"Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file

I have a Dell machine that came preinstalled with Windows Vista. I am getting the error message "Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file" when I try to open WMP with sound and video files both. When I choose the web help button then I am getting different error codes and explanations. So I tried to follow the instructions but didnt find any fixes for it. Can anyone please help me out. Thanks

What version of Windows Media Player do you have. Upgrade to the most recent one. The new version is stable and provide you a variety of new media file formats. Other than this what more you can do is just re-install Windows Media Player. The same is also done with Windows update also. Try to check the integrity of video file that you are trying to play. There are many free players that you can download and test one by one.

This are common error and there is nothing to much worry about. To run a number of format it is required that you keep essential updates in your system. Like Flash player, Quicktime Player, Vlc, etc. All latest codec pack so that you can play any kind of video and audio files. Mainly due to corrupt files the error appears usually. You can fix those file also via some good video convertor.