Big problems with windows update, and WMP 10

**frogbeastegg** · 10-20-2006, 11:49

I did a full reformat and reinstall because my install was over a year old and a bit unstable thanks to it crashing while I installed the drivers for my new video card. That install of windows was Not Good; I had no end of trouble, mostly thanks to microsoft's automated rubbish refusing to let me register and update my copy of the OS. That install was slow, bloated and unstable. So I did another a few days ago.

Some of my PC woes aren't solved. I tried to play a WMP format movie just now and it did the same thing as before: slowed my PC to such a crawl it takes minutes to swap from one window to another, blocked task manager from appearing, and forced me to hit the reboot button. The movie didn't get past the "Opening media" stage. I can't see what is causing this! It's been happening ever since I got the new video card (geforce 7600gt agp, replacing a radeon 9800 pro, so there shouldn't be any issues with power supply, heat etc). Any movies at all, whatever the format, whether they are downloaded or streamed off the net - they all come to the same result. I can't watch any of the M2TW preview movies, for example.

Any ideas? I have WMP 10, and updating to the horrible WMP 11 beta version makes no difference. I tried that before the reinstall and I'm not letting the horrible 'update' back on my system. I like WMP 10. Ever since its release I've been using it as my Swiss army knife media tool - it worked perfectly with everything and anything, and was as stable as could be. Never had any trouble until I got the new video card. I don't want to be using an alternative program - that would leave this issue lingering in the background, ready to strike. It was one of these crashes which messed up my troubled install of windows so badly it wouldn't boot to desktop. It would feel like leaving a bomb ticking away in the PC.

Also Windows update is not offering me SP2 because it appears to think I already have it. Worse, IE goes into not-responding mode when I try to update. I have to kill it with task manager. I use Firefox for browsing, but there's no alternative to using IE for updating.

I'm hesitant to install SP2 manually using the seperate download, as I wonder what effect it will have on the updates which have already been downloaded and installed. SP2 might have older versions of some of the files, and I might not be able to get the latest updates again.

I'm really sick of this - it's been two months since this damned box worked properly and I don't have much time to waste on it.

**frogbeastegg** · 10-20-2006, 14:11

Update: I tried the DivX player, just to see what happened. It does the same thing as WMP, save that it slowly manages to work its way through crashing the program, bringing up error reporting, sending a report, and then closing and returning the PC to a normal state. Takes it ten minutes or more to work through all that! The error report says help is available - that help turns out to be a screen telling me no specific solution is available now, but that I should install SP2. So on some level the PC knows I don't have SP2.

What the heck is going on?! :mutters:

**LeftEyeNine** · 10-21-2006, 11:21

Moved to Hard- & Software for better examination.

**tibilicus** · 10-21-2006, 11:35

Is it when you watch films in generel or when you just use the spesific programs?

**LeftEyeNine** · 10-21-2006, 11:45

Dear frog, first of all what is your video driver version ?

Secondly, I'll anyhow recommend KLite Codec Pack to be downloaded and installed, making sure that any other codecs (or packs, if any. e.g. DivX Player and its codecs) are uninstalled prior to the installation of this codec pack. The pack comes with Media Player Classic although I know that you really like WMP 10.

If after this pack you still get ultra-slaggish performance, I'll recommend you to use Crystal Player. Because once, I had the exact problem as you had that occured with all media players on my machine (WMP, MP Classic and BSPlayer) which made me think that codec pack was the problem and forced me to change it. However as soon as I realised that changing the codec pack did not mean anything, I hopelessly gave Crystal Player a try and voila! It was working like charm.

That update thing..Well I have countless times faced it. It took frustrating days to get to know that when your Windows Update somehow "clogs" during downloading the updates, it screws all your restarts and the availability of WU website through IE. It yields the exact symptoms as you describe.

First of all Go to Control Panel > Automatic Updates (sp?). When you're there you'll get 4 choices. Choos the third one saying "Notify me, but don't download automatically" (I roughly translated it. I don't know the exact definition there due to my OS being Turkish). Click Apply, OK.

Now go to your Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs. And in that window there's a tickbox above saying "Show Updates" (or something similar, my OS is Turkish). When you tick it and scroll down towards letter W, you'll see "Windows XP - Software Updates". Now remove them all from your system one by one. Don't restart until you've uninstalled them all even if Win XP prompts you to.

Now take a restart, and you'll find that your OS is as it is out of the box, in seconds Windows will notify you about the available updates in the corner again, you may cancel them so as to download SP2 before anything else. When you download and install SP2 peacefully, you may start doing those minor updates again.

Good luck.

**frogbeastegg** · 10-21-2006, 19:57

The IE/updater issue is now fixed. Huzzah!

TosaInu found some topics on a nvidia forum about issues with playing files in WMP format. It's a fault with the 91.47 drivers. Whatever player is used files in that format will bring the system to its knees, and the only solution is to exit the player. Unfortunately I can't use the ones which others report as having solved their problems; they refuse to install on my system, saying there is no qualifying product. Guess this means they don't support my 7600GT. They were the 85.something drivers.

