[enderw]

Hi, my name is Michael. Lately, for the past few weeks, whenever I view a video online that streams using the in-browser Windows Media player, the browser almost instantly freezes upon the stream starting (like even before buffering) and "stops working and must shut down." This happens in both browsers I've tried, IE and Firefox 3. This is really annoying and I was wondering if anyone knows about this kind of thing. I've read that WMP is integrated into the Vista OS (which I'm running) so you can't uninstall it, which I was going to try, and then reinstall it, but I couldn't. I don't have a Vista DVD (but I could probably get one for like $15 from my University) so I can't put it in and use the Repair utility, so if you can think of any other options I'd be greatly appreciative.

I've included two pics of the error window (in each of its stages) that pops up in either browser:

Edited by enderw, 25 July 2008 - 01:11 AM.

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I wonder if Adobe Flash is up to date and if WMP is up to date. See if you can see if there are any available updates and try updating. Then close down the browser, open it up again and try again. You may have some permissions blocked or set too high. Is it on all video streams or from a particular site, such as youtube?

[coachwife6]

I wonder if Adobe Flash is up to date and if WMP is up to date. See if you can see if there are any available updates and try updating. Then close down the browser, open it up again and try again. You may have some permissions blocked or set too high. Is it on all video streams or from a particular site, such as youtube?

[enderw]

I wonder if Adobe Flash is up to date and if WMP is up to date. See if you can see if there are any available updates and try updating. Then close down the browser, open it up again and try again. You may have some permissions blocked or set too high. Is it on all video streams or from a particular site, such as youtube?

I'll try to update Flash, but it seems like that shouldn't matter since it's a Windows Media problem, not a flash problem. I already have the most up-to-date version of WMP, so I can't update that. It's on all sites, none in particular. I've found that it also happens when streaming audio the same way; www.zshare.net is a good example (people have uploaded demo music tracks they've written so I could listen via stream, but it freezes, shuts down, etc.). Regarding the permissions and whatnot, how would I go about setting the permissions lower or unblocking them? Youtube is not affected whatsoever because again it's not a flash problem. My browser shuts down only when trying to stream using Windows Media Player (in the browser; there aren't any problems when opening the program itself).

[coachwife6]

Have you tried viewing it in another media program besides WMP? These types of problems are always difficult to diagnose/solve.

In IE, go to internet options and then security. See if lowering the settings helps.