No audio when playing .mp4 file using VLC on Vista OS

[nontechie]

I am a non techie and not savvy enough to many technical details. I am trying to play a .mp4 file. I have tried a couple of things that I list below but have not yet successfully got the file to work.

I am using Hp Pavillion dual core laptop with intel chip and Windows Vista (64 bit) OS. I have downloaded the most updated version of Quicktime player, VLC version 1.0.3. Goldeneye and Handbrake version 0.9.4.

Initially, I tried playing the above file in quicktime player and I get the error 2002 bad public movie atom. Some one mentioned I should try changing the associated tags to see if that gets rid of the error 2002 problem. I am not sure how to change the tags or if that will get rid of the problem.

A friend of mine suggested that I might have better luck playing the file using VLC player. So I downloaded the windows version of VLC (not sure if version 1.0.3 is the correct one for Vista 64 bit.. but I did not see any specific version for Vista on the VLC download site). When I play the file in VLC.. I can see the video just fine but there is no audio. When I do ctrl+i (as I read in this forum) the audio codec is mp4a. I tried playing the file in DiVx player as well but that gives some error and I see no audio or video.

Please help me resolve the lack of audio issue?

P.S. Someone mentioned I should try converting the file using Handbrake into AppleTV version. However since the file is already an mp4.. I am not sure what format to convert the file into..and when I try to convert into appleTV preset, the handbrake crashes.

[VLC_help]

Tools -> Preferences... and Input / Codecs then untick Use system codecs if available... Save and Restart VLC.

[dwild]

see also following contribution:
(vlc doesn't switch back from disapplying "use system codec" -
switch to defaults..)

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