Unable to open....Please Help!

[redpete]

Hi,

I have two strange problems! I'd appreciate any thoughts on resolving this

1. An online site which has a collection of radio stations (www.nederland.fm)
When I click on the different stations absolutely nothing happens. Previously it would open up a player within the webpage and connect within a few seconds and play the stream just fine. I checked with a PC at work and it works fine so it's not the web site. (is this essentially the same problem as clicking on a link and then nothing happening or is it related more specifically to the fact that it's a online media site??)

2. which may/may not be related to the above. A well respected broadcast site which containes a large number of archived and live news videos. Some work, some don't. I've emailed the organisation and they say theve tested the links and the should work and I've checked some from work too and they seem OK.

What typically happens when I click is this: the window will open up and the will be a very brief, i.e. fraction of a second, flash of the media player before it disapears and I just have some other options. eg "open using stand alone player /save. email etc. I'm unable to open using anything. The site requires Real Player/alternative.

I know this is probably not enough info to diagnose but how to I start to figure out where the problem(s) is? What should I check? I have not reinstalled anything since this started happening.

Pete

Windows XP SP2
Windows Media Player 10
Real Alternative

[netwizz]

Sir,

Don't worry the information you've provided would lead us to somewhere.

First and foremost in such issues, as you mentioned if you have not resintalled or rather installed anything new or not made any much changes to your PC - then try the SYSTEM RESTORE functionality in Windows XP.

Its a feature which allows you to go back to a particular date when the PC was workign fine. Click Start - Programs ( All Programs) - Accessories - System Tools - System Restore.

You will get a calendar. Some of the dates in the calendar will be in bold. these are the dates you can select. go back as far as possible. you can even go to the previous month. remember the time when it was working fine and go to the date that far behind .. click next .. the computer will restart automatically and when it reboots - it tells you whether the SYSTEM RESTORE was successful or not.

This should help in such issues !!! Its always worked for me. Don't worry you will not lose any saved files or data on yr hard drive. only if you have installed any programs, you will lose them. thats ok you can always reinstall them. but this is a solution worth giving a try!

lemme know how far this goes and we shall take it from here on. Possible causes for your problem - when you open media links in IE - Windows Media Player or Real Player codec should be embedded in IE. either you've uninstalled Real Player or it has gone corrupt or the add-ons to IE have gone corrupt. either ways my head & experience still spins around SYSTEM RESTORE ...

keep us posted

always glad to help you all!
god bless ... amen!

[bol1]

Hi,

Thanks for the advice. I'm familier with system restore and have used it in the past. If I can't fix this I'll try that but for now I'd prefer to avoid that as I'm not at home and I'd loose some links I've added.

Actually when I say I've changed nothing that's not totally correct. I installed RealAlternative and thats when I noticed that the media player links did not work. I then uninstalled it but that made no difference. So it's possible that some of the plug in became corrupted as you say. I also ran CCleaner and cleaned up the registry but I've always done this from time to time without problems.

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and restor to an earlier point?

Mike

[redpete]

OK if I use system restore will restore the cookies and other C**** that I've removed using CCleaner and the like?

Of course I'd prefer to be able to isolate a specific cause as to why certain links don't work anymore but realise that sometimes this isn't possible

Pete