The VideoLAN Forums

Sometimes when I try to open a move (I have only tried .mkv) I get a crash right away. VLC does not even open its main window.
Next time I start VLC It says VLC has crashed and asks if I want to send data to developers.

This happens to files that otherwise opens without error in VLC.

Sometimes it's like 1 time out of 30 this happens. Sometimes more often.

To test, I open Explorer and navigate to my directory with lots of .mkv and then press enter on one of them. When the file starts to play I press Alt+F4 to close VLC and then press enter on the same file again or anohter .mkv in the directory.

Is this a known issue?
Is there a way I can get information about what makes it crash?
Edit: crashdump-file is only 3 bytes in size
Edit2: This is a hexdump of the crashdump-file
-----
0000000 bbef 00bf
0000003
-----

I have tried both VLC 2.1.1, 2.1.3, 2.1.4 (64-bit and 32 bit). My system is Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit.


Edit3:
I get a lot of these in "Windows Log book"
(in Swedish sorry)
-----
Felet uppstod i programmet med namn: vlc.exe, version 2.1.4.0, tidsstämpel 0x00000000
, felet uppstod i modulen med namn: vlc.exe, version 2.1.4.0, tidsstämpel 0x00000000
Undantagskod: 0xc000041d
Felförskjutning: 0x00000000000019a8
Process-ID: 0x15c
Programmets starttid: 0x01cf7e85ae4b1f8d
Sökväg till program: C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe
Sökväg till modul: C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe
Rapport-ID: ec738a83-ea78-11e3-825f-74d435e5aff3
Fullständigt namn på felaktigt paket:
Program-ID relativt till felaktigt paket:
-----

So, there seems to be en exceptioncode "0xc000041d" that causes the crash.

do you run games at the same time? vlc is known to crash when games are launched

No, not running any games. (no games installed).

Fresh install of windows 8.1 pro.
New motherboard, cpu, cpu cooler, mem. (All about a week old).
I know my CPU is not getting to hot and I have also run memtest a whole night without errors.
Computer is absolutely stable otherwise.

Ok, I've got more information.

VLC never crashes if I run it in terminal with the movie as first argument.
I can play, close program and repeat fast any number of times without problem.

However if I try open the file from windows file explorer (by pressing enter och double click) and then close program and repeat fast it will from time to time crash when trying to start.

Maybe this is more of a windows bug / error then?

I got it!

In preferences there is an option "only allow in instance if started from file manager". It was checked and it is that one that makes the program sometimes crash!


I guess, somehow windows closes the running instance but also tells the new instance vlc is already running. This of course will make vlc go bananas and crash.

I can confirm that this happens to a fresh install of Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit on my mac mini also.

There is either a bug in VLC and/or Windows.

To reproduce:

1) Have Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit installed.
2) install vlc-2.1.4-win64.exe (though other version does the same)
3) have a folder with some .mkv files in it.
4) open the folder using windows explorer (the file manager)
5) navigate to one of the .mkv files and press enter to open/start the movie in VLC
6) as soon as the movie starts to play press alt+f4 to close VLC
7) now fast open the same file again (or another in the folder) by pressing enter on that file
repeat step 5 to 7 many times. VLC will sometimes not start and the next time say "Ooops VLC hs crashed"