Windows Media Player 10: audio codex error unable to play downloaded music

My windows media player keeps giving me an audio codex error and will not play any music I download. I think it is a corrupt medial player as my son has the same version on his computer and is able to download and play. I have gone to the microsoft site and downloaded the codex but still keep getting the error. Is there any way to uninstall and then reinstall Windows media Player or do you have any other suggestions about how to fix this. Thanks

 

Start/Control Panel/Add or Remove Programs and remove it from there. Then install it again.

 

reinstall the codec pacakges from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/format/codecdownload.aspx

where are u getting these files? if they're off the net, they can be any codec and many are not supported w/ wmp out of the box. mp4 etc. so ... if u reinstall wmp, install the codecs and still get errors, ID the exact codec the error is complaining about. then post that info.

 

Codec

When I try to listen to songs I downloaded I get a missing codec error. When I click on Web help I get the following>

The missing codec might be available to download from the Internet. To search for the Windows Media Audio 9 Standard (161) codec, go to the WMPlugins.com Web site.


I tried to delete by Start>Control Panel>Add Remove>Windows Componets>WMP but doesn't delete WMP

I have tried to reinstall WMP but also keep getting error that I have a more recent version already installed and it wont finish installing.

Thanks for any additional help. I am using Window's XP

 

Take the check out of it, reboot and see if it is still gone. 9 is the version that comes with XP. I had a problem with it a couple of months ago and did what I told you to do and then went and got 10 from here and it installed fine. CLICK I could not even update it from within itself.

 

I unchecked WMP and rebooted. Checked to see it it was still unchecked and it was. I then tried to instal WMP 10 and it said I had a newer version installed and wouldn't let me continue.

I have WMP 10 installed but still can't seem to uninstall and then reinstall. I think this computer came with WMP10 as my son has the same computer and he has the same version of WMP10 and his works fine when playing music.

 

Try uninstalling WMP10 then do a disc cleanup then a defrag. Then install it again.

 

Usually just reinstalling WMP over itself with the downloaded installation file fixes most problems. No need to uninstall it first, in most cases.

However, DriverCleaner of a few versions ago removed some registry enties and files that caused that codec error to come up. No reininstalling of the codecs or WMP would fix the problems.

The solution was to do a repair install, booting from the XP cd. The codecs are repaired and all that was needed was a reinstall of WMP 10 and all the Windows Updates. If you use some unsigned drivers you would also need to update to those as XP uses its own signed ones after a repair install.

This problem has been fixed in newer versions of DriverCleaner.

One more thing. If you have any 3rd party codec packages installed, you should uninstall them before doing the repair install of XP.

If you end up needing to do this, you can post a thread asking how or just search around and I'm sure you'll find instructions. You shouldn't lose any files and your installed programs should all still work but to be on the safe side you should back up importent stuff first and have all your drivers on hand. XP usually just uses what is already available from your installed drivers but better to be safe than sorry.

Just don't choose an upgrade install or new install. You want to be booting from the cd and choose a repair install. (Not to repair Windows from the recovery console, but the repair install that comes up after you continue with the Windows installation.)

 

Tried to reinstall over WMP 10 but wouldn't let me, it said I had a newer version. Don't really understand all of last comment but just want to find out what is happening with my player and why it won't play.

 

name the songs. if they end in mp4, u can't play them w/ wmp out of the box no matter what version. as far as i can tell, u shouldn't need to uninstall anything. just get the codec these songs require. that's it.

get properties on the song and ID the exact codec in question or read the info about the song - if it exists - at the source. eg - if u choose to just dload anything from anywhere, u'r biggest problem may not be the fact that they don't play

all that's known here is:

1) u've got songs - what type? u'r not saying
2) u've dloaded them - from where? u'r not saying

please do say

the stuff inside the web browser can be a security issue, a specific player not being installed etc. and the same above applies. WHERE do u get these errors?

start naming the names really.

 

What I mean't was that after some users used DriverCleaner to clean uninstall previous drivers they experienced what you may be experiencing now. Lots of files that were supposed to play were not playable and WMP would give that error message about missing codecs, even though the codecs were properly installed.

Mp3 files and others would no longer play.

So since that was not fixed by reinstalling WMP10 over itself or by deleting the Fraunhoffer mp3 codec and having WMP redownload it (which it would successfully, but it still wouldn't work), they did a repair install of Windows XP from the XP cd. Not within Windows, but by booting from the cd.

If the files you can't play are mp3's then you may be suffering this fate caused by some other occurance than running DriverCleaner.

