Topic: Sound Driver Trouble

[Hiatus]

Yello, me again.

I fixed my display trouble!  
BUT, now my sound isn't working. I keep getting error messages about ddraw.dll, and a few other .dll files and .exe files. Anything that involves sound or DirectX I think.
I looked up ddraw.dll on the net, and I read that it has something to do with a problem in DirectX. I have 9.0b though, and I re-installed it but that still didn't help.
When I go to "sounds and multimedia" in the control panel, then go to devices, then audio devices. When I click on the audio driver it says that "The driver is enabled but inactive due to an unknown problem".
I don't know how to fix this, so I'm asking for help. I tried d/ling another driver, but it didn't work and I'm even more confused.

I need help!   LOL, thanks.

[Simon]

Well, it does sound like it could be a driver problem.  Not being funny, but are you certain you downloaded the right driver for your sound card?  If you could tell us what it is, we may be able to have a look for you.  Also, if you could tell us what the other error messages are, about the .dll and .exe files, that might give one of our techies some more clues.

One other thing, when you find the correct sound card driver, try removing the old one first (in Device Manager), before installing the new one.  Hopefully we can soon get this sorted for you.

 

[Hiatus]

Message in Control Panel:


Soundcard/driver: NeoMagic MagicMedia 256 + AC97 Driver

One error message:
Rulaunch has caused an error in MCSCAN32.DLL.
Rulaunch will now close.

When starting Age of Empires and a couple other programs:
The DDRAW.DLL file cannot start.
Check the file to determine the problem.

Winamp:
Studio has caused an error in STUDIO.EXE.
Studio will now close.

When starting computer:
I can't remember exactly, but something to do with QUICKTIME.QTS/EXE/DLL (one of those...). So, basically Quicktime in general.

So, that's most of the messages I've encountered so far. Most of my programs don't work because of all the .DLL errors.

Thanks.

[Sandra]

Try removing or uninstalling the audio devices/drivers in Device Manager and reboot, it may then find them and reinstall them correctly as it boots up  

[Hiatus]

Wow! How'd you get so smart Sandra?   lol
Alright! Sound's working!

I tried uninstalling then re-installing the sound drivers, but never thought to uninstall then restart!

The only problem is that I still get the DDRAW.DLL error. Should I uninstall then re-install DirectX?

[Sandra]

Worth a try  

[Hiatus]

ummm...how do I uninstall DirectX?  

I thought I could do it from the Control Panel, but apparently I can't...

[Dack]

Try this first -

Start->run-> dxdiag

It will carry out a series of tests on Directx and give you a clue as to where the problem with the driver may be.

[Hiatus]

I basically just got a bunch of error messages...

Upon Loading:


DirectX Files: No Problems Found

Display: Direct3D Acceleration not available (Is this a bad thing?)

Message Displayed: DirectDraw test results: Failure at step 1 (Loading DirectDraw DLL): HRESULT = 0x887600ff (Not found)
Direct3D functionality not available.  You should verify that the driver is a final version from the hardware manufacturer.

Sound: Works Fine

Music: Fine

Input: No Problems

Network: Fine

So, does that mean that the problem is with Direct3D?

[Dack]

It means the driver isn't fully DirectX 9.0b compliant and doesn't have 3d capabilities.

Neomagic is a relatively old chip for graphics (about 2000) so probably doesn't actually have that capability.

(Also acording to http://condor.depaul.edu/~jpetlick/extra/224/display2.txt the card should have been detected by Millenium automatically)

Worth trying an updated graphics driver (if there is one available - this seems to be one of the latest: User the same password as the other graphics download (driver, all):
http://www.video-drivers.com/drivers/122/122796.htm

Notice from the video thread that the link Sandra provided was for the 256AV driver and not the ZX - might be whats causing the problem.

[Hiatus]

But, how can it NOT have that capability???

It was working fine until a few weeks ago. I could use all of my programs.

Could it be because I upgraded to DirectX 9.0b? I can't remember when I did this, but right after I upgraded it worked fine. Nothing seemed wrong at all.

Maybe I should take my computer into a Radioshack or computer store somewhere?  

[Simon]

I'm not sure if there's any way to roll back to the previous DirectX version, but that would seem the logical solution.

Edit: Not sure if this will help, but...

http://tinyurl.com/bm2l

[Dack]

@Hiatus

You seem to have missed a very important point:

Notice from the video thread that the link Sandra provided was for the 256AV driver and not the ZX - might be whats causing the problem.

You are probably running the driver for the wrong graphics chip.

[Hiatus]

It says in my "Display" that I have the ZX driver.
But, I'm really confused when it comes to changing them. I know how to, but which driver do I use?
I can't tell which one is newer than the others.