Windows Media Player and Error C00D0FEA

For a long time I've been having a problem with Windows Media Player occasionally not playing videos at certain Web sites. Player opens OK and then an error message appears (error C00D0FEA). I frequently update my Player application, but the problem recurs anyway. Microsoft has no solution.

I finally did a Google check on that error,and at the very top of the first search page is an ad promising a fix. Here's the link to it:

http://www.error-repair-tools.com/ppc/error.php?t=C00D0FEA&gclid=CKGu35rBq5gCFQ9Jagod_jfNnw

Have any of you had a similarly recurring Windows Media Player problem, and is the fix at that site legit?

P.S. That ad appearing in this post is there by sheer coincidence as far as I know. I haven't clicked on it, so I don't know if it's the same outfit my link leads to.

 

Usually there hasn't been a way to download and save the video. Here's an example of one I had trouble with last night:

http://www.magnifeye.com/

When I tried to download and save one of those views, it turned into a .jpg image of the thumbnail, which wouldn't be of any use.

BTW, I downloaded the program my link led to. It turned out to be the same one that's behind the ad in my initial post. I installed the program and ran a scan, which found 1,253 errors. When I clicked on "Fix," though, the free scan turned into a $29.95 registration requirement to make the fixing process work. Maybe it would have solved my problem, maybe not. But I didn't want to spend $29.95 to find out and possibly be disappointed as well.

 

I just tried again and Player gave me the same error message. No video. What I don't understand is why some streaming videos will play the way they're supposed to and others won't. And in the past I have been able to get those views in that link to run but last night and just now they won't. Baffling.

I have RegSeeker 1.55 and ran it earlier today -- with backup configured, of course. When I ran the RegCure scan I had it set a system backup point, too.

 

LATER: The problem may be solved. It appears it was with RealPlayer (RP), not with Windows Media Player (WMP). When I checked both programs for updates, RP said it couldn't make an Internet connection. That didn't seem right. So I deleted the program and downloaded and installed a newer version. When I clicked on the site I linked to earlier, WMP opened and ran the streaming videos that way it's supposed to. Apparently there was some kind of conflict between the two, caused by RP having gone sour?

 

It seems I got too happy too soon.

After getting RP fixed, I tried to delete WMP 11 with Control Panel's Add/Delete but WMP is a system component of Windows and can't be removed. It can be rolled back to an earlier version, but not removed.

Then I downloaded and installed the newest version of WMP 11. A screen opened and an audio tutorial began, but the video area of the screen contained just some meandering smears -- a video error of some kind -- rather than showing the running demonstration video of WMP features and controls. When I checked which version I'd downloaded, it turned out to be exactly the same as my original one.

Then I got the bright idea of reconfiguring WMP so it wouldn't recognize different extensions, unchecking all except MP3, which was blacked out and unchangeable.

That somehow brought up a QuickTime window informing me an update was available, so I downloaded and installed it, configuring it to recognize all the available extensions. I hoped QT would take over as a substitute for WMP.

I started surfing the Net to see how these changes worked. Before long I tried to open a streaming video and got that darned error message. This time I noticed something I'd overlooked before -- it was a WMP error message that opened in a RP player window. And the streaming video was identified as a video/x-mx-wmv object.

Curious, I went back to the site I posted a link to in Post #3. The four thumbnails were there, but when I clicked on one it didn't open, it gave me that error message.

So I'm right back where I started? Ppffftttttt!!

I did quite a bit of Google searching on that particular error code. Quite a few people seem to have trouble with it. No fixes. A search of the MS Media knowledge base site proved useless.

 

Combining persistence with a hunch apparently has paid off. Mulling over what had been happening, I got suspicious about how my system is configured. So I drilled down through My computer > Tools > Folder Options > Files Types. I found that extensions ASF and ASX weren't associated with anything, or at least not WMP. So I corrected that. Now those 4 thumbnails all work, opening the appropriate cam shots. And since then (4 days ago), I haven't had that error message pop up once.

Deleting WMP and then downloading and installing it again may have been what messed up those associations settings in the first place. Or perhaps simply updating versions at some point may have done it. I'm disgusted with myself that I didn't think earlier of checking for that. Such an easy thing, and I put myself and everybody else through all the trouble only to find the likely explanation. I see that this thread has accumulated 107 hits, so maybe a number of them can benefit from this follow-up.