Color problem with Acer TravelMate 4402WLMI and WMV video files

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased an Acer TM4402WLMI notebook. I've come across a problem and I was wondering if other TM4402 owners have the same issue, or if it's just my machine.

Using the stock ATI display driver from Acer, the wrong colors are displayed when playing back WMV video files in 1280x800 (32bpp) in Windows Media Player 9. MPEG2 files play fine though.

As a workaround, I have found that completely disabling Hardware Acceleration in the Display properties fixes the problem, so I suspect a bug in the display driver at this point.

I have contacted Acer tech support and they suggested I send in the notebook for repairs. Acer supposedly can't look at this problem unless I send my system in (this just seems overkill to me, especially if it's just a display driver bug). Even after giving them clear and repeatable repro steps, they are not willing to try to reproduce the issue in-house.

I've also checked the Acer web site but there are no updated display drivers available.

Has anyone else encountered the same problem?

Here are the repro steps I used:
1. After booting WinXP for the first time and completing the installation of the Acer drivers, I went to Windows Update to download the latest patches (note: I do not upgrade to Media Player 10)
2. Download Robotica 720p WMV file from Microsoft site ( http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/1/b/41b10a4f-f4f4-4692-aa44-a458d0047e91/Robotica_720.exe)
3. With the display in 1280x800x32bpp (native resolution), start Media Player 9. If asked to download updates, say no (this will download Media Player 10).
4. WMV file plays with corrupted colors.
5. If I reduce the Hardware acceleration setting in the Display settings, the problem goes away.

 

Hm, I have a 4402, haven't experienced that problem.

Definitely sounds like a driver issue - try the Omega drivers ( www.omegadrivers.net), that should fix the issue.

Let me know if it works!

 

Thanks for the link. I'm not ready to try this just yet though.

At this point, I'm wary of trying out drivers that are not provided by Acer. At the first sign of trouble, Acer tech support just asks you to "Re-install the recovery CDs and try it again" (that's what they told me). I don't want to give them any excuse.

I noticed that you are running WinXP Pro x64. Are you using an Acer-provided driver (available on their European site) or are you using a custom (non-approved) driver? The color problem seems to be fixed in the 64-bit driver you are using. That's good to know, as I have plans to use WinXP x64 as well.

I'm running WinXP Pro 32-bit OEM (that came with notebook) with the Acer-provided default ATI driver and Media Player version 9.00.00.3250. What I'm trying to find out is whether the problem occurs right out of the box (so it's an Acer problem) or I did something and messed it up.

If it's an Acer problem, I'll call them again to request a fix.

 

If this issue only occurs when you watch WMVs its almost certainly a driver issue. Especially if it goes away when you turn down the acceleration. Like ChazMan said above, get Omega drivers, or even the official Catalysts. I have the Aspire 5024, which I think is the same as the 4402, and I haven't had anything like that issue either, but then again, the first thing I thing was replace the driver Acer gives you for the graphics card.

 

I'm using all the Acer-provided drivers for my XP x64.

You could also try the latest Mobility Catalyst 5.9 - avaliable on driverheaven.net

 

Just a word of warning about the Official Catalyst 5.9s, I installed these and my DVD playback was extremely choppy... Battery, AC it didn't matter at all. So I installed the Omega Drivers, and problem gone, better performance in games and everything. I don't even know why I bother with the Offical ones anymore, I always end up using Omega's anyway

 

I upgraded to Windows Media Player 10 as soon as I reloaded my OS the other day, so I couldn't test it as you had those repro steps... but with media player 10, the stock acer/ati drivers, and all the current windows updates, that video looked fine.

 

Thanks for the heads up.

Funny, I would have trusted the Catalyst drivers more than the Omega drivers. Any downsides at all? Acer GridVista still working? Who develops the Omega drivers?

I'm just wondering how come a third-party could develop better drivers than ATI...

