WMC 7 locks up consistently

[offroad]

So started noticing a problem with WMC just stalling and locked for no reason. Have hacked WMC with various menu installs and themes and changes to WIN7 home premium for years.

Decided a factory restore was in order. Did that. Have everything back again.

But notice if I spin through the ribbon strips in WMC with my mouse or with my remote - WMC just locks up -- completely locking up my machine. Can do control alt delete but there is nothing to shut down as can not bring up the task manager.

Have read of many others experiencing this issue on a random basis. It eventually clears in a minute. But am concerned that this is happening at all.

[rayw69]

Check the windows event viewer to see if there is anything interesting there.

As for task manager, try Ctrl-Shift-Esc to bring up task manager directly.

[offroad]

Rayw- thanks will try that next time. With such a clean fresh install of win7 home premium just have to figure this out. Speculate if I need to install win7 professional as I have that available too.

I did install PLEX and XBMC ribbon strips so o can launch those from WMC but hope they are not the cause of a screen locking up.

[offroad]

Had to install all the updates for WIN7 HOME PREMIUM to get WMC to work correctly

Also noticed had to install SHARK007 to get all the codecs needed to play any file. This was tricky but many notes from others saying this is the best tool for that. Other codecs will corrupt the factory codecs from Microsoft while SHARK007 will complement. There are two codec files that must be installed. The 32 but version and the 64 but version.

Finally noticed I did not have sound. Be sure to check that your video player is selecting the correct sound channel in the file. Had to tween that for every movie I play.

[offroad]

Still locking up. Just by spinning through menu list. Nothing else. Locks up for a few minutes when I first start WMC and I spin through menus. Wondering if WMC is indexing movies or other files in background. Just a simple WIN7 HOME PREMIUM install with all the required updates.

Turned on the WMC keep organized function for tomorrow morning at 4am. And turned off the update for file information for any new movies added to my collection.

[offroad]

Win7 HOME PREMIUM is still locking up when I launch XBMC or PLEX from inside WMC. Have no idea why it just stalls. Eventually those apps start. But can take a few minutes

[Scallica]

Can you provide more information about your hardware?

[offroad]

Now thinking this is a WIN7 problem. Looking at virus scans to detect something. My SVCHOST file is ballooning with many apps taking forever to load.

Running 8gb ram. Four core processor. HP hardware. 1tb hd. Good video card.

[Scallica]

I would definitely try a clean install. If you don't want to mess with your current setup, you can swap the hard drive with a spare drive and install Windows there. Then, see if the issue persists.

[blueiedgod]

If you have a huge library, especially not local one, it takes time for Windows MEdia Player (which WMC uses for library) to load it up. When it is loading, there is nothing you can do. Give it time, and it will unlock.

[offroad]

It's turned into a saga. Win7 is just soo sluggish. Tried turning off various PROCESSES to no avail

[offroad]

Well found a work around. Am just going to leave WMC running and put it in the background when not in use. That seems to work better than any other tactic. When I switch to XBMC or launch something else with a LAUNCH app will just assume it could take a few minutes to start up. WMC and WIN7 just are not very nimble with priority or with freeing-sharing resources or processor time. It seems.

What was sad was all the time spent chasing mysterious processes or possible background virus. Or even possible driver issues. None of those chase paths made any difference. And just made for frustration. WMC fixes seem to have been made with all updates applied in WIN7. But that does not mean WIN7 works perfectly with WMC. In fact it seems like a poorly supported app, as evidenced by my frustrations with WIN7 overall. But it was free with WIN7 HOME PREMIUM.

[offroad]

Latest win7 ms update messed everything up again. WMC would not work. Had to start up with a new desktop icon. Just think win7 64 has got serious problems

[Venom51]

You've got something else going on. I have 5 Win7 Home Premium machines used exclusively for HTPC's that run every day with no issues. It's not a Win7 problem.

[barnabas1969]

You've got something else going on. I have 5 Win7 Home Premium machines used exclusively for HTPC's that run every day with no issues. It's not a Win7 problem.

Nah. Just because millions of people use Win7 every day without issue doesn't mean that Win7 isn't the problem! (Just kidding... I couldn't resist).

[Mike88]

I had a problem where the HTPC would reboot every few weeks for no apparent reason. Sometimes it would come back up into Windows and sometimes not. The Events Logs always said unexpected shutdown but never indicated what caused the shutdown. Short story it was a RAM problem. I swapped with another PC & everything has been OK since. FWIW the "bad" RAM works OK in the other PC.

You might want to run a memory test and HDD test just to make sure these items are OK. Just a thought.

[blueiedgod]

Latest win7 ms update messed everything up again. WMC would not work. Had to start up with a new desktop icon. Just think win7 64 has got serious problems

Why blame Win 7? Could it possibly be your particular hardware issue?

[offroad]

Found the issue. NETGEAR!!! The USB to WIFI 5ghz ADAPTER is a poorly functional excuse for hardware software and integration in win7 64. It only works part time the random functions causes startup issues, launching issues, removed it and reinstalled everything based on a Ethernet connection and no virus protection (accept windows defender). This machines goes so fast now.

[Venom51]

Good deal.

[offroad]

Also found that XBMC and WMC do not work well together. So users beware. One can lock the other. You need to exit one to get the other working.