Windows Media Player Broken

[discipulus]

Alright, so I'm the tech-support guy for pretty much everyone in my family. My father-in-law calls me because he got some DVDs for Christmas and they aren't playing in Windows Media player. The first thing I do is download VLC to see if it's working there. It is. So I run a scan with MBAM and Trend Micro and clean a minor infection, and download the Microsoft FixIt for Windows Media Player. Run it. It corrects 4 different problem areas. I open Windows media player and boom, DVD is working. Next day he tells me it has the same problem. Now he has another different infection, which I've cleaned up, but the MS FixIt isn't working to resolve the issue (it says the issues it finds are resolved, but DVDs still won't play). I'm preparing to do an SFC on it. Aside from that, any other suggestions?

 

[Mokester]

What were the infections? What problems did it fix the first time when you repaired (4 issues)? Does it still play in VLC? Have you tried it on another user account to rule out a profile registry issue? Is it failing to play only, or is the app crashing? Any error messages within WMP? Does event viewer show any errors? Are these the same DVDs from the day before or new ones?

 

[HFultzjr]

Is it just DVD playback?

Run SFC and chkdsk.

Are the right codecs installed and working properly?

See if there is an upgrade for Media Player.

You could try to uninstall and reinstall....there are several items under a Google search for 'Remove and reinstall Windows Media Player". I haven't tried any, so proceed with caution.

Ditch Media Player and use VLC, (or others).

 

[johnrobert]

Thats not uncommon lots of DVD's wont play with Windows Media player
it will probably be a codec problem
Just Use VLC and be done with it, its a much better player