Windows won't play certain MP3 files

[bwarren97]

My uncle said there was an update or something, and now a bunch of his Harry Potter audiobooks won't play in Windows Media Player. I tried using VLC but it had the same issue with the exact same files. On top of that, Windows throws an error on login saying that avastui.exe could not start, so the Antivirus isn't working. We tried restoring the system to a point where it did work but it didn't do anything.

Anyone know the cause of this or at least how to fix it?

 

[bazz2004]

First priority is to restore AV protection. Download an alternative AV program (freeware). Once its installed uninstall Avast and run a full scan. My current favourite is Bitdefender. Next download and run Malwarebytes (free). Hopefully there will be no infections found but better safe than sorry.

CCleaner is a useful freeware program. I'd download that and run a registry scan and cleanup. After this you can turn to sorting the problems of playing media files.

 

[bwarren97]

Well, in the time it took me to finally see this reply, the computer seems to be playing the Audiobooks just fine now. I have no clue how that happened, maybe a few restarts may have helped Windows fix itself in that matter.

The registry scan came up with nonexistant file references and suggested that they be removed from registry. They were all from Microsoft .NET framework it looked like. Should I try reinstalling that?

 

[bazz2004]

Sorry to be repetitive but is the computer free from infections and AV protection running OK? Apart from checking that I'd leave things alone. Microsoft.Net framework updates will most likely reappear in Windows Updates.

 

[bwarren97]

I got Microsoft Security Essentials working just fine. Somehow, none of the Avast programs worked anymore and it couldn't be uninstalled. I just used CCleaner to remove it from the program list.

 

[bazz2004]

CCleaner is a great program. If you check in Program files you may find a residual folder for Avast. If so I'd delete it and run CCleaner again.