RealPlayer 8 stopped working

[nels96]

I have used RealPlayer 8 for many, many months to catch various archived interviews and speeches on C-Span.org which I would have otherwise missed.

However, after messing around (see below) with my iMac (OS 9.2.2, and Netscape 4.77) doing I know not what, I find that my RealPlayer 8 doesn’t work anymore to play C-Span archive videos (I haven’t tried other site videos).

Assumng the usual corrupted files and prefs, I trashed all RealPlayer stuff in the iMac  and downloaded a fresh copy of the free RealPlayer 8 for OS 9. No dice. The RealPlayer window comes up (it even plays its promo intro), but when I click on the desired C-Span video to be played, RealPlayer only goes so far as to say it is “Connecting”, but no farther. Actually it once went to “Buffering”, but no farther.

I have used Disk FirstAid, and rebuilt my desktop, and used TechTool Lite to no avail.

So I got a download of Windows Media Player 7 for Mac OS 9, and tried to install it,
and whaddayaknow! I can only get as far as the installation progress bar (“searching the hard disk”), and nothing else happens. I’m beginning to get paranoid.

By “messing around”, I can only remember doing an upgrade from OS 9.2 to 9.2.2, and an unsuccessful attempt to get my Airport base station to work in place of my wired router. I am back on the router and everything else seems to be working. Since I am 80 years old, I have trouble remembering  what else I may have been trying to do that screwed up my iMac. Oh yes, I also upgraded my OS 10.2 to 10.2.6, but I hardly ever use the OS X, which is not partitioned (I just always startup on OS 9).

I cannot imagine that any of these activities corrupted the RealPlayer or Windows Media Player downloads.

I would appreciate any help on this frustrating problem. Thanks.

Nelson Walker, Saratoga, CA  nels96@pacbell.net

[sandbox]

Hey Nels, I use it as well.
Core 6.0.8.1649
update 6.0.9.753
component 6.0.9.584

Never had a bit of trouble. I would suspect a conflict. If you have another drive or partition, install it there and see if it works.

keep in touch, I'll look into it.  

[csonni]

You're not the only one.  My Real 8 Player stopped working as well.  It will say, "connecting to CBSNews", but nothing else.  Not even an intro.

[nels96]

Thanks  guys,
I suspect it was all due to the fact that I recently upgraded to 9.2.2, but rather than go thru the hassle of trying to prove it, I simply caved and went to OS X v10.2.8, and downloaded the RealPlayer for
 OS X. Now my video player works, but it means I have to go to  OS X when I want to use it. Well what the heck, I know I'm doomed to have to go to OS X across the board eventually anyway!!!

P.S.I still don't know what all the proponents of OS X are cheering about, since I have been far happier in my OS 9 mode than I ever expect to be in OS X

Cheers, nels96

[nels96]

Hey Sandbox !
I should have asked this question in my previous response: what are all those numbers you included in your response? and also , I am only on a single simple hard drive, no partition.

nels96