Media Player 32bit will prompt a window with "Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file." and when I click web help, the code in the title is the error. I've installed a codec pack for Media Player and Media Player Plus, these haven't and probably shouldn't cause playback errors. The 64bit Media Player plays back all MP3s so I've resorted to using that currently, but it means I can't play FLAC files etc.
In the SF thread I initially started, with every MP3 that plays on VLC, it won't always state the codec information, and it's not related to which tracks play and don't on the 32bit Media Player. I've also attempted removing ID3 headers as the Microsoft help page suggested to no avail.
Have you upgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1? I kept getting the error message - WMP encountered a problem........................ because of missing codecs when I upgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1.
I have OCD when it comes to keeping software up-to-date, no worries there.
There wasn't any updates (At least that I'm aware of) on the day Media Player started playing up (har dy har). I could've made changes to the Media Player Codec Pack prior, but I never thought it would've caused such issues. My last resort attempt could be to uninstall the codec pack and media player plus, and default settings if that's possible... I've reinstalled the codec pack ~3 times already. My SSD won't approve.