October 16, 2004

4:15 PM

My PC has developed a sudden allergy to various types of Media files (Windows, Quicktime) causing the PC to freeze and have to be rebooted! (MI)
posted by zaelic to (2 comments total)

The worst offender is Windows Media files, which play for a second or so and then freeze the computer. Not even Ctrl-Alt-Delete will unfreeze the durn thing. Have to shut down and restart. A lot of media pages (Quicktime, especially) no longer load without something popping up telling me that MIME settings have changed. This includes online web radio pages that used to cause no proiblem at all.

Help me! I need to watch Jon Stweart rip Crossfire a new A-hole!
posted by zaelic at 4:18 PM on October 16, 2004

Looks like you have some file corrupted. Here's what you need to do (I had a similar problem with DivX files not playing for the longest time, not lock up though):

1. Uninstall ALL codecs listed in Add/Remove. Look for anything with the word "codec" and uninstall it.

2. Uninstall Quicktime

3. Uninstall Windows Media Player

4. Reboot as you should now have a media free computer.

5. Go to an offending web page. Nothing should load and you should have a hundred prompts trying to get you to download software. DON'T. I'd recommend nosing around different sites to make sure your computer doesn't lock up.

6. Okay you didn't download anything/install anything, right? That's great now go Windows Media Player Classic. I recommend it non-stop, I've never had it crash.

7. Now download Quicktime from Apple...

8. Download XviD for Windows.

I just did the following just yesterday and I have not had any trouble playing any media files. I'm on XP Pro SP2. If your'e still having problems go the spyware route and make sure anything spyware related is off your computer. Have fun!
posted by geoff. at 4:43 PM on October 16, 2004