Windows explorer crashing
Discussion
Help - having very annoying problems (just started today) with windows explorer and media player crashing on me repeatedly and really not sure why.
Media player seems to have become unable to play AVI files that it used to handle fine (now is just funny coloured patterns with sound instead of the video), and frequently will give the old '... has encountered a problem and needs to close' after trying to play them.
As for explorer, it does it for no obvious reason, just browsing through it and get the '... has encountered a problem and needs to close', then sometimes a freeze forcing me to restart computer. It even gave me that message and crashed (to black screen) my pc once when explorer wasn't even open, I was watching a DVD in media centre, paused it and went to minimise media centre then it crashed, gave me that, no response from it, messenger, or task manager after I used it to close media centre.
One of the crashes gave me an end program window when I tried to restart saying DDE server window is not responding, but I don't actually have any idea what a DDE server is.
Any ideas what could be the issue? I wondered if it was related to running regcleaner recently but I've restored the backup from there and hasn't fixed anything.
Running XP media centre, athlon64 3400+, 512mb ram, radeon9550.
Media player seems to have become unable to play AVI files that it used to handle fine (now is just funny coloured patterns with sound instead of the video), and frequently will give the old '... has encountered a problem and needs to close' after trying to play them.
As for explorer, it does it for no obvious reason, just browsing through it and get the '... has encountered a problem and needs to close', then sometimes a freeze forcing me to restart computer. It even gave me that message and crashed (to black screen) my pc once when explorer wasn't even open, I was watching a DVD in media centre, paused it and went to minimise media centre then it crashed, gave me that, no response from it, messenger, or task manager after I used it to close media centre.
One of the crashes gave me an end program window when I tried to restart saying DDE server window is not responding, but I don't actually have any idea what a DDE server is.
Any ideas what could be the issue? I wondered if it was related to running regcleaner recently but I've restored the backup from there and hasn't fixed anything.
Running XP media centre, athlon64 3400+, 512mb ram, radeon9550.
First step. Malware sweep, AV sweep, Windows Update. Repeat the first two in safe mode.
Second step. Just for giggles try getting something like VLC and see if it'll play back the AVI's and stuff fine... it could be that Windows has corrupted it's own codec's. Best case, reinstall the DVD playback software (Windows can't do it on it's own) and perhaps DivX as well. Worst case... we're gonna have to break out google to figure out how to reinstall the 'built-in' codecs that ship with windows (repair install?)
Second step. Just for giggles try getting something like VLC and see if it'll play back the AVI's and stuff fine... it could be that Windows has corrupted it's own codec's. Best case, reinstall the DVD playback software (Windows can't do it on it's own) and perhaps DivX as well. Worst case... we're gonna have to break out google to figure out how to reinstall the 'built-in' codecs that ship with windows (repair install?)
ThePassenger said:
First step. Malware sweep,
ran ad-aware straight away ThePassenger said:
AV sweep,
ran AVG too ThePassenger said:
Windows Update.
Tried that, doesn't show any urgent updates but might try again for other ones ThePassenger said:
Repeat the first two in safe mode.
Hmm haven't tried that. ThePassenger said:
Second step. Just for giggles try getting something like VLC and see if it'll play back the AVI's and stuff fine... it could be that Windows has corrupted it's own codec's. Best case, reinstall the DVD playback software (Windows can't do it on it's own) and perhaps DivX as well. Worst case... we're gonna have to break out google to figure out how to reinstall the 'built-in' codecs that ship with windows (repair install?)
VLC still runs the AVI's fine. I'll check to make sure media player is still running other formats ok see if its just AVI's that are the problem.
Mrs Fish said:
Just been on the phone to my mum, she is experiencing the exact same problems that you described.
Oh ok, interesting. Post up here if you find out what the problem was, I'll do the same. No solutions found yet but have been out most of the day so not actually doing anything on it.
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff