Old iPaq and Media Player 11?

This is so frustrating I thought I'd just make a blog post and see if someone has a solution. I have an old HP iPaq of the 1900 series, partnered with my Vista Laptop. I like that old PocketPC because it's fairly slim, easy to program and runs a few nice emulators like the ScummVM (mmmh, Sam & Max...). Anyways, every single freaking time I launch Media Player on the laptop, if the iPaq is docked, I'm getting a dialog box that says "your device is using an outdated driver that is no longer supported by Windows Media Player. For additional assistance, click Web Help." No "don't show this again" checkbox, you have to endure the dialog every single f*#$% time.

So I click Web Help, and end up on this (not) very helpful page:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/webhelp/default.aspx?&mpver=11.0.6000.6324&id=C00D118E&contextid=232&originalid=C00D118E
which explains that their only solution to my their problem is to "roll back to Media Player 10". Uh? On Vista? Nice.

I DON'T EVEN WANT TO SYNCHRONIZE MY MEDIA WITH THIS DEVICE! It's way too small anyways, and I never said that's one of the things I wanted to sync. Why do we have a new Sync Center and there's no option in there to turn that off? Why doesn't it appear in the sync part of Media Player?

Anyway, did anyone experience that and found a way to turn it off? Please?

UPDATE: I just found this thread, which leaves little hope of fixing this... http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/community/newsgroups/WindowsMedia/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.windowsmedia.player&mid=2b1aa191-83d8-4f20-8756-dde7695bfdef&sloc=en-us

21 Comments

  • I am so with you on this. My iPaq 1930h is not supported even within Windows XP with Media Player 11. We need to find a registry entry for this. Sheesh.

  • I have the same problem with my Harrier - as far as I'm concerned this is frankly incompetent software design, since WMP11 should either fail silently and pretend the device isn't there, or the prompt should be something that can be disabled as a configuration option.
    It is *common* not to be able to upgrade the version of Media Player on devices, so having this permanent nag is just stupid and pointlessly annoying.

  • I freaking hate Vista. What a disaster. Do you know how hard it is to buy a new PC without Vista (aside from building the entire machine yourslef)?!

  • Josh: well, I absolutely love Vista and would never go back to XP, which is why this is so annoying to me. And I don't see it as that different from XP (if you ask me it's a little too evolutionary to my taste and not revolutionary enough), so I have difficulty seeing what would justify "hate" that wouldn't equally apply to XP.

  • Also it is not just Vista. It is specifically Media Player 11 and above. I have this loaded in XP Pro SP2 and get the exact same thing with my iPAQ H5450.

    The only hope would be to upgrade to the latest version of mobile windows but that is not supported on this version of the ipaq

  • Exactly the same problem here chaps.....
    using an XDA2....

    Agree with the "not a vista" prob... also running XP pro with sp2.. definitly a Media 11 prob...

    Slap Happy programming.... should be allowed to disable it..!!! BAH..!!!!!

  • Insanely irritating. I have an iPaq 2215 and like you I don't want it to sync with the damn PPC. I just want that damn message to go away!

  • I have an iPaq rz1715 and get the same message.

  • Yup same thing her on XP2SP2 with an iPaq 2215. I do sync, but not in WMP, just Outlook. No way to get rid of the message while device is docked. I hate MS sometimes.

  • same with my comodore64 i am sooooooo upset i cry

  • Just delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Media Device Manager\Plugins\SP tree in the registry, that makes the error go away!

  • @M: Vista doesn't let me do this. Thanks for the idea though.

  • Ah, Vista, I see what you mean!

    I had to take ownership and give myself full permissions a few times on the SP tree and then Vista finally let me delete them. But I can't test that the registry entry removal actually works with making the message go away with Vista, as the only old WM device is not here right now :<

  • @M: even after that, it doesn't work for me. Maybe I need a reboot...

  • I just searched for C00D118E xdaii & arrived here from the results, I get the error in WMPlayer all the time & web help turns nothing up that puts paid to the message.....
    I'd really like to see all media file formats compatible on every type of device which in turn syncs any other device without incompatibility, exclusivity is meaningless unless there's hardware & programming somewhere that really does access all areas - and in which case, that's all the end-user wants.

  • have a 6320 ipac same problem

  • Have a 4700 and the same problem, running Vista and want to rid myself of the redundant Error on the Windows Media Player.

  • I have a Ipaq 3950 and Vista on my computer. I to get that horrible meessage that states my handheld is to old ot sink with the computer. Is there really no way to fix this? I love my Ipaq, and I know it is old, but it works great.

  • I have an iPAQ 3115 with the same problem.

  • man, i have the same pro. i hate vista this is my last time buying this crap. go mac. plz lets us know if you find anything new. thanks.

  • it is media 11 my ipaq rz1716 has an out dated driver as well and the only way to sync is to downgrade to media 10 0r 9..but..that is not possibel u can not down grade!! we r screwed..i gues its time to ypgrade pc

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