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Thread ID: 26999 2002-11-10 22:16:00 Media Player 7.1 B.M. (505) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
97615 2002-11-10 22:16:00 I have installed Windows Media Player 7.1 but I’m experiencing an intermittent lock up problem. Everything works fine for five or six tunes, sometimes ten or fifteen tunes and then everything locks up. Can’t close the programme or Windows. Only way out is the reset button or off switch. (Only message is the familiar “This programme is not Responding etc.) A most undignified exit!

So far I’ve reinstalled Windows (clean), reinstalled MP7.1, same problem.

Searched Microsoft knowledge base, no luck.

Livened up system resource meter and system monitor to be told I have 80% resources free.

There are no other applications running, and yes I tried disabling NAV.

Nor does it seem to be any particular tune causing the problem.

I’ve also run Norton’s System Works and get a clean bill of health.

Any Ideas anyone?

Operating System - Win98 SE - 160meg RAM – Processor 233mhz Pentium MMX

Got me licked, for the moment anyway.
B.M. (505)
97616 2002-11-10 22:23:00 233Mhz is pushing it for MP7.1 although 160MB RAM should ease the load. Try killing everything else when you press Ctrl+Alt+Del except for Explorer and Systray.

Id recommend WinAmp if you're just using it for music and visualizations :)
Chilling_Silence (9)
97617 2002-11-10 23:41:00 Yes C_s I wondered about the resources required but whilst things are playing there is little or no disk activity an no interruption to the music . I would have expected there would be the odd hic-up in the music as the swap file was written to if we were running out of resources .

By default I restrict my systems to only loading Explorer, Systray, and NAV at startup so there is nothing else hogging resources .

I’ve also turned off all visualisations in case they were hogging things . No difference .

I’d like to try and stick with it as the . wma music files it produces seem to me to be size for size slightly better quality than mp3’s . Might be imagination?
B.M. (505)
97618 2002-11-10 23:44:00 Download WinAmp 2.81 Full, It comes with support for WMA and in my experience, uses a lot less resources than WMP7 or 7.1, and I just like the interface better. Give that a try, only down side is it wont Rip your songs from a CD like WMP7.1, so dont un-install it yet :)

Cheers


Chilling_Silence
Chilling_Silence (9)
97619 2002-11-10 23:46:00 One other things to remember is that decoding (Playing) a WMA file uses more resources than decoding an MP3 file, due to the compression (Im expecting Tweak'e or godfather to correct me here.. :'(). But it seems to be that way for me, so if you've got the spare HDD space, and you arent gonna run out any time soon, then MP3 would be better, but I'm guessing you dont, so dont worry. Chilling_Silence (9)
97620 2002-11-10 23:47:00 Hmm... there's no crying emoticon. Bummer... Chilling_Silence (9)
97621 2002-11-11 00:05:00 :_| Boo hoo

Babe
Babe Ruth (416)
97622 2002-11-11 00:15:00 WTF :_|
That's news to me?! Is somebody playing tricks on me coz I could have sworn it wasnt there last time I look :s Ah, well...
Chilling_Silence (9)
97623 2002-11-11 07:09:00 According to Microsoft, Media Player 7.1 should run with minimum resources of:

Win98
Pent 166
32 meg ram
256 colour card.

I actually exceed their recommended resource level so maybe it's not hardware problems after all?
B.M. (505)
97624 2002-11-11 07:47:00 Mmmm... But as i remember rightly, decoding WMA files requires more proccessing power that MP3's, just as DivX compared to a Mpeg1 file!

Therefore, its not merely enough to surpass its requirements for running the program.
Chilling_Silence (9)
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