Windows Media Player - Not starting and cannot create Directshow player

[Fiddler_the_Xth]

I'm running Windows XP, on an AMD Athalon 64 FX-53 chip, nVidia 6800, Firefox 1.5.0.4, with the latest directx driver.

Whenever I would attempt to view an embeded video file with the windows media player, I would recieve this error message,
"Can not create DirectShow Player"
This also occurs when I use IE or Opera. But when I choose another format (MPG, Flash, AVI, QuickTime) I can see the clip fine.
In an attempt to fix this, I removed and reinstalled Windows Media Player 11 Beta. I also tried reinstalling WMP 10 but tht didn't fix it either. (XP users can no longer roll back to version 9. It's been deleted completely)
Now not only do I get the "Cannot create DirectShow player" message. I can't even start up Windows Media Player. When I click on the little WMP icon, my cursors flashes an hourglass, than goes back to a cursor. WMP wont engage at all. Help?

 

[Phred]

Following this M$ article helped me - http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=831430

(Re-register jscript.dll & vbscript.dll)

 

[smore9648]

I had the same problem with WMP 11. I uninstalled it and re-installed wmp 10.
No more problems

 

[Inno]

Hi, sorry to jump in with my first post here - but I'm having exactly the same problem, although it seems to have extended itself to WinAmp not playing video files and Internet Explorer acting sluggish also.

I've tried everything I can think of, even everything on that MS article - I get errors trying re-register the first of the dll files and I'm fast approaching the end of my tether.

Can anybody help me at all? I'm desperate!

 

[rycher]

Phred, I love you!

I had a VPN install gone awry that caused a domino effect on my laptop. I solved a few problems, but started getting some errors during boot and one of the resolutions had me change a few settings,....end result was that I couldn't see the Windows Update site (among a few others). I spent HOURS looking for an answer on the Microsoft site. NOTHING. I reloaded SP2 and upgraded my browser to 7.0 and NO CHANGE. Finally, I was trying to launch a few sites that played audio and was getting an error - which lead me to here - which lead me to the MS solution - that appears to have fixed my problem. Of course, it was 2 lines. I wish I would have found this 24 hours and many follicles ago!

 

[notime]

Codec adware

Apparently, DirectShow requires codecs Vcodec and Vcodec.emedia
which are identified as adware by some anti-spyware programs such as Spybot. Restore these and DirectShow works fine.
Always a price to pay.