that entire line of computers, maybe its simply the fact that Toshiba shipped shitty video drivers that crash the system on video overlay or something.

    3. Re:Sounds like User Error? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Undeserved? Or perhaps in line with the history of Microsoft's OSes and the promises of wonderful stability and security that they universally fail to deliver on.

      Remember that wonderful windows 95 and its highly touted memory management that meant each 32 bit application had its own compartmentalized, protected segment of memory and hence a single malfunctioning application could never crash any other application, or the OS itself? Wasn't that such a load of crap? Microsoft have made similar wild, nonsensical and spurious claims of reliability for at least a decade, are we to believe a rushed, unfinished product with such a troubled history such as Vista is suddenly living up to the hype?

      Why do you suppose Microsoft is trying to force retailers to remove boxed copies of WinXP from shelves? Because Vista is just so wonderful it makes XP look bad?

    4. Re:Sounds like User Error? by _Pablo · · Score: 1

      Vote parent up!

      Forgive me if i'm note sure about the resolution or the codec or whatever, but I know for sure that my local copy of hot_webcam_dance.mov runs perfectly well - i'd have noticed a long time ago if this had been a widescale Toshiba+Vista+local .mov problem...

      --
      $2B OR NOT $2B = $FF
    5. Re:Sounds like User Error? by DLG · · Score: 1

      Didn't really read the article did we? The article blames Apple. I know that Apple's version of Vista has some compatibility with Microsoft or should I say OS X 10.4, but really, please stop whining about all the Vista Bashing, when the point of the article is a) that there is a user problem and when he goes to each company for support they pass the buck and b) the writer (probably erroneously since a BSOD is not really the fault of userland code) blames Apple for it.

      In any case..
      READ
      THE
      FUCKING
      ARTICLE. :)

    6. Re:Sounds like User Error? by howlingmadhowie · · Score: 1

      "The author seems like they're shooting bullets of blame in a wild and uncontrollable manner."

      ... which is of course all you can do, if you're using closed-source software and are too cheap to pay apple, microsoft and toshiba to fix the problem for you personally.

  7. Congratulations by arodland · · Score: 0, Troll

    You've managed to misspell the name of your own laptop.

    1. Re:Congratulations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You've managed to misspell the name of your own laptop.
      Yes, yes, it's a Portege, not a Protege... whatever. Get over it.

      So, if you're going to pull the spelling-nazi thing:
      The proper nomenclature is notebook. And that model isn't even a notebook; it's a tablet! There's a difference. Don't make corrections unless you're going to be spotless on your assumptions.
    2. Re:Congratulations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The proper nomenclature is notebook. Bullshit.
       

      And that model isn't even a notebook; it's a tablet! A tablet is a laptop with a touchscreen. Nothing more.
  8. Probably Vista by slughead · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The fact that it crashed was probably Apple's "bad", but the fact that it resulted in a BSOD is obviously Vista.

    Maybe this has to do with the added layer of complexity (presumably for DRM) between the kernel and video-utilizing programs... or is that just for DirectX programs?

    1. Re:Probably Vista by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      An operating system can only be as working as the hardware it's running on. It could be something funky that Toshiba's doing, though you're right, it should never be possible for an application to BSOD.

    2. Re:Probably Vista by suv4x4 · · Score: 1

      The fact that it crashed was probably Apple's "bad", but the fact that it resulted in a BSOD is obviously Vista.

      Don't be so certain. Anyone in the kernel space can cause BSOD. Which means it may be any of the kernel mode drivers Toshiba loaded their tablet with.

      The Windows version of Apple's software is quite poorly written, but I wouldn't blame it, unless they install kernel drivers (for virtual devices, and for iPod presumably). I doubt it's the case but you never know. User space software can NOT cause a BSOD, end of story.

      The goal of a kernel mode driver is to have raw access to the hardware. As such, the OS can't limit the damage to a given process or ensure integrity after a critical situation. The BSOD is in fact happening to protect from any (or at least further) data corruption and loss. If Vista would be "nice" and just keep on running after a kernel mode driver screwed up badly, you may not be able to even boot next time.

    3. Re:Probably Vista by LighterShadeOfBlack · · Score: 2, Funny

      The fact that it crashed was probably Apple's "bad", but the fact that it resulted in a BSOD is obviously Vista.

      Maybe this has to do with the added layer of complexity (presumably for DRM) between the kernel and video-utilizing programs... or is that just for DirectX programs? Or maybe it's sunspots or mobile phones. Or maybe it's a deliberate Microsoft plot to make Apple look bad.

      I know, let's randomly speculate some more.
      --
      Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
    4. Re:Probably Vista by Quantam · · Score: 1

      Any crash in kernel mode (e.g. access violation) = BSOD. There are also a wide variety of other things that cause BSODs (like calling a function that is likely to take a long time while at hardware realtime priority, which would cause a complete system stall), but that's probably what this is. I believe there are some ways to catch things like access violations and recover before a BSOD is thrown (this works just like C++ try/catch pairs), but it requires the coder of the driver causing the access violation to wrap potentially dangerous accesses in that.

      My list of suspects, from most probable to least:
      1. Toshiba video driver bug
      2. Vista kernel bug
      3. The video codec. Note, however, that this is assuming the codec is running in user mode (things in user mode can only cause BSODs if the kernel or a driver uses some invalid data passed through a system call without verifying it - major security hole), which I don't know for sure (I've never done multimedia programming). If this is actually running in kernel mode, I'd move it at the top of the list.

      --
      You have tried to support your argument with faulty reasoning! Go directly to jail; do not pass Go, do not collect $200!
    5. Re:Probably Vista by Breakfast+Pants · · Score: 1

      But any kernel mode drivers Toshiba shipped had to go through Microsoft's certification program, so the blame still ultimately falls there.

      --

      --

      WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
    6. Re:Probably Vista by Al+Dimond · · Score: 1

      The state gives me a license to drive, and I manage to flip my car over and kill myself. It's the state's fault for certifying me, not mine. Maybe if the blame "still ultimately falls there" anyone that's pissed off that I'm dead should sue the state.

      Yeah, Microsoft has a driver certification program. But if you expect that a certification program will make all drivers crash-free you're expecting something completely unreasonable.

      At any rate, if someone managed to reproduce this failure and find which module the crash was in then there could be a discussion of what really went wrong. A crash dump including a stack trace would be particularly informative. It's not really very difficult to generate such a crash dump if you have a 100%-reproducible crash. As driver bugs go, 100%-reproducible kernel panics are generally some of the easiest bugs to diagnose and fix.

    7. Re:Probably Vista by howlingmadhowie · · Score: 1

      is it not a tad worrying, when people on slashdot (which is rumoured to be visited by technically educated people) mark something like this insightful? what does that tell us about the state of modern computing? what has happened to this field? 30 years ago, people would have marked this funny, had there been a slashdot. after 30 years of closed-source software, even the experts don't have a clue how a computer works. "your computer crashing when you do that? that'll be (role a D6) the operating system".

    8. Re:Probably Vista by Jugalator · · Score: 1

      Maybe this has to do with the added layer of complexity (presumably for DRM) between the kernel and video-utilizing programs... or is that just for DirectX programs?

      Only DRM'ed videos on Vista make use of the protected video path.

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    9. Re:Probably Vista by Jugalator · · Score: 1

      Btw, as usual with Vista and mysterious problems only involved in a few cases, I blame misbehaving drivers. I mean, I've not seen this happen myself so it's not a general problem with Vista + QT. Not that I know what a driver might do to take down the OS. Especially as Vista has auto-recovering features if e.g. the video driver would crash. (and I've seen it in action too especially with nVidias-not-betas-that-really-are :-p)

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    10. Re:Probably Vista by MoHaG · · Score: 1

      The BSOD must be cause either by Vista or a driver. User-space programs are not supposed to be able to crash the operating system...

      The hardware might also be faulty, but if ALL Toshiba laptops are faulty, it should include a workaround. Also the driver should try to cope with unexpected inputs (which is important for security as well...)

    11. Re:Probably Vista by suv4x4 · · Score: 1

      But any kernel mode drivers Toshiba shipped had to go through Microsoft's certification program, so the blame still ultimately falls there.

      The responsibility to deliver stable software is with the software Maker. Microsoft's certification program ensures the code isn't blatantly unstable (such as found by some small asian manifacturers) or malicious. Testing kernel drivers isn't very trivial, you know.

      And that BSOD isn't the worst thing in the world, it happens even with the best ones sometimes. Toshiba will just test, and issue a fix, it's apparently easy to reproduce, so good for them.

    12. Re:Probably Vista by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, it is the operating system.

      For example, with Linux, I never get a BSOD - or whatever is the equivalent there; I've heard it is called "kernel panic", but I've never seen one.

      This is because when an application crashes, the application crashes and not the whole system. No operating system should go down if some random application crashes.

      So yes, it definitely is Vista's fault.

    13. Re:Probably Vista by djdavetrouble · · Score: 1

      I know, let's randomly speculate some more.

      Great, I was waiting for just such an invitation..
        I think it could have something to do with that "wiggler" device, the one
      that is like a little miniature joystick (slash nipple) in the middle of the keyboard. Except that instead
      of the soft familiar nipple feeling, it feels like rough sandpaper. Pure fucking genius for usability, but
      the tactile equivalent of hearing someone scratch a blackboard. It has just always bothered me, and now
      I don't find it hard to believe that it is somehow the cause of all of this "BSOD" insanity. Also, I heard
      that once the CEO of Toshiba farted on Steve's favorite leather sofa, and this may be some sort of
      personal vendetta playing itself out on the world's stage.

      --
      music lover since 1969
  9. Say what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Why is a story about a guys computer crashing on here?

    If it was a problem with a specific model, I could understand it, but it's just one guy!!!

    1. Re:Say what? by guruevi · · Score: 4, Funny

      He is one of the two guys that are running Vista.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    2. Re:Say what? by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 1

      Which one, Bill or Steve?

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
  10. Has apple updated QT yet? by peragrin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    last I knew apple hadn't updated quicktime or itunes, for Vista. So people are running into problems with a heavily drm'd OS not properly running applications that weren't designed to run on it.

    should i be surprised?

    --
    i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    1. Re:Has apple updated QT yet? by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 2, Insightful

      should i be surprised?

      You should be a little surprised. QuickTime is a user-privileged program, not part of the kernel and not a device driver. It shouldn't be able to cause the whole OS to crash.

      But realistically, that probably just means that QuickTime is demonstrating the existence of a bug in the video driver and/or the Vista kernel. A user-privileged program can't should the whole blame for any BSOD.

  11. Here's help by rsletten · · Score: 1
  12. Quicktime unstable by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 1

    I get firefox crashing hard if I view any of the mac vs pc videos on their home page.
    Other quicktime movies work fine.

    It might be Jobs' way of showing me how crap life is on pcs.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
    1. Re:Quicktime unstable by GFree · · Score: 1

      PCs? Or "Windows"? Be specific son!

    2. Re:Quicktime unstable by suv4x4 · · Score: 1

      I get firefox crashing hard if I view any of the mac vs pc videos on their home page. It might be Jobs' way of showing me how crap life is on pcs.

      I've used to experience quicktime crashes in Firefox as well, on certain QT versions (I think the latest is better).

      I'm afraid the only thing Jobs is showing you, is his Windows team of programmers aren't quite good. If I didn't know better, it would make me think OSX and Macs are total crap, but in fact QuickTime on OSX is running just fine.

  13. Try MPlayer by omnirealm · · Score: 1

    You might have more luck with MPlayer than you are currently having with the proprietary player.

    http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html

    --
    An unjust law is no law at all. - St. Augustine
    1. Re:Try MPlayer by SplatMan_DK · · Score: 1

      Ahemm, isn't MPlayer relying entirely on 3rd party codecs and thereby just as "proprietary"? - Jesper

      --
      My security clearance is so high I have to kill myself if I remember I have it...
    2. Re:Try MPlayer by alphamugwump · · Score: 1

      I'll second this. I've always had pretty good luck with MPlayer, even on windows. The UI takes some getting used to (it is keyboard only), but once you learn it, you'll never want anything else. In comparison, WMP, QuickTime, and PowerDVD seem bloated and buggy as hell.

      For example, I've tried to play movies on WMV (for which it did not have the codec) and locked up the computer. Which should definitely not happen. Quicktime, hooks its tray icon into your registry, tries to update itself over the internet, and generally makes an ass of itself. And of course, PowerDVD will make you watch those previews at the beginning of the DVD. It will also show you the DVD menus, which I hate.

      VLC is good for playing corrupted movies, and it handles multiple audio tracks a little better than MPlayer, but it is also pretty bloated.

    3. Re:Try MPlayer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not for Quicktime. Mplayer uses ffmpeg to handle quicktime files, whether they use the old Sorenson v3 codec or the newer H264 codec.

    4. Re:Try MPlayer by AJWM · · Score: 1

      Not entirely, no. It uses ffmpeg and other OSS libraries where it can, but will fall back to using 3rd-party codecs if necessary (and available). So for formats where only a proprietary codec exists, then you could say it's "just as" proprietary, but for all those other formats it's open source.

      --
      -- Alastair
    5. Re:Try MPlayer by SplatMan_DK · · Score: 1

      And in the case of .MOV files? Is there an OSS codec available for MPlayer?

      (If not, the discussion seems a little pointless in the light of the main story *s*)

      :-)

      --
      My security clearance is so high I have to kill myself if I remember I have it...
    6. Re:Try MPlayer by AJWM · · Score: 1

      Well, .MOV is a wrapper format so it depends on the particular audio and video codecs used.

      Testing with a couple of .mov files I have lying around on my drive, it looks like MPlayer is using ffmpeg decoders for the video (SVQ3, rpza, rel , cvid) but (in these particular cases) relying on proprietary codecs for the audio (QDM2). (Although ima4, mp3, etc audio it handles through OSS.)

      --
      -- Alastair
  14. I think you answered your question already. by HowIsMyDriving? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In your question you stated that the Toshiba laptop runs custom tablet software. If all other configurations of Vista, the Intel Chipset, Quicktime, and other variables work fine, you have just eliminated them as possibilities but the Tablet software. More than likely there is some call within the tablet software doing with the display that interacts when a Mov. is trying to be played locally, which causes conflict. Also, why is this Slashdot worthy?

    --
    Welcome to the Entropy Bar, may I take your order?
    1. Re:I think you answered your question already. by taoman1 · · Score: 5, Informative

      TFA concludes by blaming it on Apple. I'm no Apple fanboy, but I don't see that at all. Unless I am misreading TFA, everything worked fine until the patches and updates were installed. I would suggest those are the problem. If they were Tablet updates, that's where the blame lies. If they were Vista updates, then the problem is there. And i agree, this is a support call, not news on /.

      --
      Where is the Undo button for my life? Not to mention the Esc key.
    2. Re:I think you answered your question already. by suv4x4 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Also, why is this Slashdot worthy?

      Anything is.

    3. Re:I think you answered your question already. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Vista ain't done 'til iTunes won't run!

    4. Re:I think you answered your question already. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We know that Apple is not the problem because an application should never be able to invoke a BSOD, no matter how poorly written.

    5. Re:I think you answered your question already. by Sillygates · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A userspace application should not be able to completely crash a system.

      --
      I fear the Y2038 bug
    6. Re:I think you answered your question already. by BorgCopyeditor · · Score: 1

      All The News That Fits.

      --
      Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
    7. Re:I think you answered your question already. by ssintercept · · Score: 0

      i am no fan of crApple but i had a problem with a .mov porn file that played fine on my servver2k3 box but stuttered and heaved on my vista box. i just chalked it up to vista problems. so, maybe he did not answer his own question...

      --
      "You can kill the revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution."-- Fred Hampton
    8. Re:I think you answered your question already. by Darundal · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      Question: What hardware DRM is built into the machines, specifically video/display related?

    9. Re:I think you answered your question already. by cjjjer · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Because the original poster wants /. users to trash M$ Vista of course so it will make him / her feel better.

    10. Re:I think you answered your question already. by utopianfiat · · Score: 1

      Slashdot is the new bugzilla.

