Media Player 8 - Pocket PC 2002

[ribokas]

Somehow I managed to delete something that Media Player 8 needs and I cannot get it to run. I have tried several times to reinstall both from the CD and using the download from the Microsoft web site and nothing works. It appears to install OK, no errors or anything, it just won't run afterwards. When I try to start it, it briefly flashes up the media skin for the player and then disappears.

Please help. I am lost without my player! What could I possibly be missing?

[GoldKey]

Did you try a hard reset?

[ribokas]

I would really rather not have to do a hard reset except as a last resort. There is a lot of "stuff" on this thing that I would rather not have to reinstall. There must be a way to find out what's missing and put it back.

I "removed" some program by accident and it was obviously something that Media Player wants around. I thought I was removing something else but when I got back to the "Remove Programs" list, the program I thought I was removing was still there so I have no clue what is was that actually got removed. My own fault and dumb I know but not worth a hard reset... not yet.

Anyone got a list of programs that should be in the program list if Media Player is correctly installed and functioning?

[ribokas]

I think the problem is that I removed Media Player for Pocket PC 2002 and can't find the files to reinstall it. The files I have and the files on the MS web site are a "Windows Media Player for Pocket PC 2002 *Update*" and say that I need Media Player for Pocket PC 2002 installed first.

But I don't have it and can't find it.

[Steven Cedrone]

I think the problem is that you deleted the skin that the Media Player needs, get yourself the skin chooser for media player (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/resources/downloads/pocketpc/skinchooser_eula.mspx) and assign a new skin, it should work for you after that...

Steve

[ribokas]

I tried that and I see the skin chooser and pick one and then it flashes up and goes away. I started Media Player again and the new skin flahses up and then goes away.

[Steven Cedrone]

Stupid question: did you try a soft reset? Are you saying that the skin disappears in the skin chooser as well???

Steve

[ribokas]

I've done numerous soft resets to no avail.

The skin chooser runs and lets me choose a skin and then it tries to start Media Player which just flashes up the skin I have choosen and then goes away. It's maddening. I've got so much stuff installed on this thing that I do not want to have to hard reset it and reinstall everything.

Could someone post a list of programs that are supposed to be installed under Pocket PC 2002.

I think it odd that I cannot find a copy of Media Player for Pocket PC 2002 anywhere... only the "Windows Media Player for Pocket PC 2002 *Update*"

[klg]

I too, lost Windows Media Player. I installed Resco's Audio Recorder for it's abilities as listed in PDA Essentials magazine. When I did that the Media Player would flash for just a second and disappear. I asked Resco for info and they never replied. Unfortunately (or fortunately) my battery ran down and I lost all programs, when I hard rebooted Resco was gone and Media was back and fine. So do your backups and just do the reboot.

PS: "I just joined for the contests?" where did that little note come from?
I'm not amused.

[Kati Compton]

PS: "I just joined for the contests?" where did that little note come from?
That's the tagline for people with one post. As people continue to contribute to PPCT, their taglines change to reflect the number of posts they've made.

[sjk]

I've got the same problem.

Windows Media Player will not properly load up, it flashes up then quits. I've tried changing skins and no joy.

Plus - I also installed Resco Audio Recorder to try it out. Then I uninstalled it and WMP stopped working.

[doogald]

A note that I recall reading on our site:

One possible solution to Windows Media not opening is to simply just rerun welcom.exe located in the /windows folder.

[davo74]

I had to resolve the skin issue to.
I also have a similar problem after a soft reset on my XDA. Windows media can not be started from the start menu. There are even two icons for it. After a soft reset I have to go to Start>Programs>Windows Media then its fine.

[JoeMoon]

Maybe this is a stupid question... But I am trying to find Media Player 9 for the PPC. Is it available, or is 8.5 as high as I can go with PPC 2002.

If so, can someone tell me how I can load a playlist and have the tracks PLAY in the correct order... In other words, I have an audio book album that must be played in sequence. Stupid player reverses the file order when I create the dang playlist. I have to manually go in and realign all the files. It is a pain in the butt when you have 75 to 100 files from an audio book.

Any ideas?
Joe...

[nigeles]

I had a broken WMP on my PPC 2002 iPaq and fixed it as follows

Download the Pocket PC WMP 7.1 from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=343426c5-a7ac-4a6b-a037-64f8c8def172&displaylang=en

I suggest calling the file something more meaningful than wmnall.exe since all the versions have the same name.