I would expect that such a major issue would prompt Nvidia to fix the driver. Having been an ATI using frog for the last three years I don't know what Nvidia's track record is for attending to such issues.

**TosaInu** · 10-21-2006, 20:23

Historically (general black and white tunnelvision syndrome statement):
ATI-better hardware.
NVIDIA-better driver(support).

**Blodrast** · 10-21-2006, 21:29

froggy: for all your movie viewing purposes, feel free to give VLC a try (videolan.org). It's free, it has all the codecs you'll ever need (so no need to download any codec packs - not that there's anything wrong with that), it runs on windows, linux, macos and anything else you want, and I have yet to find a format it cant' play.

**LeftEyeNine** · 10-22-2006, 00:14

Originally Posted by Blodrast

froggy: for all your movie viewing purposes, feel free to give VLC a try (videolan.org). It's free, it has all the codecs you'll ever need (so no need to download any codec packs - not that there's anything wrong with that), it runs on windows, linux, macos and anything else you want, and I have yet to find a format it cant' play.

VLC is a rusty swiss army knife. BSPlayer is a shiny blade.

**Husar** · 10-22-2006, 00:32

Originally Posted by TosaInu

Historically (general black and white tunnelvision syndrome statement):
ATI-better hardware.
NVIDIA-better driver(support).

I agree, but I noticed that some of the newer drivers work worse with my 6600GT than the old 6x.xx I had before and which I accidentally deleted...

They also screwed up the nice menu they had before and replaced it with an overly complex, ugly, crappy menu.
I might even switch to ATI with my next video card.
I also suspected the drivers for that issue of the frog, lately they have been messing around too much, at least the newest one doesn't turn on Anti Aliasing when browsing the web anymore...

I think LEN gave some good answers to the rest though I have to state here that Media Player 11 is lovely, the album pictures in the media library alone are worth the upgrade IMO.

**Blodrast** · 10-22-2006, 07:49

Originally Posted by LeftEyeNine

VLC is a rusty swiss army knife. BSPlayer is a shiny blade.

Ahem. Actually, I've been using bsplayer for over 4 years. Until quite recently, it wasn't even able to play DVDs. Actually, the version I am still using (and make no mistake, I am still using it), still can't (1.00.812). Never bothered to update.

1. Bsplayer is windows only. VLC runs on most unix flavors, including linux; windows; and mac os-es.

2. Bsplayer still requires you to install a bunch of codecs; VLC doesn't (personally, that doesn't bother me on windows, where I already have installed ffdshow, matroska, xvidcc4, and prolly a few others that I've forgotten about; however, on other OSes, finding codecs and installing them is not quite trivial, on the contrary).

3. I haven't checked this, so I might be wrong, but can Bsplayer read stuff straight from vcd's, i.e. from bin/cue files ? VLC can.

4. Finally, which in itself would be a deal breaker for me, Bsplayer is commercial. Yes, I know, there is a free version, and there is a "pro" version you have to pay for. BUT, because it's closed-source, and a commercial application, there is absolutely nothing preventing its makers to start charging for it at some point - I daresay quite a few similar cases have been known to happen over the years. Or simply discontinue it. Or do whatever they want with it. On the other hand, VLC is open-source. Can't beat that in my book.

As always, YMMV.

**LeftEyeNine** · 10-22-2006, 11:27

BSPlayer handles all movies the way it has to be done -brilliant visuality and errorr-free subtitle implementation. That's why it is a shiny blade.

VLC has all codecs with it a lifesaver when you just have to watch something. But fails about visual quality and subtitles. That's why it is a rusty Swiss army knife IMHO.

**TosaInu** · 10-22-2006, 13:32

Originally Posted by Husar

I agree, but I noticed that some of the newer drivers work worse with my 6600GT than the old 6x.xx I had before and which I accidentally deleted...

They also screwed up the nice menu they had before and replaced it with an overly complex, ugly, crappy menu.

That's very correct and also my experience. Not all drivers work great with everything, newer isn't necessarily beter and sometimes a beta is exactely the right thing for your system. You've to experiment a bit and save what works best for you.

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download...0&sort=&page=3

GURU3d is a great source for gfx hardware, but not only that. They have almost 500 drivers for 32 bit GF.

**frogbeastegg** · 10-22-2006, 18:18

I used to have VLC but lost it when my PC got melted by a powercut. I couldn't remember what it was called, so I couldn't find it again. Thanks for the link. It was a useful tool, and a good auxiliary player. I liked the way you could use it to play videos in a window size of your specification, stretching tiny videos to fill the entire screen.

Originally Posted by Husar

I have to state here that Media Player 11 is lovely, the album pictures in the media library alone are worth the upgrade IMO.

That's one of the things I hated! Without those pointless pictures I can fit far more tracks on my library screen without swapping the player to fullscreen mode. Having nearly 300 tracks in my library, the pictures added a lot of extra scrolling for me, even when I shrunk them to the smallest allowed. And it wouldn't let me turn the pictures off, which scored a big pile of bad points.

The little button thingy which brings up the playlist etc menu while the player is in toolbar mode was also gone without trace; it was one of my favourite features.