The subject name says "One Solution" because individual problems may vary.
Anyway, I wanted to share this with other people who might find themselves having a similar problem.
Not too long ago, I posted here about AudioSurf not identifying tracks on a CD that I had played in the game before without any problems. Since a couple of other CDs I tried at that time did identify, the problem didn't overly concern me.
Then I discovered that WMP 11 itself was doing the same thing -- "Unknown album" and each track simply listed as "Track01," etc. That really bugged me.
On top of that, when I tried to burn music to disc, it would throw up an error and give me the choice of either "close" or "Web Help." I chose Web Help which took me to Microsoft's WMP error database. Their "solution" was to choose a slower burning speed, make sure the blank CD wasn't dirty or damaged and even to try another brand of media.
All of that was nonsense.
Now, I had an old Sony program called "Sonic Stage" which does everything WMP can do except its interface is stupid, clunky and utterly non-intuitive. Regardless of its shortcomings, Sonic Stage managed to identify CDs properly and would burn discs as well, so I knew it wasn't my hardware.
The first thing I tried in an attempt to cure this strange malady was to uninstall WMP 11 (actually a rollback to WMP 10). After doing that, WMP 10 worked properly. It identified CDs and it would also burn a CD without a hitch.
So I re-installed WMP 11 along with the appropriate run-time as well as anything else Windows Update had which was for WMP 11. I thought the re-install would fix whatever the previous problem had been.
Wrong!
The thing was just as before. I was livid!
After some research on the Web I found a really simple solution -- something Microsoft should have had on their site, but didn't.
It was a corrupt database (apparently WMP 10 uses a different method than WMP 11).
If you're having problems like this in Windows XP and Vista open Windows Explorer and navigate to:
C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player(Vista probably has a similar but different path)
The folder above named "Media Player" is the culprit. Rename the thing to something like "Media Player_OLD" or whatever. Don't have WMP open or running when you do this. Close up Windows Explorer and restart WMP.
It will create a new folder and rebuild its database. Now CDs will identify and list properly as well as burning an audio CD without problem.
Since it cured my problem, I went ahead and deleted the old Media Player folder which I had renamed.
Life is now good again.
