Windows Media Player closes when I open files!!

[Danau]

I'm really at a loss on what to do here, I had (not sure what version) Windows Media Player and it opened up just fine and appeared to work, but as soon as I clicked or tried to play a video file,  it said something like:

"Windows Media Player has encountered a problem and needs to close."

This morning I thought I'd download Windows Media Player 11 to see if that worked, but I've found that I have the exact same problem... so I'm really stuck!

Additional Details

Now, it's not just 'one' particular video file that isn't working, it's ALL of my files which usually work perfectly, and yes, I do have a codec installed (specifically - K Lite Codec Pack) . Could it be a virus effecting my media players (I say players because I've found that Google Video and Media Player Classic aren't working either)?

Can someone please help me out, I really need to get it working again! 

Thank you! 

[str master26]

I bet your windows media player is out of date try using this and see if it works
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/10/default.aspx

[Danau]

But is Windows Media Player 11 not the most recent? In which case, I cant possibly update it 

[Calum]

WMP11 is the most recent.
Try downloading VLC media player, see if that works better.
What happened before this started?

[Danau]

It always worked fine before this, I had no problems with it at all. I dont know what's happened! 

[Calum]

How about with VLC?
And what protection do you have?
Do these video files work on another PC?

[Danau]

I'll download VLC tonight and see 

Protection..? What do you mean by that?

And.. I dont know if the work on others, I only have one PC, and they're all downloaded onto it. But they used to all work fine, I think it's the player that's the problem, not the files.

[Calum]

Protection - spyware and virus protection.
Things like Spybot, Adaware, Norton, AVG, and so on.

[Danau]

Yes, I do have those, but I dont know how well they're working to be honest!

None of my media players are working, I just get error messages and then it shuts itself down, so it's not just Windows Media and I'm not sure I want to download this VLC player thing if it's just going to have the same problem.

Is there anything else I could do? Do you/or anyone have any idea what might be wrong?

[Calum]

Which is why I asked which ones you have.

[Danau]

I dont know what ones I have I'm afraid  , sorry I'm just not very good with computers! As I'm sure you've already guessed 

[dl65]

Danau ......  Will WMP 11 ..... play a audio cd ?
What type of vid file are you trying to play ? ( what's the extension ?)
Will WMP 11 play a dvd vid ?

Let us know

dl65 

[Danau]

Danau ......  Will WMP 11 ..... play a audio cd ?
What type of vid file are you trying to play ? ( what's the extension ?)
Will WMP 11 play a dvd vid ?

Let us know

dl65 

- Yes, it's playing music and CDs, just not video files.

- I have a codec installed so it should be able to play anything, but I think mostly it's Avi files -- weirdly though, when I tried to access the folder they're in via 'My Documents', it said to protect my computer this program has to close.  What's going on there!!

- Yes, I just tried it there and DVDs are working fine.

[Danau]

Sorry to double post, but I tried to play a file again and I got this message:

"DrWatson Postmortem Debugger has encountered a problem and needs to close.  We are sorry for the inconvenience"

Does that ring a bell with anybody? What does this mean?

[dl65]

Danau .......  Ok ...... now we know you are able to play a music cd and a dvd ok using WMP 11.   I would like you to D/L   the VLC player , as already suggested by Calum .......  and try to play the vid that won't play in WMP11.
BTW , you never did say what the file extension was on the vid that wont play.


dl65