All media players keep crashing

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 7:25 pm

All my media players crash whenever I try to play some videos I d/led from the web - Windoze MP, Realplayer, Ultraplayer, etc. I have no idea why, this just started in the last couple of weeks on and off and now it's impacting all of them. I even just installed Ultraplayer to see if that would end the problem and reinstalled RP - but UP crashes and RP continues to crash.

However, I can play videos directly from websites like Fox News or Gamespot. I just can't d/l and play them.

Any ideas out there?

Kratz · Post by **Kratz** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 8:55 pm

Virus scan for starters...

I had this problem earlier in the year and finally had to break down and reinstall windows... it was just too screwed up - got confused about audio codecs in videos, wouldn't really install or uninstall them when I asked...

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 9:58 pm

I had this problem as well for most of the year. EVERYTHING I tried failed:

- Reinstalled WMP (and tried 4 or 5 other players)
- Reinstalled ATI drivers
- Reinstalled DirectX
- Reinstalled / Installed various codecs
- Repair install of WinXP

I was just about to wipe the drive and start with a clean WinXP install when on a whim, I updated to the most current BIOS for my motherboard. That fixed it.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 10:17 pm

Damn, neither of those sounds particularly appealing.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 10:19 pm

The BIOS update was totally and completely painless. Idiot-proof even.