Getting wound up now!
Since this thread I've now built a new PC with a clean install of Win7 64bit.
Asus P7P55D-E LX USB3 DDR3 2200 M/board
Intel i5 quad core CPU
4gb Viper sector 5 DDR3 ram
Thermaltake TR2-550 watt PSU
Asus EAH4350 Silent 1GB graphic card
Seagate Baracuda 250gb main HDD
Western Digital 1TB secondary HDD
Xigmatek Asgard screwless drive and pci slot mount case in black.
Having trawled through problem after problem including needing to install separate sound card as on board device seemed to switch off after a few moments of idling (as if to save power), it would then switch on with a clunk like a light switch across a radio when sound was called for.
Supplier couldn't help (Anglian Internet) and I must say the new sound card has cured this (Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio - Sound card - 24-bit - 96 kHz - 108 dB SNR - 7.1 - PCI - Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity).
The player will now play my mpegs but it has decided that it can't play WMA files (great as they were designed for this), it came up with a message "windows media player can't play this type of file and needs an update", I agreed to the update but even though it said it was updated successfully I get a message "an error occurred when opening file" two buttons "OK" and "web help".
If I press web help i get a web page quoting error "windows media player C00D11B1", the page bangs on about making sure my sound device is working (which it is).
I've once again installed VLC player but that starts and although the progression slider moves along there's no audio, the software that came with the creative card will play them with no trouble, these are legitimately purchased wma's but I'm sure DRM has something to do with it.
I'm getting ar$ed off now and if I was in a Microsoft office somewhere there'd be some carnage!