"Cannot open the audio device.

[Sebastian42]

Another application may be using it." is triggered when I try to play a sound file (wav) when the speakers are connected to either of the audio sockets in the motherboard of the PC. Device Manager shows NO problematicals in Sound and Audio category, but DOES show two entries for Other Devices under Other Devices with a question mark through them. Loading the motherboard driver did not make any difference to those entries, although the USB1.1 ports now appear to have switched (inconsistently) to USB2.0, suggesting the driver is the right one.

[RandyL]

It's been a while since I used Windows ME or the Windows Media Player that ME supports. Are you trying to open it in WMP? Do you have any other players installed?

 

What security do you have? There are very few that still support ME or 98 so maybe that might be it. There are a lot of rogue codecs out there. In addition an unsupported player might cause issues.

 

I'm not bashing ME. I used it for years after configuring it. However it is unsupported these days. As such it is vulnerable and security is not that good.

 

Drivers.

Players.

Codecs.

Malware.

 

Have you installed any players or codecs recently?

 

Is your security up to date?

 

Any P2P?

 

Have you tried System Restore?

[Sebastian42]

It's been a while since I used Windows ME or the Windows Media Player that ME supports. Are you trying to open it in WMP? Do you have any other players installed?

 

What security do you have? There are very few that still support ME or 98 so maybe that might be it. There are a lot of rogue codecs out there. In addition an unsupported player might cause issues.

 

I'm not bashing ME. I used it for years after configuring it. However it is unsupported these days. As such it is vulnerable and security is not that good.

 

Drivers.

Players.

Codecs.

Malware.

 

Have you installed any players or codecs recently?

 

Is your security up to date?

 

Any P2P?

 

Have you tried System Restore?

 

I'm sorry that I did not clarify. I posted this in a WinXP forum expecting that would be enought to indicate the O/S. I realise that my description lists WinMe, but that is not where my problem occurred - it is in fact in WinXP. Starting with your last question. I do not 'run' system restore, as I do all my exprimenting on 'disposable' clones. Only when I am satisfied with the results do I allow anything into my 'running system'. NO P2P. I always keep AVG, Defender, Spybot and AdAware up to date. What I have installed recently is this WinXp system in a different PC - by means of the (2nd) REPAIR option on the Installatiion CD. So THIS WinXP system has NEVER played through these speakers before.

 

I saw on a nother PC that it had a BIOS option for en/dis-abling legacy audio support. Maybe if the ports are on the mother board they qualify as legacy ? I've not yet had time to check the BIOS of the relevant PC.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi just to clarify a few things so we can understand this a little better, you mention disposable clones, do you mean running them in a virtual environment, such as perhaps "Sandboxy" or other type of virtual machine?

Has this machine always been Windows XP, and you used a Windows XP disk to perform a repair, or was it an installation of XP over a different operating system?

[Sebastian42]

Hi just to clarify a few things so we can understand this a little better, you mention disposable clones, do you mean running them in a virtual environment, such as perhaps "Sandboxy" or other type of virtual machine?

Has this machine always been Windows XP, and you used a Windows XP disk to perform a repair, or was it an installation of XP over a different operating system?

 

I mention clones only as a general principle of not taking risks with my 'enduring installation'. I do not know what a virtual environment is and have not heard of Sandboxy. What I do is, I make a clone of a hard drive - in the case of WinXP I use Casper5, in the case of WinMe I use Norton's Ghost; so I have a HDD that is an identical copy of my 'precious' system - a clone. I run these HDDs in the PCs from which they were cloned and try out whatever I am uncertain about. If the result is satisfactory, THAT clone can become the source of my 'precious enduring installation' if the result is unsatisfactory, I ignore that HDD and clone over it again for another 'experiment'.

 

'THAT' machine was most recently a Win7 - but that is merely what is on the HDD - if you put a different HDD in, it CAN become an ANY-O/S machine. I put my a HDD with WinXP from a previous PC into it, and to allow WinXp to run in a PC in which it was not installed, I did what I said I did - apply the second Repair option on the WinXP installation CD. So it was a WinXP installation over a previous WinXP-installation-in-another-PC.

[Plastic Nev]

Ah now I understand. A bit of a long way round but I now follow what you mean. OK a virtual environment is in as simple a way as possible to explain, is like running a windows OS virtually inside a real windows OS. Sandboxy is a neat little program that allows you to do this, it means you have an isolated operating system that nothing nasty (Well hopefully) can get out of so that you can run any program or other executable inside to see how it works, check it out for incompatibility etc.

This doesn't help in finding what is stopping your sound system from working though, but I feel you may have got it right earlier when you mention that it may not be enabled properly in the BIOS, can you check that out?

Nev.

[RandyL]

I'm still confused. You're not trying to run XP cloned from a different computer are you?

[Sebastian42]

.... it may not be enabled properly in the BIOS, can you check that out?

Nev.

Alas, I could not find any reference to audio at all in BIOS - there were references to Legacy but for other features. I could not get a motherboard driver from the company website, so I tried DriverGuide, and ignored drivers for audio cards, because the sockets are integrated into the motherboard. Could it be I need to load drivers for an audio card ? Or is there another option ?

[Plastic Nev]

Hi again, a bit of a puzzle here, going back to the original start of this, it says another application may be using it, plus also you found two instances of other devices with a question mark. I take it there is no clue as to what those devices are?

This makes me think there may be some corruption in the operating system perhaps. Have you tried doing a SFC scannow?

 

to do this you will need an operating System disk, go to "Start" then "Run", copy and paste this in to the box-

 

sfc /scannow

 

and click OK. This will check all system files and attempt to repair any bad ones. At some point it may ask you to insert the Windows disk. Providing you have one do so.

Any problems with that have a look at this article here-

scannow sfc - LEARN how to use SFC.EXE (system file checker)

 

See if that sorts the problem.

Nev.

[Sebastian42]

Hi again, a bit of a puzzle here, going back to the original start of this, it says another application may be using it, plus also you found two instances of other devices with a question mark. I take it there is no clue as to what those devices are?

This makes me think there may be some corruption in the operating system perhaps. Have you tried doing a SFC scannow?

 

to do this you will need an operating System disk, go to "Start" then "Run", copy and paste this in to the box-

 

sfc /scannow

 

and click OK. This will check all system files and attempt to repair any bad ones. At some point it may ask you to insert the Windows disk. Providing you have one do so.

Any problems with that have a look at this article here-

scannow sfc - LEARN how to use SFC.EXE (system file checker)

 

See if that sorts the problem.

Nev.

 

Thanks for that suggestion - which I will surely try; but I must confess I misled you about the BIOS. Another look for a different reason brough the following to my attention : ONBOARD MIDI I/O was disabled - I can chose between 330H-331H or 300H-301H

Then I also found ONBOARD AC97 AUDIO CONTROLLER which was set to 'auto' (the alternative is 'disabled')

[Plastic Nev]

Has enabling the MIDI in either of the choices made any difference?

it just may.

Nev.