pc crashes when playing media...help!

[Dankenstone]

ok, whenever i try to play music or movie files, in any media player, my comp crashes about a second into the file. i had recent problems with my video drivers, but i'm pretty sure i fixed those, as this new problem has just arisen...somebody plz help me!!!!! oh god

[GaryRouth]

Are you seeing Stop errors? If so, can you post an example?

Might still be a driver issue - if you have XP, did you try a System Restore or a Driver Rollback for the video? Or did you uninstall/reinstall the drivers?

You might want to uninstall/reinstall your audio drivers as well. [Did you happen to download any new codecs lately?]

And by all means, run anti-malware scans to make sure no unwanted visitors are corrupting files.

Since the issue only occurs when playing media, I wouldn't usually suspect a hardware issue (though if you want to be extra thorough, you could check the hard drive).

If the problem doesn't resolve with one of the quick fixes, post some more specifics - your Operating System, video & audio devices, etc.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[P.S. - and Welcome to the PC Mechanic forums]

[macko72]

Welcome to Pc Mech, I would say that you should check for malware first but since you mentioned video drivers double check them( check display modes, and refresh rates and other settings) and check your memory(RAM) http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp !!!

[mushroom]

Since you are dealing with large files (probably downloading storing deleting etc) you could check if your HD is heavily fragmented. The crashes can also be due to the same. When the HD tried to read parts of the fragmented files, this may happen. Make it a point to run a defragmenter regularly on the HD. If you cant do it manually, set an automatic third party tool on the job.

[Spade713]

It seems to be about drivers, but i just want to make sure youre not running a 486