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MS Media Player question


lathompson

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Everything went from normal to disaster without warning. Now, I cannot get

Microsoft's music player to appear on screen. It appears on the task bar, but clicking or

double clicking does nothing except produce a streaking button to go up and

off to the right, completely off the screen. Clicking on it again, it

reverses this. A right click produces no menu and there is no music or video

playing while this is going on.

When I bring up the task manager, it says the Media Player is running fine.

The only way to shut this down is through the task manager, since the button

on the task bar simply toggles something off screen to the right. I say

"something" because there is simply no way to describe it.

What's up? I reinstalled the player again, with no error messages, but

nothing changed. This is kind of freaky!

larry

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Everything went from normal to disaster without warning. Now, I cannot get

Microsoft's music player to appear on screen. It appears on the task bar, but clicking or

double clicking does nothing except produce a streaking button to go up and

off to the right, completely off the screen. Clicking on it again, it

reverses this. A right click produces no menu and there is no music or video

playing while this is going on.

When I bring up the task manager, it says the Media Player is running fine.

The only way to shut this down is through the task manager, since the button

on the task bar simply toggles something off screen to the right. I say

"something" because there is simply no way to describe it.

What's up? I reinstalled the player again, with no error messages, but

nothing changed. This is kind of freaky!

larry

Hello Larry,

First, you have to know I am not an expert, just try to help.

In the past I had also a problem with starting Media Player, after some search, this is what I did to fix it:

- Go into Task Manager

- You see the first tab (for me it's in Dutch "Toepassingen") in English it's "Applications" I think

- When you see Media Player activated, stop the activation: Highlight the line and push "End task" button right-under.

- Stay in Task Manager

- Click on the second tab "Processes"

- Now you see a list with programs that are started and are running on your computer right now.

- Look for "wmplayer.exe" (it's there one or more times in the first column, it depends how many times you tried to open the program)

- NOW, BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO DELETE SOMETHING ELSE!

- Click on the first "wmplayer.exe" (highlight it) and push the "End proces" button right-under the window.

You have a warning window now and confirm with "Yes".

Do the same for every "wmplayer.exe" that is in your list.

- Leave Task Manager.

- Restart your computer.

- Click your "shortcut button" to Media Player, when the pad to the program is right, Media Player should open now.

I hope this helps.

Cor

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Cor, I tried your suggestion and after removing the player from the task list running, it did not appear on the list of processes at all.

Interestingly, the player is playing music, but there is no window on screen. No way to see what's on the playlist or anything. It's just a "button" or "pad" on the task bar. I also now get a menu when doing a right click, but nothing happens when a choice is made unless I choose MOVE or SIZE and then the mouse dissappears. Pressing the ESC button brings the mouse back.

At no time are there any error messages.

Again, the only action that is visual is when attempting to maximize or minimize the window... As the window goes to open, the button simply goes flying up and left, right off the screen.

Weird...

larry

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Cor, I tried your suggestion and after removing the player from the task list running, it did not appear on the list of processes at all.

Interestingly, the player is playing music, but there is no window on screen. No way to see what's on the playlist or anything. It's just a "button" or "pad" on the task bar. I also now get a menu when doing a right click, but nothing happens when a choice is made unless I choose MOVE or SIZE and then the mouse dissappears. Pressing the ESC button brings the mouse back.

At no time are there any error messages.

Again, the only action that is visual is when attempting to maximize or minimize the window... As the window goes to open, the button simply goes flying up and left, right off the screen.

Weird...

larry

Larry,

do you by any chance have a dual monitor display?

John

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Al, I've adjusted resolution, checked drivers, reinstalled the player and to no avail. Nothing changes and I have no pop up messages for any errors. I turned off all unecessary startup programs and rebooted several times. Nothing different.

Ken, I have a perfectly healthy system and I've done a system restore to a week prior to the problem occuring. Chkdisk doesn't reveal anything either. The only way I know the media player exists is to play a cd and hear it, and a media player "button" appears on the taskbar below. Nothing on the right-click menu works except for the fly-away button, up and off the screen.

Right now, I'm resigned to using another player, however I'm used to the workflow using MS player.

Not really a big problem, but you know, there just isn't any end to the problems that PCs and software surprise you with from time to time, and without human intervention! Sometimes I just want to toss the damned thing into the trash and get out a pencil, paper and abacus, sit in a corner and grunt every 20 minutes to let the world know I'm alive. <_<

larry

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Larry

is there an chance you have played with your video card settings

my ati 9000 allinwonder got messed up a while back and i bled till i got them reset

my wmp would not show on the computer screen but would show on the tv via the svhs output to tv

John's question

do you by any chance have a dual monitor display?

turned on one of my few brain cells -- basically this was one of the settings that had somehow got mmessed up and i do not have dual monitors

ken

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Ken, John asked that question about having a dual display, too. I said no, but now that you've asked that too, I remember that I had forgot about my card's ability to display on the TV. I haven't used that in a week or two. Tomorrow, I'll give that a try and see if it shows up using the svhs output. My board is also the allinwonder. I'll let you know.

larry

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Hello Larry,

I think John and Ken are right. We must look in that direction.

Cor, I tried your suggestion and after removing the player from the task list running, it did not appear on the list of processes at all.

It proves that you (via Task Manager) have shut down Media Player the right way.

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Larry,

I have the "All in Wonder" video card too. Try this:

Close all open windows. Right-click on the desktop (away from any icons). Choose "Properties". Select the "settings" tab. If you see two screens side by side, click on screen # 2. At the bottom left corner of the menu window, make sure that "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" and "Use this device as the primary monitor" are un-checked. This should force everything onto your primary monitor.

I've attached a screen-shot of the monitor display properties window.

An alternate way to reach "display properties" is to double-click on "Display" in the Control Panel.

post-215-1161605171_thumb.jpg

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You might try this. Make sure (if possible) that the vanishing player has focus (starting it and doing nothing after that will probably do). Now hit Alt+Spacebar and choose Move. Now use the arrow keys to move the the program onto your screen. If it disappeared upwards and to the left, just hit down and right arrow keys until it appears.

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Well, that was the problem... When I turned my TV monitor on, there it was. I switched back to the primary display and things went back to normal.

I don't know why this happened though, I use the TV monitor only when I'm playing a slideshow to a video tape or live straight to DVD and I always have left the properties settings the same. I never use the TV monitor otherwise. If I left it on all the time, I would have seen it right away. Oh well... guess I don't really need to know how it happened, just that it did and that's that.

Thanks to all of you for chiming in and helping.

larry

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