First of all, Hi

[KenB]

I did try to set up a second network,

As you say - the "could not reconnect ....." message may be linked with this.

 

If the Hard drive is on it's way out as somebody suggested earlier

You ran chkdsk earlier - did this find any faults ?

 

 

Still with Media Player problem ......

Boot up.

Start > type in ......msconfig .....ENTER

Click the StartUp tab

If there is anything there related to Windows Media Player Network Service ..........uncheck it > OK

[Mark312]

Chkdsk ran, but did not report any faults. PC just carried on as normal afterwards. I understand that this does not produce any report, so no news is good news...?

 

Nothing showing on msconfig startup tab for Media Player.

 

Still a little concerned why it blue screened yesterday. Behaved ok today apart from the Media Player empty windows...

[KenB]

Hi

 

Install Revo Uninstaller from here ( you need to scroll down for the free option )

click here

 

Run it.

It will list all installed programs.

If WMPNS ...... is listed try uninstalling it.

 

Bare in mind - Windows Media Player my show too - you don't want to un-install this.

 

BEFORE YOU DOWNLOAD REVO ...

 

Take a look here too:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run

 

Is it listed there ?

[Mark312]

Hi

 

Install Revo Uninstaller from here ( you need to scroll down for the free option )

click here

 

Run it.

It will list all installed programs.

If WMPNS ...... is listed try uninstalling it.

 

Bare in mind - Windows Media Player my show too - you don't want to un-install this.

 

BEFORE YOU DOWNLOAD REVO ...

 

Take a look here too:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run

 

Is it listed there ?

 

No it's not listed there. Guessing I should run Revo then?

[KenB]

Give Revo a go

 

This is becoming an itch that needs more than scratching !! :)

[Mark312]

Give Revo a go

 

This is becoming an itch that needs more than scratching !! :)

 

Got a Sledgehammer??!!

 

Thinking about doing a Win7 reinstall if Revo doesn't come up with anything....what do you think?

[Mark312]

Update...

 

Revo did not come up with the WMPNSCFG program in the main window, so I switched to Hunter mode, dragged the Hunter icon onto the empty black window, and it came up with the following:

 

Windows\System32\ntvdm.exe, and the options to:

 

Uninstall - Don't want to do this yet until confirmed it is safe to do so;

Stop Autostarting - said Target Application is not found in common startup places;

Kill Process - Just closes the window;

Kill and Delete the Process - Do I want to Delete it?

etc

 

I've virus scanned the ntvdm.exe as I understand it can be a virus in disguise, but Avast said No Threat Found. Microsoft Security Essentials said it is ok.

 

If I uninstall it from the System32 folder, will it cause other issues?

[Plastic Nev]

Ah, oh, and hi, I can see a problem in your last post, you mention scanning with Avast, and also scanning with the Microsoft Security Essentials. Are both program installed and running?

If they are, they in themselves can conflict with each other and cause all sorts of problems, possibly those you are seeing.

 

You should only ever have one anti-virus program installed and for those reasons, so you should uninstall one of the two, either Avast, or MSSE, personally I would remove Avast but that is just my opinion as I had problems with it and false positives in the past.

 

Nev.

[KenB]

Nev is right - remove Avast and keep Security Essentials.

 

DO NOT remove ntvdm.exe

[Mark312]

Thanks for that. I didn't realise Win7 had an antivirus program already installed, and it's handy to know it has malware protection also.

 

I will uninstall Avast and see how it goes. I've used Avast for a couple of years now on all our 8 pc's at home and work, with no issues whatsoever until now.

[KenB]

I didn't realise Win7 had an antivirus program already installed

It hasn't - Essentials would need to have been downloaded.

It does have Defender - but you are best advised to install MalwareBytes too. You can have 2 anti-malware programs but not 2 AVs.

[Mark312]

Right, Avast uninstalled. Restarted pc, but the same problems still present.

 

What I can't understand is that when I drag the Revo Hunter icon over the box entitled Wmpnscfg.exe, does Revo think it is NTVDM.exe?

 

I have observed your strong warning about not uninstalling NTVDM, so I will not. Surely though, Revo should come up with the correct file name in Hunter mode? Or is there something else amiss?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]933.vB5-legacyid=1819[/ATTACH]

[KenB]

Hi Mark

 

Not sure why Revo should be seeing NTVDM when the box clearly shows wmpmscfg.exe

 

There is a path showing at the top of the box....

