Many of us playing CoD4 have received the "iw3mp.exe has stopped working" message. After some research here are my solutions (do each until it iw3mp has stopped crashing):
1.People believe that iw3mp is crashing due to an incompatibility issue with the Realtek Sound Driver. If you have a Realtek Sound Driver then do the following. If you do not have a Realtek Sound Driver continue to number 2.
At the bottom right of the screen (near the clock), open the red-orange sound button (Realtek HD Audio Manager). Then click on the folder icon to the right (Connector Settings) and check the box saying "Disable front panel detection".
If this does not work, continue to number 2 and keep the box checked.
2.Many forums state that iw3mp crashes from not sensing a microphone being connected and that a file inside the CoD4 folder is associated with the microphone connection. Fix:
Got to "C:\Program Files\Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\miles" and change the mssmp3.asi extension to bak. File should read "mssmp3.bak".
If this doesn't work, continue to number 3 and keep the extension as "bak".
3.This solution i found myself and it has worked for me. I believe that iw3mp crashes due to a registry error, but i'm not entirely sure. Fix:
Go to http://www.pctools.com/registry-mechanic/ and download Registry Mechanic. You can do research on it and you will find that registry mechanic is a legitimate software that is widely used.
Press "Clean Your Registry" after the scan press "Repair".
A dialog box will appear saying that it will only clean the first 6 entries if you do not register the product for $30. Lucky for you, I am providing the ID and Serial and they are:
ID: Team CRD
Serial:? 0VGB9A-4FF5UV-MKNQ4W-QW2H03-F00Y5U-T03JE B
4.If none of these work then i guess re-installing CoD4 is your only option. Your game save data is located in either of these places:
Typically: "C:\Program Files\Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\players\profiles\[gameID]"
Alternatively: "C:\Users\[name]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\players\profiles\[gameID]"
Solution 3 has worked for me, and I have changed the mssmp3.bak back into a asi file and left the front panel detection disabled. If none of these work, then tough luck
I hope this helps those who encounter this problem.