[Harlem]

Hi all

I wonder if some of you can help me out

When I use either Realplayer or Win. media Player my computer decides that it has done enough & freezes & I have to switch it off

Normally when the media player is being used there are no other massive programs running but without fail my computer will freeze

Normally the players are only used for Music but sometime I use them to watch downloaded versions of Lost

I do use PPS sometimes, but run Malewarebot, AVG Virus Checker everyday & Zonealarm Firewall is always on

C Drive size - 30Gb - 15 Gb Free - if that helps at all

I have also tried reinstalling both Mdeia & Real player

Edited by Harlem, 04 February 2007 - 04:28 PM.

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Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go. What version of WMP are you using? Do you have the latest codec pack for it? You can check at M$. Also, there is a great alternative player that uses WMP classic which will play all of the stuff that WMP will play, plus quicktime (.mov) and real player. Get the klite codec pack at
http://www.afterdawn...c_pack_full.cfm
I use WMP9 and Classic Klite myself, don't even have quicktime or real player installed.

Edited by austin_o, 03 February 2007 - 07:18 PM.

[austin_o]

Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go. What version of WMP are you using? Do you have the latest codec pack for it? You can check at M$. Also, there is a great alternative player that uses WMP classic which will play all of the stuff that WMP will play, plus quicktime (.mov) and real player. Get the klite codec pack at
http://www.afterdawn...c_pack_full.cfm
I use WMP9 and Classic Klite myself, don't even have quicktime or real player installed.

Edited by austin_o, 03 February 2007 - 07:18 PM.

[Harlem]

I am using Version 10 of WMP

I have downloaded klcodec283f & will see how that performs

[fleamailman]

hi, I find WMP to be limited as we have seen, I use vlc as it is free and plays most stuff

vlc
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

[Harlem]

I now think that the problem may be more than just the media player that I am using as my computer has frozen twice today outwith the times I am using any media files

Could I be overdstretching the reasources of my PC

Edited by Harlem, 04 February 2007 - 03:41 PM.

[Harlem]

Just thought I would be well listing the maintenance I perform (most of this has only recently started)

Defrag: -Twice Weekly

Disk Clean Up: - Daily

MalewareBot : - Daily

AVG Virus Scan : - Daily

[fleamailman]

what are you specs, do you have enough ram, are you running too many programs in the background(what startups in msconfig could be disabled I wonder), anyways here's a spring clean list to be done once in a while

Time to use your "runbox" to clean your computer,
(all these steps are done with the run box then, winkey in the button on the keyboard that looks like microsoft's flag)

deleting the prefetch files
-----------------------------
runbox command
- press keyboard buttons: winkey + r
- paste in the slot: prefetch
- press: enter
(the prefetch folder opens)
- press: ctrl + a
(select all is the same)
- press: shift + del
(deletes without prompt)

disc clean up
---------------
runbox command
- press keyboard buttons:winkey + r
- paste: cleanmgr.exe
- choose drive(normally C: )
- press: enter
(this process can take a long time)

checkdisk
------------
runbox command
- press the keyboard buttons: winkey + r
- paste in the slot: chkdsk /f /r
- press: enter
( black window appears)
- press: Y button
- press: enter
- reboot the comp
(this process is the longest, worse the screen may be
lost before hours later the computer arrives at the welcome screen)

disc defragmenter
----------------------
runbox command
- press the keyboard buttons: winkey + r
- paste in the slot: dfrg.msc
- press enter
(this process can take a long time)

deleting internet cookies, files and history
-------------------------------------------------
- press the keyboard buttons: winkey + r
- paste in the slot: inetcpl.cpl
- press: enter
- click: delete cookies
- click: delete file
- click: clear history

disable unwanted startups
------------------------------
runbox command
- press: winkey + r
- paste: msconfig
- press: enter
- click tab: start ups
- keep: the AV and firewall entriies enabled,
- disable: 100% unused or unneeded entries
- Unsure about the start up: http://www.bleepingc...r.com/startups/
(IMPORTANT: enable all startups before running the Hijackthis program)


btw did you try vlc in place of wmp, hope you agree that it is more versitile.

Edited by fleamailman, 05 February 2007 - 06:57 AM.

[Harlem]

This is the mainenance I have recently kept on top of

Defrag: -Twice Weekly

Disk Clean Up: - Daily

MalewareBot : - Daily

AVG Virus Scan : - Daily

checkdisk : - Twice Weekly

I also disabled unwanted startups

deleted the prefetch files

----------------------------
System Specs

Processor 1 (ID = 0)
Number of cores 1
Name Intel Pentium 4
Specification Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Package Socket 478 mPGA (platform ID = 2h)
CPUID F.2.7
Technology 0.13 um
Core Speed 2852.1 MHz (21.0 x 135.8 MHz)
Rated Bus speed 543.2 MHz
Stock frequency 2800 MHz
Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2
L1 Data cache 8 KBytes, 4-way set associative, 64-byte line size
Trace cache 12 Kuops, 8-way set associative
L2 cache 512 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control no


Northbridge SiS ID0651 rev. 01
Southbridge SiS LPC Bridge rev. 04
Graphic Interface AGP
AGP Revision 2.0
AGP Transfer Rate 4x
AGP SBA supported, enabled
Memory Type
Memory Size 512 MBytes

Hope thats enought

Ps I have dowloaded vlc and like it

[fleamailman]

Hi again, is the last post saying that you were doing all I advised before sorry if so, btw what protection are you using that too can make a difference, any more freezes happening?

[Harlem]

HI there

I have only recently started that maintenance routine tbh

Protection is as follows

AVG AntiVirus Free Edition

Zone Alarm Firewall

Winpatrol

Malewarebot

CCleaner

AdAware SE

Edited by Harlem, 06 February 2007 - 11:54 AM.

[Harlem]

After doing a bit if readingon Tinternet & onthis site I wonder if it possible that I have a problem with my RAM Mamory

Is this a possibility & anyone know of how to fix it

[fleamailman]

quite possible but all I can suggest is buying new making sure that you have the right type, no magic shortcut, sorry