Media Player 10 Won't Play Video or Sound. Doesn't Show Any Speak

My computer's sound works for normal Windows sounds I can play and listen to
video and audio using my Apple QuickTime player so I know that I don't have
an issue with my computer's audio.

Media Player 10 worked just fine before it "broke" and other than
subscribing to the streaming music subscription through Media Player, I
haven't done anything new.

Now, when I attempt to play any kind of media (Video, MP3, Streaming, Etc)
Media Player reports that it is "Opening media" for a number of seconds and
then will report an error.

The error is:

"Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support
the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the
file."

The Error ID reported is: 0xC00D1199, Condition ID = 0x00000000

I have uninstalled and re-installed the software twice and have also just
done a re-installation "over the top" of the existing Media Player twice but
the problem still exists.

If I click on "Tools, Options, Devices" and then do a "Properties" on my
speakers, the "Audio device to use" drop down is totally blank and there is
nothing to pick.

Clicking the "Advanced" button brings up the "Sounds and Audio Devices
Properties" window and it shows the correct information from my computer
(Realtek AC97 Audio) as my default sound playback device.

It appears that every application knows that I have audio devices except for
MP 10 and I can't figure out what to do.

Any thoughts?

Your help will be greatly appreciated. I will reward the person who solves
this issue for me with some shameless promotional item from my company like a
really nice golf cap or a shirt.

:-)

Thanks in advance.

-Jim