why cant i play music that i have downloaded

i am using a vista operating system. when i try to play music that i have
riped from a cd or dowloaded from online stores, i get an error message
stating "Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file.
For additional assistance, click Web Help." ive tried to fix the problem and
cannot do so. i want to play the music ive purchased!

I had the same problem this fixed it.
chuck

"tristan" <tristan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:2F8EB0BD-6DB5-49D1-A951-1E7F7B77D2D6@microsoft.com...
>i am using a vista operating system. when i try to play music that i have
> riped from a cd or dowloaded from online stores, i get an error message
> stating "Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the
> file.
> For additional assistance, click Web Help." ive tried to fix the problem
> and
> cannot do so. i want to play the music ive purchased!