Window Media Player 10 problems (wininet.dll). Spyware?

I fear that I'm starting to fall behind somewhat, but I'll update you on what I have and haven't done since my most recent post.

I never did get around to rolling back to WMP9. Instead, I downloaded/installed K-Lite Codec Pack as you suggested. Unfortunately, my problems have not cleared up. I still get the same error messages.

In Add/Remove I searched my programs from A to Z, but never saw codec mentioned. I did run a file search for "codec" and more than 50 results were returned, but I don't know that this would mean I have existing codec packs. Anyhow, I didn't uninstall anything before getting the K-Lite Codec Pack.

(I do have an iRiver HP 320 Multi-Codec Digital Jukebox which I have connected to my computer in the past and transerred files and gotten firmware updates. I doubt that would have any bearing one what's going on here. It's just that I see the term codec.)

I haven't tried to uninstall the Trend-Micro firewall and I haven't yet searched for complayer.

If I haven't yet done something that I really should have, please let me know.

Thanks.

 

Try the rest of the suggestions mentioned. I need to sleep on this, starting to run out of ideas. I'm sure if theefool thinks of anything he'll post. Steve, I see you lurking out there, any ideas.

 

if you cant find any codec packs installed through add/remove programs, you may need to go into the control panel and go into "sounds and audio devices". From there click the hardware tab, scroll down to video codecs and click properties. Go into the hardware tab and you will find a list of installed codecs.

if you post what codecs you have installed someone may be able to help

 

Well, I went back WMP9 and that didn't help. Also, I may be wrong, but there doesn't appear to be a way to uninstall only the Firewall feature of Trend-Micro Security Suite.

I'll check back tomorrow. Good night.

 

Thanks. That looks like the information I needed. I'll post the codecs either late tomorrow morning or early afternoon.

 

in addition to looking at the video codecs on your system, you might want to look at your audio codecs as well. Earlier in your post you mentioned audio files are troublesome as well as video streams.

these are also located in "sounds and audio devices".

the problem seems to me that windows media player is using a wrong codec to render media files.

 

Okay. Here are the codecs I found:

AUDIO COMPRESSION CODECS

IMA ADPCM Audio CODEC
Microsoft ADPCM Audio CODEC
Microsoft CCITT G.711 Audio CODEC
Microsoft GSM 6.10 Audio CODEC
DSP Group TrueSpeech(TM) Audio CODEC
msg723.acm
Windows Media Audio
Spiro Lab Telecom Audio Codec
Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Layer-3 Codec
Lame ACM MP3 CODEC v3.96
AC3ACM Decompressor
Microsoft PCM converter


VIDEO CODES PROPERTIES

3ivx D4 4.5.1 Pro
Cinepak Codec by Radius Inc.
DivX Pro CE 5.2.1
Indeo codec by Intel
Indeo video 5.03
iyuv_32.dll
Microsoft RLE Codec
Microsoft Viedo 1
Microsoft Windows Media Video 9
MS MPEG-4 Video Codec
msh261.drv
msh263.drv
msyuv.dll
On2 VP3 codec
On2 VP6 codec
On2 VP7 codec
tsbyuv.dll
XviD MPEG-4 Video Codec v1.0.3

By the way, using Paint I saved both codecs boxes as JPEGs. Is there a way to Paste them into my reply so I wouldn't have to type the information?

 

Do I need to get rid of any, or all, of these codecs?

As mentioned previously, I have already installed the K-Lite Codec Pack. Would the Codec Pack simply replace of all of those listed above?

At the moment I have all of the above plus K-Lite installed. Could that pose a problem?

 

Something to try:

Start, run, type in the following:

regsvr32 C:\WINDOWS\system32\wmnetmgr.dll

 

I can think of a couple workaround solutions, that still allows you to play windows media content on the web, but it just doesn't use windows media player 9 or 10.

One is mplayer2 and the other is mplayer classic.

I have one request, could you give out the actual url for those site you are going to. I have yet another idea.

 

I ran this and received a message that it was successful. However, I returned to the same websites and the clips still would not play.

 

The website for Collectables is oldies.com.

Here's a direct link to a CD which gives you the WMP/RealPlayer option:
http://www.oldies.com/product/view.cfm/id_96492.html

The baseball site, mlb.com, requires a subscription to view live games, so you probably wouldn't be able to access it. The live streams offer a choice of WMP/RealPlayer. Archived content apparently requires WMP.

I just went to C-SPAN's site a few minutes ago and attempted to play an archived video clip using RealPlayer, and my computer froze: Firefox is not responding. I wonder if this means my problems are more widespread than I realized. I hadn't been having problems with RealPlayer. I'll give it another try. Then I'll go to a different website and see what kind of result I get.

Thanks again for your assistance.

 

I figured out the problem with the C-Span video. My file associations were all set to WMP and when I attempted to use RealPlayer, that's when Firefox wouldn't respond. I simply changed my associations back to RP and now the video does play, but only with RP. By the way, that is a live stream, not an archived clip as I erroneously stated, though in this case I don't believe that makes any difference. As far as I can tell I have no problems with RP. I then tried to play the same live streaming video with WMP9 and, of course, I received the usual error message.

