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Saturday, October 06, 2007

"Windows Live Messenger" or "Windows Media Player" has stopped working - APPCRASH / StackHash Error - Fix

If you are getting either of the following two error messages when staring Windows Live Messenger or Windows Media Player, I might know of a couple of things that could be causing the problems. This may only affect people who are getting the error in conjunction with errors in Fault Module Name StackHash_XXXX.
----- ERROR MESSAGES -----
Windows Live Messenger has stopped working
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: msnmsgr.exe
Application Version: 8.1.178.0
Application Timestamp: 45b12d6a
Fault Module Name: StackHash_ed38
ETC...
Windows Media Player has stopped working
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: wmplayer.exe
Application Version: 11.0.6000.6336
Application Timestamp: 46a16548
Fault Module Name: StackHash_5255
ETC...
----- /ERRORS MESSAGES -----
Possible Fix 1: nVidia nForce driver components
I have an EVGA i650 Ultra motherboard in my system with the nForce drivers installed. Either of the two following nForce driver components / features might cause this problem in Vista.
  1. nVidia MediaShield
  2. nVidia - ForceWare Network Access Manager
Uninstall them to see if it clears up the issue. I uninstalled both of them and it was fixed, so it could be either.
Possible Cause 2: Vista's DEP Protection
To fix this issue, you might need to disable DEP in Vista. To disable DEP, perform the following (found these steps HERE.)
1. Click Start
2. Click All Programs
3. Click Accessories
4. Right Click on Command Prompt
5. Left click on Run as Administrator
6. Click the Allow button if it asks you for permission
7. Type or copy and paste this into the command prompt window:
bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff
8. You should see the message "Operation Completed Successfully"
9. Reboot and DEP should be off.
For more information regarding DEP, what it is and how it affects your web-based applications. Checkout this link.
Possible Cause 3: Administrator Mode
You may also want to try running the application as an administrator. You can do this by right clicking on the short-cut, selecting properties and checking the "Run as administrator" box.