      --
      +5, Truth
    11. Re:I think you answered your question already. by Malc · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I've heard that BS before, from the Mozilla devs. That was a couple of years before the they admitted to a huge resource leak with images that caused some computers to BSOD. Perhaps you want to blame the graphics driver... but Mozilla was the only app that triggered it. They claimed it was impossible for an application to cause a BSOD so there couldn't be anything wrong with Mozilla. Turns out they were wrong and their pig-headedness meant a massive bug sat their for years.

    12. Re:I think you answered your question already. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They claimed it was impossible for an application to cause a BSOD so there couldn't be anything wrong with Mozilla.

      OK, so Mozilla had a resource leak. Clearly there was also a kernel or driver bug, because a BSOD is a kernel crash.

    13. Re:I think you answered your question already. by Malc · · Score: 1

      Instead of posting here, can't "Question Guy" install WinDbg and load the Windows' minidump. The callstack at the moment of BSOD is usually useful for determining who might be at fault. I used this approach recently for a colleague whose computer was crashing. She uninstalled her Logitech webcam drivers and software and problem was immediately solved. 30 minutes effort - that's quicker than reading the responses to this /. story, which probably won't elicit the answer anyway.

    14. Re:I think you answered your question already. by Malc · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Using up all available graphics resources will cause things to fail. If the desktop environment crashes because it can't get enough resources (be it X11 or Windows) then all apps tend to go down with resultant data loss. From my perspective as a desktop (not server) user, there's no difference.

    15. Re:I think you answered your question already. by charlieman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So isn't Microsoft the one to blame for letting applications cause BSOD?

    16. Re:I think you answered your question already. by ethicalBob · · Score: 1

      "slashdot worthy"??

      LOL We've all seen some REALLY inane b.s. posted here - this definitely seems to pass the litmus test.

      --
      Politics will sooner or later make fools of everybody... - Dick Armey
    17. Re:I think you answered your question already. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Isn't a corner stone of "stable" and "reliability" in an modern OS the inability of any app to cause failure by sucking up all resources?

    18. Re:I think you answered your question already. by CrossChris · · Score: 2, Interesting

      We know that Apple is not the problem because an application should never be able to invoke a BSOD, no matter how poorly written.

      There are many other well-known applications that will BSOD Vista. Locally stored .RA files have a 50:50 chance of knocking it off its' perch, for example. This appears to be a "security" function of the DRM measures, which are particularly badly written (unlike the rest of Vista, which is just poor).

      Don't worry kids. You'll still be able to play your games on XP, for a short while.

      If "Windows" is the answer, you're asking the wrong question!

    19. Re:I think you answered your question already. by TheNetAvenger · · Score: 1

      We know that Apple is not the problem because an application should never be able to invoke a BSOD, no matter how poorly written.


      Um, you can pretty much drop any OS when you touch video overlays or drivers (yes even usermode drivers), although the OS may not officially crash, but the video UI/GUI will be gone and unable to resume.

      However from what the user posted in the article, we would have to assume that he is NOT using the WDDM drivers for the 945, or if he is has Glass/Aero disabled. However if he is using the WDDM drivers with Aero on and is getting a BSOD, Intel has done something horribly wrong with their implementation because they shouldn't be touching anything low enough to BSOD Vista.

      BSODs in Vista via video is almost non-existent with WDDM drivers, as they run in User mode and Vista even has driver drop down and hot plug support features for errant WDDM Drivers, so it will restore the video, even if it has to drop to a VGA driver or enable another video device if the hardware is fried.

      Non-WDDM are XP drivers and act just like they do in XP, so they run in the kernel and can BSOD just like they would on XP.

    20. Re:I think you answered your question already. by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Considering the kind of crap that goes into multimedia applications these days it wouldn't surprise me if Quicktime had parts that needed to be run in kernel mode.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    21. Re:I think you answered your question already. by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Considering these are DRM-capable players they probably run in kernelspace to some extend.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    22. Re:I think you answered your question already. by someone1234 · · Score: 1

      We know that M$ or the device driver is faulty for sure. Apple could be a problem too, but it is irrelevant while there is a BSOD. Until there is an exploit manufacturers don't work on bugs.

      --
      Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
    23. Re:I think you answered your question already. by MORB · · Score: 1

      Yeah, drivers, especially graphic card drivers, aren't perfect and you can't expect them to handle gracefully any kind of wrong thing you ask them to do.
      So sometimes when you do something wrong you cause them to crash. I work in a company developing PC games and we see a lot of blue screens when the rendering engine screw up something.
      Sometimes it turns out to be a graphic driver bug, but most often it's a bug on our side that cause the driver to crash when trying to do something that was invalid in the first place.

    24. Re:I think you answered your question already. by walt-sjc · · Score: 1

      Which is why you don't run the bulk of the graphics driver in kernel space... You run it in userland where it belongs. I wish more drivers for Linux were in userspace too - many modern USB device drivers Can be run in userspace - see libusb. Graphics drivers are special in a couple ways but the biggest is that you don't need graphics for the core of the OS, unlike disk drivers for example. It's possible that you may need a thin shim in kernel space to talk to the low-level hardware, but you certainly don't need to run the entire driver in kernel space.

    25. Re:I think you answered your question already. by MORB · · Score: 1

      Oh, I fully agree.
      This one of the numerous reasons I hate being stuck developing on an OS with such a mediocre architecture.

    26. Re:I think you answered your question already. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, why is this Slashdot worthy?

      It's not. You must be new here!

    27. Re:I think you answered your question already. by j-turkey · · Score: 1

      TFA concludes by blaming it on Apple. I'm no Apple fanboy, but I don't see that at all. Unless I am misreading TFA, everything worked fine until the patches and updates were installed. I would suggest those are the problem. If they were Tablet updates, that's where the blame lies. If they were Vista updates, then the problem is there. And i agree, this is a support call, not news on /.

      You're probably right. At the same time, the free Apple Quicktime player for Windows has always righteously sucked. Maybe some undeserved-for-the-situation bad press is what they need.

      --

      -Turkey

    28. Re:I think you answered your question already. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This happened on my MAC g4. For a version I paid for. So, kindly, shove it, fan boy.

  15. Certainly not Apple's fault by evilviper · · Score: 5, Insightful
    From TFA:

    or the problem could in fact be Apple's for something in the QuickTime code that's at fault.

    No, it couldn't... If you're running as an unprivileged user, the software you run shouldn't possibly be able to crash your OS.

    Drivers can, and bugs in the OS can. User-run programs can only (accidentally) trigger one of those... in which case, that's a DoS exploit in the system.
    --
    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    1. Re:Certainly not Apple's fault by bhalter80 · · Score: 1

      You sideswipe an interesting subject here. What every happened to Vista forcing users to have unprivleged accounts? I use it and as the first installed user I seem to have had them from day 1 and since I turned off UAC I don't get harassed every minute by it telling me that I may somehow be putting my PC at risk. So indeed what about those LUAs?

    2. Re:Certainly not Apple's fault by Ant+P. · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Or Apple's Quicktime software, like many other badly-written windows apps with something to hide, is using a device driver to do its dirty work.

    3. Re:Certainly not Apple's fault by Animats · · Score: 2, Informative

      Drivers can, and bugs in the OS can. User-run programs can only (accidentally) trigger one of those...

      If only. The way Microsoft does DRM, much of audio and video processing takes place in kernel space.

    4. Re:Certainly not Apple's fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Drivers can, and bugs in the OS can. User-run programs can only (accidentally) trigger one of those... in which case, that's a DoS exploit in the system.

      Well, since this problem is only reported on a certain type of laptop, I bet it's a bug in the audio/video drivers of that laptop.

    5. Re:Certainly not Apple's fault by BradleyUffner · · Score: 1

      You turned them off when you turned off UAC.

    6. Re:Certainly not Apple's fault by jimicus · · Score: 1

      Drivers can, and bugs in the OS can. User-run programs can only (accidentally) trigger one of those... in which case, that's a DoS exploit in the system.

      As far as the end user is concerned, what's the practical difference between a BSOD and a resource hog which causes the GUI (but not any other services which aren't immediately visible to the user, eg. printing, networking) to lock up?

    7. Re:Certainly not Apple's fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let me get this straight - you turned off UAC and now wonder why you don't get UAC prompts?

      Please tell me you're a troll.

    8. Re:Certainly not Apple's fault by Dobeln · · Score: 1

      CTRL-SHIFT-ESC?

    9. Re:Certainly not Apple's fault by evilviper · · Score: 1

      As far as the end user is concerned, what's the practical difference between a BSOD and a resource hog which causes the GUI (but not any other services which aren't immediately visible to the user, eg. printing, networking) to lock up?

      First of all, nothing should lock-up the GUI. As a user, even if you are running a resource hog of a program, the GUI might be slower to respond, but you don't have a high enough priority to make it completely unresponsive.

      So, the later case can be solved by a CTRL+ALT+DEL, while a BSOD is a real, unrecoverable, crash.
      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  16. Not surprising by dfoulger · · Score: 0, Troll

    What you are seeing lies at the bullseye of the primary reason why I don't intend to ever install Vista. I don't know that the problem stems from this, but this problem has digital rights management (DRM) written all over it. Windows devices are supposed to degrade (by Microsoft specification that Toshiba has surely designed to) when they detect allegedly (by some measure) "illegal" content (e.g. content that should be DRM protected and isn't). Who knows what difficult interactions are built into the "decision" (made by the operating system and enforced in hardware) to give you a blue screen when you play your locally stored MOV files in Quicktime, but the problem is almost certainly in Vista's DRM code rather than Quicktime.

    The best solution, I would guess, is to replace your Vista installation with something that isn't designed to fail. XP is a reasonable solution if you can get it. Ubuntu Linux is probably the next best option.

    If you do replace Vista, be sure to go back to Toshiba and ask for a refund on the operating system.

    This has been discussed on Slashdot before. It may be worthwhile to find and read older related articles.

    --
    Davis http://davis.foulger.net
    1. Re:Not surprising by suv4x4 · · Score: 1

      What you are seeing lies at the bullseye of the primary reason why I don't intend to ever install Vista

      Riight, riight.. You remind me of myself. A proud DOS user, I'd never install them newfangled Win 3.11 softwarez.

      An year later, a proud Windows 3.11 users, I'd never install them newfangled Windows 95 softwarez.

      I'm writing this from Windows XP btw. I'll never install them newfangled Vista softwarez.

    2. Re:Not surprising by jmpeax · · Score: 1

      How does Vista's DRM stretch to Apple's proprietary player? In codecs? I thought the Vista DRM issues were to do with HD hardware? I'm confused. Also, surely if this was some DRM poking its nose in, this would be an issue on other Vista (non-Toshiba) systems?

    3. Re:Not surprising by dfoulger · · Score: 1

      There are several levels of Windows that I never ran on any of my systems, most often because I had an extremely reliable alternative, OS/2.

      I didn't install XP on anything until after SP2, but only then because somebody was paying me to write code that had to run on the platform. XP has been OK, but has not been an improvement on Win2K by any useful measure. In the meantime, I've shifted most of my work on to Linux and MacIntosh. Both are an improvement on Microsoft's offerings, in my assessment, and Open Office gives me a stable office environment that runs on all three platforms. Among the three, Windows XP remains the least reliable, requiring a reboot every week or so.

      Vista looks all flashy and glitsy, but at the end of the day I need an operating system that works (e.g. gets out of the way so I can get my work done). Based on everything I've seen, Vista is the most intrusive version of Windows yet, and I now routinely recommend my friends and customers over to other platforms: Linux if they can handle it; MacIntosh if ease of use is primary. It pains me to make these recommendations. I have significant code that has been in the system since the late 1980's.

      I can, moveover, imagine somebody paying me to develop something on Vista, but I'll do my best to avoid it.

      --
      Davis http://davis.foulger.net
    4. Re:Not surprising by dfoulger · · Score: 1

      Actually, if you read carefully, its not even clear that Apple's player is involved (although that seems likely). There is a cascade of actions here that end in bluescreen under some conditions but not others. The bluescreen happens if you open the .MOV from disk, but not if you stream it from the net or another machine. The Toshiba machine is described as an example, so this may be happening on some other platforms.

      Clearly, any attempt to debug a problem with the data provided is open to being wrong, but the clues provided suggest that (1) its not the .MOV file, (2) its not the software, (3) its not the codec (at least not as it normally runs), and (4) its not the drivers (with the same caviat). All three conclusions can be reached on the basis of the simple fact that content runs when it is streamed.

      So what does that leave, especially given that the .MOV is known to run both streamed and stored on other systems. To be that leaves Vista itself, whose DRM Security code is already highly suspect. I would refer you to http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/25/203 4238. The material referred to in that discussion explains it all.

      --
      Davis http://davis.foulger.net
    5. Re:Not surprising by Goobermunch · · Score: 1

      That almost sounds like my upgrade path. Wait until Microsoft if "finished" with an OS then upgrade. You can tell they're almost done when they release the next one. --AC

    6. Re:Not surprising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It could also be the hardware. When reading locally, the hard disk channel is passing more data and could be triggering a fault.

  17. except the format in question... by sentientbrendan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    >You may try with VLC media player.
    >Works very well with tons of formats.

    except the format in question... VLC can't play most modern quicktime movies.

    The real issue here is a bad driver, which could be anyone's fault *but* quicktime's. That said, for most purposes VLC or mediaplayer classic is a better player on windows than quicktime.

    1. Re:except the format in question... by l_bratch · · Score: 2, Insightful

      A normal program running with normal user privileges should not be able to crash a system. If it does (like in this case), then it must be a hardware/kernel/driver defect.

    2. Re:except the format in question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >Works very well with tons of formats.

      except the format in question... VLC can't play most modern quicktime movies.

      The real issue here is a bad driver


      No, the real issue is that vendors such as Apple capriciously push proprietary media codecs. "Someone's secret code doesn't work well with someone else's secret code!" Well, duh. No tears here.

    3. Re:except the format in question... by Goaway · · Score: 2, Informative

      Welcome out of the nineties.

      MPEG-4 is Quicktime. It doesn't get much more standardized than that.

    4. Re:except the format in question... by Tim+Browse · · Score: 1

      Or by that logic it could be the driver for the GMA945 chipset, as nothing else seems to do it.

      Also, I have written more than my share of legal code that causes a small number of drivers (or one) to crash and burn, so I wouldn't be so quick to blame QuickTime (HP Deskjet printer drivers, I'm looking at you).

      On the other hand, it is QuickTime we're talking about, so I'd say it's the favourite too. It's just not the only runner.

    5. Re:except the format in question... by Salsaman · · Score: 1

      That's not right. mpeg4 is a codec, quicktime is a container format (.mov). You can put any kind of video and/or audio in a quicktime container.

    6. Re:except the format in question... by Goaway · · Score: 1

      MPEG-4 is several codecs, a container format, a virtual machine, and any number of other things.

      And that container format is Quicktime.

    7. Re:except the format in question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And MPEG-4 is a completely open standard and unencumbered by patents?

    8. Re:except the format in question... by isdnip · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      I have a Toshiba laptop with the i945 chipset. It uses Windows XP with no problems. Its sound subsystem is seriously distorted with most version of Linux, including the very recent MEPIS 6.5 and Mandrive One 2007.1. Both of those run fine on an AMD desktop with nVidia 6150 chipset.

      Oddly, when trying the live CD of MEPIS, and exiting X windows, it got a BSOD! It was apparently in module "vt.c". But this doesn't happen on the nVidia chipset, just the Intel. This makes me suspicous of the i945 graphics drivers. It's a pretty crappy chipest.

    9. Re:except the format in question... by Goaway · · Score: 1

      Nobody said it was. The original post claimed it was propietary and secret, which are completely different things.

    10. Re:except the format in question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually they are not completely different things; they are exactly the same thing.

      Proprietary \Pro*pri"e*ta*ry\, a. [L. proprietarius.]
                Belonging, or pertaining, to a proprietor; considered as
                property; owned; as, proprietary medicine

      That's what a patent does for you, and I'm sure you know that. It's also no secret that Apple would prefer not to divulge the inner workings of their proprietary software, and the same goes for Microsoft.

