A client attempted to install one of those MPEG joiners/editors. The install failed and now the workstation will not play MPG, ASF, and some AVI files. Some AVI files do play (such as DIVX), but for the most part no MPG file will play.
An application using the MCI returns a MMSYSTEM296, indicating that the file (all the files) is corrupt. That is not the case, so the error message is misleading.
RealPlayer would crash with an Illegal Op dlg.
Real Media would say “out of memory.”
I removed ALL video codecs and most audio, but no change in error responce except that for some file types return a more understandable unsupported media type.
I followed a remedy on trouble report on the MMSYSTEM error at MS web site. It did not correct the problem. At this point I am thinking of reinstalling the OS and software. I would rather not do this unless there is no alternative.
I hope that someone out there can make sense of these seemingly unrelated symptoms.
Thank you