Version 7.1 is not designed for PPC 2002 so it will fail to install if you just execute wmnall.exe. What you do instead is unzip the executable and look in it for the cab file that suits your PC. In the case of the iPaq this is the wolf.cab.
Copy the relevant cab to your pocket PC and open it with the file explorer. This should install WMP 7.1

Now touch nothing and run the WMP updgrade from the CD that came with your Pocket PC and hopefully you'll be WMP enabled once more

Nigel

[dean.roberts]

I have the same problem with my XDA IIs. Run Windows Media from the start menu or even by cliking on the program in File Explorer and I get nothing. The title bar shows "Windows Media" and then goes back to "Start". No screen flashing or nothing. Same if I try clicking on a .wma file in File Explorer.

I had installed the following when the problem first showed up;
- Zendrui PocketZenPhone
- Two Peaks Flexwallet 2005
- SBSH PocketBreeze

I have subsequently installed a number of other games and apps and the problem persists.

I have tried the suggestion above re welcom.exe to no avail.

Any further advice short of a hard-reset?

Cheers
Dean

[Menneisyys]

Maybe this is a stupid question... But I am trying to find Media Player 9 for the PPC. Is it available, or is 8.5 as high as I can go with PPC 2002.

8.5 (in EUU3) is the highest available version for ppc2k2 devices.

If so, can someone tell me how I can load a playlist and have the tracks PLAY in the correct order... In other words, I have an audio book album that must be played in sequence. Stupid player reverses the file order when I create the dang playlist. I have to manually go in and realign all the files. It is a pain in the butt when you have 75 to 100 files from an audio book.

One solution is copying the files to the PPC in reverse order via ActiveSync. As WMP seems to read files in descending order of their creation filedate, this may be of help.

If you still want to copy the files with a card reader / the above method doesn't work for you, create an ASX file of your directory, and issue under Windows the following command:

sort <your playlist name>.asx >new

This will sort your files into alphabetical order. Please note that it will only work OK if you use the name convention <serial number><name>.mp3, not the <name><serial number>.mp3.

After then, edit the file "new" (with, for example, the Windows Notepad) and delete all the rows that don't contain something like these:

<ref href = "\My Documents\aa\T.mp3" />
<ref href = "\My Documents\aa\T2.mp3" />
<ref href = "\My Documents\aa\T3.mp3" />
<ref href = "\My Documents\aa\T4.mp3" />
<ref href = "\My Documents\aa\T5.mp3" />
<ref href = "\My Documents\aa\T6.mp3" />
<ref href = "\My Documents\aa\T7.mp3" />

Also delete rows that look like this: <ref href = ".\aa\T.mp3" /> - their number equals to the number of the above rows.

Then, press Ctrl-H and change all occurrences of <ref to <ENTRY><ref and /> to /></ENTRY> .

Finally, copy the following header to the begining of the file:

<ASX version = "3.0">
<PARAM NAME = "Encoding" VALUE = "UTF-8" />
<PARAM NAME = "Custom Playlist Version" VALUE = "V1.0 WMP8 for CE" />

and, the following trailer to the end:

</ASX>

Not the easiest method, but when you need to sort tens of hundreds of audio files, it's still much faster/easier than doing that in PWMP itself.

[amitregev]

I have the same problem with my XDA IIs. Run Windows Media from the start menu or even by cliking on the program in File Explorer and I get nothing. The title bar shows "Windows Media" and then goes back to "Start". No screen flashing or nothing. Same if I try clicking on a .wma file in File Explorer.

I had installed the following when the problem first showed up;
- Zendrui PocketZenPhone
- Two Peaks Flexwallet 2005
- SBSH PocketBreeze

I have subsequently installed a number of other games and apps and the problem persists.

I have tried the suggestion above re welcom.exe to no avail.

Any further advice short of a hard-reset?

Cheers
Dean

Hi dean.roberts :)

Can you tell me which version of PocketBreeze are you using?

[dean.roberts]

Hi dean.roberts :)

Can you tell me which version of PocketBreeze are you using?

Hello Amitregev,

I am using v4.2.00 of Pocket Breeze

Are others reporting similar problems?

Cheers
Dean

[amitregev]

Hi Dean,

If you use PocketBreeze with the D-Pad options enabled then this can cause this on version 4.2.00, we had about 15 updates since then with many new additions and fixes, among the fixes we also fixed this issue.

All updates are free of course, and you can read how to download the latest version on the following URL:

http://www.sbsh.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=1677

Please let me know if it helped :)

[dean.roberts]

Amit,

This solution worked a treat.

Thanks for your excellent support.

Cheers
Dean

[amitregev]

Great to hear Dean :)