      In other words, you are full of it.

    11. Re:except the format in question... by Goaway · · Score: 1

      It's also no secret that Apple would prefer not to divulge the inner workings of their proprietary software, and the same goes for Microsoft.

      That hardly has any bearing when they have already thoroughly divulged those inner workings, now does it?

    12. Re:except the format in question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really. Can you post the source code for the latest version of Apple's Quicktime for us then? How about some source code for Windows - even just the driver layer. Thought so.

    13. Re:except the format in question... by Sparr0 · · Score: 1

      What parent said. BSOD is *ALWAYS* the fault of the OS. Regardless of what 'triggered' the crash, if the OS stops functioning then it isnt doing its job* properly.

      * The job of an OS is to manage the operations of all processes on the system.

  18. Seams Im not alone. by IconKing · · Score: 4, Informative

    I got a Toshiba Protege M400 about a mont ago. And I have had this problem consitantly. Since I watch alot of Video Podcast using iTunes. I have searched the web for solutions to tis problem and have gotten noware. Hopefully now that it made slashdot somthing will get done about it.

    1. Re:Seams Im not alone. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      I guess that new laptop never came with a spell checker

    2. Re:Seams Im not alone. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I assume that since you bought your laptop a month ago, you've already opened a trouble ticket with the hardware manufacturer?

      Or are you throwing your hands up in the air like the guy who submitted this to /. and blaming it all on Apple?

      A hardware company is only as good as it's users. If you don't tell them you're having a problem, they don't magically know that you're having a problem.

    3. Re:Seams Im not alone. by clarkn0va · · Score: 1

      noware. I'm no spelling nazi, but that's just plain funny. I like it even better than vaporware.

      --
      I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
    4. Re:Seams Im not alone. by dreamlax · · Score: 1

      First of all, it's Portege (or Portégé, acute accents over the e letters). It is a play on words.

      Second of all,

      • s/Seams/Seems/g
      • s/consitantly/consistently/g
      • s/alot/a lot/g
      • s/iTunes./iTunes,/g
      • s/tis/this/g
      • s/noware/nowhere/g

      Seriously, noware?! You either missed your caffeine intake for the day (I know I make stupid mistakes when I don't get a serious amount of coffee in the morning), or you aren't running Firefox with its nifty built-in spell-checker!

      To be honest, I do not think this is an issue specific to the M400, many mainstream Toshibas run Vista now (primarily the Satellite A100 in the retail side and Tecra A7 in the corporate side) and I have heard various things about Vista playing dirty with video playback. Well, to be honest I haven't heard anything nice about Vista. Users do not easily adjust to the new interface and new way to do things, and the default shutdown option is to sleep, not to fully power off, and users complain about battery life. Idling side by side, two identical hardware setups, one running XP, and the other running Vista, the battery life on XP is amazingly longer.

      Disclaimer: I work for Toshiba, my job is fixing laptops.

      I'm not trying to stop people from buying Toshibas with Vista; the hardware on an A100for example has an off-board 128MB (the more expensive A100s have 256MB) nVidia GeForce Go7300 or ATI equivalent. They have 5400RPM 80GB drives, and 2 x 512MB PC4200 RAM modules (although many now come with 2 x 1GB). Being Centrino, they also come with Intel's latest Wireless chipset (WM3945). They also all come with Bluetooth. With a 15.4" Widescreen clear-bright WXGA LCD module and a dual-layer DVD burner (and 5-in-1 multicard reader), it's not exactly a sub-par machine!

      The Portege M400 isn't sub-par either. It's Vista that's sub-par.

  19. No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usability. by gsfprez · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I installed Vista on my MacPro - in 12 minutes, i had a successfully BSOD'd Vista by playing a standard DiVX 6.0 file on Vista. (yesssss... i installed the drivers for everything)

    I think (i do not know - so back off, i'm guessing) that there is some kind of problem with Vista and video... at least, i'm seeing a trend.

    Considering the amount of work Microsoft put into preventing people from playing (assumedly pirated) video, I don't think its much of a strech to believe that its much harder for developers to make video playback software. I know that i read a very long article that talked about video card compliance and every 30ms being polled by the OS or some such bullshit, but i don't recall the link. But it was quite long, very extensive, and seemed to me that Vista's goal was not to provide a system which would foster video content creation - but rather, just the opposite.

    its rather sad, actually. Microsoft/Adobe and MS/AVID had the makings of at least pitiful competition for Apple/Apple & Apple/Avid... (Apple/Adobe? Yeah, not so much any more after NAB). I actually LIKE competition, because it means that Apple and their developers actually have to work to make better products.

    With all of the pain that's obivously involved with working HD video (which inclueds VIEWING IT) on Vista, there won't be much competition. If Vista is a shitty at video work as its looking to be, i suspect that Apple will be able to kick back on the beach with a mai-tai and not have to evern try... i mean, HD playback is 100% zero effort (assuming you aren't trying to do it on a PowerBook 520c) in Mac OS X - there's no DRM invovled whatsoever (except for BR and HDDVDs).... and the video cards Just Work(TM), and Quicktime just works, and VLC just works and DIVX just works.... etc.

    sucks to have your workflow based upon a product that is EOL in 7 months (Windows XP + ___________). Personally, i don't care. I've long stopped caring about the abuse people that use Windows for video work put themselves thru... sure, Windows did some things faster back in the day, but all of that is totally gone now, isn't it?

    Now, its all about the OS.

    --
    guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
  20. kind of rediculous by sentientbrendan · · Score: 5, Informative

    that he blames quicktime for a BSOD...

    Nothing but a bad driver, bad hardware, or a *bad kernel* can cause a BSOD (read kernel panic). It doesn't matter that other movie players don't cause it. If the driver's and kernel didn't have a bug, it would be impossible for *any* userspace application, quicktime or otherwise, to cause a kernel panic.

    Quicktime isn't the greatest movie player ever... but it couldn't possibly be at the root of this problem. It is clearly simply exposing an underlying problem.

    1. Re:kind of rediculous by BrianPan · · Score: 1

      Where does he blame only Quicktime? He says it's involved in a problem, which it is. Quicktime *plus* Toshiba *plus* Vista.

    2. Re:kind of rediculous by nine-times · · Score: 1

      Right. And the poster is asking for help? Here's the correct advice: Don't use Vista. If it's going to be a good, useful operating system, it isn't there yet. It's not ready, your applications probably aren't ready. If you already have a computer, don't bother upgrading. If you are buying a new computer, find someone who's still selling XP ), use Linux, or buy from Apple. (depending on your needs)

  21. Recent QuickTime updates the cause? by Aphrika · · Score: 2, Informative

    I must say that I've seen a spate of strange crashes and stuff with the last few point updates to QuickTime on both Macs and PCs. The last update solved a few of them, but in my current line of work (which is IT sysadmin for a media company with 200+ machines) QuickTime functioning properly is vital to business.

    First port of call would be QuickTime itself. As there are 'known issues' with iTunes and Vista, and we know that QuickTime and iTunes integrate pretty closely, I'd uninstall the iTunes/Quicktime install and try installing just the standalone player. There could be iTunes hooks into QuickTime that might be breaking something. It also makes sure you've got the most recent QuickTime install.

    This has fixed a few of the problems I've seen over the past few months.

    Secondly, I'd try a variety of different .mov files. There's a chance it could be an issue with your machine and specific encoding method that certain types of .mov files use. Thirdly, I'd try some other media files in it, like mp4 video or H.264. These can also be played back in other players and success or failure would point you in the direction of whether it's QuickTime or something deeper - such as a graphics driver - at fault.

    Thirdly, I'd think back and ask yourself if you've seen any other odd graphic behaviour on your PC recently. That might indicate a driver issue. Make usre in cases like this that you're using the manufacturer approved drivers.

    Fourthly, I'd look at downloading Microsoft's Application Compatibility Tools and seeing whether there's anything on your machine that doesn't run under Vista. Specifically look out for items with a graphical angle such as screen managers etc.

    1. Re:Recent QuickTime updates the cause? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "I must say that I've seen a spate of strange crashes and stuff with the last few point updates to QuickTime on both Macs and PCs."
      That's odd... I use quicktime all the time on my mac and haven't seen it crash or act funny in close to a year. before that is was usually because I had added codecs that hadn't come with it, and with the most recent versions those issues even seem to go away. Beyond that it has NEVER caused a kernel panic on my mac!

      I'd say that if it is a WINDOWS error screen you are seeing it is a WINDOWS problem you are dealing with.

      Let me try and make this clear: use a stable operating system or stop complaining.

      There are tons to choose from (hint: they either have the word "linux" in their name somewhere, or they try and hide it like OSX)

    2. Re:Recent QuickTime updates the cause? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let me try and make this clear: use a stable operating system or stop complaining.

      There are tons to choose from (hint: they either have the word "linux" in their name somewhere, or they try and hide it like OSX) Or, you know, stick with Windows XP. Vista is for chumps.
    3. Re:Recent QuickTime updates the cause? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Twat.

    4. Re:Recent QuickTime updates the cause? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd say your knowledge of computing could probably be dismissed with a wave of the hand.

    5. Re:Recent QuickTime updates the cause? by toddestan · · Score: 1

      He wasn't complaining about Quicktime crashing the OS, he was just complaining about Quicktime crashing in general. Which isn't that surprising, since Quicktime for Windows has sucked since the Windows 3.1 days.

  22. process of elimination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do any Quicktime.mov crash every single toshiba portable?
    Does running a quicktime mov in any other computer using Vista crash the system?
    Does Vista crash when any Quicktime mov file is played on any other computer?
    Does it happen on a specific mov file or any file?

  23. Suggestions by nagashi · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Install Quicktime Alternative (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alt ernative.htm)

    Then try using media player classic to open the file. Quicktime alternative is a freeware quicktime codec, and will let you watch quicktime movies in an application of your choice. See also: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternati ve.htm

    There is no need to be tied to realplayer or quicktime on windows.

  24. Axiotron ModBook by mr_zorg · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nothing from Apple yet, but you can always checkout the Axiotron ModBook... Sounds interesting.

  25. I guess this is it by MonkeyOfRage · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The end of the line. Slashdot has devolved into a tech support forum.

  26. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by The+Bungi · · Score: 1
    The BSoD is being caused by a driver, most likely the video one. Userspace applications cannot cause Windows to bluescreen, not since NT4 was released in the mid-90s. An application might be the vector for the fault, but it's not the ultimate cause.

    VideoLAN works fine on Vista with just about any format I've tried, which includes older MOVs and Real videos. So does MediaPlayer Classic and the YouTube-style streaming Flash video.

    This has nothing to do with "DRM", and seriously, Apple software for Windows has always sucked rocks. But I'm sure that if you're masochistic enough to use QuickTime on a PC if you get a good video driver your problems should be solved.

  27. A bug? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The instant blue screen is a vista feature to prevent watching unlicensed content on the tablet.

  28. Geez, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    what exactly is the probability for all those obscure events to happen at the same time!?

  29. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by robbiethefett · · Score: 5, Interesting

    i have a small home-based audio recording studio, and i'm becoming more involved in the whole computer music scene. from what i gather, quite a large number of studios have decided to switch entirely to Mac for production environments. i guess vista stepped on so many toes that a lot of shops that run XP have been migrating to Macs and plan to be exclusively apple shops, even before XP's end of life. for some reason, professionals seem to be pissed off that MS wants to control what they do with their own data.. can't imagine why.

    --
    "Luke, you've switched off your targeting computer, what's wrong?"
  30. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by plasmacutter · · Score: 1

    and Quicktime just works, and VLC just works and DIVX just works.... etc


    what's really sad now is.. since the summer of code recently.. mplayer and vlc now playback wmv9 (vc1) better than wmp (on all platforms), including (in fact especially) HD.
    --
    VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
  31. A puzzler indeed by BrianPan · · Score: 5, Funny

    > from the puzzler dept.

    The part that's puzzling is why we need to summon all the readers of the Slashdot front page to fix this guy's laptop.

    1. Re:A puzzler indeed by harry666t · · Score: 0

      He should've summoned Bahamut instead, I suppose.

    2. Re:A puzzler indeed by Plutonite · · Score: 1

      These are indeed queer days, when an article about a MS operating system crashing comes from the "puzzler" department.

      More like the because-gates-loves-you dept back in the day.

  32. BS o' D? by NJVil · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's a new Vista feature reminding you to switch to Windows Media Player.

    1. Re:BS o' D? by camperdave · · Score: 1

      So BSOD stands for "Blue Screen Of the Day" now?

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  33. All of our work machines have this problem... by robson · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...and we run Windows XP, not Vista.

    Any attempt to watch a Quicktime file from a local drive results in problems (usually an instant bluescreen, but sometimes general breakage -- taskbar not responding, apps not closing when ordered, menus not responding, that sort of thing).

    Viewing a movie that exists elsewhere on the network is fine. Viewing a movie from the Internet still breaks things, presumably because it's still getting cached to the local drive.

    They're not brand-name computers, but they were all put together by the same place, presumably with similar specs. Nobody's dug into it too deeply, we've just gotten used to moving all *.mov files to a network drive before viewing. :)

    1. Re:All of our work machines have this problem... by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      Windows users really are so downtrodden, i feel sorry for them...
      Coming to expect such ridiculous bugs as normal, and subsequently changing their behaviour in order to work around such ridiculous bugs.
      In any other market, such a stupid bug would be totally unacceptable and people would switch brands and tell their friends just how shit the original brand is.
      Just think of a TV where you can't watch odd numbered channels unless you turn captioning on, noone would accept such stupidity from a tv.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    2. Re:All of our work machines have this problem... by robson · · Score: 1

      Just think of a TV where you can't watch odd numbered channels unless you turn captioning on, noone would accept such stupidity from a tv. Hey, quit raggin' on my TV! ;)

      I think a more apt (though lengthy) analogy might be this: Say you've got two completely different cable TV standards. All traditional commercial broadcasts go out over System A. All the shows your friends and co-workers watch and talk about are on System A. Most electronics stores only sell System A-compatible TVs.

      Then you've got cable TV System B. It's got programming comparable to System B, but less variety, and most System B shows are created by assembled individuals rather than corporations. It's basically high-quality community access television. No cable company will wire your house for System B, so you'd better have a little technical knowledge so you can set things up. There are a few channels that pipe in content from System A, but it's sort of hit-or-miss which System A channels will show up properly and which ones will just be a garbled mess.

      And, of course, manufacturers of System A-compatible TVs are comfortable getting sloppy with their design and construction because they know they've got a lock on the market.

      If you're like me, you've got both a System A and System B TV at home, because I want it all. However, for most people, System A has pretty much everything they want. Sure, the TVs kind of suck, but to watch System B cable they'd need to go buy a compatible TV down at that weird imports store, and have to learn to wire their home for System B.

      Then, finally: "What? System B doesn't carry 'Lost'?!? Well then what's the point?" Seemingly small things seal the deal.
    3. Re:All of our work machines have this problem... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Had a similar issue, only after I installed the latest quicktime. Local mov's that used to play fine suddenly started breaking, the symptom was usually no sound (or a weird constant tone that was probably the first sound sample on the track), non-responsive controls, and it crashing when closing the app. I tried various alternatives which did the same thing.

      I uninstalled it and installed the older version I still had kicking around. That worked, but I couldn't encode in mov anymore. I gave up and installed the latest quicktime again, and it suddenly works fine. arg.

  34. oh i beg to differ.. by plasmacutter · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Apple software for Windows has always sucked rocks


    back in the day (circa 2002) i was working with a cruddy old machine and wanted to watch some divx on it.. but wmp kept stuttering.. so i installed quicktime and used it.. it used 20% less resources and its dependability was the first of many factors which got me to switch to mac.

    that said, quicktime 7 was a major step down from 6.x because they broke the caching (making it stutter even on osX), but that has nothing to do with the platform it runs on.
    --
    VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
  35. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by Bert64 · · Score: 1

    Actually not since NT3, which had it's video drivers in userspace too (thus a video driver was far less likely to crash the system)... NT4 moved them to kernel space, and was far more crash prone.

