Media Player Classic stopped...

[racingintherain]

Media Player Classic has stopped working on my computer. I get standard windows failure pop-up "Media Player Classic has encountered a problem and needs to close" whenever the program tries to launch. I tried system restore to an earlier time and still have problem. Tried reinstall and still have problem. Tried registry cleanup and reinstall and still no go. All other software seems to be working fine. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[Ai Haibara]

Have you tried downloading MPC again, and checking whether or not that 'different' version will generate the same errors?

Edit: Okay, I guess you have, basically. Is MPC set to store its settings in an .INI file? Also, make sure you don't have any codec conflicts/problems.

[deckard8]

I had a problem like that once with the 2k/XP version.
I switched to the Win9x/ME build and that still worked ok
with XP. (Using latest XP build now with no probs)

[Megahurts]

racingintherain,

I've had this problem with MPC for 3 months with no solution.

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1418769

What OS are you using?

Chas

[racingintherain]

I'm running XP Megahurts and have tried latest bulid of MPC with no improvement. I'm baffled. I'll try the Luckily VLC and others still work but I had gotten used to MPC and hate being stumped. I'll try the Win98/ME build as deckard8 suggests and see what happens. Al Haibara - what procedure would you recommend to determine if there is a codec conflict? What exactly constitues a "conflict?"

Thanks for the input folks. I'm determined to solve this.

Racing

[Megahurts]

Racing,

When I open MPC by itself (no video file) it craches the computer. That would indicate there is not a codec conflict causing the problem.

What happens when you open MPC?

Chas

[tdan]

Do you get any error message indicating the dll that the exception is occurring within?

[Soopafresh]

Delete the .INI file associated with it. Also, load up Filemon from www.sysinternals.com. Run filemon and capture activity, then load MPC. You'll find the culprit

[Megahurts]

Soopafresh,

There is no .INI file associated with it. MPC doesn't load to create one.

Tried Filemon and when MPC is clicked, I get the message 'filemon has caused an error in <unkown> filemon will close'. Click OK and CPU freezes without the BSOD. Acts like a memory conflict.

Since no other programs are affected, I wait before doing a fresh install.

Maybe racingintherain will have better luck.

Chas

[celtic_druid]

What do you have output set to? Because VMR7/9 in recent builds will require d3dx9_27.dll. No idea what happens if you try to load it with VMR9 enabled and no dll though since I have the dll and it is locked so I can't test without rebooting.

If you aren't using an ini file, try deleting MPC's registry keys.

[Ai Haibara]

racingintherain: In VideoHelp's Tools section, under "Codec/Video Identifiers," there should be a few utilities that check your codecs and DirectShow filters, and let you know if any of them are 'broken' or conflict with other codecs/filters. The general recommendation here seems to be for Codec Sniper, but I haven't tried it, so I don't know how well it works (or works with XP).

Megahurts: Have you tried running the 9X/ME build of MPC, to see if it runs?
Have you compressed the .exe with an exe packer, like UPX? Also, have you set it to use a custom logo? (I doubt that would crash it, but I thought I'd go ahead and ask.)

[racingintherain]

Just an update -

I tried -

Codec Sniper - found 2 broken codecs. Deleted them but no change.

Tried Filemon from www.sysinternals.com. crashed when attempting ot run MPC

Removed MPC .ini - no change

Installed MPC me/Win98 - No change.

Well, I'm out of ideas. Any progress on your end Megahurts?

[Ai Haibara]

Hmm... I think Codec Sniper also doesn't handle DirectShow filters, which might also have some conflicts. (But, I may be wrong about Codec Sniper not handling those, because I still haven't used it. ^_^ If it doesn't, one program I think I have tried is DirectShow Filter Manager.)

This is probably a stupid question, but where did you download MPC from, and what version are you using? (I've assumed you've been getting the versions from the SourceForge site, and the latest versions, especially since you've been trying the 9X/ME builds.)

Of course, I see that a new version's just been released, but I don't know if that would help in this case, or not.

celtic_druid: Could a problem with ffdshow (or possibly one of the external splitters) cause something like this to happen? (Maybe a bad install, incomplete/corrupt/missing components, or even incompatibility with earlier builds...)

