Hi there!

Problem is pretty straightforward. Whenever I try to open a video file (whether it be .wmv, .avi, etc) through the File -> Open menu of whatever media player I'm using (except Winamp... that works for some reason), it crashes! The error reports all point to the "ModName" being msyuv.dll in the error report, so I guess that's a start. I've done full system virus scans, full system spyware scans, defragged twice with Diskeeper, cleaned and defraged my registry, downloaded a new copy of msyuv.dll, deleted my msyuv.dll in C:\Windows\System32 and rebooted (which forces System Restore to install a new copy), and NONE of this has changed a thing. Well, the only thing it has changed is that in some programs, the video file now opens after a 5-10 freeze (but the PLAYERS still keep crashing... applications that edit video files only open), but when trying to add a second, it crashes again. I've also uninstalled/rolled back WMP11 and removed all it's runtime modules, but that hasn't changed a thing, and I'm also fully up-to-date on Windows Updates.

As you can see this is a bit of a doozy. One thing to note is that I can still view video files fine if I find them through the Windows Explorer and right click -> Open with <player name>. Going through File -> Open causes the program to crashes and/or freeze. Winamp is ABLE to view videos through File -> Open, but no other player can (not even applications like VirtualDub are able to open video media).

I really, really, REALLY do not want to have to reformat... I've got a lot of stuff on here that would take forever to back up/configure again if I were to reformat. If there's anything that I've overlooked, or any insight you may have, by all means, I'm open to pretty much anything.

Cheers!

It might just be your winamp program! I have had it try to take over everything that plays media files before. Uninstall winamp and see if the other players go back to working properly.

And between you and me...back up your files routinely or you will be regretting it a bit later on. It is really rediculous not to keep all your files backed up in some sort of way.

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Hmmm, I have a very strong feeling that it won't be Winamp. The reason is that, like I said earlier, everything was working perfect a couple weeks ago, and I hadn't made any changes to Winamp since that time (it was already installed). The only things that have been installed since last time are 6 PC games and some Windows Updates from Feb07. I've uninstalled 5 of those 6 games, and nothing has changed (the reason I've left one installed is because I'm worried my game saves will be deleted in the uninstall process... so I'll have to beat it ASAP).

just a general advice for future installations:

partition your hard drive (e.g. 1st partition for your system, 2nd as storage.), create an image of your system drive after a fresh installation with all your drivers and the usual software installed. something goes haywire you can always deploy a fresh OS in a few minutes. having such a backup will allow you to install all sorts of stuff without the worries over the impact on your system :-)

Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.'

I got everything you said up to partitioning my HDD, but everything after that kind of lost me. Possibly some elaboration? =)

I thought of one last-ditch effort to get this working: I'm going to do a System Restore back to before I installed all these programs and hopefully that'll fix it and prevent me from having to reformat (reformatting over something this small is UGH). All I want to know is if I perform a System Restore, will a program I installed yesterday (for example) no longer be usable/need to be installed again? Also, I heard any files inside My Documents are NOT touched, so if anything is OUTSIDE My Documents that is new, should I move them INSIDE before the Restore, thus saving them?