Hey all, to be honest, I have no clue what has happened to my computer or what lead to it maybe? What has happened is that none of my media files play on my computer anymore after almost a year of there not being a problem. When I mean media files, I'm referring to .mp3, .avi, .mpgs, .mp4, .flacs, etc. Not only does this occur with internal files that I have stored in my laptop but also when I try to play CDs or DVDs with it. I have used winamp, divx, windows media player 11; with winamp the there is a blank screen, with divx, using .avi ie, the film is there but it will not play, you can move the scroll bar to any point of the movie and the still picture would be there as if you had paused it at that part. Now when I use windows media player,a prompt comes up (see below) but the video would keep playing with the sound, concerning mp3s, nothing happens. I'm stumped as to what to do without reformatting my laptop, I have tried turning it on and off hoping it will reset anything or if any programs were running that conflicted with the players, but no go. If it's any help, I had my p2p program running, scanned the file I was downloading (clean supposedly) then played it on divx, and then this problem occurred, not sure if it happened before or after. If anyone could help me, I would appreciate it. Also on a sidenote my sound and video does work, for example youtube videos stream fine but streaming .wmv don't load? (Yesterday I noticed this happening but I didn't run any media files, to check. I'm a bit skeptical that this may have happened by visiting a few sketchy video websites-ie. ef*kt.com, which I've never done till yesterday evening. So maybe that maybe have been the culprit?) If you need more information I would only be happy to provide for its horrible not being able to listen to any music or run movies on my laptop Did I mention I was using Vista? Thanks again for any help! Mkkiwi
Sounds like the file you downloaded was not what you expected it to be! Did you delete the offending file? What other multimedia players are installed on your HDD? List all. Have you tried a system restore? Did you try removing and reinstalling WMP? If neither fix works. Check for infections. First try running a complete scan with your anti-virus program, see if it picks up on anything bad. If so, delete it. Run at least two of the following spyware scanners: Spybot: Search and destroy, Ad-aware 2007, AVG Anti-spyware, or SuperAntiSpyware (Free Home Edition), delete anything bad they find.
Thanks QuikDraw for your quick response and I apologize for my own late one. I did all that you advised and also downloaded two of those scanner below and deleted whatever it found. The reason why i've responded so late was because after I did so the scanning I decided to try to find another solution so I stored my laptop as I always have, two days later I turn it on and there is nothing but a black screen and windows sound in the backgrouund?! I then tried restarting, and even wait a few hours, nothing. I did barely see text. So I decided to call HP and I'm taking advantage of my warrenty. Thanks for the help though
Hopefully, HP support will know a simple fix. But, if not I'd recommend doing the following. Perform a system recovery. Disconnect everything from the PC, except mouse, keyboard, and HP speakers. After pressing the power button start tapping the F10 key. This will take you into system recovery. Just follow the prompts. When finished re-installing WinXP, install your Internet, Update your OS, install Internet security, install printer, install third party software, run disc cleanup and disc defragmenter.
I have come across very similar stupidity from vista systems. the files may belong to "administrator" while the media players are only running with "user" rights, and so they can't access the files. Vista is like a very badly set up unix system.. all the permissions are messed up, especially file and application permissions. Even as full administrator it can be impossible to delete a file for instance.. (because the file belongs to "system" and the trashcan belongs to "user"..and "system" does not have write permissions in "user" directories, and it is "system" which executes "administrator" commands..... what a mess) That may not be the problem, but it could be
That's about right actually. If are the adminstrator, and it's still doing that, go into Task Manager, end every single process that your computer is running, (NOT the system ones, only the ones you are running). Except Explorer and Task Manager. Now boot up WMP again, and try to play the CD again. If that didn't work, disable User Account Control (shitty Vista component). If that doesn't work, Varnull is right.
