Audio files won't play in vista

[brianmat]

All of the sudden my computer stopped playing music files. In iTunes when I try to play a song nothing happens when I press play, and in windows media player when I try to open a music file an error comes up reading "Windows Media Player cannot access the file. The file might be in use, you might not have access to the computer where the file is stored, or your proxy settings might not be correct." Windows media player will let me play videos but the sound does not work, and the same error comes up.

I just hope that there is a way to fix the problem without performing a system restoration

[scru]

did you try updating your sound driver?

EDIT: Also try turning off audio enhancements in the control panel for your sound card

[Ancient Dragon]

>>All of the sudden my computer stopped playing music files
That happened to me too awhile back. Foolish me! I had turned off the power to the speakers

[bionicbill21]

I have just started having this exact problem with my vista. if i hit play in winamp on any audiofile, it just doesn't play, and in windows media player i am getting the same error as you.
It's not a speaker problem of course, audio still plays for example on youtube or even when adjusting the computer volume. For some reason it will just not play audio files.

Have you found any solution yet brianmat?

[fortyknots]

I have the same problem with my Vista laptop. I can't play mp3 files and the sound does not work when playing a DVD. There are no problems indicated of any type in device manager and my speakers are connected. The problem first appeared after installing a new version of Itunes. I have removed Itunes but still can't play any of my mp3 files, even the sample files that came with windows, so I doubt it's a copy protection problem. The computer sounds work OK but the sound in skype does not work. I tried a system restore but don't have a restore date that predates the itunes installation. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[bobbyraw]

JUST TO GET A BETTER UNDERSTANDING when you click on the music files do they open the associated program but u hear no sound

[kannan nair]

the sound problem in vista is a regular problem around the glob.this is becouse the manufactures of motherboards didnt take care in makin new drivers for vista.you should download new versions of your sound driver and then update in control panel

[necromxxx]

If you haven't done so already, try disabling your motherboards onboard audio if it has it through the BIOS and through the device manager.

[raidscsi]

Compaq laptop, Vista Home, Windows Sounds Play fine! Streaming audio from intenet(flash based player works too!) Every file type I can try doesn't have sound. I tried all the new codec packs, CCCP, NIMO etc. Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic, VLC player, MPlayer Nothing can get sound from this laptop, .mp3 .mpg .avi DVD nothing. There is nothing wrong with the drivers on this machine because it plays the login welcome noise when you turn it on! This is really frustrating. Also when you adjust the volume you can hear it too.

This is speculation: I am working on this machine for another person, who put Limewire on it. This program was the only thing that was installed before the no sound crash. She removed limewire, and when she did it killed the sound. I think :(

[scru]

codec packs = bad idea. I'm afraid you may have complicated your problem...

Just another note, sound drivers in Vista are funny things. Just because they play your login sounds and stream just fine doesn't mean they're okay. In fact, when I just got this computer earlier this year, I had a similiar problem, playing sound files was an iffy experience, and using enhancements was a non-no. It turned out that my drivers weren't quite ready for Vista, and updating fixed it all.

I don't know how to tell you to fi the slew of problems you may or may not have spawned if you installed those codec packs on top of each other, but at least try updating your sound card driver.

Just try it, it won't hurt.

[laloek]

The exact same thing started on my computer two days ago, it's getting pretty frustrating. All my media files stopped working after I installed a new version of AIM. I tried to uninstall AIM, reinstall winamp, tried system restore, tried updating windows, scanned for viruses, etc...and nothing has worked so far. Has anyone found a solution to this problem? Sounds for the OS work fine, and audio from websites like youtube work fine so I don't think it's a driver problem. Please help! Thanks in advance.

[raidscsi]

I don't know how to tell you to fi the slew of problems you may or may not have spawned if you installed those codec packs on top of each other, but at least try updating your sound card driver.

Just try it, it won't hurt.

