both DVD CyberLink and Windows Media Player have stopped working

[the_ol_bonehead]

When I try to play a DVD, both CyberLink PowerDVD 5 and Windows Media
Player 10 throw an access exception.

And WMP ver 9, before I updated, did this yesterday.

I'm using XP Pro, am an amateur programmer and have been doing
considerable programming lately, and I had a particularly bad problem
with 'invalid window handle' exceptions yesterday while working on a
cpp project, whenever reactivating the monitor and logging in after XP
executed the screen saver. I figure this could be closely related and
a DLL may have been corrupted, but I have no idea which one.

I've ran a few tools, but they don't generate the info I need to
determine the exact cause. A few possibilities: ntdll.dll,
kernal32.dll, ADVAPI32.dll, RPCRT4.dll, USER32.dll, GDI32.dll,
wpm.dll, msvcrt.dll, msvcrt.dll, ole32.dll, COMCTL32.dll, etc., etc.

I tired restoring to a few days ago, uninstalling recent hot fixes,
reinstalling SP2, PowerDVD, and updating to WMP 10, but none of that
has accomplished anything, i.e., the same exact errors persist.

I have a fairly recent backup, but it would be very, very nice if I
didn't have to start again from that as it would require considerable
updating, and I still have a very slow dial-up connection. Yeah, yeah,
I know. I can afford this other stuff, but I can't afford ... ???
Well, watching the monthly fixed expenses is part of how I manage to
afford the other stuff. Cut me some slack.

Any suggestions? Any idea what sort of partial restore I could try? Or
how I can determine whether or not my programming problem may have
corrupted something, and/or what that something may be?

Thanks in advance.

/ the_ol_bonehead

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

To repair all system files, go to Start/Run, and type: SFC /SCANNOW

 

[the_ol_bonehead]

Okay. Thanks.

It didn't fix things, but I do greatly appreciate the response.

Somebody suggested it might be the video driver, but everything was
working fine with this same driver a week or so ago. Could the recent
window updates have caused a problem with the video driver?

(I already tried uninstalling them and it made no difference. I also
uninstalled SP2 and the problem persisted (so I reinstalled it and the
recent updates.)

Seems like maybe I'm running out of options.

/ the_ol_bonehead

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Since SP2, an overwhelming number of people are experiencing loss of DVD or
cd drives. I would suggest trying a reinstall of the "WinDVD" , "PowerDVD"
or whatever driver comes with the drive.

It is my experience to feel that all this is somehow related to USB devices,
if that applies to you, and I would recommend removing the USB and restart
to see if that might also do something.

 

[the_ol_bonehead]

I'll give it a try. Thanks again.