Why does Windows Media Player make my computer crash?

Juan Carlos Espinosa Agudelo September 23, 2012
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Every time I play a song with Windows Media Player, my computer starts freezing and if it’s a playlist, it even crashes (short display of a blue screen). It kind of starts sucking out all my computer’s resources.

Other programs work fine, I can watch most kinds of movies on Media Players Classic and even play the songs on it without any issue. I also can play games like normal. The only program that malfunctions is Windows Media Player.

  1. Reý Aetar
    September 28, 2012 at 6:39 pm

    WELL I can bet its the problem with those codecs you are using with wmp its not the fault of wmp just uninstall your mpc along with your codec pack and open wmp and play the files which it it supports by default and for the rest of the files use VLC :D
    your problem will be solved

    • Juan Carlos Espinosa Agudelo
      October 1, 2012 at 5:27 am

      Haha, same answer as someone above you :)

      Sadly, that wasn't the case, I tried it out with mp3 files and I don't use codecs with WMP :(
      Maybe it was an issue with my laptop, instead of the program itself, although it did work fine hundreds of time before that, so I'm not sure.
      I've switched to AIMP now, though, and that works fine.

      Thanks for answering though! :)

  2. Swaroop Nunna
    September 28, 2012 at 1:03 am

    WIndows media player is heavy weight application, it consumes lot of your memory. You might be using some other applications which also consuming your memory.

    Better to use any other light weight media playes (ex: VLC).

    If you still want to WMP, uninstall and install WMP. If this doesn't work, resinstall Windows.

    • Juan Carlos Espinosa Agudelo
      October 1, 2012 at 5:24 am

      Yea, I re-installed and even though a single song would still work, it would all fail again, once I'd use a playlist. Considering I listen to a lot of albums, using playlists is what I almost always do.

      So I've switched to AIMP, thanks for the help! :)

  3. Louis Giliberto
    September 25, 2012 at 8:14 am

    The first thing I would do is make sure I have the most up-to-date drivers for audio. Check the website of your computer manufacturer. Second, if you're using visualizations, try turning those off. If that helps, check for updates for your video drivers. Most crashes like this are usually hardware related, and can sometimes be fixed by updating drivers.

  4. bonioloff
    September 24, 2012 at 7:43 am

    Try to update your codecs, and make sure your video file is not corrupted..

    • Juan Carlos Espinosa Agudelo
      October 1, 2012 at 5:22 am

      While that usually works, this time it doesn't, because it's not a video file and I don't use codecs with WMP. Thanks for the suggestion though(maybe it helps someone else) :)

  5. Darren Charles
    September 24, 2012 at 6:59 am

    I'm unable to help with your problem but I have used VLC media plaer for a couple of years now.
    It can play virtually all music and video files and it's very light on resources

  6. Mike
    September 23, 2012 at 7:53 pm

    Disable the automatic restart on Blue Screen and report back with:
    - the error name (all CAPS with underscores)
    - STOP code along with the first address "STOP: 0x00000001 (0x1234567c .....)"
    - any file associated with the error (e.g. Alcxwdm.sys)

    http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows7/ht/automatic-restart-windows-7.htm

    Chances are it's either a memory problem or faulty, incompatible audio driver.

  7. flower king
    September 23, 2012 at 7:14 pm

    Windows media player is a generic media player that comes with Windows. It takes around 30% of processing power which is not ideal just for listening to songs. You can try better players built for music playing like AIMP, FooBar, Wianamp etc. which will take <3-5 % of processing power and are far more better than WMP.

    • Juan Carlos Espinosa Agudelo
      October 1, 2012 at 5:21 am

      Thanks, I reinstalled WMP, after which it did work....unless I played a playlist.

      So I tried Foobar2000 and AIMP. While Foobar2000's great, AIMP actually does exactly what I've always wanted from an music player. Thanks a lot for the suggestion! :)

  8. Shayne Selwonk
    September 23, 2012 at 6:39 pm

    try these methods, Method 1.
    1. Click on Start and in the search bar type cmd.exe
    2. Right click on cmd.exe and click on Run as Administrator
    3. In the command prompt type the following command

    net localgroup "Administrators" "NT Authority\Local Service" /add 4. Press enter and restart the computer

    Method 2.
    Uninstalling and Reinstalling the Windows Media Player:
    Step 1.
    Uninstalling the Windows Media Player:
    1. Go to Start and in the search type "Turn Windows features On or Off".
    2. Click on "Turn Windows features On or Off".
    3. Browse to the Media Features and uncheck the mark in front of Windows Media Player.
    4. Restart the computer

    Step 2.
    Reinstalling the Windows Media Player:
    1. Go to Start and in the search type "Turn Windows features On or Off".
    2. Click on "Turn Windows features On or Off".
    3. Browse to the Media Features and place a check mark in front of Windows Media Player.
    4. Restart the Computer.

  9. ha14
    September 23, 2012 at 5:02 pm

    try to reinstall windows media player
    control panel -> Programs -> Turn Windows Futures on or off (so first time click on off, windows will ask to reboot, after reboot go back and click on On).
    http://www.thewindowsplanet.com/869/how-to-uninstall-reinstall-windows-media-player-12-windows-7.htm

    Fix WMP
    http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/Fix-WMP-Utility.shtml

  10. sam lewis
    September 23, 2012 at 3:32 pm

    Hi just post this question in Vscriptlance.com you will get the answer solved in few minute

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