 

C:\ProgramFiles\W154FB....\wmpmscfg.exe

From the details in the pic it is difficult to tell if the path is complete.

 

Try the following:

Start > Computer > C:\ > Program Files

From here you are looking for W154FB ...... [there may be more here]

Click on this and you should be able to find wmpmscfg.exe

If you right click on this and click on Rename the file name will be highlighted.

Change it to wmpmscfgold.exe

OK the changes.

 

You may get a warning about the fact that the program will not function - ignore this.

 

Re-boot

 

Hopefully the problem should have gone away.

[Mark312]

Thanks Ken (Presume that is your name)

 

I've looked in the program files folder, but there is no file or folder that starts WI54 (WI not W1) I've tried doing a search of the whole pc for WI54 - no results. Tried searching for wmpnscfg and investigated the full path of each one found but none have WI54B anywhere in the path.

 

The next folder on C drive is C:\ProgramData but there's nothing there of relevance either.

 

Tried making the empty windows larger to hopefully expand the path but no joy.

 

I have attached the list of files that came up in the wmpnscfg search in case anything makes more sense to you than me!

 

Thanks,

Mark

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]934.vB5-legacyid=1820[/ATTACH]

[KenB]

(Presume that is your name)

Yep :)

 

Earlier on we went into "Services" and disabled WMP Network Sharing

Can you check that that is still disabled please ?

 

I found this too that shows how to disable it from with WMP

click here

 

The offending file(s) are part of Windows Media Player and this is embedded into your Operating System.

It cannot be removed.

 

If the above doesn't work ......

 

You could try downloading the latest version and install that.

It will overwrite the existing one - and hopefully sort the black boxes :)

 

click here

You may need to scroll down the page a little.

 

If that doesn't work - we can do a check on the system files.

[Mark312]

Thanks Ken. Interesting.....Windows Media Player refuses to start up....The windows message "Windows Media Player has stopped working..." appears after a few seconds.

 

I tried setting WMPNS to automatic, restarted and still WMP refuses to startup. Is this an install error do you think? (I've disabled WMPNS in Services.msc again)

 

Is it worth trying to download and reinstall WMP? Or do you have another recommendation?

 

Thanks

 

Mark

[KenB]

Try the download.

 

It sounds as if Media PLayer is corrupt.

[Mark312]

Hmmmm..... Windows Media Player 12 not available as a separate download for Win7. Microsoft support requires a Product ID no which you can only find by opening the program..... Tried to install Media player 11, but windows wouldn't allow it as a newer version already installed, no option to override this.

 

I looked in Events viewer, and there are two relevant crash reports - one for wmplayer.exe and the other for wmpnetwk.exe. Both reports state that ntdll.dll is the faulty module. Is this where we should be looking?

 

I've also just done a sfc/scannow, and the results were showing errors irrepairable by Windows all to do with Media Player

 

Do I now have to do a repair using the original Win7 installation disk?

 

[ATTACH]935.vB5-legacyid=1821[/ATTACH]

sfcdetails.txt

[Mark312]

PS bet you're really sick of this now - I know I am! Very grateful for your help so far though.

[KenB]

Yes - it is as I suspected earlier .....Media Player files are corrupt.

 

I am surprised that SFC didn't correct it.

 

bet you're really sick of this now

I enjoy a challenge :)

 

Do I now have to do a repair using the original Win7 installation disk?

 

This now looks like your final option - prior to a full re-install.

There is a very good tutorial here:

 

click here

 

you will need a full installation disk ( not OEM )

It must be exactly the same OS that you have installed

You will need the Product Key

 

Just one more thing you can try before you try the repair .....

 

Go to the elevated command prompt ( Start > cmd .......cmd.exe > Run as Admin )

type in .....

chkdsk /f [space after chkdsk ]

 

This will check the hard drive itself for errors and attempt to fix them.

You will probably need to re-boot.

[Mark312]

Hi Ken

 

I ran chkdsk a few weeks ago. Do you suggest I do it again?

[KenB]

Do you suggest I do it again?

No need - I just checked back and you ran it at the start of this thread.

 

It looks like a repair install is in order :)