Windows Media Player cannot play file because there is a problem with your sound device.

This is Windows Vista and I use Windows media player for playing music and videos. Don’t know what went wrong today, there is no Audio coming out for any music files, even while playing music online. Am sure there is no problem with my speakers.

Also one surprising thing is that I can hear all system sounds properly in Realteck HD Audio Manager but no audio for music and videos. Once it gave me an error message saying:

“Windows Media Player cannot play the file because there is a problem with your sound device. There may not be a sound device installed on your computer, it may be in use by another program, or it may not be functioning properly.”

Any help will be appreciated.

Did you checked your Device manager for any device will yellow mark? If not check it now, am sure there would be yellow mark on some devices. Just click them and update drivers for everything marked. First of all don’t forget to update the drivers for your sound card. And do that from hardware manufacturer’s website instead of windows update.