Strange Windows Media Behavior

Now when I say strange, I mean STRANGE...

Here is what happens....

When I click on a downloaded email, or video link that is any kind of movie file, I can hear the file running. ie.. Voices or other sounds off of the video file. But Windows media player is not showing anywhere. Not on my taskbar, or popping up like it always has.

Now when I go under "Programs" and click to open Windows Media Player; there is the file playing like normal.. Except....

When I "X" out of Windows Media Player, I can still hear the file playing and it just continues to repeat.

I have to go under Task Manager 'Processes' and do a "Stop Process" to get it to shut down...

I have disabled the repeat in Windows Media Player and checked every setting I know of...

I bet it is something really simple, but darned if I can figure it out...

The only thing I have done recently that I can even imagine is related to this, is I downloaded and installed The VLC media player. (Which I love by the way), But no amount of "File Association" tweaking seems to make it the default player....

Told you it was strange....

Any Ideas?

Semper

OK, a couple thoughts.

1. Use the Alt-Tab key and see if media player shows up on the bar. If so navigate to it. Then hold down shift and tap arrow key and see if you can move it over - might have somehow gotten put past the edge of the screen. (If I mis remembered, look up keyboard shortcuts - move).

2. Might have a stub running or something. Call up task manager and see. If there seems to be a couple media center things running under the 'processes' tab, then you can try manually closing them and then restarting Media center/player.

Sometimes a stub will hang in memory preventing a full loading. If you close the stubs, the load will go through. (best guess)

If those fail, search for MS knowledgebase for 'repair media player/center'.

Failing that try the 'majorgeeks.com', maybe. Be sure and include your Win ver and build and service pack.

Good luck!

i gotcha, badge. =)

keyboard shortcut for move is alt+space then 'm'. you can hit an arrow key once to bind the cursor to the window then use the mouse to move it around. but as he said, that's just if the window happens to be off-screen.

it sounds to me that your media player could be messed up though. you may want to just try going to microsoft.com and reinstalling it.

reply to post by semperfortis


I know on my vista pc that when you x out of media player, it tucks itself in the tray on the bottom right hand of the screen. It's like a 'mini mode' of WMP. Check in that area. I'd take a screenshot for you but I'm on my xp laptop right now. Hope it helps.

My solution is not to even think about using Windows Media.
With all the other media players around, why bother?

I had some problems with WMP on my old computer and this time around, I haven't even activated it.

Your probably 100% correct...

I really love VLC, but I like WMP ok as well...

I'm a little "A" Retentive about things working that should be...

Semper

Originally posted by semperfortis
I have to go under Task Manager 'Processes' and do a "Stop Process" to get it to shut down...
I bet it is something really simple, but darned if I can figure it out...

The only thing I have done recently that I can even imagine is related to this, is I downloaded and installed The VLC media player. (Which I love by the way), But no amount of "File Association" tweaking seems to make it the default player....

Some media players now do indeed seem to run in the system tray, didn't know WMP does it (though that may be a vista thing for all I know). I have had it not stop when closed in XP, no idea why it did it, just thought the comp was getting slow, old and needing a new one.

As for media players, media monkey is good for music, really pretty good and rather simple to learn. (the free one at least, i think there is a pay for one as well) And, not that it's much help, but Amarok is pretty good too, but thats Linux in KDE, which probably isn't too much help for you .

reply to post by semperfortis


Semper, what version number of Windows media player do you have?

Try downloading and installing the update package for the media player and see if it resolves your issues.
(you really keep me on my problem solving toes :!
www.microsoft.com...

If that does not work, try downloading and reinstalling wmp 11.
www.softpedia.com...

Let me know how it works out.

If still issue, post what you did and what results occured-ya know, like we always do.

reply to post by mrmonsoon

you really keep me on my problem solving toes

Cause YOU ARE THE BOMB!!!

It seems to be working on and off intermittently now.. Sometimes it disappears and I have to go under task manager to stop it and other times it stops fine with the (X)....

I am running 11.0.6001.7000 WMP...

Your link says it is not for my "System"???

I checked for updates, but it said my computer was up to date.. I am running Vista SP1 and auto updates is turned on...

Should I now try and download another WMP and install over the one I have???

Semper

I know this is a bit old ... and it isn't a solution to your problem ... but;

I find using the k-lite codec pack as my solution, haven't found a file it couldn't play unless it was corrupt, if that isn't Vista compatible, CCCP is. They both come with Media Player Classic, which is a great ultra-light player. CCCP comes with Zoom player as well, though not the full version, gave me plenty of stuff to play with, including a equalizer and preamp, playlists, plus all the goodies like capture and stuff accessible that is part of the FDShow that is part of both codecs.

There is a program called Super that can test your file and play it even if it is only a partial file that other players won't touch. There is also a program called GSpot that will check the file and verify if you have the codec installed that is required. I switched to K-Lite after I found a codec was installed, but CCCP still wasn't playing it, switched and it worked great ... but that was the only file after more than a year of using CCCP that I found to be unplayable that was a whole file.

I still have Zoom player even though I use K-Lite now and my default if MPC.

I will never touch WMP again, since, there is nothing it does that MPC/Zoom or WinAmp doesn't do 100x better. For some reason I don't like using WinAmp for video much at all.

All of the programs I mentioned are FreeWare. Lots of great products out there that are usually better than the ones you are charged for.