Well, before I read this I stripped everything off this machine, except WM11 since it cannot be removed. I did update the soundcard driver from compaq(uninstall, reboot, install,reboot) but the latest was from June 07, This laptop came preinstalled with Vista, this isn't a upgrade problem or a bios issue, unless HP decided not to check the hardware->software on the computers it was selling.

So is it a complete random fact that this girl put, limewire=Very Very Very Bad, on her machine right before it happened. I've run the latest Ad-Aware and AVG / Avast scans found one unrelated virus.

This just seems to me exactly like "codecs are here" | "players are here". But nay, neither can see each other. Even WM11 has a default codec pack(every player needs some) and can go online to get them.

"Windows Media Player Encountered a Problem when playing this file." C00D11B1
This is the exact WM11 error, for any file. Now videos (.avi .mpg) are interesting, no sound, but the video plays fine, at least

[raidscsi]

Also I tried creating a new profile, incase her current user registry is corrupt, didn't fix the problem.

[laloek]

update: so i tried some more things, suggested by people here. Updated my audio driver, my sound blaster software, but I think things actually became worse after I did so. Now all my audio (not just my media files) stopped working. I also started to get error messages from windows: "Host Process for Windows Services stopped working and was closed" and also, "the windows audio service has stopped running". Later tonight i'm going to try to repair my system with the vista disk. But honestly i'm not too hopeful, I have a feeling i'm going to end up having to reformat the whole system.

[sideburns2141]

I'm having the same problem. My problem also started after updating my AIM to a new version. My media players (iTunes and foobar2000) will say that the file is "playing", however the time will stay at 0:00 and no audio will play. I also get the same error message in Windows Media Player. If anyone has any ideas on the fixing of this, I'd really appreciate it.

[raidscsi]

I'm having the same problem. My problem also started after updating my AIM to a new version. My media players (iTunes and foobar2000) will say that the file is "playing", however the time will stay at 0:00 and no audio will play. I also get the same error message in Windows Media Player. If anyone has any ideas on the fixing of this, I'd really appreciate it.

I would like to add that a system restore didnot fix the issue, but a restore from the recovery partition did fix the error.

She did have AIM and MySpaceIM installed. I wouldn't have guessed that these programs could be at fault...

[sideburns2141]

I was thinking of doing that, but won't a recovery from the recovery partition wipe out my media files currently saved on my hard drive?

[raidscsi]

I was thinking of doing that, but won't a recovery from the recovery partition wipe out my media files currently saved on my hard drive?

I connected her laptop to my network and backed up her [c:\Users\"username"] which has all her My Docs, music, pictures etc. Made a note of what programs she had installed, made sure she had all the install discs for the stuff that wasn't on the restore partition and went at it.

If you don't already have a 500GB external USB backup drive buy one now.
1: With all the Black Friday deals they're under $100.
2: Data that only exists in one place doesn't exist at all.
3: They're really handy to have.

I have a 80gb laptop drive in a 2.5 inch inclosure so that I dont have to lug a power supply. 80gb portable drive that fits in your pocket! :) You can get a SATA 2.5" 250gb for around $150 plus the case. But for less than $100 you can get 500gb of backup.

[laloek]

So is the only way to correct this problem is with a recovery partition? Is that the same thing as reformatting and wiping out the hard drive and reinstalling windows? If not, how do I do it? I really hope this is a last resort, if anyone else has experienced this and actually fixed it, I would be ever grateful.

[raidscsi]

So is the only way to correct this problem is with a recovery partition? Is that the same thing as reformatting and wiping out the hard drive and reinstalling windows? If not, how do I do it? I really hope this is a last resort, if anyone else has experienced this and actually fixed it, I would be ever grateful.

Most computers have a restore partition/disk that will return the computer to the state that it shipped from the factory. I know that Gateway/Dell/HP-Compaq/Toshiba do. Essentially doing a restore is a format+reinstall+a little extra. It wasn't so bad in my case, she only had a few programs so fixing the error was harder than putting all her programs back on again.

(Work to fix weird Vista error.)>(Work to install programs over.)

WARNING : If you do a restore you will lose everything on that drive ! Back it up!