Windows Media Player won't open on Windows 7

I recently tried to play a DVD on my laptop and discovered that it wouldn't play through Gomplayer. I then tried to play it through Windows Media Player and discovered that it will not open at all. I don't know what the problem could be. I'm pretty sure it's not a virus or malware and my laptop is relatively new (bought it this past September.) I think I opened WMP about a week or so ago to set it up and that's about all I remember.

Is there anything I can do to fix this? Thanks.

 

What exactly happens when you try to play the DVD through GOMplayer? Errors? Any messages? What exactly happens when you try to open Windows Media Player? Does it just not open w/o any error messages or anything? Does WMP play music? More info would be greatly appreciated, including which version of Win7 you're using (64bit, 32bit, Home Premium, Starter Edition, Professional, etc).

Just because a PC is new does NOT mean it can't have malware. I have dealt with MANY people that have brought home their brand new PC, hooked up the internet, and had a useless PC crippled by malware in under 10 minutes.

 

I'm running on a Toshiba Satellite L655D laptop with a 64bit OS of Windows 7 Home Premium. When I attempt to open the DVD on GOM the program will open, however, the mouse is the blue circle showing that it is loading. Then it tells me that I need a codec. I downloaded the codec and it still asks for the same codec.

My WMP will not open at all. It appears to open, but all I see is a window flashing and nothing after that. When I try to play an mp3 it will give me a pop up with the file name of the mp3 and "Server execution failed." under it. I do virus checks every other day and I recently ran Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware last week.

 

Yes, I do have the latest version. It still won't open and says that I'm missing the codec.

 

Thanks. I asked around on Yahoo yesterday and I downloaded a codec pack that someone recommended and finally got GOM to play the DVD.

But I'm still having problems with my Windows Media Player. It still won't open.

 

As far as WMP not opening, there are some pretty good tips located here.

 

Thanks for the link. I've actually tried all the methods they've listed, including the FixWin program and it still won't work. Or I should clarify, that it won't work if I just double-click an mp3 or autoplay a DVD. The program will work if I go into the Program Files folder in my Computer and open wmplayer.exe in the Windows Media Player folder before I attempt to play any file. So I suppose it works that way. Otherwise, I still get the "server execution failed" when I try to open mp3s or nothing opening at all for DVDs.

 

That is bothersome. What version of WMP are you running?

 

I'm currently running version 12 of WMP.

I have tried opening mp3s that way and that's when the server failed shows up. Seems the only way to get anything to play is to execute the program first from wmplayer.exe.

As for codecs, I had originally downloaded Media Player Codec Pack, but then I uninstalled and switched to Shark007 Codec Pack.

 

I have tried all the suggestions in that post and it still does not work. With all the solutions out there, I don't think there will be a way to fix this problem.

I tried a system restore just now to the earliest point I had (last week Thursday) and WMP did open. I opened the program and chose the recommended settings when I was prompted to choose to customize or stick to the recommended because I think I had customized my settings before I had this problem. Unfortunately, right after I clicked okay, the program would not open. So I suppose it has something to do with the settings that make the program unable to open.
Now, I undid the system restore because I had uninstalled AVG 2011 a few days ago and switched to Avira. I tried to uninstall AVG after the restore and it would not uninstall. I figured I'd rather deal with WMP not opening that having both WMP not open and AVG not uninstall.