VLC wont work anymore, codecs and decoders all gone

[DaniB]

So this ring any bells with anyone?

VLC stopped working some time ago. It gives an unspecific error window "VLC media player has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." I originally fixed this problem by rebooting, and this when this stopped working, i fixed the problem by reinstalling VLC. Eventually this stopped working too, and it just doesnt work at all.

So at this point I resorted to using Windows Media Player and other players etc. and then eventually these stopped working too. It will play my own mpg's that I've rendered and made myself, and won't play any .avi's or DVD's giving an "error downloading codec" or "dvd decoder not compatible" message. NO player will play avi's anymore on my computer. I have a feeling that this is connected to VLC being the associated .avi decoder/program and it now not working causes everything else to stop working, although it all happened gradually step by step.

ANY ideas? (Other than reinstalling windows or reformatting my system)

Thanks!

[VLC_help]

Problems with other media players have nothing to do with VLC, since it uses internal codecs. Also file associations won't cause issues on playback.

http://www.videolan.org/doc/faq/en/index.html#id278811
delete VLC config and try again.

For other media players, if you have installed any codec packs, uninstall them.

[DaniB]

Hi there

Thanks, I couldn't find the VLC config stuff "vlcrc" but I did a search for "vlc" and found a shortcut called "Reset VLC media player preferences and cache files" clicked on it and that worked.

VLC now plays avi's but theres no sound. So I guess I just have to get rid of those codec packs that must have screwed everything up.

Cheers

[DaniB]

So restarting fixed that. All is back to normal with VLC. The other players still wont play avi's. will update when i figure it out. Who needs other players when you have VLC?

[Tappen]

The other players use codec packs, not VLC fortunately. Good luck sorting them out.