[celtic_druid]

Can't see how a dshow filter could cause a crash just by loading the player. Debugger would tell you what .ax is crashing anyway or whether it is just mplayerc.exe.

[Morse2]

Hi racingintherain;

Nasty problem you've encountered - the sure cure would be a fresh install of the OS. Let's see if we can come up with something a little less drastic though (it's still pretty drastic and involves manually editing the registry and .dll files.

All the usual warnings about editing registries apply here - DO NOT EVER GO INTO YOUR SYSTEM REGISTRY WITHOUT BEING ABLE AND WILLING TO REBUILD YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM FROM SCRATCH!! I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE YOU DO TO YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM OR DATA!! (Don't you just love our litigious society where we have to put warnings on everything lest the lawyers smell blood in the water?) With all the "keep me from getting sued" stuff out of the way, we proceed.

I'm assuming you're willing to do a clean install if necessary so a little adventure in regedit will at worst force you to rebuild from scratch - which you were going to do anyway, right? First, back up ALL your data files (hopefully you've got 'em on a separate partition from your system files) as well as your c:\Windows\System32\wpa.dbl file and record your install number (CD key) if you don't already have it written down in a safe place (the freeware program 'magic jelly bean finder' AKA 'keyfinder.exe' will let you find the CD key you used to install XP in the first place).

Now for a recce:

Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/MPLAYER and investigate the values there. Perhaps one of the handlers or .dll files is the culprit. Since the thing terminates on open, the fault has to be something that happens every time you open up mplayer classic. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/MPLAYER/CLSID and see what number(s) it gives then cross reference to the numbers under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID. That will tell you what file types are handled by MPLAYER and what it does on GetSet (i.e. startup).

As nearly as I can tell, that should pretty much cover MPLAYER's "footprint" in the registry.

Look it over closely and check to see that there are the same verbs referenced in both (CLSID will tell it what to do when one of the verbs is executed). Make sure that shellex/PropertySheetHandlers/MediaPage has the same value as the CLSID number. Check all your handlers and make sure that they are present and if necessary reload fresh copies (mine is using mciole.dll under Mplayer/protocol/StdFileEditing/Handler). Check that all of the CLSID entries have verbs that match the format in the MPlayer entry.

Before we get too adventurous though, minimize regedit and open a window under My Computer, then Tools/Folder Options/File Types and take a look at the file types that MPLAYER wants to handle (i.e. the CLSID number(s) you've already looked at). I have a suspicion that some other program (most likely culprit would be the 'regular' Media Player that MS taints your system with) has either 'updated' a codec without asking or has hijacked a file type and is now conflicting with MPLAYER. Look at the file types that are supposed to be handled by MPLAYER and see if they really are listed that way. If it's a codec issue, you'll have to find copies of the 'older' ones off your original install disc and substitute them manually (windows might balk since they are overwriting 'new and improved' ones but tell it to go ahead and do it anyway). If you do manage to find and correct a codec problem then make sure to eliminate Windows Media Player's ability to download fresh codecs (start Windows Media Player then Tools/Options/ and make sure that "download codecs automatically" is NOT CHECKED). If you don't want WMP calling home to check for new codecs at all then regedit -> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/POLICIES/MICROSOFT and add a key "WindowsMediaPlayer" with a DWORD value named "DisableAutoUpdate" and a value of "1". You'll know you did it right when Windows Media Player has 'greyed out' the 3 options (daily/weekly/monthly).

Anything past this is just brute force experimentation, so only get more aggressive (eliminate Mplayer's registry keys by hand, etc) IF you have already reconciled yourself to spending the time to rebuild Windows completely.

One of the problems with relying on "system restore" is that it does not restore codecs to their prior forms - it just backs up some registry entries and system settings rather than raw files that can be "improved" automatically by things like Windows Media Player or AutoUpdate. Next time you do a fresh install, clone a copy of your fresh OS with all installed programs onto a spare HDD that's too small for other use and put it away for safe keeping. Then if you have a corrupt OS you can just clone it back onto your computer's HDD and away you go....

Anyway, all the best and
Good luck!
Morse

[racingintherain]

Wow Morse2. Thanks for all the time and thought on this one. I plan on giving it a try over the weekend when I'll have time to do a rebuild if necessary.