Thanks LOTR. I installed DivX player, as well as the codec, which will play my .avi files. With Realplayer and WMP it still encounters the same problem though. I have even uninstalled and reinstalled Realplayer with the same results.

My friend had even installed ffdshow, codec city, on my computer and I checked and made sure that .avi synth and divx codec's were enabled. I'm not understanding why else I would be getting the error messages and the players close.

(LOTR: Nothing wrong at all with VLC, I'm just an arrogant traditionalist and would like to have my WMP and Realplayer. And especially at this point I would just like to know what is going on with them and why they are not working. My biggest worry is a possible virus My mind will be at ease if I can get it to work again).

I appreciate your help so far. Any other suggestions?