You know, i've been looking around for a copy of Media Player 8.0 so i could offer you a place to download and reinstall it. I found out some really interesting stuff. If you want Media Player 8.0 you gotta buy XP. I also found out that Media Player is integrated into the protected files list in XP, so even if you could find an installable third party source to download it from, you'd have to perform a registry hack just to run it.
During my main shakedown trial of XP (i put it thru everything i could throw at it) i managed to damage Media Player to the point it would not work. I would launch it and it would like come up with huge pieces of it missing type thing. I didn't mind much then because i knew i would be reinstalling anyway. I feel a tad irked about it now tho because i guess the only way to repair this one single component is to do a complete repair installation of XP, that sucks.
Personally i use MusicMatch Jukebox for my MP3's, but Media Player is my preferred video file player.
So, that's what i guess my suggestion is, do a repair installation of XP so you can fix your media player.
I'd be interested to see if there's a way to do a repair install of Media Player, anyone??