[Virtualacorn-list] Media player freezes when VA is active

[Alan Adams]

I'm using Windows Media Player 11 on XP SP3 to play an audio CD.
Then I start VA.
When I do things in VA (yes I know it's vague, I just haven't pinned 
down what is critical) Media Player stops playing.
It has happened as soon as VA starts (although sometimes that is a 
pause and it resumes playing) and sometimes when a large-scale screen 
refresh is triggered.
VA keeps running.
I can quit VA, and find Media Player is frozen.
Task manager doesn't show any applications running.
It does show wmplayer.exe as a process.
Trying to stop the process produces no response - I don't get the 
usual "end process" question, nor does the process disappear.
Asking task manager to shutdown, hibernate or restart eventually gets 
a "Windows is shutting down" or "Preparing to hibernate" message. 
However the resuested shutdown or hibernate never completes.

Now there are some things about this computer which don't seem quite 
right:
  Plugging in a USB storage device frequently results in a
    "not responding" from Explorer
  The CD drive occasionally goes missing - not visible in My Computer,
    and on some occasions, not visible to the BIOS either.

I've updated the BIOS and all drivers to latest versions. It's an 
HP/Compaq nc6400, with 1GB RAM.

Any thoughts?

-- 
Alan Adams, from Northamptonshire
alan at adamshome.org.uk
http://www.nckc.org.uk/