 

Lurking?

My initial thought was Spyware until I saw "The plugin performed an illegal operation" error. Now, I'm not so sure.

Re-register the three files below:

1. Start, Run, type regsvr32 msdxm.ocx then press enter

2. Start, Run, type regsvr32 wmp.dll then press enter

3. Start, Run, type regsvr32 wmpdxm.dll then press enter

Restart and see if that does anything.

Steve

 

I just went to CNN to try to view some of their videos; however, I clicked on two of them and both times I immediately received the error message that a problem had occurred and the browser would have to close. My associations are set to RP, so I'm thinking CNN's media content must be WMP-exclusive.

Next I went to my local news to try their video. Whenever I clicked on a link I received a message telling me that RealPlayer needed to download software in order to play the clip. But when I clicked to download the software, I quickly got a message telling me that no software was available that would allow the clip to play. Once again, I guess WMP is required for that particular site.

It appears that my problems with WMP, 9 or 10, are even more of an annoyance than I thought.

 

Knew that would get your attention.http://forums.majorgeeks.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

What happens when you start windows media player and click file, open url and use the following url:

mms://a1247.v65466.c6546.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1247/6546/v30212/muze.download.akamai.com/2890/us/uswm2/834/474834_1_01.wm2

 

Unfortunately, the end result is the same.

I ran the three files successfully. However, when I went to Collectables to play a music clip I clicked on WMP, and since my associations are with RP, I got the message that RP needs to download software to play the clip, but that no software was available. Then I clicked on RP and the clip played through.

 

I received the message: "Windows Media Player has encountered a problem and needs to close."


A few details:

AppName: wmplayer.exe

AppVer: 9.0.0.3250 ModName: wininet.dll

ModVer: 6.0.2900.2668

Offset: 0007926b

 

Since Matacumbie mentioned spyware, perhaps I should inform you that I did have an adware problem only a day or two before I started noticing my problems with WMP.

At that time I believe I had a total of seven or eight occurrences of Adware.istbar (ISTsvc.exe) on two occasions, one day apart. They were detected by Norton Anti-Virus and referred to as threats.

Behavior:
Adware.Istbar is an adaware component, which does one or more of the following:

Installs an Internet Explorer toolbar
Acts as a Home page and search hijacker
Pops up advertisements, often pornographic in nature.

Removal of the first few Istbar components was successful. However, the attempt to remove the second incidence of Istbar items met with failure, at least according to the message I received. But when I later ran a full virus-scan and several adware scans, and then did a file search, no incidences of Istbar were detected.

Is it possible that all Istbar items could have been removed, but that lingering damage could occur? I know that all of this is probably completely irrelevant to the problem at hand, but at this point I figure I might as well try any possible, if improbable, angle.

 

From that answer it is NOT a browser related issue.

Okay, next try this:
Start, run, type in this:

mplayer2 (press enter)

Click file, open and type in the following:

mms://a1247.v65466.c6546.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1247/6546/v30212/muze.download.akamai.com/2890/us/uswm2/834/474834_1_01.wm2

If this still doesn't work, then check to see if you have port 1755 open, cuase this is what MMS uses.

 

It's entirely possible that the two could be related, then again they might not be related to each other. Just to be on the safe side follow then instructions in this sticky:

Basic Spyware, Trojan And Virus Removal

See what that comes up with, if there are remanents of Istbar on your system that should take care of it.

 

Yes, that works. Does that mean we're making progress? (I had completely forgotten what the old Media Player looked like!)

 

Incidentally, that link was one of the first things I saw when I came to MajorGeeks, and I figured then that was something I needed to do. So now I'll work my way through it and post my results as soon as I finish.

Thank you very much for the link.

 

Are we sure it is not a Firefox problem with WMP?

Embedded Media Player in Firefox

I had some errors with my system until I did what this page describes. Could relink the FF and WMP for our current trouble.

Back to lurking, trying to offer what helped for me....

kozakid, welcome to Majorgeeks!

 

I had the Kozakid use windows media player 10 and open url:

mms://a1247.v65466.c6546.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1247/6546/v30212/muze.download.akamai.com/2890/us/uswm2/834/474834_1_01.wm2

which gave him the same error. So I think it is more of a media player issue, not a browser issue. THough, this is just what I found so far.

But, perhaps this may help out in this situation. /me shrugs

 

Thank you very much for the suggestion. I'll certainly look into it.

I hadn't really thought about this being a Firefox-specific problem with WMP since both Opera and IE react in pretty much the same way when I attempt to use WMP. Still, my knowledge in this area is extremely limited, and I guess it's possible that clearing up the problem between FF and WMP might transfer over to the other browsers as well. I'll check it out. Perhaps some of the other members will comment on the possible relevancy of your experience to mine.

Thanks again.

 

hang in there, you will get it. If not this is a great place for help.

 

Thank you for your words of encouragement.

I agree. Even without a solution to my problem -- yet -- I feel that I've really learned a lot over the past few days. This has definitely been a worthwhile experience, and I'm certainly willing to hang in and keep trying.

