Windows Problems...

[SamWise]

What a strange problem I am having...

I have a desktop running Win XP Home and a laptop running Win 2000 Pro. The two are connected on a network, and have no problems getting along...except for when it comes to MP3's. My entire music library is stored on my desktop (about 2500 songs), but unfortunately my ancient laptop doens't have the hard drive space to store it all. I would like to be able to play songs and/or playlists on my laptop when it is connected to the network, but about 90% of the MP3's cannot be opened by the laptop...it simply says the file cannot be opened. Both systems are running Win Media Player 9, and the desktop has no problems opening whatever I want. The strange thing is that a few, seemingly random, MP3's can be played by the laptop, and the problem is also found in Winamp 3, suggesting that the problem isn't in WMP. The laptop has no problems accessing and using any other network resources, so what is going on with my MP3's???

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Sam Wise

[sparsely]

Have you checked the folder permissions on the desktop?
If they're in your "My Music" folder, and you've made your files private via simple file sharing, then it may not let you get them...

[SamWise]

The strange thing is that some files in this folder do share successfully...in fact, it's not my "My Music" folder that is set to share, but rather my entire "Downloads" folder, of which "My Music" is a subsidiary. The "Downloads" folder also includes other folders for Programs, etc. that have no problem sharing at all. WTF???

[Wolfmight]

if u have a shortcut to mymusic in shared folder.. that wont share you music itself.. it'll share the icon

[Livy]

i have to ask this, but are the files in use, if urs running kazaa lite on the other pc and the mp3s are shared, that may be why?

[4play]

they can be in use more then once.

this has got me stumped since files in the same folder work and some don't

i would recommend you try differnet player's but you have already done that.

possible codec problem maybe, but im clutching at straws with that guess.

[Livy]

sometimes i cant get accesto files if kazaa is using them. if the laptop aint great ud be better trying winamp 2?

[SamWise]

Hmmm...well, thanks for trying to help everybody, but I think I may have found something to help figure this out...

I downloaded MusicMatch 8 and found that most of the files in my collection had screwed up tags...so I renamed all the strange file names and had MusicMatch run its "super tagging" deal, changing all the tags to match the file names. I can't be sure since I didn't take a list of all the tracks that were affected, but it seems possible that all the tracks that MusicMatch changed are now the ones inaccessable on my laptop.

Someone on the Windows website thinks it could be the encoding on the MP3's...maybe MusicMatch changed the encoding somehow so that my Win 2K programs can't open them? If so, does anybody know of a good program that can go through and change the encoding back to standard?

Again, thanks for all your help everyone...

-SamWise

P.S. - It's not that any other programs are open, not Kazaa or anything else...any of the three MP3 players I have on my desktop all play the files with no problem...

[sparsely]

if it had reencoded them it would've taken forever....you would know.
I would try removing all the ID3 tags completely.
With a real tag editor, not MusicMatch.
In what way did it rename the files?

[SamWise]

It didn't rename the files, I renamed them all to match the format of Artist - Song Title. MusicMatch then went through and edited all the tags, properly tagging the files using the filename as a reference (I hope that makes sense). It did take a pretty long while to do all that...

How do I remove all the ID3 tags?

-SamWise