    Vista was also supposed to move the video drivers back to userspace for stability reasons, are you saying this was yet another feature that got canned from the final release?

    --
    http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
  36. How is this possible? by Stormx2 · · Score: 1

    I thought the whole fact that you run as non-root under vista made this impossible? User applications should never crash the whole OS should they? o.O I don't think I could do this in ubuntu if I tried. Please, correct me if I'm wrong...

    1. Re:How is this possible? by maxume · · Score: 1

      I think it depends a great deal on how hard you tried. If you compiled a MaybeCrash module into your kernel and then wrote an application that took advantage of its services to occasionally try and crash your system, I imagine you would succeed. That linux culture discourages putting such things into the kernel just to be able to play a video formats is probably a good thing.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    2. Re:How is this possible? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think I could do this in ubuntu if I tried.

      Why not? The operating system can do many things to "harden" the system. It can mark memory as no-execute, it can check privileges and permissions on API calls, it can even do some things to detect when a process stops behaving itself and kill it, cleaning up it's allocated resources. But outside of examining every instruction a process might execute in advance (e.g. virtualization and/or emulation), if you let a program run directly on the CPU there are probably many ways it could potentially put the system into an unstable state.

      Of course, if there is really a bug in a chipset driver and the chipset is doing things like managing IO to devices and/or memory then it may be impossible to depend upon the state of the system even when all programs are behaving correctly in terms of the instructions being executed.

      If you're trying to tell me you've never seen Linux stall while working with multimedia applications while not logged in as root then I'll be the first to question how long you've been using Linux.

    3. Re:How is this possible? by Stormx2 · · Score: 1

      Two a half years. Why?

  37. FUD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Windows devices are supposed to degrade (by Microsoft specification that Toshiba has surely designed to) when they detect allegedly (by some measure) "illegal" content (e.g. content that should be DRM protected and isn't)

    False. Your post is FUD. Vista doesn't do shit to anything without DRM. It doesn't add DRM, "detect" that something should have DRM, or anything of that sort. If a file already has DRM attached, it supports certain measures demanded by the content owners. That's it. This whole "Vista DRM infests my non-DRM'd files!" BS has gotten old by now. Let it go.

    this problem has digital rights management (DRM) written all over it

    Do you know anything about systems? Nothing here sounds like DRM, it sounds like a shitty driver for this Toshiba model being hounded by QuickTime in a specific way. It very well could be an Apple hack to get their stuff working (they don't always make the cleanest Windows code, you know).

    1. Re:FUD by wellingj · · Score: 1

      It very well could be an Microsoft hack to get their stuff working (they don't always make the cleanest Windows code, you know).

      Fixed!

    2. Re:FUD by dfoulger · · Score: 1

      I suggest you go back a few months and read this and the report (by noted security expert Peter Gutmann) on the problems that are inherent to Vista's DRM protection: http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/25/203 4238.

      If you read that article and think about it you will quickly discover dozens of ways in which either Vista's DRM or the hardware protections that manufacturers are supposed to intall in response it it could be the problem here. The most important thing is that the DRM. or busted DRM, or expectation of DRM where there is none, could be anywhere in the system. It doesn't have to be directly associated with the specific .MOV file. Worse, because the "security" puts requirements on drivers to change behavior, code that functions normally when there is on DRM "issue" may not function when there is.

      You should do a little research before you yell FUD.

      --
      Davis http://davis.foulger.net
  38. RALink Chipset + Ubuntu + Network Manager= Nothing by LighterShadeOfBlack · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So my wireless USB dongle stopped working when I upgraded to Ubuntu 7.04. It seems Network Manager doesn't like the rt73usb driver, or just about any RALink driver judging by the Ubuntu Forums. Help, anyone?

    What, you mean /. isn't the place to post bug reports? Could've fooled me...

    --
    Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
  39. Should be pretty easy by overshoot · · Score: 4, Funny
    With enough eyes and all that.

    Someone post the source code to the OS, drivers, and player and we'll have a look.

    Oh, wait ...

    --
    Lacking <sarcasm> tags, /. substitutes moderation as "Troll."
  40. Hey noobs... this is easy to figure out by Foredecker · · Score: 1

    Don't guess.... this isn't hard to figure out. Hook up the kernel debugger and find the faulting component. If you don't do that you are just guessing. This is what any decent developer would do.

    --
    Jibe!
  41. Hello Slashdot tech support? by HockeyPuck · · Score: 1

    Ok,

    So why haven't you a) called Toshiba, b) called Microsoft? When did slashdot become "I can't figure out the problem, i've searched all the forums and I'm completely out of ideas of who to turn to, so what shall I do? I know I'll call a linux/unix news website"?

  42. BSOD so easily? by LinuxInDallas · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I'm no Vista expert (obviously) but I find it odd that applications can apparently can easily cause a BSOD on Vista. I mean you would think that nothing short of a crash of the core OS would cause a BSOD.

  43. Quicktime also locks up.. by inotocracy · · Score: 1

    ..Vista if you attempt to open the popup menu using right click when the video is embedded into Firefox (at least on the machines I've worked on). All have Nvidia based video cards, not sure if its related or not. It completely locks the system. Very very annoying.

  44. The Lotus effect by flyingfsck · · Score: 3, Funny

    Vista ain't done, till QuickTime won't run.

    --
    Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
  45. Fixed link. by Civil_Disobedient · · Score: 1

    The link you gave is to the Real Alternative, (which is great, btw, but not exactly useful in this situation). There are two versions of the Quicktime Alternative software, linked to here. Version 1.52 is for Quicktime 6, and supports older Microsoft OS's, the other is 1.63 which is based on Quicktime 7, but only works on NT5+ kernels (W2k, XP, Vista).

  46. I have QuicktTime .MOV + Toshiba + Vista != BSOD by arhhook · · Score: 1

    I have Vista and QuickTime on a Toshiba M400 and have not had a BSOD from trying to play a .mov file. Check for updates? Try with laptop in tablet mode? Make sure you have all your drivers? Check the error numbers and trace where the BSOD is actually coming from.

  47. Sorry, missed link. by Civil_Disobedient · · Score: 1

    Sorry, I missed the Quicktime Alternative link in your original thread (wasn't link-ified).

  48. article (Vista - longest suicide note in history): by toby · · Score: 5, Informative
    I know that i read a very long article that talked about video card compliance and every 30ms being polled by the OS or some such bullshit

    The article you probably mean is Peter Gutmann's A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection, which memorably coined the phrase,

    The Vista Content Protection specification could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history


    At least, we can hope.
    --
    you had me at #!
  49. Apple viruses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All Apple softwares for windows are effectively viruses. This has been the case for many years now, it has nothing to do with Vista and everything to do with Apple's long time policy of guerrilla marketing. I refuse all apple formats on principle when using a windows installation.

    And before you start freaking on me, QNX and FreeBSD are my favorite operating systems. Yes, Windows sucks, but MacOS sucks harder. Microsoft does not actively sabotage MacOS installations, Apple however has been sabotaging windows installations around the world for many years now. (Not as badly as Norton, but still pretty crippling.)

  50. That would be .. in the article by Space+cowboy · · Score: 1, Informative

    The bit at the bottom that says:

    Blaming Apple
    I'd say both, but I place the blame more on Apple, the author of the offending application.


    Simon.

    --
    Physicists get Hadrons!
  51. Get a Mac by olliec420 · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Get a Mac, there all problems solved.

    1. Re:Get a Mac by LighterShadeOfBlack · · Score: 1

      Get a Mac, there all problems solved. New problem: I can't STFU about owning a Mac.
      --
      Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
    2. Re:Get a Mac by stewbacca · · Score: 1

      ...the only unfunny post ever by Maddox :-( Seriously, not even remotely funny....well, except for the Jobs+Kool Aid picture...

    3. Re:Get a Mac by LighterShadeOfBlack · · Score: 1

      I'm guessing you're a Mac user?

      It was an OK peice I thought. Maybe not hilariously funny in and of itself but I've encountered enough overzealous Mac fanboys to be amused by it. Not sure if the Quicktime-iTunes link is actually true though, definitely isn't for the only version of iTunes I ever used.

      --
      Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
    4. Re:Get a Mac by stewbacca · · Score: 1

      I AM a Mac user, but I'm also a PC user. I'm also a Maddox fan. The reason it wasn't funny is because the funniest things in life are based in truth and all of his complaints (other than the overzealous Mac person) were mostly unfounded. For example, MacFixit exists because machines break and software conflicts. If MacFixit existed to help users bypass really bad bugs or horrible OS designs, it would be funny. Macs do "just work" and that is the allure for non-geeks. When I geek, I build a PC and overclock a video card. For the rest of my real life, I want a computer to work, and find no joy in configuring drivers and dorking around with error logs.

  52. Of course there's no Buzz! by DaveTheLorax · · Score: 1

    This is not exactly the most popular combination of tools here. No one is using Vista except the poor bums forced to by insane employers and those unfortunate enough to have gotten it with a new system. Next, Toshiba might sell in some circles but they aren't exactly the cream of the crop of laptops these days. I haven't seen a toshiba laptop in 10 years at least. Not to say that no one uses them but there was a day that everyone used them; not any more. And last, if you're watching movies on your windows computer, then you're probably using some Microsoft tool.

    My pity on the folks that fit into this category. My advice: see if the computer is still within the return period and either send it back and try another vendor, or DEMAND WINDOWS XP for your windows platform. Vista doesn't run anything.

  53. Loving the typical Slashdot bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's funny because I'm using Windows Vista and Apple Quicktime and I'm not having any problems, yet everybody seems to be ignoring the fact that the only other possible culprits are Toshiba or Intel and you're all jumping down MS/Apple's throats anyway.

    Congratulations on ignoring the root of the problem to further your biased hatred of major corporations.

  54. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by mochan_s · · Score: 1

    I think this is an excellent time for Linux to come in into the audio production market ( maybe also video production though I don't know anything about video production ).

    Windows XP is a pain but a bearable pain to get the studio running around it. Vista probably will be impossible and a bad idea with all the DRM code lurking inside it. I don't want to go to a Mac environment together ( coz everything surrounding Mac is more expensinve, from the little accessories to the major controllers and such )

    A nice open-source and very good audio layer for Linux ( for recording and monitoring etc ) will be a huge boon. An open source DAW system and a small blend of open source effects and synth plugins would be a boon. Then, a mixed cocktail of open source and commercial software would really make the Linux based studio wonderful.

  55. Quicktime + SCSI = BSOD by SkullOne · · Score: 3, Informative

    This isn't news. Quicktime is a horrible piece of software. I have personaly tested about 50 machines with various SCSI controllers in Windows XP and 2003 which either BSOD in Quicktime, or get horrible audio/video syncing problems.
    The only commonality was they all used LSI or Adaptec SCSI controllers. Playing off an IDE drive or SATA drive worked fine.
    We sent bug reports to Apple and Microsoft, ran traces on the programs, and it always came down to Quicktime.
    Microsoft made a hotfix available that was a workaround, something to do with caching the data to page first, then sending it to quicktime, but it was a slow and dirty hack.
    Apple said it was the SCSI controllers sending corrupt data, which was rediculous, every single other application, media, worked perfect.

    Quicktime shittyness is HARDLY anything new at all.

    --

    Brent Jones
    1. Re:Quicktime + SCSI = BSOD by NMerriam · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Since when does Quicktime come with kernel mode disk controller drivers? I agree it isn't a great piece of Windows software, but I fail to see how it should have anything whatsoever to do with how the data is being read from the disk by the OS -- if the OS can read the network/SCSI/SATA/PATA drive, what difference does it make to quicktime other than read performance? How can QT cause a BSOD reading from a particular device when it has nothing to do with the driver accessing the device?

      --
      Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
    2. Re:Quicktime + SCSI = BSOD by SkullOne · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You tell me. We ran traces on the program, provided them to Apple, it always showed the quicktime dll's crashing. It would only do it on machines reading from SCSI disks.
      There would also be horrible audio/video synching issues while only reading from SCSI disks.
      So whatever quicktime is doing to render audio and video, it has/had an obvious issues with SCSI disks.

      --

      Brent Jones
    3. Re:Quicktime + SCSI = BSOD by eck011219 · · Score: 1

      Troll? Why is this modded Troll? I mean, it speaks ill of an Apple product, but it seems to have some factual merit. You can disagree, but Troll?

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
    4. Re:Quicktime + SCSI = BSOD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is very odd since we've had Windows XP running on Adaptec SCSI controllers since day 1, and... none of my workstations see BSODs while playing QuickTime.

      They get bizaare little "file not found" messages from QuickTime when there's a non-ASCII character in the filename. Ditto for absurdly long filenames. No shortage of stupid behavior from QuickTime.

      Maybe you just got a batch of really crappy SCSI cables. Craigslist, eBay, & Frys aren't exactly the greatest places to buy computer hardware...

    5. Re:Quicktime + SCSI = BSOD by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 2, Informative

      Troll? Why is this modded Troll? I mean, it speaks ill of an Apple product, but it seems to have some factual merit. You can disagree, but Troll?

      I believe it is being modded as a troll because people believe it is a fabrication designed to elicit responses. From just scanning it, I'd tend to agree. Claiming that Quicktime has any control over SCSI controllers and would behave differently than any other application speaks to either extreme ignorance, or trolling.

    6. Re:Quicktime + SCSI = BSOD by eck011219 · · Score: 1

      I'll give you that, but I'd lean toward extreme ignorance. It struck me as someone just providing more data points (perhaps irrelevant, but likely not trolling).

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
  56. Reminds me of Toshiba + Symantec products.. by csirac · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Running PcAnywhere on your XP laptop that happens to be a Toshiba, and apparently in combination with a Symantec AV product (NAV IIRC) would result in a guranteed blue screen on every shutdown.

    Had never seen that before with this software combination on any laptop except some Toshibas at work back in the day.

    Nearest KB article I could find on Symantec was 2003112516321112, but it's only available via Google cache at http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:FBy7QXRHzIIJ:s ervice1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/pca.nsf/1ab3f998698d6 46f88256f48005b9e71/b998f8fb40c5dc3988256dea000204 6d%3FOpenDocument+site:symantec.com+toshiba+shutdo wn+pcanywhere&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=au&client=fire fox-a

  57. Re:RALink Chipset + Ubuntu + Network Manager= Noth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    The networkmanager applet won't like ANY RaLink chipset/drivers at the moment because networkmanager relies on the driver
    1) adhering to the linux wireless toolset (iwconfig...).
    The RaLink drivers don't and tend to work via a DAT file. The rt2x00 beta driver fix this

    2) Do not work with wpa_supplicant, something that networkmanager also relies on. WEP/WPA/WPA2 is delt with via that same DAT file
    Again the rt2x00 beta drivers fix this

    there you go ;)

  58. Hastening by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Perhaps Microsoft will be in a little bit more of a hurry when the hackers figure out what is causing the BSOD from Vista and work it into the next custom malware?

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Hastening by autophile · · Score: 1

      I doubt it. Causing a BSOD is the last thing a malware writer would want to do. That would be like a human virus with a one-day 100% fatality cycle. How would it propagate?

      --Rob

      --
      Towards the Singularity.
    2. Re:Hastening by Lehk228 · · Score: 1

      if it bluescreens a more careful piece of data might be able to take control of the system.

      but this still looks like it's the tablet drivers that are crashing, so it's not vista's fault

      --
      Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  59. Definitely Vista by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 1

    If you get a complete system crash from something like this, it is always the operating system's fault. You can shout and whinge about kernel mode drivers and catching access violations and real time this, that or the other. However, the bottom line is that the kernel is the heart of any operating system. Its only purpose is to construct a framework within which other software can run, which provides some basic guarantees about performance, resource management, security, etc. There is little, if any, reason to compromise the integrity of the kernel and allow any other code to run at that privilege level in a desktop OS like Vista. It certainly isn't necessary to play back some video file in a user application.

