Codecs possibly interfering with OS drivers

I've got a small problem that has mushroomed into a big unwieldy thing resulting in me reinstalling Windows Xp and even formatting, and yet the problem persists.

For a while before, whenever I played movies on my Windows Media Player, it would play for a few short minutes and give a blue screen error message. I've asked for help on this site before on this matter, and I was instructed to install the new XP patches and run a lot of virus scans, also to use 'HijackThis' logs to find a cure to the problem. Although the moderator did everything she could to make the log come out 'clean' at the end, the problem yet STILL persists.

Yet I have uncovered some important data now. The BSOD (Blue Screen) doesn't come anymore once I play the movies, it used to come before but now the computer just abruptly restarts itself (This started occuring after I took the moderator's advice and did all that she asked). I cannot remember entirely what codes were written on the BSOD, but I do remember this specifically. It said 'IRQL_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL' every time after I played a movie.

And now I've realized it's not any movie, it's only movies that require the codec(s) DivX for sure, but I'm not sure about 'Xvid'. Anything that requires DivX to play it will cause the computer to restart itself after playing it for about 10 seconds. Anything that doesn't require DivX will play normally without any problems. I'm thinking that if even FORMATTING didn't get rid of the problem, it cannot be the drivers of my graphics card or anything like that, so what could be the problem?? The BSOD has not come again, it just restarts abruptly. I'll be much obliged and appreciative of anyone that can help me out, I've even considered using Linux (I'm an utter newbie at it) for godsakes! Please, if anyone can, help me out and I'll be most grateful.

Later

 

If you reformatted, Windows is reverted to it's defaults. Right click 'My Computer' select 'proprerties' click the 'advanced' tab then click the startup and recovery 'settings' uncheck 'automatically restart.' You might be right about the codec thing, but you are still getting blue screens. They just go by too fast to read. Have you tried to reinstall the codecs? Have you reinstalled directx? Have you tried a different player, like DivX, or RealPlayer?

 

Maybe this will help:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.php

Sounds like hardware conflicts to me, but who knows...

 

Thanks kronus and unmutual for your quick and timely replies, I'm much grateful.

Kronus, here's the thing, the 'auto restart' setting has ALREADY BEEN DISABLED...we've unchecked this back when I was getting help from the moderator before. Just to be sure, I did what you said and went to properties, and as I said, the 'auto restart' feature was unchecked. Yet, the thing persists.

As for your other suggestions, yes, when I assumed DivX was the problem I uninstalled it, reinstalled it, (The problem still occurred)...then I thought that it may be a problem with the 'saved' install file I have for DivX, so I went to their site and manually redownloaded the install and still it shuts down. Here's another thing. I have a movie that plays only on DivX codec...once I uninstalled DivX and played it the movie, Media Player will initially 'search' for the codec then say it has an error, but it will STILL PLAY THE SOUND. I let this sound run, and the system does not abruptly restart. But as soon as I install DivX and bam, 10 seconds in it restarts even though the 'auto restart' thing is unchecked. I have not tried reinstalling directx, but if you want me to, I will try it now.

unmutual, thanks for your help too. I read the link you gave, and it doesn't seem to have anything related to my quandary. But I'll get my brother (who's more tech savvy than I) to read it again and see if he can see any similarities.

Again, thanks a lot both you guys for helping so quickly. A life saver. But apparently this thing still exists (I don't think it can be the drivers because I've formatted and everything should be at default).

 

oh sorry, kronus one more thing. I tried DivX player too and it does the same thing, so it isn't just Media Player that does it.

 

Do you have SP2 installed? That is causing some problems with DivX I was reading, not to mention many other programs. I also read that DivX version 3.1.1 runs better on XP thav version 5.

 

No I uninstalled SP2. I dont have SP1 either. Before when this problem wasnt present, I didnt update or anything...nor did I have norton anti-virus, spyware or adware programs. Divx, the legacy drivers, everything worked fine until now.

The computer ran fine just with the firewall my ISP was providing.

The site which was provided stated that legacy drivers cause such BSODs.

How do I get rid of my Legacy Drivers??? In device manager, it doesnt give the option to disable so im guessing I have to do it manually.

Can someone guide me through that process?