Audio Codecs Will Not Install

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

I am having a problem installing needed audio codecs on my pc. It started
when I attempted to open a .wav file with WMP and received an error stating
that the file type was not recognized. I researched the problem and
discovered the file used Ogg Vorbis compression and I need a special codec
for that. So I located and installed that codec, but the file still would not
play. I went to the device manager to see if the codec was installed, and it
was not there. I tried downloading the codec from other suppliers, and also
downloading some other audio codecs, but no luck. Not one new codec would
display in the device manager, although the installation programs each ran
and completed. This was especially odd, because the related .dll files were
placed properly in the system 32 folder. Also I ran Codec Detective, which
told me that all of the codecs I had tried to install were present and
active. But the device manager still would not display them even after
shutting down and reinstalling them multiple times. I disabled all firewalls
and antivirus/antispyware software and tried installing again. Still nothing.
I uninstalled all audio related software thinking there might be a conflict.
Nothing still. Updating the sound card driver had no effect either. After
everything I tried, only the default audio codecs are displayed in the device
manager. I was curious if this was only a problem with audio codecs, so I
tried installing DivX. Like the audio codecs, the DivX codec did not display
in the device manager after installing it. However, unlike the audio codecs,
the DivX codec still worked and allowed me to play DivX video in WMP. Very
odd. I am completely stumped. I would really appreciate any advice anyone may
have.

Thanks,
Dave