Windows 10: Windows Media Player will not play Music CD

I am running Windows 10 v.1903 and Windows Media Player v12. All updates were done.


When I inserted a music CD into my CD/DVD drive, the Windows Media Player will start, and, after loading the music CD, will start Windows Installer to try to install something (showing just "Prepare to Install" message). It would run for a longtime and sometimes hang or sometimes will return message saying "the installation server is not responding". At this point both the WMP and the installer would just hang. I could not but use windows task manager to end the task of both in order to exit.


Thinking may it was caused by missing codecs, so I had installed audio/video codecs packs for WMP but that did not help. I ran the third party utility FixWMP 10 to re-registered all dll's, but also no help. I also ran the troubleshooter for WMP library and setting options. Those did not help either.


I switched the default action for "Audio CD" to playing music CD with Windows Media Player to with VLC Media Player. The VLC player works fine in playing the CD so there is no codec and hardware/CD disc issues, I assume. But still when I inserted music CD, the WMP would still start (sometimes together with VLC) and would still try to install something even though I could separately run/start the VLC to play the CD.


Is there any help/suggestions you can make to help fix this issue. I would like to use WMP as my default player to play my CD and all other music files.


Thank you!

:)

 

MEDIA PLAYER- unable to play or rip cd's

Hi Christine,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

We regret the inconvenience caused to you. We will be glad to assist you with the issue.

• Did you check if you are able to play using other CD'S?
• What is the exact error message or code you receive when you try to play the cd or try to Rip?

For now let's try the below steps and check if it helps:

Method 1:

I suggest you to check if the rip settings are set correctly as mentioned in this article:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/change-settings-for-ripping-music

Method 2:

I suggest you to uninstall and reinstall the Windows Media player and check if the issue persists. Refer to these steps to uninstall and reinstall Windows Media player:

• Press Window key + F, select “Settings’ tab below the search box.
• Type “Turn Windows features ON or OFF” and click on the tile with the same name.
• Now, expand the “Media features” and uncheck the box against “Windows Media player”.
• Restart the computer.
• Now follow the same steps and check the box against “Windows Media player” and
  restart the computer to reinstall.
• Check if the issue persists.

Hope it helps. Please do let us know if you need further assistance, we’ll be glad to assist you.

Thank you.

 

Windows Media Player won't play CDs

Hello DominicGerald,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

To address your concern, kindly help us with the following queries:

1. Are you receiving any error code or error message when you attempt to play the music?
   
2. Is your music CD being detected by the system and are you able to access it through the File Explorer (Windows + E key)?
   

In Windows Media Player, you can play audio CDs, data CDs, and data DVDs that contain music or video files (also known as media CDs). If you have a DVD drive and a compatible DVD decoder installed on your computer, you can use Windows Media Player
to play a DVD-Video disc. If your unable to play anything on WMP, kindly check with the steps listed below and see if it works:

Method 1: Update DVD/CD ROM driver from Device Manager.

Sometimes, the issue persists if the drivers aren’t updated. So, I would suggest you to update the DVD/Cd driver manually. To do that, you may refer the article on

Update drivers in Windows 10.

Once after updating the drivers, you may check if you are able to play songs. If not, you may try out the following method.

Method 2: Adjust Burn Settings.


As you say that it’s getting stuck while burning a CD, you might want to check with the burn speed. To do that,

• Open Windows Media Player from the Start menu.
  
• Click on Organize and select
  Options from the list.
  
• Select the Burn tab in the Options window and select the drop-down menu beside
  Burn speed and select Slow.
  
• Click on Apply and OK
  to exit the settings screen.
  
• Try burning a new CD and check if it plays.
  

Method 3: Download and install add-ons for Windows Media Player.

I would suggest you to get the add-ons for your player and check if you are able to play songs. To do the same, you may want to refer to an article on
Downloads for Windows.


Kindly get back to us with the results. We will be glad to assist you further if the issue persists.

Regards,

Mala S

Microsoft Community - Moderator

 

Windows Media will not burn my music discs to play on regular CD players

Hello CGaleBaker,

Could you please reply to some of my questions?

• Which Cd player are you referring to? What is the make and model?
• Did you try to play the music other cd player?

Well, I suspect there is some issue with the cd player itself as it is running fine on the computer. I suggest you to try playing in on different player and check first.

Let us know how it goes.