Windows Media Player 11 Crashing On Start-up

[Kaizerwolf]

Okay, to start off, I've got Windows XP Service Pack 2 and a C-Media PCI soundcard.

My issue is that Windows Media player crashes constantly on start up. This issue started a few days ago. Here is the funny thing though:

When I launch WMP from my desktop (Through a shortcut) or if I find wmplayer.exe and run that, it opens fine and I can play things. However, if I go into 'My Documents", right click on an mp3 or wave file, and go to "Play With Windows Media Player", it plays a few seconds of the song and crashes. It either cuts the program right off, or it pops up an error message saying "We're sorry for the inconvenience..." blah, blah, blah.

I mainly use WMP to clean out old music files that I don't need (I create music with FL Studio, and I've got a lot of old un-needed music files) and I don't want to add them to iTunes, because I've got a while set-up scheme where any song that I add to iTunes goes to my External HD, but that's another story.

If anyone knows how to fix this issue, I would really appreciate it!

(Btw; I have already tried rebooting.)

-Kaizerwolf

[Kaizerwolf]

New update: Just found that WMP will always crash if I select the "Now Playing" area. I don't think any visualizers are running either.

[Kaizerwolf]

(I can't seem to find an edit button. O.o)

Any visualizer now crashes WMP, both standard and ones I have downloaded. I have not added any new visualizers in the past couple months.

[exile360]

Greetings

It may be an issue with your video card drivers having trouble rendering the visualizations. I have observed similar, if not identical behaviors in the past myself. To check, disable all visualizations from displaying by selecting None and see if it helps. Then, remove any custom codec packs or codecs you might have installed that did not come with your PC (both video and audio), this likely includes removing any audio\video convertors, editors or encoders. Then, grab the latest video drivers for your graphics cards from the chipset manufacturer:

• ATI Graphics Drivers
  
• Intel Graphics Drivers Update Detection Tool
  
• NVIDIA Drivers
  

[Kaizerwolf]

Well, I am going to be getting a new PC in a few days, so I don't think I should bother with upgrading the video card I have now, since it will change later on. Thank you for the advice though, next time I will know!

-Kaizerwolf

[exile360]

I'm not referring to buying any new hardware, I was referring to simply uninstalling your current drivers and installing the latest ones from the card manufacturer. It's absolutely free and it's always a good idea to keep your drivers updated anyway .

[Firefox]

another thing to check.... what version of windows media player are you using? Maybe getting the latest version may solve your issue too.

[Kaizerwolf]

Exile360; My parents have been planning to get me a new computer for a while. They just recently decided to go and buy it.

Firefox; I believe it is version 11 for Windows XP.

-Kaizerwolf

[DarkSnakeKobra]

(I can't seem to find an edit button. O.o)

Any visualizer now crashes WMP, both standard and ones I have downloaded. I have not added any new visualizers in the past couple months.

BTW you have to be an honorary Member to edit. To become one you have to make 50+ posts

[exile360]

Exile360; My parents have been planning to get me a new computer for a while. They just recently decided to go and buy it.

That's great, but please understand I was not suggesting that you replace your video card, only the drivers, which is the software used by Windows to identify your hardware and make it work. Updating the drivers can often fix bugs and errors such as the one you mentioned which is why I recommended it.