Saturday, March 12, 2011

XP Codec Pack 2.51 & AVI Chunk Viewer, Crapware

When I used Windows Explorer this evening, a strange unwanted screen popped up whenever I highlighted any type of .avi file. It was called "AVI Chunk Viewer." I have no idea what it is and don't want to know. It annoys the end user, with no options to remove or disable itself.

It comes from a package called "XP Codec Pack 2.51" and, rumor has it, certain other codec packs.

Solution? Uninstall "XP Codec Pack." I was experimenting with it in an attempt to diagnose a sound problem, but it turned out to be a hardware issue--the sound card was bad.

For several days, my PC speakers had been emitting a strange, intermittent squeak whenever I played any type of media file with audio content. Obviously, that was not a situation that could be allowed to persist. I was loathe to suspect the Creative Labs Soundblaster (LE version) sound card, because it had been working fine for years without issue. I downloaded various media players, codec packages, and ran the gamut of installations attempting to resolve the problem. Then I suspected my NVIDIA video card, recently installed, might be causing interference--a wild hypothesis, perhaps, but not without foundation, judging by message threads found on various hardware forums. However, when I switched the sound output from SoundBlaster to the onboard audio, all was well. No more squeaking. Problem solved. I removed the sound card and am tempted to toss it in the trash, but a lingering doubt does remain over whether it might have been a software-related issue after all. I'm a pack-rat by nature, despising waste. But in the case of the sound card, it is a $10 piece of hardware. Into the trash it must go. I only resolved that just now, at the end of this post. It goes against the grain to throw something away. *sigh*
by igor 04:20 4 replies by igor 09:32 0 comments

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