XP locking up on .wmv files

[Netherz]

Hello,

I'll try and explain my problem as best I can:

Basically when I try to play .wmv files, the video doesn't play and the rest of windows completely locks up and slows down, like the processor is working at 1-2% of it's normal speed or something.
The screen also flashes off/on every few seconds. When I close the player (I've tried WMP, Creative Source and DivX player) the problem stops.

Gaming, video streaming (google video etc) and .avi files seem to work fine...It's just .wmv files (and also I recently experienced the same problem trying to run Windows Messenger Live). I've tried different video card drivers (i'm using a 7800GS) and updating codecs etc.

Any advice?

[redwudz]

That 'may' be a problem with Windows Explorer trying to read the video. A very similar thing can happen with corrupted Xvids where they bring Explorer to a stall, along with the rest of the computer.

Next time that happens, have Task Manager running with the CPU usage shown. It may happen too fast to spot it, but I suspect your CPU usage hits 100% when everything locks up.

Does it do this with all WMVs? Some WMV formats may cause problems if you don't have the codecs/players that can understand them.

You might try VLC media player instead of WMP and see if it can play them. If you are sure the WMV files are not corrupt or some newer version of the format, then you may have a codec problem.

You can try a program like Codec Sniper to find and remove corrupted codecs.

EDIT: And Netherz, one post per subject is enough. I will lock the other thread.

Moderator redwudz

[Netherz]

thanks for your reply, I checked and the CPU usage did hit 100%

is there anything I can do to fix it?

the CPU is an AMD Sempron 3000+ socket 754 btw

it seems to do it will all .wmv's also, and it also happened when a friend tried to start an audio conversation with me over msn :S

[redwudz]

First make sure your WMV's are not corrupted. If they are not, maybe not so easy. You can try Codec Sniper as I would assume your WMV codec is messed up somehow. Being it's integrated into the OS, not so easy to fix as other codecs.

And have you tried VLC? It won't work with all WMV versions, but should on the older ones.

If your WMV's are newer, maybe DRM or some other Microsoft newer version is incompatible with your present player?

Maybe update your Windows Media Player and see it that corrects the problem.

Worst case, you may need to reinstall Windows.

And before you do anything drastic, check with Microsoft. They may have a simple solution. http://support.microsoft.com/support/mediaplayer/wmptshoot.asp?SD=gn&LN=en-us

[Netherz]

ok

the WMV's are definately not corrupted, and it the same problem occured when I tried VLC

i've also tried using WMP 11

but, when i'm looking for the wmv codecs using codec_sniper, the I'm not entirely sure what I should be looking for... "windows media video codec" I imagine but I couldn't find it, the closest ones were:

WMV Decoder - Version 8.00.00.4487 - Ok
WMV Decoder - Version 8.0.0.4000 - Ok
WMV Multiplexer - Version 11.0.5705.5043 - Ok
WMV source filter - Version 11.0.5705.5043 - Ok
WMV update filter - Version 11.0.5705.5043 - Ok
WMV 9 VCM - Version 9.0.1.0369 - Ok