My Win XP box won't play sounds.
Disclaimers first:
- I'm guru-level in some computer areas, but the deeper mysteries of Windows elude me.
- I have scanned some of the many threads on sound issues in XP on the forum, but nothing sounds quite right
Here's the story in a nutshell:
- I lost sound about a year ago. This was (I *think*) coincident with installing a game containing DirectX 9.0.c
- My Dell Dimension 2350 uses a board-resident Intel chipset that doesn't support DX90C
- First reaction was to slap in a cheap PCI sound card -- no luck.
- Thinking there was a resource conflict, I tried a USB mini-card -- no luck.
- I have tried disabling all devices but one, swapped cables in and out, etc.
- Windows Sound Control Panel lists 'No Audio Devices' even though all three are recognized in Device Manager.
- I backed out DX90C and tried DX8.1 -- no joy
- A round of driver re-installs brought me back up to DX90b -- still no luck. DXDIAG throws error code 0x80070057 (Invalid Args) on startup
- DXDIAG lists the two non-board sound cards, but both a sound check fails for both on 'Step 3: DirectSoundCreate', accompanied by errno=Invalid Args
- Despite all this, Dell Diagnostics (pre-OS boot) will play music through the motherboard card.
- In those oh-so-helpful microsoft forums, I found a reference to the Microsoft Waveform Audio Device. I cannot find any reference to this device on my system, or find info on how to reinstall/update it seperately.
- Attempted to use the Win XP installation disk repair facility, but my SP2 level means I get dire warnings about file-lossage, etc. This machine is barnacled with 5 years of good use and there's a lot I don't want to have to recreate.
So, Win XP won't recognize *any* sound devices, the original device functions perfectly outside of Windows, and I may be missing a waveform device, but can't find where to get one.
Advice, suggestions or gestures of commiseration will be greatly appreciated. SysInfo dumps available on request -- tell me what you need to look at.
ADVthanksANCE,
dirkman