Hello everyone,
I’ve been working on a 32-bit Windows Vista machine for hours and I finally found the fix. The Vista Windows Media Player would not play certain .MP3 files nor any .WMA files. All of these files were purchased legally and they (.MP3 files) would all play perfectly in another media player (ex. Zune, Media Player Classic).
I went through all kinds of attempted fixes but nothing seemed to do the trick until I did these two things in this order:
1) Run System File Checker:
- Open an elevated command prompt. To do this, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
- At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
sfc /scannow
The sfc /scannow command scans all protected system files and replaces incorrect versions with correct Microsoft versions.
2) Re-register All .DLL & .OCX Files Found In %System Root%\System 32 (there are various ways to do this, but this is what I did):
1. I downloaded the great PC Technician Tool: D7
2. I opened the .ZIP file and double clicked on D7.exe (agree to the EULA)
3. I clicked on The “Windows Repair Module” (left side of the open program window)
4. Under the Misc. category heading, I clicked on re-register all .dll and .ocx files found in %system root%\system 32
5. I allowed all .dll & .ocx files to re-register
6. I started listening to all of my .MP3 and .WMA files in Windows Media Player!!
Professor Randy says: This fix worked for me and I hope that it works for you also. Good Luck and Best Wishes!
5:45 pm on May 18th, 2015 1
The PC Technician Tool: D7 link is broken.
8:40 pm on May 19th, 2015 2
Hi Stephen,
Here is the real deal. I’ll change the link in the post also.
http://files1.majorgeeks.com/f9948448c39ae2ccfad30e194d012c53/spyware/d7.zip
Thanks for letting me know,
Randy Knowles
9:26 am on August 16th, 2018 3
I got as far as “Under the Misc. category heading, I clicked on re-register all .dll and .ocx files found in %system root%\system 32”
But under Misc. the only options are:
– Disable SAV Uninst PW
– Optical Drive Filters (Open in Regedit)