Bizarre video problem persists after formats

At some point, for no apparent reason, my computer developed this problem that would happen on some boot sessions (by which I mean when you turn on your computer and until you restart it again) and not others. The problem was that when I played video files with VLC it would play audio and no video.

If I played the files with GOM it would play video, no audio and tell me I needed a coded. The codec it wanted was ffdshow. Installing ffdshow did nothing.

As I say, sometimes this problem wasn't present, but it might show up the next time I turned the computer on.

I got fed up with this so I figured I'd reinstall Windows. I reinstalled from windows (rather than booting from a bootable drive) and told it I didn't want to keep my files. This didn't quite do a format, it pretty much left everything on the win partition as is, except windows.

After this the same problem persisted, but there was an ADDED problem. On those occasions when video would not play normally, I ADDITIONALLY had a problem with online videos in FFox. Sound would play, no image (it would show the youtube player controls, but no video).

Chrome seemed to play videos if I had 1-2 videos open, if I opened 3 videos simultaneously the third would not show video, only audio.

Another additional malfunction was that, seemingly at random, my screen would get a slight yellow tint to it. Not always, it happened randomly.

So I figure, ok, let me do a full proper format of Windows partition and reinstall.

I did that, same exact problems.

Device Manager shows no problems with the graphics card. I'm running Win 10 1803.

Someone has resolved the yellow tint mystery for me. What had happened is that I had enabled the "Night light" option and forgot about it (yeah, I'm a schmuck). That's why the screen would get that tint at a certain time of day.

Does that change your diagnosis any? You still think it's a driver issue?

I myself figured it might be the driver so I went to the Device Manager and clicked on update driver for the graphics card, but it said the best one is already installed. But maybe I need to manually reinstall.

Would I need to remove the graphics card from the Device Manager first, or can I just find the new driver and install it over the current one?

what type of video are you trying to play? Tried another video players?

1) Update the specs in the "My Computer" section:

System Specs - Fill in at Ten Forums | Windows 10 Tutorials
In the left corner below in your post you find 'My System Specs'.
After clicking it you can find a link a little below that says 'Update your System Spec', click on this link to get to the page where you can fill in your system specs.
System Info - See Your System Specs - Windows 7 Help Forums
Include PSU. cooler, case, peripherals and anything attached to the computer by wired or wireless (mouse, keyboard, headset, printer, xbox, USB wireless network card, etc.)

2) Open the website for the computer or motherboard manufacturer > support > enter the product or serial number or model > select the operating system > view drivers and BIOS > post a URL or hyperlink into the thread

3) A clean install should allow you start with Windows installation of non-Microsoft drivers. Then the best tested drivers can be installed from the computer or motherboard manufacturer's website. For any drivers not available on the computer or motherboard manufacturer's website the next best option is to install drivers from the component manufacturer's websites (Intel, Nvidia, AMD, Killer Networks, Realtek, etc)

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eLPuSHeR said:

what type of video are you trying to play? Tried another video players?

I tried video files on my computer and all sorts of internet videos (youtube, dailymotion, stuff embedded on websites and Twitter).

VLC gives me audio, no video, KMPlayer same, GOM gives me video no audio.

Internet videos will play on Chrome, but only if I don't have too many open at the same time. Something like 2 or 3 seems to be the limit. They don't play in Firefox.

All of what I described happens sometimes and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes when I turn the computer on everything works normally, sometimes when I turn it on it's as I describe. Now it seems that more often than not it doesn't work.

dalchina said:

- how does that correlate with
a. Anything in your Update History (Scroll right down to the bottom for all options)

I don't know, because this started a while back now and I can't check the history because I've done a format and reinstall. From memory, I don't think it coincided with any update, but I'm not sure.

b. Any updates to your graphics driver (Device Manager).

No, no change.

How old is your PC, and what is its type?
Is it approved by the manufacturer to run build 1803?
(Most manufacturers produce a list - fairly easy to find)

The PC is quite old, don't remember exactly how old. It's an Athlon II x2 250 3Ghz

But this started long after I updated to 1803.