 

I'm off work now, but heading to a DnD session. Yes, I'm over 30 and still play role playing games (table top).

Anyway, a temporary work around is to change your MMS functionality within the registry:

HKEY_Classes_Root\MMS\shell\open\command

Change key: (Default) from "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" "%L" to "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\mplayer2.exe" "%L"

Also, do the same for MMST and MMSU

Also, in the following key:

HKEY_Local_Machine\software\classes\MMS
MMST and MMSU

This is of course a temporary solution until a known solution comes to mind.

 

That sounds good. Thank you.

 

Well, something very, very strange just occurred while I was following the steps for Basic Spyware, Trojan and Virus Removal.

At Step 3 I tried to access Windows Explorer using Start>All Programs>Accessories>Windows Explorer, but I clicked on Windows Explorer only to have My Documents open instead! I tried several more times and got the same weird result. Could there be any logical reason for this? I'm starting to wonder if I might not have a widespread problem affecting various Windows components.

 

OK, you can still do step 3 from My Documents. You may have a bigger problem then first realized. Continue with the steps in the thread.

 

Okay. I was confused at first, but I figured out how to continue. Thanks for letting me know it could be done.

 

I've gotten as far as BitDefender (in Safe Mode), but I've run into what may be a problem. For some reason the virus definitions were not able to be updated.

At the start I agreed to the license, but right away I did not see a Scan option. So I clicked Install and then I had the Scan button. When the scan stopped, the box read as follows:

BITDEFENDER

Update failed. Continue?

BitDefender failed to update the virus definitions.

Although it might be possible to check for viruses, the result will proabably be
inaccurate.

Should I have continued the scan even though I was warned that the results might be inaccurate?

Could having the virus update fail in Safe Mode be indicative of a larger problem?

 

You are using IE to run BitDefender correct. An ActiveX control must be installed for BitDefender to work correctly. At the top of the page will be a warning bar asking to install an ActiveX control. click on it and install the control if you haven't already done so.

You may have to try a couple of times to get the AV Def updates. If You can't get BitDefender to work skip it and move on the the next scan.

 

We are dealing with XP sp2 correct? Hmmm, activex issues. Would resetting everything to default on everything help out?

As in, startup IE, go to tools, internet options. Go through the tabs and select default with everything you see?

 

Thank you very, very much!!!

I'm pleased to report that Windows Media Player is now working fine. As you suggested, I went to Internet Options>Advanced and reset everything to default -- and that apparently fixed my WMP problem!

It appears that I had default settings for all but the following four items:

Browsing
1. Automatically check for Internet Explorer updates was blank.
2. Enable Install On Demand (Internet Explorer) was blank.
3. Use Passive FTP (for firewall and DSL modem compatibility) was checked.

Security
4. Warn if changing between secure and not secure mode was blank.

Changing these four back to default is apparently what it took to get WMP working again. (Perhaps it was only one of the four which actually made the difference.)

I continue to have the problem with Windows Explorer, which for some reason opens as My Documents. The left pane shows a Folders column. From the top they are:

Desktop
My Documents
My Computer
My Network Places
Recycle Bin
AboutBuster5 (folder)
Business (folder)
Downsized Photos (folder)
etc. (more folders)

To the right of this pane all my document folders and files are listed alphabetically. I'm wondering now what it would take to once again get Windows Explorer to open as Windows Explorer. As always, I'm open to suggestions.

Still, the reason I came to MajorGeeks was my to solve my problem with WMP, and I'm very glad to have that finally cleared up. Thank you all very much for your patience and your help.

 

I'm glad you got the WMP issue sorted. Windows Explorer by default opens to My Documents of the current user. So, just looking at your list, that would be the way it's supposed to look.

 

Thank you again. Obviously, clearing up the WMP problem took care of the wininet.dll file problem, or I guess that was actually cleared up a little earlier. Regarding codecs, I uninstalled K-Lite since I figured it wasn't needed.

What you said about Windows Explorer is kind of what I finally figured must be the case. I guess you just click on the proper folder to get to where you want to go. It's just that it looked so different from what I remember. Perhaps I was thinking of how Windows Explorer looked in Win 98.

One thing I notice now is that my PC is very slow to reboot. It seems to take at least three or four times longer than previously. Once I get online, though, speed is no problem, and that's the important thing.

Thanks again for the Spyware, Trojan And Virus Removal link. I've nearly finished going through it. I'm also using chaslang's How to Protect Yourself from Malware! I feel I've learned a lot here in only four days, not just from these articles, but also from having gone through the rather lengthy process of having my problem solved. Anyhow, it was certainly worth it. You fellows provide a great service! Many thanks to you all.

 

The time it takes your system to boot depends on a lot of different things, like how many things are in your system startup, how much you have on your desktop, malware can cause a system to boot slowly. One thing you may want to do is deframent your hard drive. The XP defrag utility isn't really all that great. I like O&O Defrag; I use the professional version.

 

We are more than happy to help out!


I prefer PerfectDisk:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=268

Or you can use a free lite version of diskeeper:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1207