Quite a common problem in Vista as its been noted. You are trying to load a video and this message pops up" COM surrogate has stopped working". This is simply a codec incompatibility in Vista. There are a few fixes that might help fix this.
#1 got to www.divx.com and make sure you have the latest Divx codec.
#2 If you have Nero on your computer it could be causing the problem. Navigate to--->computer--->Program Files----->Common Files---->Ahead------>DSfilter.
Once you are in here change the file NeVideo.ax to NeVideo.ax.bak. you may need to change the file NeVideoHD.ax to NeVideoHD.bak.
This will stop Nero Showtime from running but you can usually use Windows Media Player as your default media player. fix #2 worked for me.
help for those who are having computer problems
