Vista - Vista, WMP 11, Sound but no video, not codec problem. Pic included

I'm not sure how this happened as I've been running a smooth machine and WMP
worked fine by itself and in web browsers. I'm running Vista 32bit and have
always used the included WMP 11.

The problem is all I get is a blank screen, shown here with the white
backround and the black box of any video of any file type I play using WMP 11
for example please view my screenshot:

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/9696/80752975vt1.jpg

here is another screen shot of a different file showing same thing but
different file and size of the video:

http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/8771/11xk0.jpg

Again, I can hear sound just fine but video seems to be turned off in WMP
11. I've been trying and trying and hoping that there is something simple I'm
overlooking here to get it working again. This problem affects web players
and programs that use WMP as well so if I can fix WMP, the other programs
should be restored to normal.

It's really fustrating trying to find help, hope I've found the right place.
Can provide any more info if needed, just ask. Thanks if you can help!

Anyone know how I can fix this? Help with restoring settings or downgrading?
Anything?

If it's affecting all file types, this is a video card driver issue. What
video card do you have?

--
Speaking for myself only.
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--
"Socomwiz" <Socomwiz@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4E8A5B29-EE5E-40F8-B8ED-3C8E7E9421BC@xxxxxx

I've been running a XFX 8800GT with Omega Drivers 1.169.25

I came back to this site to post this info on another site and found a reply
(thanks for that). For some reason now I think it has to do with the MPEG-2
decoder as I get the same issue with WinDVD player. Everything plays fine in
VLC so I have my doubts about pointing the finger at the video card just yet.
I feel it's software side somewhere...

"zachd [MSFT]" wrote:

VLC very much access the video card differently.

A really great example is this is WMP10 ... 4363 and 4364 (I don't recall
the exact versions, but it was before/after the WMV hardware acceleration
QFE) where just ONE line of code moved down after ONE other line of code,
and yet it exposed tons of broken video card drivers that only worked if the
unrelated calls were made in one certain order. That was even with the same
player - once you change players at all, it's kind of apples to oranges
comparison. =)

--
Speaking for myself only.
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--
"Socomwiz" <Socomwiz@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:CD357E93-CF4A-4FEA-A666-BEA67640F79A@xxxxxx