 

Hmm, so the problem would be caused by Media Player 9, not the display driver?

 

The Catalyst 5.9 sounded like a great idea (since they're from ATI) until I read Waeggles' post. Bummer.

I noticed the display driver versions are different: 8.123 for 32-bit, 8.132 for 64-bit. This could explain why the problem is fixed in x64...

Are you running Media Player 9 or 10? What's your version number?

 

I don't use gridvista, but I would assume it works just the same.

Omega drivers are "developed" by an ATI Beta tester, he only edits the drivers as I understand it, so they are still ATI drivers. ATI has to worry about the drivers working on ALL cards so they set them up in a sort of... compatibility mode. Omega tweaks them. I have been using them for pretty much 4 years now, and they have been working great. I have had more issues with the official drivers than with these. For the longest time ATI didn't even release Catalysts for Mobility cards.

 

I had the same problem with some .wmv video files after upgrading from Catalyst 5.4 to 5.10 (downloaded from ATI.) Looks like the problem is the driver, as wmv video hardware acceleration was apparently introduced in version 5.6.

Using version 5.10, open up Catalyst Control Center in advanced view - select Video->All Settings, and down there at the bottom is an option to enable Windows Media Video Acceleration. Unticking this should sort the problem.

 

I ordered a 4402 which I just recieved yesterday and also was annoyed with the color problem. The simplest fix as already mentioned is to just upgrade to WMP 10.

 

Hi,

I experienced the same problems with my Acer Aspire 1692WLMi. Your solution worked for me too. After disabling the hardware acceleration, and starting up again, I get a warning on the fact that the initialisation of the driver failed, but the colors are fine. If I enable the hardware accelaration again, I get no warning on the ATI driver, but I don't get the proper colors with wmv-files. So I guess you are right about the driver conflict.

Thanks.

 

It seems as if this color issue is a very common problem among Acer computers. Has anyone tried sending an email to Acer to see what they say?

 

I had this problem also on my Ferrari 4005, but resolved it by doing two things.

1. I ran this update: http://www.keystonelearning.com/support/files/codec/CodecPatch1.0.zip

2. I updated to Media Player 10

Colors fixed, no messing with video drivers or hardware acceleration - all is perfect now.

I should note that after running the update, I still had the issue, but once I upgraded to WMP 10, it was fixed. I am curious if the MP10 update alone would have fixed it, but I'm too many days (and too much worK) past it to rollback now and try again. There are many posts in other forums out there about this - the codec has apparently fixed it for many people, with no mention of updating Media Player - other people talk about Media Player updates with no mention of codec?!? In any event, the combination of the two certainly worked for me. If anyone tries it in reverse order (MP10 first) and has luck, please let me know.

 

Just updating to Media Player 10 fixed the problem for me!

 

Hi everyone,

First of all, I apologize in taking so long to give you feedback, but I've been too busy for the last couple of months.

Thanks to all, I've resolved the color problem by upgrading to Media Player 10 (MP10). The way I understand it, the problem was either with the display driver or with Media Player. Now, upgrading to MP10 fixed it, but it could still be a bug in the display driver (e.g. MP9 would execute the buggy code in the display driver, while MP10 wouldn't).

I figured upgrading to MP10 was less intrusive than upgrading the driver (especially after reading about DVD problems reported by Waeggles), so I decided to try that first.

Incidentally, upgrading to MP10 also solved other playback problems:
- audio stops working when seeking in WMV HD files
- audio and video are out-of-sync in 1080i WMV HD files

Overall, upgrading to MP10 solved 3 problems for me!

Thanks again

 

When I first wrote to them, they redirected me to their phone line. They were suspecting a hardware problem and wanted me to send in the laptop! Even when I mentioned the repro steps, they still needed *my* laptop to repro the problem. The idea that they don't have laptops available for testing in-house is ridiculous. I have to say their phone support was not the most helpful. Makes me wonder if getting the extended warranty was a good thing after all...