I usually don't ask for help with computer problems, but I've stumbled across something that's P*ssing me off. I can't play a video file at all. Whenever I double click a video file, Windows Media Player 9 starts up and bogs down the system unbearably, or restarts it altogether. I tried another player (RealPlayer) just in case it was just a problem with WMP, but my video files are doing the same thing with it. I figure it must be a driver problem, but I haven't installed anything new in a long time. I'm going crazy trying to figure this out.... Help? Anyone?
This happened to me after a virus installed itself on one system but I just reformatted the hard drive since it was pretty new. You could try the repair option.
You could do a System Restore back to the time before the problem began. It's less extreme than a reformat, and if it doesn't fix the problem, you can undo it.
I'd download the latest drivers for your video card, apply the latest patches to windows and run an antivirus. hope that helps.
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Rokkiit... it sounds like a codec problem.. what kind of files are they?...what extension? .avi, .mpg, .mov, .wmv? Ill be able to help you better later today once I get home. I would make sure your codecs arent correupted or misinstalled before I start jackuing with system restore or anything like that... it wouldnt hurt to make sure your AV definitions are up to date and do a full scan....then at least you will know that isnt the problem.
Mine was doing pretty much the same thing, luckily I keep all my movies on one hdd so I just reformatted the driveand everything is fine now. I think my problem was that my drive had become so fragmented that the media player was having trouble playing the files. Might be sumthin you want to look into tho.
Good point. so, to summarize what I would try in order. 1) update AV and scan 2) defragment 3) vid driver update/reinstall 4) codec install/reinstall I would save the restore or reload till after all else has failed unless you are having alot of problems with other apps.
Thanks for the help guys. (And the laugh Agent. ) Just to test, the restore obviously works. I went back a month and the problem was gone - this is an option, but I'll have to reinstall a few things but not too much of a hassle. The video files I've had problems with are .wmv files. Like I said, I tried different players and they all have this problem. The restore makes me think it has to be some sort of driver issue, though with what (since I'm careful about what I install) I have no idea. R2K, I have so far tried this: 1. Card drivers are up to date. 2. System doesn't need defrag. Now... the AV and Codec thing are a little unknown to me. I'd been able to run all videos fine, so I thought my codecs were relatively up to date. I'm lost on what 'AV definitions' are.
AV definitions are your anti virus defintiions. If using legal copies of McAfee or Norton, you should be able to just tell it to update and it should do it automatically...or if you are llucky, their auto update might actually work(I have had problems with this on both platforms)...if so...no worries. judging by what you said...I would wager a guess that your wmv codec got corrupted somehow or another since you said it works right from a old restore point. Another option could have been that your DirectX install got corrupted...it is responsible(in conjunction with the codecs) for any and all video functions in Windows. Sometimes files just get corrupted from time to time...there seems to be no rhyme or reason when they do. The problems can normally be fixed by reinstalling the corrupted files...this holds true for drivers/codecs and application files... a good way to test if this was the case for you would have been to try a different format of vid to see if it would play right or not.. get ahold of a mpg just for test purposesd since that is the most common format in the world and there isnt a player out there that wont handle it. anywho...glad you got it working...
AH! I can't believe I didn't catch that. Well, I keep PC-penicillin or whatever (came with the MB) up to date and a full scan found nothing. Here's something interesting; after the Restore, I found through Windows update that there were two latest updates taht were removed because of the restore...when I installed the first, I was curious that it may have something to do with it. After I updated, I tried running a .wmv file...and no problems. So I thought, ok cool, but after a restart of the system, doing the same thing again, there was a ...pause...before WMP finally ran the video. The mouse wouldn't move, brief freeze...like before, but not nearly as fatal and much quicker. Now I'm almost afraid the security update has something to do with it. Worse yet, there's still that second one to install... Curious: If I do need the WMV codecs, are those just found at Microsoft's site? And is would a straight install overwrite the old, solving the problem if it is the case?
my first recommendation would be to trash WMP....waaay too resource intensive. and RealPlayer just isnt that good. I like bsplayer..lightweight, and reature rich. http://www.ranzigkot.be/downloads.php?PHPSESSID=4ec85a05c78c1b1061ac941d52f05c4c or winamp's video features are ok last I checked. I would also recommend installing the security update...and then try to install these... http://www.bodaciousken.com/media/WM9Codecs.exe and see if that fixes your problem.
R2K, you rock. But I'm afraid this may be worse than I thought. The WMV problem, after the restore, is sort of fixed...it still has the problem on random files. BUt I went ahead and updated everything; AV, Codecs, Direct X, Windows Update...everything. But now even the games are acting funny...on certain 3d games stuff is not lining up correctly, like the polygons are out of wack. And a couple of games crashed altogether. ANd those that work...when I exit out, the screen flashes a few times and slowwwwllllly reloads the desktop, like a piece at a time (between flashes of black screens). I'm guessing then, that all this trouble is stemming from the video card? Is it conceivable that the WMP problems are in relation to this? Note: desktop, Internet and everything else works fine. What I'm looking at right now is clear as day.
Have you tried to play the files on another player? Im curious if maybe WMP has a problem that is affecting the rest of the system.. Try this...do a reboot....dont fire up vids at all...and test the games that have been acting up...do they still do the same thing? It isnt unusual for a app that has a problem to still affect the functioning of Windows in general even after it has been shut down. I cant say for sure if the vid card is bad...if you maybe have another one laying around somewhere...maybe switch them out and see if the problem persists. Another thought... you mentioned earlier that you suspected one of the windows updates may have been causing a problem....when you updated everything...did you reinstall the ones that you felt may have adversly affected your system? As much as I hate to say it...if all else fails...I would do a reload of Windows beofer going out and buying a new vid card(unless you really need a reason to get a new one )...sometimes system fuiles can get correupted and it becomes next to impossible to figure out which ones it is...then it ends up being easier to just go ahead and reload everything from scratch.
