Windows 10: Why do all media players VLC, MPC, WMP, ALshow stop working?

The media players on my Windows 7 computer will frequently not play videos, but will always play audio. I can play videos on YouTube, Vimeo, ect., but no locally stored video files. The error message says, "VLC or whichever player I am trying has stopped working. Windows is searching for a solution." This happens about 75% of the time. Sometimes, a little while later, the videos will play fine. Very frustrating.

:)

 

Windows Media Player stopped working

I know not how to fix WMP. I would suggest you download and install VLC. It is freeware and one of the most widely used media players. Very good.

Download official VLC media player for Windows - VideoLAN

 

window media player

I cannot play videos using Window Media Player, which opened fine in the recent past, but I can play play audio files. I get the following message:

Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file.

I have taken the following steps:

1. Removed and reinstalled WMP using Windows features.

2. updated the AMD chip driver using Device Manager.

After this step WMP worked briefly but then got two error messages-Load MM Driver stopped working and Catalyst Control Center stopped working. At this time all video players became inop.

3. Downloaded and ran AMD Radeon HD6520G and Driver Auto-Detect program which restored other video players(123, VLC) but did not help WMP.

4. Ran a Codec Tweak Tool

None of this helped. The report generated by the AMD program listed all of the video codecs for WMP and although there are a number of variations i.e. MPG4, MP42, MP4s, etc. there is no simple MP4 listed. Is this a problem and if so how do I add a one-shot
codec for MP4 only

 

window media player