    Since the only excuse for breaking backward compatibility with just about the whole universe, which on reports to date pretty much sounds like what Vista is doing, is because they're putting a serious security model in place, this sort of thing simply shouldn't be possible. If it is, then by definition their new, serious security model is fundamentally broken.

    --
    If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    1. Re:Definitely Vista by Durzel · · Score: 1

      How do you know that the Quicktime DLLs aren't escalating privileges to run commands in supervisor mode?

      Bottom line if Vista (or any OS) is bluescreening it's doing so as a result of something that has happened in kernel-mode space. Since it presumably wouldn't bluescreen without being asked to render a .MOV by the Quicktime player then there has to be an element of "blame" on Apples side.

    2. Re:Definitely Vista by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 1

      How do you know that the Quicktime DLLs aren't escalating privileges to run commands in supervisor mode?

      I don't. But any operating system that lets a simple user application like movie playing escalate privileges far enough to take out the entire system is broken.

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
  60. So much for Vista's security model by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    All those years of development and a user app still can crash the whole system? Or do they really run video player codecs at kernel level?
    Amazing! Looks like they didn't learn anything after NT 3.51.

    If the IT world was managed by competent people instead of clueless businessmen, people would be fired for choosing a Microsoft product for anything serious.

  61. Isn't this a Vista Issue? by Hercules+Peanut · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm not trying to appear to be an Apple fanboy but any OS that allows an app to cause a BSOD (or freeze or whatever) should be considered the culprit, shouldn't it?

    Sure, you can write a bad app, one that crashes or doesn't get along with other apps but shouldn't a modern OS prevent any app from being able to take the whole system down?

    Maybe Apple needs to work on QT for Vista but MS really needs to take ownership of the problem at this level IMHO.

    1. Re:Isn't this a Vista Issue? by DrJokepu · · Score: 1

      Or maybe it is a device driver issue regarding a third-party buggy device driver supplied with Toshiba notebooks for Vista? Remember that device drivers usually run in kernel space. A buggy device driver (kernel module) indeed can cause a kernel panic on Linux as well, so perhaps it's not Microsoft's failure this time. Or perhaps, it is.

  62. Couldn't you just convert .mov files? by Stickerboy · · Score: 0

    A quick google seems to confirm there's a ton of .mov -> other format converters out there...

    I know, I know, the easy workaround...

    --
    Light a fire for a man and he'll be warm for a day. Light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
  63. Warm and fuzzy. by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 1

    You heard wrong. There is supposed to be a "Red Screen of Death" too which is for more 'critical' errors. As if a BSOD wasn't bad enough?! I've seen quite a few Vista BSODs already. Spysweeper is good at crashing Vista for one. So the RSOD==BSOD now? This brings back warm and fuzzy memories of Windows 98 doesn't it? Instablilty was the primary reason why I dumped Windows some eight years ago.
    --
    Only to idiots, are orders laws.
    -- Henning von Tresckow
  64. Update your player. by DrYak · · Score: 4, Informative

    except the format in question... VLC can't play most modern quicktime movies.


    You know that there has been a few update since version 0.01, don't you ? ;-)

    Seriously, almost any modern MOV file either uses standard MPEG 4 (MPEG-4 SP/H263 and AVC/H264) or some variation of (Sorenson is a derivative of H264). The former is a standard, the later was successfully reverse-engineered and implemented in FFmpeg a couple of years ago.
    Even the latest WMV compression formats are currently being implemented into FFmpeg and thus available to VLC.

    RealVideo is pretty much everything that is still in use today and not supported by VLC. Specially since the advent of video Podcasts, PSP and cameraphones, there's a strong nove toward standardizing on non proprietary codecs like the various MPEG4.
    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:Update your player. by rHBa · · Score: 1

      RealVideo is pretty much everything that is still in use today and not supported by VLC

      And for that we have Real Alternative (If you have VLC it is unnecessary to install the included 'Media Player Classic' of course)
  65. QuickTime .MOV + Toshiba + Linux = Joy!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who would want to use Microsoft Vista anymore anyway? Linux is so much better in any respect.

    1. Re:QuickTime .MOV + Toshiba + Linux = Joy!!! by Tatsh · · Score: 1

      So right. Screw Vista. I'm on Kubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn right now on a HP Pavilion dv5000 with all hardware working (the ATI video card, and the Broadcom wireless (both proprietary :()).

  66. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by robbiethefett · · Score: 1

    well, linux uses the JACK toolkit (http://jackaudio.org/), which is also available for macs, and its really awesome.. it's a bit tough to really learn how to be a JACK guru, but qtjack provides a good gui based frontend to get you going. As far as DAW's go, linux is really missing out.. it's a shame too, because you could custom-roll a linux kernel to be a real-time powerhouse, and i've managed to accomplish latencies as low as 3-5ms. The list of DAWs for linux is pretty small, but Ardour (http://ardour.org/) is pretty good, as is Rosegarden (http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/). Neither of those DAWs really come close to the standards, like Cubase, DP, Sonar, etc. but for the weekend warrior, they are more then enough. the only thing they really lack are good quality sample packs, but that's part of the price with major windows-based DAWs. If you really want to toy around, i suggest Ubuntu Studio (http://ubuntustudio.org/). the .iso's aren't available yet, but on the wiki they give a link to a quick noobie guide to installing the necessary apps, configuring them, and even setting up a real-time kernel. IMHO, a mac running Logic is about the best setup you could possibly get for audio. with DAWs and VST's becoming more and more mature, you can trade racks and racks of expensive purpose-built gear for a single macbook pro, Logic, a firewire interface, and some software instruments (logic comes with quite a few high-calibre ones).

    --
    "Luke, you've switched off your targeting computer, what's wrong?"
  67. Itunes and QT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Itunes and QT are causing BSOD on any and all Vista machines...... trust me I have been plagued by it.

  68. Re:Greeniculous! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    This issue is so ridiculous it's rediculous all over again!

  69. First: Disable DX accelleration by Foerstner · · Score: 1

    I'm not at a PC right now, but I seem to remember that QuickTime installs an icon in Control Panels. One of the options in the QuickTime control panel is a toggle for DirectX accelerated drawing vs. GDI drawing. Try turning that off.

    I'm guessing that there's something screwy going on with the DirectX drivers for the video cards in question.

    --
    The US free market: two halves of a government-granted duopoly are free to set the market price.
  70. Non-story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Summary: somebody wrote a buggy video driver for Vista.

    Big whoop.

    If Toshiba shipped this driver, it's their issue -- although the driver is probably written by Intel.

    OK, it so happens that QT is good at triggering this bug. Maybe it uses an obscure but valid API call. But that doesn't make it Apple's business, and it sure isn't Microsoft's either. An application alone will not BSOD a NT system, and QT blatently works on Vista in thousands of other configurations.

  71. TROLL by networkzombie · · Score: 1

    Blue screens create a dump file. Microsoft's debugging tools are free. Analyze the dump file to determine the exact cause of the blue screen. If the results are interesting, then post them here. This post is trolling. You could have at least included the error code.

  72. Nothing new for me by teh+moges · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Quicktime has always caused me problems with any version of Windows at home. I have perfectly stable systems Windows systems (I know, it's weird) until I install Quicktime and then it's only a matter of time.
    I've never understood the reason why Quicktime needs to be installed in the system tray anyway. I play movies with it from time to time, I don't use it otherwise, and I doubt many do.

    1. Re:Nothing new for me by Giometrix · · Score: 1

      "Quicktime has always caused me problems with any version of Windows at home. I have perfectly stable systems Windows systems (I know, it's weird) until I install Quicktime and then it's only a matter of time. "

      I've had the same experience with Windows XP. It's been a while, so I don't remember if Quicktime itself would crash, or if it would cause BSOD. Either way I've uninstalled QT and haven't had an issue since. Quite frankly, I don't need the aggravation.

      --
      Download free e-books, lectures, and tutorials at bookgoldmine.com
    2. Re:Nothing new for me by MonkeyBoy · · Score: 1

      Odd, since I have perfectly stable Windows systems with QuickTime installed. My box at work is over 5 years old, the XP installation on it hasn't been refreshed in damn near 4 years. QuickTime has always been installed on it.

      Of course, it wasn't always stable. When you have VIA chipsets involved, it always takes a couple years for VIA to sort through all their spaghetti code written in the third world. But once the drivers finally settled down and started working, it's been perfectly stable.

      Maybe instead of looking for reasons to blame your problems on Apple you should roll up your sleeves and find the actual source. Because one thing is for certain - it's not Quicktime. Quicktime is just a userspace application. If your system BSODed every time you opened Notepad, would you blame Notepad? Seriously?

      If you have stability problems, you need to focus on the kernel-level. Userspace apps can crash, but they can't bring down the system when they crash. Kernel level, like chipset or graphics drivers, that's a whole other ball of wax. You should focus on resolving these problems, since Quicktime is merely exposing a bug in your drivers - sooner or later another app is going to expose that bug.

      --

      Moof!

    3. Re:Nothing new for me by teh+moges · · Score: 1

      Perhaps there is another reason why my Windows installations fail only after installing Quicktime. But, its a program I do not need, which installs a bunch of crap that I do not want, when I already have other programs to play movies and music that in my view, do a better opinion (Winamp for one, even WMP is better).
      Because of that, I am not going to waste my time trying to get quicktime stable on my system so I can watch one particular codec. I did give Quicktime a chance. I really did. The first failure I put down to something else. The next, wasn't sure, but after that, I gave up on it. I can live without it.

    4. Re:Nothing new for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because of that, I am not going to waste my time trying to get quicktime stable on my system so I can watch one particular codec.


      It's not a matter of figuring out what causes the bluescreen with QuickTime.

      It's a matter of resolving the problems that exist in your Windows installation. These problems are going to cause system instability. Just because you've decided to live in your isolated little sandbox doesn't mean that the next time you go outside that sandbox they're going to still play nice-nice - they're just going to bite you in the ass.

      To put it another way - sure, you can put your head in the sand, but it's not going to stop the scary men with accents from shooting at your exposed backside.

      BTW, since you seem to be a little light in the learning department, let me throw a few more tidbits your way:
      1) The Earth revolves around the sun
      2) The Earth is round
      3) The Grand Canyon wasn't created 4000 years ago
  73. OMG a driver bug in a new piece of hardware! by stratjakt · · Score: 2, Funny

    HOLY CRAP

    I'm glad I checked /., I almost went OUTSIDE before I heard of this.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    1. Re:OMG a driver bug in a new piece of hardware! by Plutonite · · Score: 1

      It's a good thing you stayed indoors. A windows OS...is... CRASHING. If there was ever news in the world, this is it. Most fascinating, unbelievable thing I ever heard. I too am glad that I read slashdot, otherwise I would be mistakenly living on an unshakable faith in MS software. I think I'm going to cry.

      *sigh*

      Well sacre blur and all that, but ring me up when someone can get Windows up for more than a week without a reboot. That would be worth investigation.

    2. Re:OMG a driver bug in a new piece of hardware! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a good thing you stayed indoors. A slashdot post...is... BASHING MS. If there was ever news in the world, this is it. Most fascinating, unbelievable thing I ever heard. I too am glad that I read slashdot, otherwise I would be mistakenly living on an unshakable faith in MS software. I think I'm going to cry. *sigh* Well sacre blur and all that, but ring me up when someone can read slashdot for more than a week without an anti microsoft post. That would be worth investigation.

  74. Anyone ever hear of a Protege M400? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bart: "Don't be a sap, Dad. These are just crappy knockoffs."
    Homer: "Pfft. I know a genuine Protege M400 when I see it. And look, there's Magnetbox and Sorny."


  75. Mod parent up by Mitchell+Mebane · · Score: 1

    Recent versions of VLC can indeed play pretty much every Quicktime .mov there is.

    --

    The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
    --Aristotle
  76. They didn't learn anything after NT 3.51 by argent · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Looks like they didn't learn anything after NT 3.51.

    Regressed, mate. NT 3.51 had the graphics drivers in user space. NT 4.0 moved them into kernel space.

    Not that this is unusual, but it *did* serve as an advantage that NT used to have back in the day.

  77. I think Andrew Fishkin is BadAnalogyGuy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    From TFA:

    If something went wrong with my car, I would simply take it to the Ford dealer, and regardless of who made the given component that failed, which could be Ford or any of dozens of component suppliers, Ford is obligated to take care of the problem.

    Yes, but if you were having problems with a GPS you bought and had installed from Radioshack Ford would tell you to take it back to Radioshack - and rightly so. Likewise, Quicktime and iTunes are things you installed, not Microsoft nor Toshiba. Why should they have to support it?

    I'd try something like VLC or QuickTime Alternative to see if you can play .mov files. If it works, you have a solution (QuickTime is broken). If it doesn't work, then you've isolated QuickTime and can work on a sound/video problem.

    PS: Why the hell is this on Slashdot?

  78. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by chrisb33 · · Score: 1

    Video DRM has been my main complaint with Vista as well. For example, I can no longer watch 24 online due to incompatibilities with Fox's Video on Demand software.
    I've actually found Vista to be quite stable (zero crashes or BSODs since installation about a month ago) and I haven't run into other major compatibility problems, but this specific case is worrying to me - what kind of DRM system is Vista using that would lock out streaming video that is allowed to run on XP?

  79. DRM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Every video played under Vista goes through a DRM screening. And obviously something is going wrong. If it's blue-screening you can't directly blame the app or the video - it's got to be a low-level problem.

    So one more example of why it's not OK to accept any "guilty until proven innocent" approach that treats like a criminal. This is true even if you "have nothing to hide."

  80. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by NMerriam · · Score: 1

    I think (i do not know - so back off, i'm guessing) that there is some kind of problem with Vista and video... at least, i'm seeing a trend.


    Considering the huge mess that NVidia is having with getting decent video drivers out the door for Vista, I'd say there is in fact quite a bit of evidence for such a statement. This is what happens when you ship an OS 6 months or more early because you have contractual obligations to get it out to corporate customers before the end of the year, rather than actually waiting for it to be done.
    --
    Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
  81. Obvious bug by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I can't believe this made /. front page either. It's BASIC computer troubleshooting.

    -If Quicktime had serious BSOD problems with Vista, we'd have heard about it -- nevermind it's almost impossible for it to cause a BSOD (if not just because not running in kernel mode)
    -Similarly, if Vista had serious problems with Quicktime video, we'd find lots of similar evidence...

    Which leaves the usual 2 problems:
    -a BSOD due to shitty drivers -- most drivers for Vista being shitty right now, so no surprise at all
    -or bad/faulty hardware (less likely, but still possible)

    As soon as something BSODs, any competent admin would set the box to do a memory dump and analyze it (using basic simple commands) in windbg (it's a lot easier than it sounds). You should be able to find what caused the BSOD real quick in most cases (in this case I'd bet it would be some DLL for his video card's driver). Even most consumers should be able to setup and use error reporting, which does usually give you a half-decent "most probable cause" (it would likely blame his video drivers).

    He hasn't done any of this, nor tried updating drivers, or playing using other software (like VLC or MPC).

    The blame is on whoever made shitty drivers (or whatever the memory dump points to).

    This is a total non-story. It must have made the front page just because there's some MS-bashing potential.

  82. More info and testing is appropriate by camperslo · · Score: 1

    Just as with your hardware/software vendors, users here need to know exactly what you are dealing with to be able to help you effectively. We should be given a link to download a sample file, information on the codecs/software and settings used to create it, and details of all testing done. .mov is a container format that supports many different codecs. Does it play using the same (unspecified) version of QuickTime on XP or OS X? Did you bother to try?
    Other than agreeing that your system handles the error poorly, we can only speculate on what's wrong. We have no way to tell if you have file corruption, some kind of DRM hell, a flavor of h.264 that QuickTime doesn't like, or an .mp3 that someone renamed to .mov so they could see the picture...

    Absent essential troubleshooting details, the suggestion to try VLC or another player that has its own codec support is probably more likely to help you than anything else. You might also consider using ffmpeg or other software to transcode the file. Keep an eye out for updates to your application, driver and OS software. Test your RAM.

