AVI playback problem

[venkman1984]

I've encountered an unusual problem that I cannot fathom. I have just built a new media PC with the following spec:

Zotac IONITX F-E M/board (Atom N330 CPU)
4Gb DDR2 Memory
Windows 7 32-bit Home premium
HDMI Output to Toshiba LCD TV

Once installed and updated with latest Windows updates and drivers for all components, I installed VLC and downloaded DivX pack for up to date codecs. To begin with, all AVI type files play OK. However, if I then power down and turn on my computer then next morning: disaster!!
VLC starts to open the file but stalls then crashes, giving the error message that it has stopped working and must close. The problem is not limited to VLC either. Even DivX Player won't open the files.

So far the only way I seem to be able to play files again is a complete re-installation of Windows every time! I'm at a complete loss as to what could be causing this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Baldrick]

VLC does not require any codecs so it shouldn't be any codec/decoder problem.

It sounds more like a hardware issue. Is it just video players that crash? Nothing else?

[venkman1984]

Yes, just video players. Have tried VLC, WMP and DivX player. All the same. It just seems odd that they work OK once, when a Windows reinstall has been done, but crash after Windows is restarted.