I tried both your recommendations, I have returned the Windows Media Player as the default. I am now getting an Error Code; "Cannot play back the audio stream: no audio hardware is available, or the hardware is not responding. (Error=80040256)" Any ideas on this?? I have a sound card, Real player plays some of the wavs, yesterday it was working fine. I tried a "scanreg/restore" to yesterday when I know it was working correctly but that didn't work. Can either of you or anyone else figure something else out for me. Should I update and download the new version Windows Media Player 7 ??? Thanks b.s.

Yes, it would be a good idea to download the new version of Media Player 7. It has file extentions to choose and alot more options, and upon checking my Media Player 7, I was just informed there is a newer version available for download by my Media Player Manager which I didn't know I had. So I think that would be the answer from here. Also you never said what version of real player you had either. Maybe you should make sure you are running the current version of that too, which is Real Player Basic 8.

I have version 6.4.07.1112 .. I have gotten things back in order. With a little searching the configurations that had been(somehow)readjusted, and your help, it is back up and running. Should I still update to the newer version?? Thanks again b.s.

Well if all is running well, you really don't need to right now, but in time nothing is going to work on the outdated programing. So eventually you will have to. I don't like the new media player either, but have to change with the times I guess.

to answer your question you can change the association of the program that starts with certain files eg audio cds. Goto my computer - view - folder options - file types and you will see what programs open what files and you can change from there.

Its the sound card driver. Same thing happened here at work.