guys, i have this really annoying malfunction that started since i installed a certain program which was meant to convert avi to dvd, but was defective. while trying to load a avi file, it just crashed. after a few more tries i just uninstalled and deleted the program in question, BUT since then my pc does the same thing the program did. just opening a avi file and whichever player used for it just crashes and closes (media player, divx player, realplayer, even winamp). not only that, any folder which contains ANY video file just closes itself whenever i just single-click on a video file before it can show its details. i do know it is not a codec problem, because before this whole thing i could play just about any type of video file with no trouble whatsoever. here's what i tried so far: updating divx to v6.4 re-installing windows media player EVEN re-installing windows xp didn't do the trick. i really don't want to format my pc over this. there HAS to be a solution. or is there...? i am truly lost. any help will be appreciated.
I would search through the registry (regedit) looking for entries relating to the offensive program that you uninstalled. Manually remove those leftover entries. When any program is uninstalled there still remains traces of it in the registry. These traces must be causing your problems. Hopefully, this will cure you problems. If not, maybe someone else has another idea. BUT, I strongly urge you to NOT reformat your computer. Doing that will just start up a whole bucket of PAIN. You would not believe how many people reformat at the drop of a hat and then come to aD for help afterwards. Please make every effort to solve the problem before making more with the reformat!
thank you rulisky for answering. since posting i noticed that ffdshow video decoder didn't open, so after uninstalling it and re-installing, everything was ok again. apparently the problem was that the program i installed clashed with ffdshow. no need to format, YAY
