Windows Media Player No Sound - but every other sound works

[jeudej]

Yes, I've checked mute and volume and so on. WinAmp, Quicktime,
iTunes, system sounds from my desktop: they all play fine. But Windows
Media Player has completely stopped making sound, even though the
graphic equalizer is showing the sound in motion.

I installed a fresh copy of WMP on top of existing (release
10.00.00.3802 under Win XP). But I can't uninstall and reinstall Media
Player, despite the advice I read about changing the sysoc.inf file to
'unhide' all software and make it an uninstallable feature.

Any other suggestions? Volume in Media Player is up, not muted, EQs
are flat (turned off, actually). All other mp3 and video players work
just fine.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[bxf]

Is it possible that other players you've tried have builtin CODECs and
hence work for that reason? WMP requires separate CODECs for everything
it plays. You may want to download and install GSPOT (free). It will
tell you the type of CODECs required and if any are missing.

 

[jeudej]

Is it possible that other players you've tried have builtin CODECs and
hence work for that reason? WMP requires separate CODECs for everything
it plays. You may want to download and install GSPOT (free). It will
tell you the type of CODECs required and if any are missing.

Thank you for the suggestion. I downloaded GSPOT 2.1.1 from
shareware.com and see that Windows Media Player users
c:\windows\system32\quartz.dll, which oddly enough has a system date of
August 2005 although I've had my laptop since April, so I suspect a
Windows Media Player automatic update did something awful. I will
track it down from here and report back.

 

[jeudej]

Answer solved. F8 mute toggles Media Player sound on and off.

Is there an emoticon for embarassed? Despite having "unmuted" Volume
Control and my PC itself and everything else I cound find, I discovered
Windows Media Player option takes F8 as mute and I didn't see it. The
mute on Media Player does not communicate with the Mute on Volume
Control, although Volume Control does synchornize with the volume and
mute buttons on my laptop PC.

 

[bxf]

Answer solved. F8 mute toggles Media Player sound on and off.

Is there an emoticon for embarassed? Despite having "unmuted" Volume
Control and my PC itself and everything else I cound find, I discovered
Windows Media Player option takes F8 as mute and I didn't see it. The
mute on Media Player does not communicate with the Mute on Volume
Control, although Volume Control does synchornize with the volume and
mute buttons on my laptop PC.

What, F8 mutes teh sound ONLY for WMP? Interesting.

Anyway, it always feels nice to solve a nagging situation, no?