I'm working on a friends computer that has a strange problem. We get the following error message when we try to play an audio CD, store bought or otherwise: "Windows Media Player cannot find the specified file. Be sure the path is typed correctly. If it is, the file does not exist at the specified location, or the computer where the file is stored is offline." Now we've tried reinstalling all audio codecs, different sound cards as well as differnet CD drives. It plays DVD's fine including their audio, it plays all other audio files, it just will not play audio CD files (CDA)? I have also tried other players besides media player with the same results. I have seen this problem listed in the forum before, and have tried any suggestions offered, but so far no solutions. My last resort would be to reinstall XP which I'd hate to do as the system is working great otherwise. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

try copying the audio file off of the cd and put it in a file. then try to play it. could be a crappy drive. good luck AJ "ye of itchy azz hole, have stinky finger"

Thanks for the response! I have tried to copy them from the audio CD to the hard drive and when I click on them, media player opens and gives me the same message as above. The tracks also show up as only 44kb which if I remember right is just the shortcut to show windows where the file is located. Any further suggestions welcome!

"The tracks also show up as only 44kb which if I remember right is just the shortcut to show windows where the file is located." Correctamundo. You can't just copy the file from the CD to the hard drive in explorer, you need to use a ripping program such as CDex to rip the audio to the hard drive. Windows also has a built in CD player. Try using thatinstead of the Media player and see if you get the error message.

Hello, I can't seem to find windows "CD player" although I remember it in Win98, my XP Pro doesn't seem to have it. I did find a separate "media player" within the "Windows media player" folder, when I try to 'open" the CD drive with the audio CD in it it shows "no media files found". This is on ANY music CD I try to play, it just seems like there is something missing in my Windows XP installation. I've upgraded Media player, loaded new codecs, ect. I'm ready to reinstall XP, I just want to be sure that will solve my problem. Record Now, my CD burning software, has no problem recognizing the audio tracks. Thanks for the suggestions and please keep them coming :)

most generally when a cd-rom wont play a cd its because some one forgot to plug the audio cable in.the small (usually grey) wire that runs from cd-rom to sound card.make sure both ends are plugged in correctly.other than that try downloading musicmatch and make sure you assosciate musicmath for audio cd's. MSI K7n2-delta ilsr mobo AMD 2800+ 333 @2225 mhz 2x512 matched DDR 2700 WD 74gb 10000rpm sata HD nVIDIA G-Force 2 Ultra SB Live Platinum Kenwood 72X cd-rom MSI 52X24X52 CDRW

Thanks for the suggestion, but if the cable were unplugged I wouldn't get any sound, but I also wouldn't get the error message that I'm getting (see above). I have checked all the obvious things as well as the improbable. I'm resigned to having to re-install XP, which I'd hate to do. I'll keep checking back here for an answer, but if I can't find one in the next couple of days, I'll have to reinstall :( Thanks for any and all suggestins!