Windows media player 11 will not play anything?

[TheMonkey]

yeah not sure what i've done. i'm running vista. i had a load of codecs installed on my computer as i run a lot of HD stuff but after sorting all that out i lost all use of windows media player??

I unistalled all my codecs i have on my comp but still won't play anything. no audio or video.

Not sure what to do next?

Thanks if anyone can help 

[Simon]

I think the first thing I would try is reinstalling WMP:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/mediaplayer/default.mspx

Also, check in Control Panel > Default Programs that WMP is set as default media player.

[TheMonkey]

cheers simon but i don't think you can re-install it for vista. i've been tearing my hair out on that site for ages 

[Simon]

Mmm... I see what you mean.      Do you have a Vista restore CD?  I wonder if you could just pick out WMP from that?  OTOH, you might be better off waiting for someone else to come along, rather than let me lead you up a bind alley. 

[TheMonkey]

yeah i could try the cd. i'll give it a go cheers. 

[TheMonkey]

nothing stoopid wmp

[Simon]

In the absence of any other ideas, would it be worth trying the XP version?  I would imagine it's the same, and they just bundled it in with Vista.

[Lance]

How about using a system restore point?

[Rik]

i had a load of codecs installed on my computer as i run a lot of HD stuff but after sorting all that out i lost all use of windows media player??

What do you mean by 'sorting out' exactly? That might give us a clue as to what's happened.

[TheMonkey]

hi rik,

well the main problem i had with playing my hd files was that the sound was very quite to i had to change something over on ffdshow (think thats what it is) now wmp plays nothing, video or audio. i've unistalled all codecs and reinstalled them but still no joy.

simon, i can't install xp version as its an older version than the one i have. i looked up on the ms website to find out what the last update was regarding wmp and unistalled it but still didn't work.

i'm ok using itunes and winamp but they're a right drain on the system 

[Rik]

Could this be as simple as file associations having been taken by another app? If you double-click on an AV file, which app opens?

[TheMonkey]

i wish rik  it knows the file and wants to play it but nothing happens. its like it almost crashes.

[Rik]

How about a restore point, as Lance suggested?

[TheMonkey]

i haven't got one that goes back that far. i may try and throw it at a wall, see if that helps.

not too worry maybe a new update will be available soon and it may sort it out.

[Rik]

The only other option at this point would be to try a repair of Windows (I assume Vista supports that).

[TheMonkey]

oo i don't now rik. is that a "stystem tools" function.

[Rik]

One of our Vista users can probably give you some guidance here.

For the future, you may want to think about an app like Acronis True Image, which can get you out of these situations in a few minutes.

[TheMonkey]

noted

[Ann]

A repair install, at least with XP, is done by booting from the installation disc and selecting repair when you get the opportunity.

Yeah.. looks to be similar..

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial148.html

[TheMonkey]

mine didn't come with a restore disk  its a *cough* packard bell *cough*

[Ann]

Oh but you probably have a reinstall facility from a partition on the hard drive then.  The help files should be able to show you the way.

[TheMonkey]

cool cheers ann, i'll take a look!

[mrapoc]

I had a bigggg problem with vista + wmp

So bad it foobared the windows update too

woohoo...

Went back to XP xD

[Lance]

Mine on vista has been great

[psp83]

Have you tried installing K-Lite Mega Codec Pack? Contains nearly all the codecs you would need.