So I looked on the net and couldn't find anything on this. Basically, if I am listening to a song and pause it, then let it sit for a minute or less (not exactly sure the time frame) and press play it skips the song and that little red x appears beside the song in the play list. It tells me it doesn't recognize the format. Weird since it was just playing it, right? Oh, and I don't want another media player. I like WMP.....aside from this little hiccup.
I would test the hard drive and make sure it's good. If so, then I'd try updating WMP and installing CCCP codecs. If that doesn't work, then I'd try a BIOS update. If I can't find a software solution to the problem, I would use winamp or restore the OS as a last resort. I'm not sure if audio is buffered into RAM as well (doubtful), but I'd check that as well using memtest86.
How do I test to see if the HD is good? I'm assuming it is since everything else runs fine except VLC player. I'll check out memtest and make sure my codecs are up but like I said it plays them and has for a long time. This is a fairly recent occurrence.
Some pretty extreme measures on this thread, but good ideas if simpler tests don't work. Try some other media players first. Winamp, Media Player Classic, even (shudder) iTunes. If you get similar problems, its probably missing or damaged codecs. If it works fine in other players, then just blame WMP and don't use it anymore. I've always had problems with WMP, it's just a bloated, poorly designed piece of software which is always doing silly internet checks and hanging up the OS.
Nevermind. HP Quickplay has the same problem. Just took a little longer for it to happen. The search continues. I don't think it is a codec since I can already play the song. It just comes up when I pause the song.