This is an issue with my Windows 7 computer. No locally stored videos or DVDs will play using either Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic, ALShow or VLC. When I try to play a video or DVD I get the error message: “(player name) has stopped working. Windows is looking for a solution…” The players WILL play audio files with no problem. All the players USED TO work, so something has changed. VLC has been my go-to player, so I uninstalled and re-installed it but it still crashes when I try to open any video file or play a DVD with it. The computer will play video from YouTube, Vimeo, ect. Can anyone help me with this?
OK, my suggestion WAS going to be to try VLC, because that always works for everything… but if even VLC isn’t working, sorry, I’ve got nothin’.
It’s probably worth installing/reinstalling some video codecs. Download K-Lite Codec Pack
I migrated away from VLC to SM Player a while ago on my older computers. It works better in some ways - see if that helps.
Or you can do what I just did. I got a new (used) laptop with Windows 10 and spent two days swearing at it while turning off innumerable features I didn’t want that Microsoft diligently tries to shove down my throat. Linux is next for me, I think.
I was re-reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide again recently and I think Douglas Adams was really prescient about the idea of technology growing so slick and powerful that it cannot function properly anymore. Microsoft could have stopped adding features to Windows years ago and been better off for it.
Since this is a sudden change while using the same software, I would tend to suspect a hardware issue. This is especially so since you are using a Windows 7 computer, meaning said computer is at least 8 or 9 years old.
One issue that would be in common with all video players, but not anything else, would be a GPU issue. All video players, including VLC, use some level of the GPU for to accelerate the video. Fortunately, however, VLC does have options to turn that off. Quoting straight from teh VLC wiki:
From the menu toolbar select Tools → Preferences → Input & Codecs → Codecs → Hardware-accelerated decoding. To disable, select Disable. To re-enable, select Automatic (unless a particular hardware acceleration method is desired).
Remember to press Save to save VLC settings and restart VLC after that to make sure changes are enabled.
Note that disabling hardware acceleration will make the playback use your CPU. Depending on how old your computer is and the quality of the video file, this may make video jerky or something.
It’s also possible this makes it worse. In that case, it might be a problem with the CPU. I can’t help much with that, unless the whole computer shuts off, which could mean it’s overheating, and you need to clean everything out.
What does the Event Viewer say? It would log a specific error and help identify the source…
(Search for, run, “eventvwr”
Windows logs.
Run a video, see what the event is that caused it to fail)
Thanks. I disabled Hardware Acceleration but sadly no change.
I found the applicable (I think) portion of the event log and made a screen shot to post here but I am getting an error here that says I can’t post images. Even tho the box says to drag images here. Grrr.
Windows 7 has a troubleshooter which you might try:
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You can’t upload images to the SDMB, but if they’re hosted elsewhere, you can post links to them.
That would be my guess too. Some kind of codec glitch or bug is causing the player to throw a fault, and that’s why it does it regardless of what player you’re using; they all probably use the same codec for DVDs. YouTube, Vimeo, etc… are streaming video to your browser, so there’s not a lot of decoding going on at your end- just display, if I understand how that works.
A hardware problem or OS problem would tend to be more pervasive, or at least that’s what my gut tells me. You’d see problems in many areas/places if it was either of those, not just in the very specific case of getting the same sort of error playing the same sort of file, regardless of player. That points at codecs to me.
One possibility is that the OP has downloaded some malware somehow so he should run his antivirus software.
what’s the text of the obvious errors, if any? There should be something in the Windows>Application (or System) where the first level is not “Information” at the time where you tried to run a video.
(BTW - does the PC play audio files, like music? Does it play video from websites, like when you go to CNN.com or something?)
If you run out of ideas, try Pot Player (https://potplayer.daum.net/), it has an option to select different video renderers which may or may not provide some insight.
I feel silly asking this, because it seems likely you would have mentioned it if there was something…
What changes have you made to the computer or its configuration prior to the problem? Have you installed or uninstalled any new software? Changed or upgraded any hardware?
Thank you. I tired this but it didn’t help.
Here is a link to the screenshot of Event Viewer. Is there any information here that would lead to a solution?
Thank you. Nothing in the troubleshooter was helpful.
No everything has remained the same over the past few years. The issue started with the video players crashing about 50% of the time and it has now escalated to 100%.
This sounds like a thermal issue.