  83. Where's the memory dump? by Sergeant+Beavis · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Disclaimer: I USED to work at Microsoft and I now own a Mac.

    Here is an example of an idiot trying to look smart. Have you bothered to have someone look at the memory dump? What was the stop code? Did you check the event logs?

    The fact is, it could be ANY of the three things mentioned or NONE of them. It could be an anti virus filter driver. It could be a memory access violation in Kernel Mode memory. It could have absolutely nothing to do with Vista or QT or even the Toshiba's drivers. It could be that the author is just stupid.

    I'm leaning in the direction that this author is simply ignorant but since he felt he should write an article and place blame with minimal evidence to support his claim, he falls solidly in the stupid category.

    The only fact that the author has presented is that he had a BSOD when using QT on Vista on Toshiba hardware when playing a local file. That only gives you suspects. A lawyer should know better. I've had occasions where customers swore up and down that one product was causing a BSOD and the memory dump pointed squarely at another product. Rarely (on XP) did I ever see a memory dump that actually pointed the finger at Windows. More often than not, I've seen memory dumps caused by filter drivers used by anti virus.

    Perhaps Mr Fishkin should write more about being a lawyer because he damn well doesn't know much about computers.

    --
    There is nothing inherently safe about liberty. That's why so many people died protecting it.
    1. Re:Where's the memory dump? by RobBebop · · Score: 1

      It could be that the author is just stupid. When you see a weird bug that interupts your usage of some kind of device, let us know so we can call you dumb.

      A user doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to know the computer is behaving badly, in a consistant way, and he is reporting the bug. Turning to /. may be overkill, but we are geeks and this will ensure the bug filters to Toshiba or Apple or Microsoft or whoever else you thought might be to blame (you suggested Anti-Virus software).

      Now, I saw one or two posts describing reproducibility on slightly different configurations, but nobody who has said that this user report checks out. That's how software gets fixed. Observe the problem, and determine the conditions where the problem exists by reproducing it.

      And as far as your gripe about no technical report being given (memory dump, etc...) -- it is a bug that kills the system... give the guy a break. And stand down next time you want to think that there is a problem because of a "dumb user", because the real problem in this situation is that of a "dumb teacher".
      --
      Support the 30 Hour Work Week!!!
    2. Re:Where's the memory dump? by Tom · · Score: 1

      Rarely (on XP) did I ever see a memory dump that actually pointed the finger at Windows. But that's just because of the point_finger_some_other_random_place() function that gets called during the memory dump routine. ;-)

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  84. Re:Not FUD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Considering the DRM is supposed to work even if it has been mostly cracked (via watermarks and such) it is entirely possible that Vista thinks that the local .mov file is pirated content that has had the DRM stripped.

  85. Who is obligated to make iTunes work on my Tablet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    FTA
    Who is obligated to make iTunes work on my Tablet PC?

    You are.

  86. This has been a problem with Quicktime for ages. by Cythrawl · · Score: 0, Troll

    Since Vista's release in fact. I have tried it with both onboard sound and Audigy 2 ZS

    Symptoms:
    Quicktime will not play local files with 5.1 sound. Causes BSOD or slowdown and no sound emitting from Movie file.

    When Vista was first released Quicktime would not work at all unless you have Quicktime Alternative on. It even destroyed RAID arrays. Apple quickly released the 7.5 version that fixed that. However 5.1 sound still does not work even with AC97 Audio, which quite frankly is crap especailly 3 months down the line. All other media players work fine (Cyberlink PowerDVD, Media PLayer 11, Winamp, etc) all with Multi-speaker setup.

    As such Quicktime is not even installed until they (Apple) sort this crap out, which will porbably be months away yet. The 5.1 sound was woefully broken in XP with Audigy for months before they fixed it whean Quicktime 7.x was first released with that feature, and I dont see it being any different here. Anyone saying its the OS's faul are just the usual bunch who want to diss on Vista without actually TRYING it for any length of time. Vitsa for me works fine, except the few "minor" apps like Quicktime, and until the venders sort out thier prodcuts it isnt going to change.

  87. Readyboost + Quicktime = Failure by mrtechboy2000 · · Score: 1

    Quicktime also does not work if you have ReadyBoost enabled with a USB key.

  88. change in quiktime player by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    in control panel there is a quicktime player config tool. at advanced in play mode select GDI mode, not direct x

    have a hunch, quicktime and DX10 are not friendly yet

    same for other codec based on DirectX rendering engine, try to use something newer...
    and again, get some DX10 compatible hardware

    ps. can you please link bsod image somewhere ?

  89. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by mochan_s · · Score: 1

    Thank you for the wonderful information. I will certainly look into it.

    I have been planning to put up an experimental Linux control center in my studio along with the Windows XP one.

    Also been planning to put together a few synth and audio effects plugins together - since there are a lot of wonderful open-source high-quality research level libraries out there and would really love to experiment around with them.

    I'm sort of envisoning a programming language style expression of music instead of the flashy GUIs that is in Windows and Macs. That is going to be part of my summer project :) The computer aspects will be little scripts and maybe some quick GUI like TCL gui for live performance.

    you can trade racks and racks of expensive purpose-built gear for a single macbook pro, Logic, a firewire interface, and some software instruments (logic comes with quite a few high-calibre ones).

    I recently sold all my digital gear but kept all my analog stuff - Oberheim Matrix 1000 and Alesis Andromeda and all my analog effects pedals and guitar tube amps. Digital stuff stuff doesn't cut it when playing high volumes live or just jamming. I don't know why. Works great for a studio and recording though but not fully by itself.

  90. Choose vista, roast in grief. by liftphreaker · · Score: 1

    Why do people insist on jumping to vista when we all know how flaky any microsoft product is until SP-1 at least. And then cry about "this hardware doesn't work and that BSOD's". If you really want Quicktime to work stick with XP.

  91. Well, I know what caused the bug... by ZackSchil · · Score: 4, Funny

    Space must have collapsed into its self due to too much terrible design being in the same place at the same time. A Toshiba laptop + Quicktime for Windows + Microsoft Vista?! This guy is lucky to be alive.

    1. Re:Well, I know what caused the bug... by GlitchCog · · Score: 1

      That's why it only affected local files... they were within the event horizon of the terrible design singularity.

  92. Fools usually have problems by Jeremy_Bee · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Speaking as someone who works with Macs all day long and has had to troubleshoot problems like this many many times, the person who wrote this article seems like a bit of a fool to me. The kind of person that has just enough knowledge to be dangerous (to himself). This reminds me of those situations like when your Dad (thinks) he knows about computers, and in fact my Senior Citizen detector was going off on every line he wrote.

    The stupid thing is that he blames Apple in the end but at the same time seems to narrow the issue down to a driver problem with his tablet PC. That's just bad thinking all around. The art of troubleshooting is in the elimination of possibilities. If it works everywhere but on his tablet PC the problem is definitely in his tablet PC, which he even mentions in the article yet simultaneously doesn't know where the problem is? WTF?

    He also links to an entire *other* article he has written about driver support that indicates he knows very little about what to do on the Mac when the hardware is not instantly recognised or indeed, much of anything about drivers. The problem he relates in *that* article is about getting a brand new "high end" HP printer and it's driver to work with his old G4.

    When this computer was manufactured, it would have shipped with OS 9.0, then he would have upgraded it to OS-X, then 10.2, 10.3, 10.4 etc. Then he goes out and buys a bleeding edge HP printer and is stymied when it doesn't "just work"??? He also has to go through extensive tech support to find out that the thing probably would work with an older driver, but it would have a reduced feature set. Hello? Hasn't he heard of the "Generic PostScript driver"??? This is the solution for all old hardware and if he had the experience he claimed, he would probably know that.

    As others have pointed out, Quicktime uses standard calls and standard protocols, it's an *.mp4 file for cripes sake. The problem here is more likely with some proprietary screen-re-drawing code in the tablet PC.

    This guy is that very dangerous combination of a "dabbler," but with a world-wide audience.

  93. Screw loose between chair and keyboard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Screw loose between chair and keyboard.

    Quicktime isn't vista ready, so any surprise that it doesn't work? Yeah, go ahead and complain to someone... no one cares until Apple says QT is ready for vista.

    Not ready doesn't mean it won't work, because you say you got it running before applying patches. It just means Apple won't support it, probably because of issues very much like the one you describe.

    BSOD (isn't that supposed to be red SOD?) is clearly a sign that something is wrong in the OS, it's just MS doesn't care until it can be shown to be hackable. MS has been quoted that BSOD means the OS shut down to prevent accidental or intentional damage. I would try to find the cause before the bad guys do, but I'm not a 500 billion dollar company, so I can't help you here.

    Here's a thought: Reinstall fresh, then apply one patch at a time, and test QT. If it works, groovy. If not, you have your culprit, go complain to them. Unless it's apple, because vista is not QT capable officially. Or unless it's Microsoft, because QT is a third-party application. Oh yeah, and Toshiba doesn't give a shit either, just to round it all out.

  94. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by Guanine · · Score: 1

    Your point makes me think of an interesting side effect of overprotection: video screenshots. For various reasons, I've needed to get screenshots of files playing in Windows Media over the years ... and print screen doesn't work. It's frustrating, having to do research online to grab a program to get a still capture of the image I can see right there in front of me.

    Naturally, when I recently tried to grab a screenshot of a movie playing in Quicktime, I braced for the worst, expecting to be forced to buy the Pro version or some such. But just as I began my research for a little program to do the job, I gave the old "print screen" button a try and ... it worked! Apple doesn't hate me for trying to promote some video content (Hot Fuzz trailer, getting screenshot for my website) playing in Quicktime! Thanks!

  95. Questionable use of Troll and Redundant modifiers? by dfoulger · · Score: 1

    Its interesting. The post that I am replying to was, when it was posted, the first to comment on DRM as a possible problem. It was carefully written based on a read of the problem posted and some backchecking into old articles on Vista security and DRM. It immediately picked up enough "interesting" points to give it a +5, and still has at least five such votes, but it has subsequently picked up three "redundant" identifiers (even though it was the first post to lay this out) and, it would appear, four "troll" designations. The net is that it now ranks "0".

    What possible justification is there for putting a "troll" designation on a post that gives a grounded analysis of the problem? What possible justification is there for putting a "redundant" modifier on the first post that lays out the logic?

    If I was paranoid, I'd say that MicroSoft has targeted the message to make it "go away". That shouldn't be possible, of course.

    --
    Davis http://davis.foulger.net
  96. quicktime forums by eleuthero · · Score: 1

    I have had the same problem with quicktime (any .mov file, but the worst are the drm'ed music videos from itunes--yes, yes, they are all available via video.google, but the quality is usually poor for what I want to find).

    The issue is repeatedly noted in the Apple forums on quicktime/itunes but nothing seems to have been done. A slightly more helpful forum discussion is found at http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html?forumI D=133&threadID=238516&messageID=2446043

    The solutions provided typically fall into 1) Don't use Vista (which for those us of who have apparently lost our minds and gone for it is worthless) 2) Don't use quicktime (again, worthless for those of us with ipods) 3) Use Quicktime alternative (the first somewhat helpful entry, but unfortunately doesn't work for my computer and a host of others) 4) Use a newer version of Itunes (see entry 3) 5) Use an external hard drive (haven't tried this yet, but it seems to be getting really good results--this seems to be tied to the SCSI driver issue, and the hard drive on my laptop falls in this category) 6) Wait several months for a solution (not too helpful, but hopefully will provide a long term solution that allows me to travel without an external hard drive).

  97. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't confuse video drivers (which always is in kernel space) with the GUI code.

  98. Shut off DirectX acceleration? by jddj · · Score: 1

    This is how we've dealt with a number of QuickTime vs. Windows issues in the past: QuickTime control panel>Video Settings, uncheck as many acceleration options as necessary to stop the crashing.

    Untried on Vista, but a trick I always keep handy.

  99. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by RobBebop · · Score: 1

    I actually LIKE competition, because it means that Apple and their developers actually have to work to make better products. Apple isn't the only game in town. I've never used the product, but all you need to give it a try is a PC a some minor expertise on installing the software. No messy licenses (seriously, Avid and Final Cut cost how much?!?). No worry of DRM BSOD (shame, Toshiba).

    Happy Free (as in speech) Editting!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinelerra
    --
    Support the 30 Hour Work Week!!!
  100. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by terrymr · · Score: 1

    I believe the DRM support required all of that to be in kernel space.

  101. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by robbiethefett · · Score: 1

    i agree that analog gear is a necessary part of the equation for live shows. i make it a point to hang onto almost anything with a tube power section. i don't really play live much, and when i jam, it's usually in my little studio, but i often play guitar through an old fender blues deluxe tube amp. it's one of the original versions that had inconsistencies in the hand-wiring that produces a wonderful colored tone reminiscent of chicago style blues. for recording i almost exclusively use my line6 guitar and bass amps. the amp/cab modeling is super good, and the direct outs are pristinely clear. anyway, im getting real off-topic.. your vision of command line tracking is nice and geekly romantic, however in reality, linux DAWs are pretty much exactly how you would think--powerful, but with a learning curve, and a not-so-gorgeous GUI. sad but true. the good news is that all your favorite VSTs should work with no issues. as far as i can tell, the interest in linux-based DAWs and other audio production tools has been rising pretty steadily for many months.. with any luck ubuntu studio will be popular enough that people will be interested and motivated enough to code some really killer linux audio apps.

    --
    "Luke, you've switched off your targeting computer, what's wrong?"
  102. Problem SOLVED! Re:Where's the memory dump? by Question+Guy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Aloha everyone,

    I'm out here and thanks in part to Slashdot, my M400 tablet is playing quicktime movies like a champ now :)
    The rant below aside, I DO very much appreciate the community thought that went into this, the response was great and that seems to have gotten the attention of Toshiba, which has issued a new RAID driver.

    So, for whatever reason I still don't understand, Quicktime was accessing hard drives , those controlled by the SATA RAID controller in the laptop AND the ones hooked up by USB (external drives)in such a different way that the computer BSOD'ed every time.
    I don't pretend to understand it fully, I just knew from the start that it was some fundamental level of tinkering I couldn't do on my own.

    A hearty thanks to everyone who offered advice, called me or the author an idiot, or delved deeper into information that couldn't have been contained in the paltry few sentances I wrote for the story submission. hehe. I went out to lunch to buy some RAM, and there were 200 posts, so I'm sorry I wasn't more involved in giving MORE information. I know that everyone needed it, but I missed the window on timing, I think... who knew it would get accepted and start up such a fire-storm of responses?
    It reminds me of that maxim "Whe you assume, you make an ass out of u and me. :) Of course, that in part was the point, right?
    Submit a vexing problem to Slashdot, give just enough information for people to identify it and hope and pray that someone smart, informed, kind slashdotter would know the answer when all the google queries in the world, tech support hours wasted and dead end hunches didn't get me anywhere.

    Hooray for everyone!

  103. Not Toshiba - Just Vista by uberzip · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This isn't a problem with Toshiba. My custom built machine at work does this as well. I custom built the machine some time ago just for Vista (of course then Vista was delayed and delayed). Its as follows: AMD x2 3800+, 2GB kingston memory, Nvidia 7600gs, nforce 4 motherboard (430 I believe). The machine was completely stable on XP. Ever since installing vista there is one thing that will blue screen it nearly every time - watching .mov files in iTunes. Opening actual .mov files outside of iTunes doesn't always bluescreen it but the videos play like a powerpoint show. I've installed every nvidia video driver out there, even the latest beta drivers.

    Of course, the other way to bluescreen my system is to install nvidia drivers. So perhaps its nvidia and not apple?

    In any case, Vista has been a terrible experience, and seeing as I'm in charge of the IT department at my company we have canceled our plans to upgrade anytime soon. Perhaps after sp1. We rely heavily on MS applications as we consult for other companies that use MS apps so going to Linux or Mac is not an option. But we'll stay with XP for as long as possible. In fact, as an admin I've loved XP. The improvement from 95 to 98 to 2000 and then XP and the improvement from NT 4 to Server 2000 & 2003 had really gotten my hopes up that Microsoft would deliver on Vista.

