How to Fix the 'Divide Error in Module IVIAUDIO.AX' Message

The "divide error in module IVIAUDIO.AX" message comes from an old InterVideo WinDVD filter clashing with a Sound Blaster Live card. Unregistering two files stops it, and nothing else on the PC breaks.

The error appears when an MP3 or media application asks the sound card for a service and WinDVD's audio filter answers instead.

It reads as though the program you were using crashed, which is why people go looking in the wrong place.

The fix takes two commands and a restart.

Who this affects

Both of these have to be true: a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live sound card, and an InterVideo or Corel WinDVD installation. The two shipped together on a great many PCs in the 2000s, which is why the clash was so common.

If you are on modern hardware and have never installed WinDVD, this is not your error - a similar-looking crash in a different .ax or .dll file has the same fix but a different file name, and the general method is in How to Register and Unregister DLL and AX Codec Filter Files.

The fix

You are unregistering two DirectShow filters so Windows stops handing them work. The files stay on the disk, WinDVD keeps playing discs, and the change is reversible.

• Find where the two files live. They are usually at C:\Program Files\InterVideo\Common\Bin\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\InterVideo\Common\Bin\; search the drive for IVIAUDIO.AX if they are not there.
• Open Command Prompt as an administrator - right-click Start, or type cmd in the Start menu and choose Run as administrator.
• Type regsvr32 /u "C:\Program Files\InterVideo\Common\Bin\IVIAUDIO.AX" using your own path, press Enter, and click OK on the success message.
• Repeat for the video filter: regsvr32 /u "C:\Program Files\InterVideo\Common\Bin\IVIVIDEO.AX", then click OK.
• Close everything and restart the PC.

To undo it later, run the same two commands without the /u switch.

If the error continues

Check that the commands ran against the right copy. Some machines carry a second InterVideo folder from an OEM install, and unregistering one copy leaves the other registered.

If both are unregistered and the crash persists, something else is answering for that audio format. The Codec Tweak Tool lists every registered filter and flags the ones whose files are missing, which is usually where a leftover from an old install shows up.

Updating the Sound Blaster Live driver is worth a try on the systems this error still reaches, though Creative stopped releasing new drivers for that card many years ago.

Does this still happen?

Rarely, and only on old machines. Sound Blaster Live cards are PCI, so they cannot be fitted to a modern motherboard, and current versions of WinDVD no longer install the filter under that name.

The page stays online because those machines are still running, and because the same two commands fix the same class of problem whatever the file is called.

Two commands, one restart, and a fifteen-year-old crash stops.

If you are cleaning up a PC full of old filters, the K-Lite Codec Pack and its Codec Tweak Tool sort the whole registration list in one pass, or tell us whether this fixed it if you have hit this error.