Rhapsody stops playing in XP

[This article refers to Rhapsody software for Windows version 4.0 Build 5.209]

I have the latest Rhapsody software and Windows XP. Periodically Rhapsody stops playing music. I click on the song, and no indicator appears to indicate it is attempting to play. I think this is triggered by Windows XP going into standby mode, but I am not positive.

I wrote Real support and the brainless wonder response I got was to shut off all XP power saving features. I lambasted them but have not heard back, and do not think I will hear back in this lifetime.

I found a temporary fix:

1) CTRL-ALT-DEL
2) Shut down the process RHAPHPLR.EXE
3) Restart Rhapsody

At least it brings back the music pretty easily.

UPDATE: May 23, 2010

Presuming that your software is set to download the files for off-line listening, like mine, try this: Delete all of the downloaded songs. I suspect that when the computer is authorized, it ties the downloads to that particular authorization instance. When you upgrade the software, or Rhapsody on its own decides to re-authorize the computer (have you seen the authorization dialog and wondered why it popped up randomly?) it decides it cannot play files that were saved from the previous authorization event.

After deleting all of my downloaded songs, I listed the library by play count, and started playing the first song. I walked away knowing that it was re-downloading all of my favorite songs.

I closed Rhapsody twice, re-opened, and it played music. It did not do this before without killing the RHAPHPLR.EXE service once or twice.

Let us know how you fare!

UPDATE: June 26, 2010

Well those bozos at Rhapsody decided to re-authorize my computer. So, back to deleted two gigabytes of local files, and the system will have to re-download everything at least once. BAH!