realplayer used to freeze on me when I tried to play a file with it. Realplayer was trying to contact the Internet (what for I don't know, spam probably).
Uninstalling Realplayer, and re-installing, but this time not giving permission to 'LOOK FOR UPGRADES' and other offers disguised as a help (but really a hinderance).
Don't know about Windows Media Player.
If you think your anti-virus program missed a virus, you can do a free online scan from....
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp
If you don't have an anti-virus program, a good free one (AVG 6)was available from...
www.grisoft.com
Version 7 is not free (all good things come to an end).
There is still a rogue file that tries to contact the Internet but this can be curtailed by re-starting the PC in 'safe mode' and searching for, then re-naming, realevent.exe to realevent.ex-
