This problem started out of the blue last week, since (to my knowledge)
nothing new has been installed or reconfigured on my computer in months.

The problem affects all media that is being streamed by the player. Files
saved to the local hard drive play just fine. If a video or audio file is
embedded in Internet Explorer, I will get a generic Windows crash pop up for
IE. If the file is external, clicking the link will bring up Media Player,
it will take a couple seconds to 'connect,' then a I will get a generic
Windows crash pop up for Media Player.

I'm using Media Player 9 on Windows 2000. I've tried reinstalling,
uninstalling patches and updates, completely reverting back to the original
system version (that does work), and just about everything else. I've
removed any codec packs on my computer, and I've also uninstalled Quicktime
and Real Player to make sure. There are no other programs designated for
media filetypes, so there isn't a sharing conflict.

I've seen a couple of other posts describing this exact problem, either with
no replies, or the solutions haven't worked for me (I don't have the codec
packs on my computer that the other users had which proved to be the culprit).

I cannot figure out how to fix this and I can't find any other resource with
fixes that work. Anyone have a guess?