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The most common source of problems related to Windows Media Player are older drivers in your system that may cause non-operation of the program. Most operating systems that Media Player 11 works with come installed with previous versions of Media Player and during the update process older software may remain behind. Particularly troublesome are helper applications such as ffdshow which is an advanced DirectShow filter and codec add-on that enables wider file support for Media Player, the nVidia Network Access manager and the BitDefender Antivirus program. These, among other programs will cause your Media Player to crash or operate inefficiently unless you're running the most up-to-date versions.
In general you'll want to keep all your system drivers and application programs up-to-date. This can be done in two ways. If you're using a Windows Operating System, the Windows Update utility will update most system drivers automatically, downloading them to your system and installing them as directed. For those hardware and software drivers that Windows Update misses, you'll have to download them directly from the manufacturer's site.
You can check on specific incompatibilities between Media Player and your applications or hardware by disabling applications through the Windows task bar, or hardware through the system tab of the control panel. Go through your currently operating software and hardware, turning them off one at a time and testing a video with a .wmv extension using your Media Player after each piece of software or hardware has been disabled. If you find that the video plays without the application or hardware then you know which one is causing the incompatibility. Updating the driver may fix the problem with Media Player, although for many older applications and hardware current updates may not exist, and that particular hardware or software may need to be replaced with an updated or alternative version. -
Media files, both audio and video, come in many variations, each created to play on specific equipment or use specific software for playback. Each file version needs a special set of codes to play known as a codec. Windows Media Player has the ability to read these files as long as the specific codec has been installed on your system. If you've tried to play a file and though the player shows the file as playing you hear or see nothing at all, or all you get is audio with no video, that often means you haven't installed the proper codec.
To update the codecs in your system Media Player will attempt to automatically download the missing codec when necessary. If the attempt is unsuccessful you'll have to track down the codec and install it. You can locate the codec by identifying the file type you're having difficulty with and downloading the appropriate codec from the manufacturer's site or from a third party site such as free-codecs.com. Media Player itself should pop-up an error message identifying the missing codec. Once the necessary codec is installed you should be able to play the video or audio file without trouble.
