An interesting 'quirk' my computer has developed for movies...

For the last year or so, when I use certain players, my computer freezes the minute I try and open the program. Specifically, Real Player (Real Alternative has the issue as well), VLC Player, Quicktime and DivX. As far as I know, I had them up to date, but they just don't want to cooperate. Anyone heard of this? I have no problems with FLV Player or Windows Media, or Winamp....but those three just can't play everything for me :/

A friend suggested that perhaps some of them were clashing, but I uninstalled almost several of them and still no success. Anyone have an idea?

 

I don't have the answer -- sorry, but just to let you know that I also have RealPlayer, VLC Player, Quicktime + DivX as well as Windows Media Player -- and they don't clash with each other. So I don't think that's the specific issue. But your friend may be right in that something has become corrupted --- it's just a question of taking the time (and patience) to methodically figure out what has become corrupted. If it were my system, I would start uninstalling and reinstalling each of those apps ONE BY ONE, and after each uninstall/reinstall seeing if that solved the problem. Then I would also start uninstalling and reinstalling any other apps that have to do with the playing of media, starting with my browser.

 

thanks for the quick reply I've taken your advice and started to uninstall players. Interestingly enough, When I started to uninstall the first of the problem children (DivX), my computer, you guessed it, froze XD Not sure if that provides any help but....should I continue with uninstalling players or..?

 

I wonder if DivX is universally troublesome. I have it too, and always have trouble with it. To make matters worse, whenever I try to download a DivX video, most of the time my system doesn't even recognize that I already have it, and I continually get pop-ups telling me I have to install DivX to watch the video.

So, to answer your question, before uninstalling anything else, it's a good idea to see what happens with the uninstalling of DivX. First question -- were you able to successfully uninstall it? If not, try uninstalling it manually by going to its folder in the C:\ drive or by doing an Advanced Search and removing the DivX file components, one by one. If the system won't let you uninstall it, I would leave it alone, and try uninstalling the next one. After each uninstall, wait a while before uninstalling the next one, to see what, if anything, the effect is. If it turns out the media apps aren't causing the problem, I would uninstall and reinstall your browser. Eventually, when you have uninstalled them all, you can start reinstalling them, again, one by one and waiting enough time after each install that you know your computer is okay.

 

New development! I've uninstalled all players but Windows Media and....windows media now plays Real player files. It may be a codec pack I installed recently, or it may not have, but at any rate, the issue has more or less resolved itself. If I come across a problem again, I'll post again. Thanks so much for you help =)