    Unfortunately, they FUBAR'ed it.

  104. "its not a bug, its a feature!" by dknj · · Score: 5, Insightful

    um let me run this scenario by you. you're finishing up your long 226 legal brief in Microsoft word. you go to click file save, but the directory you are saving to has 400 files. windows does some internal file processing and starts eating up the final 10k of available physical memory. swapping begins to occur until your sound card that was playing your favorite midi throws an error because windows did not feed data in time. the sound card drive freaks out, and returns a failure to the midi app. the midi app, not prepared for this, starts an infinite loop eating all of your available memory. eventually you overflow the stack and your windowing system is hosed.

    you shake the mouse and click repeatedly hoping to unfreeze the computer. you hit control alt delete, nothing happens. you reset the computer silently hoping word's autosave worked for once.

    now, my question to you.. is the above story what you are implying is happening here? (answer this question honestly before you continue)

    because that is what happened back in Windows 3.1. Since the creation of modern operating systems, we have learned to take advantage of advanced hardware and separate each application into its own memory space (see: Intro to Operating Systems at your local community college). Thus, a single application should NOT take down your entire system. If an application is causing a BSOD and there is no funky kernel-mode hardware access going on.. the fault is on the hardware or OS (to include drivers as well). Period.

    If you wish to debate this, remember that I may have just found a way to compromise your system.

    1. Re:"its not a bug, its a feature!" by scsirob · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I do have mod points at this time, but parent is already at +5. This is a *very* insightful post indeed.

      There is *NO* excuse, *NONE WHATSOEVER* that an operating system can have, to allow it to fail simply because an application does something wierd/wrong/illegal. An operating system is there to manage resources, and that includes protecting applications from another. A BSOD means a bug in the primary function of the O/S and is *CRITICAL*. It denies other applications their protection and it causes lost productivity. Stop using this O/S until the failures is explained and fixed.

      --
      To Terminate, or not to Terminate, that's the question - SCSIROB
    2. Re:"its not a bug, its a feature!" by jimicus · · Score: 3, Funny
      At the risk of being filtered out, try compiling and running the following program. For best results, do it on a single-processor system:

      #include <sys/types.h>
      #include <unistd.h>
      void main(){
        for(;;){
          fork();
        }
      }
    3. Re:"its not a bug, its a feature!" by DaleGlass · · Score: 1

      Actually, this failure mode exists almost exactly on modern operating systems.

      Unless you put limits to it, any application can get all your system RAM. The OS and applications get their memory from the same place, so it's still possible to run out of it. It's perfectly possible to use so much that the computer grinds to a halt and not even the mouse pointer moves.

      Now, the memory space separation makes sure your application can't hose the OS' or some other program's state, but that doesn't mean it can't do something like slowing things down so much it becomes unusable.

      This sort of failure mode is easy to see in these conditions: low amounts of free RAM, large amounts of available swap space, and processes that quickly allocate large amounts of RAM and actually use it. A good example program is a compiler. On some files, gcc can use 300MB RAM. Swap is useful for offloading unused stuff to disk to make room for something more useful, but if you reach the point where there really isn't enough RAM and the system needs to continuously swap stuff out and in, the system can grind to a halt.

    4. Re:"its not a bug, its a feature!" by abhi_beckert · · Score: 1

      OK, so I tried it on my 800Mhz laptop running Mac OS X 10.4. The UI was laggy (menus took ~0.5 seconds to appear, window switches took a couple of seconds), and anything involving real cpu (such as loading the slashdot reply page) outright didn't work until I hit control-c in terminal (at which point *blink* slashdot reply page appeared and I'm now typing the reply as if nothing had happened).

      My machine ran slow. But the OS didn't crash... or even cause any error messages to appear. Unless I'm supposed to leave it running for more than the couple of minutes I waited?

    5. Re:"its not a bug, its a feature!" by PalmKiller · · Score: 1

      That used to hose linux (and perhaps unix) systems, but that was fixed years ago.

    6. Re:"its not a bug, its a feature!" by PalmKiller · · Score: 1

      Well let me rephrase that, people know how to avoid it...I cant be sure every distro has ulimit set up per user, but most should be. If not the tools are there at your disposal to avoid such problems.

    7. Re:"its not a bug, its a feature!" by PalmKiller · · Score: 1

      It dont really crash the system it runs out of resources which makes it practically usable. I am surprised that ulimits are not set up on OSX, but I figure they are probably there since its based on mach/bsd kernel and tools.

      See the wikipedia entry on fork bombs

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_bomb

    8. Re:"its not a bug, its a feature!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Quicktime is attempting to cause a BSOD, Cancel or Allow?".

      I bet that "quick fix patch" would make many people happy. :)

    9. Re:"its not a bug, its a feature!" by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      You forgot a few pieces. It's supposed to start with #!/bin/sh, cat the source to a ".c" file, compile it, remove the .c file, and execute it. Then , the binary is supposed to unlink the shell script and unlink its own binary, and finally, issue a sync() system call to ensure that there is no trace left behind. For added fun, it could scribble over itself, but scribbling over the binary probably will not work if your OS memory maps executables. (Solaris AFS comes to mind; if you recompile something while it is running, the tool crashes.)

      The first occurrence should then fork once and the parent should exit. This will cause it to be reparented to init. Then, it should sleep for five minutes, allowing you time to be safely logged out before the carnage begins. Be sure to kill -9 your login shell so that you don't leave a history behind.

      Five minutes later, the forking should begin. It should allocate a small amount of memory (say 10 megs) for each call to fork() just to add an additional resource constraint. Finally, it should have a test such that if the fork() call fails, the current instance will exit immediately. This will ensure that old processes will die slowly as new processes are created. This change makes it harder to kill with a killall because you won't ever reach a steady state where the process IDs stop changing (unless you have no per-user process limits and it fills every process slot).

      The best part, though, is seeing your face when they tell you that you have lost your computer privileges until you graduate. :-D

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  105. Re:RALink Chipset + Ubuntu + Network Manager= Noth by LighterShadeOfBlack · · Score: 1

    Heh, you know I wasn't actually expecting a sensible response. Just wanted to make a point. Thanks anyway though.

    I'd kinda figured that I wasn't gonna get the two to work together. It just sucks that Ubuntu has shipped in a configuration in which the drivers for a pretty large amount of wireless devices won't work. If it was some random peripheral maybe it could be forgiven but when the problem will break potentially a user's only means to a solution that's pretty damn bad. It's things like this which could ultimately hurt the market for consumer Linux more than leaving it in obscurity for a few more years until it's totally ready. A shame because overall Linux -Ubuntu in particular- is really starting to get close to a place where it could take on Windows in certain areas of the consumer desktop market.

    And now I really am offtopic.

    --
    Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
  106. Well, what you know? by wildman6801 · · Score: 1
    They gone all mad on us! Yeah, *MAD!

    * = (Mutually Assured Destruction!)

    --
    A site cowboyneal will like http://www.freewebs.com/atpa/
  107. I've been trying to spread the word. by DragonTHC · · Score: 1

    Vista breaks most video-related functionality.

    try playing a dvd on tv-out with vista. unless your television supports hdcp over dvi/hdmi you're stuck like chuck.

    key functionality is to be able to play dvds on your hdtv over component cables the way my nvidia card was designed.

    toshiba has nothing to do with the problem other than not being hdcp compliant.

    --
    They're using their grammar skills there.
  108. There is NO More BSOD!!! by cisenigneer · · Score: 1

    At the Vista/Office release conference we were assured without a doubt that in Windows Vista there is no more BSOD!!!! (They have changed the color to GREEN!!)

    1. Re:There is NO More BSOD!!! by Question+Guy · · Score: 1

      Well, hate to be a drag but the screen color is blue when I get that error. Too bad I rectified the problem, or perhaps I'd be able to upload a picture of the screen, taken via a camera...
      Would have been nice if it was green... that's my fav color :)

  109. STOP Code? by p.gogarty · · Score: 1

    Have you tried actually reading and investigating the STOP code at the top of the BSOD message?
    This should point you towards the cause of the problem.

    I always turn off auto-restart when an error occurs on windows machines, so that I can fully note the cause of any BSODs

    Also I agree with others who have commented here, why is this on slashdot. It belongs on a help forum

    --
    Paul Gogarty
    1. Re:STOP Code? by plasmacutter · · Score: 1

      i have a conjecture as to the stop code.. "arrrgh.. eh...eh... eeehhhh... he's dead jim"

      --
      VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
  110. Problem Solved! by Question+Guy · · Score: 3, Informative

    Aloha everyone,

    I'm out here in Hawaii and ,thanks in part to Slashdot, my M400 tablet is playing quicktime movies like a champ now :)
    The rant below aside, I DO very much appreciate the community thought that went into this, the response was great and that seems to have gotten the attention of Toshiba, which has issued a new RAID driver.

    So, for whatever reason I still don't understand, Quicktime was accessing hard drives , those controlled by the SATA RAID controller in the laptop AND the ones hooked up by USB (external drives)in such a different way that the computer BSOD'ed every time.
    I don't pretend to understand it fully, I just knew from the start that it was some fundamental level of tinkering I couldn't do on my own.

    A hearty thanks to everyone who offered advice, called me or the author an idiot, or delved deeper (too deep) into information that couldn't have been contained in the paltry few sentances I wrote for the story submission. hehe. I went out to lunch to buy some RAM, and then there were 200 posts, so I'm sorry I wasn't more involved in giving MORE information. I know that everyone needed it, but I missed the window on timing, I think... who knew it would get accepted and start up such a fire-storm of responses?
    It reminds me of that maxim "Whe you assume, you make an ass out of u and me." :) Of course, that in part was the point, right?
    Submit a vexing problem to Slashdot, give just enough information for people to identify it and hope and pray that someone smart, informed, kind slashdotter would know the answer when all the google queries in the world, tech support hours wasted and dead end hunches didn't get me anywhere.

    Hooray for everyone!

  111. Can't see the forest for the (Apple) trees. by Kadin2048 · · Score: 1

    QuickTime could be doing something bad like consuming and not releasing inordinate amounts of graphics resources. Not that I'm going to bother benchmarking it. Look at the way the app looks and behaves - the devs obviously have no clue how to develop for Windows.

    That doesn't make a whole lot of sense under the circumstances. If Quicktime is at fault, why is the problem only happening on this one particular hardware/software configuration? If it's that seriously flawed, it ought to be causing BSODs everywhere -- and that's setting aside the debate of whether it's indicative of a serious flaw in an OS's security model when a userland app can cause a kernel panic or its equivalent.

    It sounds like the problem is in the custom Toshiba drivers for the hardware embedded in the tablet PC. That would make sense: they're working at a low-enough level so that a problem there would bluescreen the system, and since the drivers are specific to the Tablet PC, it explains why this issue hasn't been more widely reported.

    An easy test, if the user hasn't already done it, would be to hose the system, reinstall Vista from a regular Install CD (not the OEM disc which may have drivers already slipstreamed in), and try the problem scenario again. Then install the drivers and see what changes.

    So seriously -- take a step back from your apparent hatred for Quicktime and try to look at the situation; you're just trying too hard to pin this one on Apple, and it doesn't seem like the facts are in your favor.

    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
  112. Thought drivers were supposed to be segregated... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    I cna't remember details, but I thought the VIsta driver models had been altered to segregate drivers from the system more exactly so that bad drivers could not affect system stability?

    Or, was that put all upon the Vista certification testing process to only certify solid drivers...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  113. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by howlingmadhowie · · Score: 1

    "I actually LIKE competition, because it means that Apple and their developers actually have to work to make better products."

    that's certainly the last course apple (or any other software company) will take to deal with competition. the usual method envolves lawyers and lots of suing, cease and desist etc.

  114. In other words, they were both wrong by istartedi · · Score: 4, Informative

    An application shouldn't consume excessive resources.

    If an application attempts to consume excessive resources, the OS should not allow that. Appropriate responses might include failing to provide the resource, or terminating the application. A BSOD terminates everything--plainly not the correct response.

    Now, considering the .MOV+Toshiba+Vista situation... something in kernel space is plainly wrong. It might be MS code or Toshiba code. We don't know. Something in application space might be wrong too; but it makes sense to fix bugs in code that runs in the kernel first. Then, if the application "hangs" or triggers a more manageable exception (The little popup window that doesn't crash the whole OS, whatever they call that on Vista) then we know that the application had problems too. If that doesn't happen, then the application was innocent all along.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    1. Re:In other words, they were both wrong by dknj · · Score: 1

      i second the softice method, if someone is willing to send me a toshiba tablet pc i will happily document the problem.

  115. Déjà vu? by kaffesumpen · · Score: 1

    I remember having similar problems with QuickTime before with my old graphics card: Tseng Labs ET6000.
    When starting a QuickTime movie with the 16bit version in Windows 3.11/95/98 it would completely BSOD, no matter how many different versions of QuickTime 16bit and Tsenglabs drivers I tried.

    --
    Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with catsup.
  116. You are barking up the wrong tree. by haraldm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Still, a user space app should never be able to produce a BSOD, even if it is pushing the limits. It's the OSes job to keep apps from going haywire, no matter what. They use that stuff in medical devices, airplanes and space travel, forget? It's like Windows should never execute (!) a mail attachment only according to the MIME type without looking at the file itself: The single largest problem with trojans and worms. A design error is a design error.

    --
    open (SIG, "</dev/zero"); $sig = <SIG>; close SIG;
  117. I call bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What release of Quicktime? What drivers for your SCSI devices? Where's the detail? You even mention a "fix" from Microsoft but don't bother to give a knowledge base reference or link. I call bullshit on you.

    Like the OP (troll), you never say if use any of the Quicktime software features to test?

    Quicktime lets you turn off DirectX drawing. It provides check boxes for a Safe mode (GDI only), DirectDraw acceleration (incl. secondary monitors), Direct3D video acceleration. Did you tick the boxes in your Quicktime movie to "Preload this track" for both the audio & video tracks? Did that solve your "SCSI" problem or the sync problem?

  118. I get the same problem - but not on a tablet PC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have the exact same problem on my computer running Vista; but it is not a tablet PC, it is a custom built computer in a Shuttle ST20G5 (I believe that is the correct model).

    I ran windbg on the dump file - and the output I get points to something called ntkrpamp.exe - which to me sounds like a part of Windows itself.

    The full WinDbg analysis is bellow (with some blank lines removed):

    PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA (50)
    Invalid system memory was referenced. This cannot be protected by try-except,
    it must be protected by a Probe. Typically the address is just plain bad or it is pointing at freed memory.
    Arguments:
    Arg1: c36024bb, memory referenced.
    Arg2: 00000001, value 0 = read operation, 1 = write operation.
    Arg3: 81ce752b, If non-zero, the instruction address which referenced the bad memory address.
    Arg4: 00000002, (reserved)

    Debugging Details:
    ------------------

    Could not read faulting driver name
    WRITE_ADDRESS: GetPointerFromAddress: unable to read from 81d315ac
    Unable to read MiSystemVaType memory at 81d11780
      c36024bb

    FAULTING_IP:
    nt!ExAllocatePoolWithTag+520
    81ce752b 894804 mov dword ptr [eax+4],ecx

    MM_INTERNAL_CODE: 2
    DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: VISTA_RC
    BUGCHECK_STR: 0x50
    PROCESS_NAME: lsass.exe
    CURRENT_IRQL: 0
    LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from 81df5d82 to 81ce752b

    STACK_TEXT:
    9732dbe0 81df5d82 00000001 00000384 e56b6f54 nt!ExAllocatePoolWithTag+0x520
    9732dc08 81df57a6 84e9b480 00000000 0000035c nt!ObpAllocateObject+0xd3
    9732dc38 81e3fb7c 00000000 84136938 9732dcb4 nt!ObCreateObject+0x135
    9732dc80 81e41089 81c8a901 9732dcb4 81c8a901 nt!SepDuplicateToken+0xe8
    9732dd30 81e40f43 fffffffe 0000000a 00000000 nt!NtOpenThreadTokenEx+0x136
    9732dd4c 81c8c96a fffffffe 0000000a 00000001 nt!NtOpenThreadToken+0x18
    9732dd4c 77910f34 fffffffe 0000000a 00000001 nt!KiFastCallEntry+0x12a
    WARNING: Frame IP not in any known module. Following frames may be wrong.
    00def1a4 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 0x77910f34

    STACK_COMMAND: kb

    FOLLOWUP_IP:
    nt!ExAllocatePoolWithTag+520
    81ce752b 894804 mov dword ptr [eax+4],ecx

    SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: 0
    SYMBOL_NAME: nt!ExAllocatePoolWithTag+520
    FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner
    MODULE_NAME: nt
    IMAGE_NAME: ntkrpamp.exe
    DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 4549ae00
    FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0x50_W_nt!ExAllocatePoolWithTag+520
    BUCKET_ID: 0x50_W_nt!ExAllocatePoolWithTag+520

  119. Not alone... by pugdk · · Score: 1

    A lot of owners of core duo laptops with x1400 or any other 1000 series ATI Radeon graphics cards has similar problems... except here its windows mediaplayer causing the problem.

