Hello out there. I hope there is someone that can help me.

I had just installed the latest WinXP SP2A updates and put on Media Player
10, and since then, Media Player, and my other players have become pretty
much non-functional.

When I open a file with MP, I get the error 'Threading model entry is not
valid'. If I continue on to the 'Web Help', I am informed I have error
80040156, but there is no help from Microsoft there.

My ATI file player does not work at all either (it actually just exits
immediately after the splash screen comes up). Same error occurs with both
video and audio files. iTunes still works - if that means anything.

I have tried to rollback to both MP9 and MP8 to no avail, same problems. I
have also rolled back all the recent XP updates, and not surprisingly that
doesn't help. I re-installed the MS codec package and that didn't do anything.

In an interesting note, I have a program called GSpot which detects what
codecs you need for a certain file. When running that, it gives the following
message:

-------------------------------
Warning: DirectShow crashed while GSpot was attempting to obtain information
about a codec.

This is usually due to damaged, misconfigured, conflicting, or poorly
written codec drivers. It is possible, perhaps even likely, that other media
players will crash when they attempt to play this file as well, as most of
them will also use DirectShow. GSpot was able to intercept the crash, and
has attempted to identify the codec or filter involved; uninstalling or
reinstalling this codec or filter may solve the problem.

The codec was tentatively identified as:

Unknown audio codec #14
-------------------------------
So it probably has something to do with the codecs, but I don't know where
to go to try to manage the codecs and uninstall the one that is causing
problems.

Any ideas? Thanks for any help at all.

I don't think I've ever seen a "Threading model entry is not valid".

It sounds like DirectShow is corrupt on your system. Had you installed a
(non-MS) codec pack onto your system? Those are VERY bad things.

Since you're getting a crash in DirectShow, either that's corrupt or you
have a bad / crashing filter installed... when did this error start
occuring?

-Z
--
(speaking for myself and doing this in my free time)
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--

"need-mp-help" <needmphelp@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:318D7E0B-0C47-4110-9904-AC82A6996AE8@microsoft.com...
> Hello out there. I hope there is someone that can help me.
>
> I had just installed the latest WinXP SP2A updates and put on Media Player
> 10, and since then, Media Player, and my other players have become pretty
> much non-functional.
>
> When I open a file with MP, I get the error 'Threading model entry is not
> valid'. If I continue on to the 'Web Help', I am informed I have error
> 80040156, but there is no help from Microsoft there.
>
> My ATI file player does not work at all either (it actually just exits
> immediately after the splash screen comes up). Same error occurs with both
> video and audio files. iTunes still works - if that means anything.
>
> I have tried to rollback to both MP9 and MP8 to no avail, same problems. I
> have also rolled back all the recent XP updates, and not surprisingly that
> doesn't help. I re-installed the MS codec package and that didn't do
> anything.
>
> In an interesting note, I have a program called GSpot which detects what
> codecs you need for a certain file. When running that, it gives the
> following
> message:
>
> -------------------------------
> Warning: DirectShow crashed while GSpot was attempting to obtain
> information
> about a codec.
>
> This is usually due to damaged, misconfigured, conflicting, or poorly
> written codec drivers. It is possible, perhaps even likely, that other
> media
> players will crash when they attempt to play this file as well, as most of
> them will also use DirectShow. GSpot was able to intercept the crash, and
> has attempted to identify the codec or filter involved; uninstalling or
> reinstalling this codec or filter may solve the problem.
>
> The codec was tentatively identified as:
>
> Unknown audio codec #14
> -------------------------------
> So it probably has something to do with the codecs, but I don't know where
> to go to try to manage the codecs and uninstall the one that is causing
> problems.
>
> Any ideas? Thanks for any help at all.

Thanks for taking a look at this zach,

From what I can tell, the onset of the problems directly coincided with when
I installed the XP SP2 updates, I'm almost certain of that. (Of note as well,
though it might be unrelated is that Macromedia Flash stopped working on some
specific sites around then too).

In terms of codecs, I installed XVid for some files a long time ago, and it
worked fine. Other than that, I've never installed a specific pack of codecs,
though some may have been installed at some point by MP itself.

I've rollbacked MP, and a number of the Win updates, but there's no
difference.

Is there some way to just completely uninstall all the codecs and start
anew? That seems to be the problem, but I don't know how to manage the
codecs. Or is there a good 'fix-it' program that might be able to find these
problems on the system and do the necessary fixes?

Thanks for your help,

peter


"zachd [ms]" wrote:

>
> I don't think I've ever seen a "Threading model entry is not valid".
>
> It sounds like DirectShow is corrupt on your system. Had you installed a
> (non-MS) codec pack onto your system? Those are VERY bad things.
>
> Since you're getting a crash in DirectShow, either that's corrupt or you
> have a bad / crashing filter installed... when did this error start
> occuring?
>
> -Z
> --
> (speaking for myself and doing this in my free time)
> See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
> --
>
> "need-mp-help" <needmphelp@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:318D7E0B-0C47-4110-9904-AC82A6996AE8@microsoft.com...
> > Hello out there. I hope there is someone that can help me.
> >
> > I had just installed the latest WinXP SP2A updates and put on Media Player
> > 10, and since then, Media Player, and my other players have become pretty
> > much non-functional.
> >
> > When I open a file with MP, I get the error 'Threading model entry is not
> > valid'. If I continue on to the 'Web Help', I am informed I have error
> > 80040156, but there is no help from Microsoft there.
> >
> > My ATI file player does not work at all either (it actually just exits
> > immediately after the splash screen comes up). Same error occurs with both
> > video and audio files. iTunes still works - if that means anything.
> >
> > I have tried to rollback to both MP9 and MP8 to no avail, same problems. I
> > have also rolled back all the recent XP updates, and not surprisingly that
> > doesn't help. I re-installed the MS codec package and that didn't do
> > anything.
> >
> > In an interesting note, I have a program called GSpot which detects what
> > codecs you need for a certain file. When running that, it gives the
> > following
> > message:
> >
> > -------------------------------
> > Warning: DirectShow crashed while GSpot was attempting to obtain
> > information
> > about a codec.
> >
> > This is usually due to damaged, misconfigured, conflicting, or poorly
> > written codec drivers. It is possible, perhaps even likely, that other
> > media
> > players will crash when they attempt to play this file as well, as most of
> > them will also use DirectShow. GSpot was able to intercept the crash, and
> > has attempted to identify the codec or filter involved; uninstalling or
> > reinstalling this codec or filter may solve the problem.
> >
> > The codec was tentatively identified as:
> >
> > Unknown audio codec #14
> > -------------------------------
> > So it probably has something to do with the codecs, but I don't know where
> > to go to try to manage the codecs and uninstall the one that is causing
> > problems.
> >
> > Any ideas? Thanks for any help at all.
>
>
>