I'm trying to help my friend.

She has a laptop computer with Windows XP (with SP1 and now SP2) using BOTH IE and Firefox and have a problem which occurs with Windows Media Player 10 AND 11 Beta. The problem is that she is able to play video's and listen to music as a standalone player with NO PROBLEMS. HOWEVER when she tried to view a Windows Media type video on a website (embedded), it shows "loading...." and nothing happens. She then gets the dreadded

Windows Media Player has encountered a problem and must shut down.

It then shuts down ALL Browser windows and looses everything she was doing in them and she has to reboot.

We uninstalled Windows media player and reinstalled it. Same problem. We then tried Windows Media Player 11Beta and still same thing.

1. Is there perhaps a way to FORCE another player (ie. Realplayer) to view embedded Windows Media Player type files embedded on websites?
2. What could be causing this?

Thanks very much for your help!

First off I would suggest not using Beta software as a troubleshooting device.

That being said see if you can get the exact error being thrown.

When it must shut down you should have an option to send the error to Microsoft. You should also be able to view this error. Perhaps there will be a Details button. You are looking for something like this:

> AppName: wmplayer.exe AppVer: 10.0.0.3802 ModName: wininet.dll
> ModVer: 6.0.2900.2781 Offset: 000793a3
> Using WMP 10.00.00.3990 WinXP home edition SP2.


...other places to look:

1. Also view your Error Log via:

[1] Start Menu
[2] Help and Support
[3] Pick a Task
[4] Tools
[5] Advanced System Information
[6] View the Error Log

Look for any synchronous entries.


2. Also: look in your Event viewer: rt. click My Computer then click Manage then Event Viewer.
Or: Administrative Tools/Event Viewer or Start/Run/ eventvwr
Open the system as well as the application tabs & look for X errors. Click error line for details.
Post back the source & event id & Description especially of errors that seem to coincide with this issue.
Also check the Information lines that might coincide with this issue.

How to view and manage event logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP

WOW!! Thank you SO much! I will see if this helps her out. I'd REALLY like to get this working for her as it's really a Pain in the butt for her :-)

Is there a way to force say REALPLAYER to load the Website Embedded Windows Media file instead? Help to determine if it's WMA or something else.. ?

If you can right click it and download it it might work (Save Target...). After downloading right click and choose: (Open With...).

You could also try changing the file association here:

start > Control Panel > Folder Options > File Types

Otherwise I don't know. You could try associating the file type with: MPLAYER2.EXE if Real Player won't work.

You can open that basic player from start > run: MPLAYER2.EXE

Here is the error she gets:

szAppName : szAppVer : 0.0.0.0 szModName : hungapp
szModVer : 0.0.0.0 offset : 00000000

C:\DOCUME~1\Patricia\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER77.tmp.dir00 \FIREFOX.EXE.mdmp
C:\DOCUME~1\Patricia\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER77.tmp.dir00 \appcompat.txt

Sorry there is nothing useful there.

To view those dump logs .dmp you can do this:

If you want to try and analyze the XP errors:

Go to start | search (type in) .dmp
Note the location of your .dmp files.

Then:

1) Download and install the
Debugging Tools from Microsoft
2) Download and install this
debugwiz
3) Open the Wiz & Browse to, or paste in the path to, your .dmp file.
4) After the Wiz creates a Text document attach it back to this thread.


Otherwise check the Error Log and Event Viewer as posted previously.