    Open up a webpage with an embedded wmv in internet explorer (yes, I usually use firefox, but rarely need to see something using IE) and half the time I get a BSOD claiming my RAM is faulty... funny how it only happens when using windows mediaplayer / IE. Apparently its a video driver problem.. or so people think.

    Defective by design? Yup. Cause? Windows or ATI? I really don't give a shit, it just shouldn't happen.

  120. Vista Ultimate Qosmio G20, Error codes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not in front of the machine, but I have a Qosmio G20 at the house that I installed Windows Vista on (with no problems except sleep mode barfing).

    Quicktime doesn't bluescreen, but instead pops up an useless error code (quicktime fashioned) and suggests that the file does not exist.

    I haven't tried this on the Qosmio G30 or the Satellite P100 I have yet, but for the most part, I'd guess it has something to do with Quicktime disliking the Qosmio Raid driver (which is the only reason I don't like my Qosmio machines).

    As for looking into it, Vista has some tools similar to strace on Linux now and I intend to take a look at it soon. I would gamble on the fact that it has something to do with Apples useless obsession with doing stupid things like porting large portions of the Carbon framework to Windows. The data/resource forking, if I have seen it clearly is actually implemented by making use of NTFS metadata (WHY!!!). I would bet that this has something to do with it.

  121. BSOD eh? by ady1 · · Score: 1

    Nothing for you to see here. Move along.

  122. Re:article (Vista - longest suicide note in histor by jb.hl.com · · Score: 1

    They didn't coin that particular phrase. IIRC it was originally used by commentators to describe the 1984 UK Labour Party manifesto.

    [/pedantry]

    --
    By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
  123. The truth is... by tulcod · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Vista = BSOD

  124. Troll? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who the fuck is moderating these days?

  125. Cliché error... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  126. RTFM ;-) by hummassa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At the risk of being filtered out, try compiling and running the following program. For best results, do it on a single-processor system:

    #include <sys/types.h>
    #include <unistd.h>
    void main(){
      for(;;){
        fork();
      }
    }
    I just did.

    $ cd /tmp
    $ xclip -o > um.c
    $ gcc um.c
    $ ulimit -u 200
    $ ./a.out
    waits some seconds, sees cpu graph in superkaramba reach 100%, waits some more, hits ^C

    $

    No kernel panic, no system hosing here, ok?
    --
    It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
    1. Re:RTFM ;-) by jez9999 · · Score: 1

      And without the 'ulimit'?

    2. Re:RTFM ;-) by zerkon · · Score: 1

      And without the 'ulimit'? FreeBSD is configured by default to not be effected by fork bombs... most linux distros on the other hand, need ulimit set up (one of the first things I always do after a new install)
    3. Re:RTFM ;-) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You reset the ulimit? That's hardly a stress test - try it with the default ulimit as if you didn't expect anything bad to happen.

  127. YES. by hummassa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If any client asks for more than its fair share of resources, DENY them to it. Then, and only then, this is a client's bug. If you ask for more and more of my resources and I keep giving them to you until I myself starve, it's MY problem, not yours.

    --
    It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
    1. Re:YES. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't blame my OS for allocating all of it's resources to the first program that asks for it...hell, you almost sound like you DON'T want unauthorized applications from doing whatever they want...

      If that's the case...might I suggest Vista?

  128. FreeBSD by weierstrass · · Score: 1

    the above runs and stops immediately with no output and no errors.

    --
    my password really is 'stinkypants'
    1. Re:FreeBSD by jimicus · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you just went and compiled the code I wrote without thinking carefully about what you were doing, you have a serious security issue which you really ought to resolve ;)

      All joking aside, it's a basic forkbomb. Quite a few unixes and clones (clearly not FreeBSD) will just keep on generating processes until such time as the process table fills up, which takes a fraction of a second. And once the process table is full, no more processes can be started - you can't even log in because even if the logon process is running, once it's authenticated you it will try and execute your shell and fail.

      Someone upthread executed it with a ulimit - yes, that will prevent it from making your system unusable but that's a piece of userland configuration. The point I was making is that unless userland is appropriately configured (something which is omitted surprisingly often), it's quite easy to render a computer next to useless without crashing it as such, even from userland.

  129. Nothing New Here by ajs318 · · Score: 0

    Once again we have a situation where several pieces of closed-source software from several vendors act in concert to do something other than they were supposed to do.

    Is anyone surprised by this?

    Here's a fact for you to chew on: If you had the source code to the complete software stack, someone could have fixed it by now.

    Don't blame Toshiba, don't blame Microsoft, don't blame Apple. Blame your government for allowing software vendors to conceal Source Code from users in the first place. Food manufacturers have to label their ingredients and nutritional content. Cigarette manufacturers have to label their tar and nicotine. It's time software manufacturers were kicked into touch as well. Stop deluding yourselves -- keeping the Source Code secret from users benefits nobody. It doesn't stop unauthorised copying, it just pisses users off by ensuring they can't fix their own problems.

    --
    Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
  130. Caused by SATA drivers? by yakumo.unr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I had this exact same problem a couple of years ago, it was caused by bad (terrible) drivers for the Adaptec SATA card I had (1210sa, using Sil 3112 chipset).

    Moving the mov file to any drive not using that controller and it played perfectly.
    From the 1210sa, an instant unrecoverable lock would occur. maybe 5% of mov's I tried wouldn't lock the drive, but those that did it was a definite and 100% repeatable problem, irrespective of player used, or quicktime version.

    I reported it to Adaptec several times, as it was fixed and then broken again with different releases, but never acknowledged.

    Changed to a Promise controller instead.

  131. Video driver in low tier by Parker+Lewis · · Score: 0

    Maybe if Microsoft listen Tanenbaum and didn't put the video at the same level as the kernel, this will never happen.

  132. "Vista's not done 'til Quicktime won't run" by QuietLagoon · · Score: 2, Funny

    Has a nice ring to it.

  133. Don't Do That Then by jonadab · · Score: 1

    > opening a locally stored QuickTime .MOV causes instant bluescreen

    "Doctor, I get terrible heartburn every time I eat dried habanero peppers!"

    So don't do that. Duh.

    Does anyone even still *use* QuickTime format? I thought practically everyone that just couldn't stand to use MPEG (presumably because it's too widely supported and therefore the format of hoi polloi) had gone over to either WMV or Ogg Theora, or Flash. I haven't seen anything in QuickTime format for over a decade, I think. I didn't even know they were still making the software for it.

    --
    Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
  134. quicktime isn't vista compatible! is this news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Quicktime is NOT vista ready!

    There. you have your fucking answer. Apple KNOWS IT DOESN'T WORK IN VISTA, AND HAS NEVER CLAIMED IT WILL.

    now wait for the patch, and STFU.

  135. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

    I think (i do not know - so back off, i'm guessing) that there is some kind of problem with Vista and video... at least, i'm seeing a trend.

    I don't think this even counts as "guessing." Maybe "flailing around wild assertions."

    What "trend" are you seeing? That some dude who posted on Slashdot had a problem with his Toshiba and you had a problem with your Mac in the same week? Seriously? Or do you have some actual... what's what word... oh yeah, *data* to support this 'trend?'

    Come on, Slashdotters. If I said, "I think there's a trend with OS X and having tacky desktop backgrounds! I saw it on two computers today!" would you mod that up to +5 as well?

  136. Or by Archimagus · · Score: 1

    Or. . . we could all just get rid of quicktime. I personaly hate the format. But maybe thats just me.

  137. Just shows by teflaime · · Score: 1

    that you need to roll back to XP. Vista demonstrates yet another way that it is evil.

  138. Disable and delete quicktime task by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Delete quicktime task from the quicktime directory, and remove it from startup in the registry.

    You need to delete it because it will put itself back in the registry the next time you use quicktime.

    QTTask insists on trying to access files that aren't there (like on a zip drive, USB key, CD, etc) and causes contention problems. It is not a Windows thing, not a Toshiba thing, but a Apple insisting on being a sticky app thing. I hope it bites them in the ass.

  139. Help! There's a bug in my computer! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow, here's guy whose computer doesn't work! Well look fellows, since we're being so touchy-feely here...

    My cat tripped over the PC's power cord. It was hilarious... but the computer wouldn't restart. It would go into LILO, then windows, then a flash of blue, then it would restart. Over and over.

    So I thought "well hell I wonder if Linux works. Next boot (#372 unless I lost count) I told LILO to go into Linux.

    Damn, Linux is hosed too. Booting into "failsafe" got it working again (phew). Well, maybe I could boot XP into safe mode? Nope, after getting listings of all the drivers and crap it's loading, it hangs.

    So I try safe mode in DOS. Apparently, "DOS" stands for "Denial of service" because I get the same thing, a list of crap that was being loaded (for a command line OS?????) but not a word about what it was trying unsucessfully to load.

    So I figure, "Hey, I can read the logs from LINUX, as my C: frive is /mnt/windows." So I boot into Linux to read the logs. The logs didn't take long to read, as they were all zero bytes long each.

    I wound up reformatting C: and reinstalling XP. I guess I have to call them for product activation. But anyway, can anyone tell me what's wrong with my computer?

    Oh, I have to submit this as a front page story? Well hell...

    OK, How about my problem with hookers? Hou guys like hookers don't you? Ok, I've got three hookers living with me and I can't get laid...

    -mcgrew

  140. Easy Technical Solution by kmhebert · · Score: 1

    Don't install Vista. And now you owe me $150.00. Thank you.

    --
    Regular Meta Moderators are not more likely to get mod points.
  141. The biggest Issue... by denobug · · Score: 1

    Is why are you running windows Vista on a Toshiba machine!. Get a iBook already!

    Okay jokes aside. I think the hardware and software vendors failed along side with MS big time with Vista rollout. I personally would not touch them until they can get all their issues fixed. A lot have to do with messy programming and tricks and shortcuts used when they're "just trying to get things working".

  142. Crashing a whole Unix system from X by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    On Linux it's been a really long time I haven't crashed a machine. Yet I tend to experiment recent kernels / packages etc. One thing I do notice once in while when "pushing the limits" (i.e. not when doing something as trivial as playing a movie), is that sometimes I can lock X pretty hard (last time it happened I was playing with Xen, running Windows XP under Linux, allowing Xen to directly display Windows XP to the Linux X server... Which I don't recommend: VNC or remote desktop is way better). IOW, the video card is in bad state... But the system keeps running fine, exactly like it should. At this point if you can remotely log in the machine you can usually kill/restart X. Sometimes a utility like "vga_reset" (32 bits only) may help. If you can't log remotely to the machine Magic SysRQ usually helps a lot (which is why when I'm installing a distro whose default kernel doesn't have Magic SysRQ compiled in I add it).

    So, sure, this is not stuff your grandma is going to do... But my point is simply that I have a hard time remembering when messing with the video card could reboot the whole system. In TFA an Apple application BSOD probably because a faulty video driver from Toshiba. But why oh why does a faulty video driver mean that the whole system has to crash? Common paid MS astroturfers fanboys, explain that...

    If I'm not mistaken on OpenBSD they're going one step further: they eventually plan to be able to run X Window Server with no special privilege at all, using a framebuffer. It may be very slow (no 3D accel etc.), but it's one additional protection measure (as well from a security point of view than from a "X cannot crash the whole system" one). I may be wrong on that though.

  143. I have the same problem... by AndyJ · · Score: 1


    I get an instant BSOD if I open a .MOV file locally from an Adaptec Raid Array card.

    In the same PC, another drive on the on-board nVidia Raid controller will open the same file fine, it would also play from a CD, a memory stick or compact flash card.

    Never did work out why.

    --
    Never be afraid to ask. Wisdom must be gathered before it can be given.
  144. Re:No shock - Vista's #1 goal is DRM. Not usabilit by trimbo · · Score: 1

    I installed Vista on my MacPro - in 12 minutes, i had a successfully BSOD'd Vista by playing a standard DiVX 6.0 file on Vista.

    So you installed Vista on a platform with beta drivers from a Microsoft competitor and complain with it bluescreens? That part's definitely not a shock.

    I wish I had mod points because this post is offtopic. Bad drivers can bring down Windows in a hurry, we knew that. We've known it for years. I don't see any evidence that your bluescreen was caused by the DRM mechanism.

    The rest of your post is somewhat insightful but completely off topic. XP being "EOL in 7 months"? Where'd you come up with that?

  145. RTFI: QuickTime is not yet Vista Compatible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/faq.html Sure, you can try, but any BSOD's you get are your own dang fault. So stop whining.

    1. Re:RTFI: QuickTime is not yet Vista Compatible by marklar1 · · Score: 1

      THIS NEEDS TO BE MODDED UP! The whole point / tone of the post is wrong. Idiots just jump to conclusions without the slightest freakin' due diligence--or even 30 s and a google search.

      was about to post the same, Apple doesn't yet officially support QuickTime under Vista.

      Here is the list of all Apple software for Windows and their system requirements:

      http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304 854

  146. DOS isn't done... by tarkas · · Score: 1

    ...til Lotus won't run.

  147. NT: you are alone, and don't call me Seams by Anomalyst · · Score: 1

    You are alone, and don't call me Seams.

    --
    There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
  148. Known Problem + Solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is a problem that is known by Microsoft and fix/KB Article was generated for it around the Feb/Mar timeframe. The link to the KB is:
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932094/

    Additionally, if you check Toshiba's support site - they have a link to update their RAID driver for Windows Vista on Protege tablets/laptops that specifically addresses this at the following URL:
    http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_d tlViewDL.jsp?soid=1663403&moid=1209152&BV_SessionI D=@@@@0267420348.1177345927@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccchad dkkdidhdkcgfkceghdgngdgmn.0&ct=DL

    From their site: This driver corrects a "blue screen" issue that occurs when a movie or audio file is played from the hard disk drive, using Apple's QuickTime player. This driver is for Windows Vista computers only.

    This probably is the hotfix listed at the Microsoft site. Try it and see if it solves your problem...

  149. Re:article (Vista - longest suicide note in histor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With any luck, MS will release another version of Vista for content creators. That would make, what, six versions in all? Or am I falling behind?

    Anyway, I'll be looking forward to Vista Pretension Basic and Vista Pretension Artiste. (Wait! That's seven versions!)

  150. Mod Parent Up!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've seen some tacky desktops recently, too!

    (Hi Blakey!)

  151. I KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING! by xintegerx · · Score: 1

    I KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING! I have Vista on a Dell with 2 hard drives. When I run an mpeg4 file in quicktime, one of my hard drives is instantly degraded and intel's storage manager goes haywire. It starts running off just one of the drives and says the other drive is corrupted and needs to be replaced. If I didn't have 2 hard drives, I would surely crash. If I run it again, it will take down the other hard drive and then I get a BSOD. Quicktime never shows up, just forces a Vista "there was a problem with the application" error.

  152. Vista and Real-time by sbohmann · · Score: 1

    Did anyone perceive difference in multimedia real time behavior between xp and vista on the same machine?