You must be connected to the internet to reinstall WMP10 over itself. Then you must allow the installer to access the internet if your firewall asks and say yes to downloading any needed files. If you have done this, I don't know why WMP10's setup claims a newer version is installed. There are no newer versions yet.

It seems you have some corrupted files and registry entries. WMP 10 actually cannot be uninstalled except by using the System Restore point set when it is initiallly installed over the default WMP 9 (except on 98SE). That uninstall entry only removes some shortcuts to it so people can only see the 3rd party media players they want to use instead. It was Microsoft's compliance with the lawsuit settlement. So trying to uninstall it won't help you.

Running sfc /scannow also did not fix these problems.

If I were you I'd do that XP repair install.

Just search the net for XP repair install and you'll find loads of posted directions on how to do it. Searching on the Microsoft website will give you Microsoft's version of the instructions.

It's easy. You make sure your Bios is set to boot to cd first. You put the XP cd in and boot up, pressing the spacebar if asked to boot to cd. Do not press R to boot to the Recovery Console, but enter to continue the Windows setup. Just follow the instructions on the screen to install XP to the partition and folder it is currently installed to, and choose a repair install rather than a new installation.

You'll need to update to any unsigned drivers and if some of your drivers (like ATI Videocard) use stuff like Smartgart, you'll need to run their driver setup over the same driver to get things like that back. And you'll need to go to Windows Update to get all the updates you previously had as XP Setup installs the original versions.

 

My son has the same computer as me and can play and download the songs. My media player is messed up. I talked with my brother who is a computer scientist and he helped me with the registry. Anytime I try to update the computer says I have a newer version installed. We looked in the registry and the version I have is version 10.0.0.4236 whereas my media player says I have version 10.0.0.3990 BY looking at my sons computer I also noticed that some places have me as having version 11 something. Since we both have computers that are from Dell and same model. I am going to have him search his registry for all the WMP versions and copy his folders onto mine. I have already saved a copy of my registry so I could restore if I needed to. This may take some time so I am not sure when I will do this as I am right in the middle of Mid-terms at college and don't have time to mess with this right now and will be going on vacation next week. If I can't get to it before I leave I will keep you posted on outcome when I get back. I may try the XP restore in needed as well. I think posted by Eric.

As far as what type of file the songs are I haven't posted that because my son has been able to do everything with his computer which is about 4 months older than mine and say it has the same version of WMP on it as mine although his registry keys are matching up. Anyways hope this isn't to much info but as I said I will let you know the outcome but I may not be back here for a week or so.

Thanks though for all the advice.

 

Okay. You must do what you think is right, of course. (Thanks, Obi-Wan.)

I will say that if what you are planning is successful it would be an absolute miracle.

Easiest quick fix is to go back to a System Restore restore point where everything worked.

Second, installing WMP 10 over itself. Apparently something is preventing you from doing this. I didn't think WMP 11 files were released yet except on the Windows Vista beta's. Perhaps some of the recent Windows Updates install some of these files for security or DRM purposes. But since the WMP 10 setup does check the internet for updated files before proceeding I don't believe having some of the newer files should prevent proper setup. But, your's is being prevented.

Third, sfc /scannow. Did you try that? You need to put your XP cd into the cd drive and run that from start - run.

Fourth, a Windows XP repair install.

Never, trying to mix and match files and registry entries manually. This, I guess is what you are going to try. You have a 99.99% chance of totally ruining your system so that only a complete format of the hard drive and fresh install will get you back.

Though, I sure hope I'm wrong and you fix it after all the unnecessary work you are about to do. XP might fix it for you if you just repair install. It's possible also that you have some kind of malware on your machine. A repair install of XP will not remove this. If you can't get it off by the usual use of spyware removal programs and virus scanners, you'll still need to format.

Since I play with different hardware and software all the time, I see nothing at all difficult about formating and installing Windows and all my software fresh. I do this often to change to different setups. Really, saving your important stuff to cdr and having all your drivers available is all you need. As long as your hardware is fine, you'll enjoy the result of a fresh, unencumbered by accumulated junk, system.

 

This is from this MS webpage.

Trying to do it the way you are won't work. It only removes access to it, not the program itself. If uninstalling this way doesn't work, you can try reinstalling it by using the method here. The article is for the beta version of MP10 but you can look in the registry and see if you have the entries mentioned. If so, back up the key, delete the entries and then try reinstalling MP10 over the top of MP10. If that doesn't work, have you tried system restore? If that doesn't work, your best bet, IMHO, is to a repair install of windows as Eck said.

 

still having the problem?