WMP crashing only on streaming content...

[DefRef]

Something happened to my rig (running WinXP Pro SP1) in the last few days that has disabled WMP8 from playing any content that opens an external player. It says "Connecting to media" and after 15-20 seconds, it pops a "Something bad happened and WMP needs to clse down and go to the bar". (paraphrasing)

I can open and view MOV, MPEG, AVI, MP3 and WAV files and embedded streaming content (like video from MSNBC) works fine. Only MM links that open the player fail, including the Windows Media home page links.

I don't see a way to un/reinstall WMP. Add/remove components only removes accessibility, not the program. You can't reinstall or DL it from M$'s site (only WMP9 and pre-7 versions available) and when I tried to upgrade to the evil WMP9, the same errors occured. I tried a System Restore to a few days back (before I struggled with Opera and ran the Netscape WMP plug-in), but it didn't work for some reason and I had to use a later date to rollback the WMP install.

Is these any way to actually reinstall WMP for XP (WMP8) or does anyone have other suggestions?

Thanks in advance!🙂

 

[DefRef]

^ bump ^

 

[DefRef]

<sigh>...yet another question that stumps the crowd. I'm beginning to wonder when the last time anyone was helpful here.🙁

 

[DefRef]

Another 12 hours, another futile bump.🙁

 

[DefRef]

TTT

 

[Flashram]

Put your Windows XP cd in, reboot from the cd, and run the repair installation. Worth a shot.

 

[DefRef]

I'm about to do that for a couple of other issues, but it's amazing that there is no option to reinstall it anywhere from M$. Just plain stupid.:|

Thanks for the response.

 

[DefRef]

I tried DLing the plug-ins to play WM files with RealPlayer, but even after manually changing the file associations, WMP opens whenever links are clicked. WTF?

 

[DefRef]

After checking M$KB, I got the idea to hardcode the transfer rate instead of having it autodetect and now it works, BUT it takes a long time to start, so I've got to test that it's not DLing the whole clip first, but at least it's an improvement.