OT: What's a good site to help with windows 98SE multimedia problems?

[Machine Messiah]

Howdy, sorry to bug you all with this off topic question.
Does anyone know of a good site to trouble shoot multimedia problems in
windows 98SE?
I can't:
Play dvds
Rip audio cds.
I can play audio cds but none of my ripping apps or dvd progs recognize
the drive. Last time this happened I didn't have dma enabled for the
drive and the cable to the soundcard was unplugged. That's not the case
this time and I am stumped.

 

[Steven Burn]

Howdy, sorry to bug you all with this off topic question.
Does anyone know of a good site to trouble shoot multimedia problems in
windows 98SE?
I can't:
Play dvds
Rip audio cds.

Try updating the ASPI drivers (if they're installed at all)

http://www.it-mate.co.uk/turl/?65

--

Regards

Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk

Keeping it FREE!

Personal favourites

WebGrid - www.webgrid.co.uk
Freeware Arena - www.freewarearena.com
Freeware Home - www.freewarehome.com
Freeware Outpost -
http://free.hostdepartment.com/f/freewareoutpost/index2.html
ZeroPlus2 - http://zp2.it-mate.co.uk
Fort Freeware - http://freeware.quantum.2ya.com/
Pricelessware - http://www.pricelessware.org
El-Mambo - http://www.el-mambo.net/
Practically Nerded - http://mvps.org/PracticallyNerded/
Bugs, Glitches n stuff - http://mvps.org/inetexplorer/Darnit.htm
Calendar of Updates - http://www.dozleng.com/updates/index.php?&act=calendar
Seniority - http://www.seniority.co.uk
Remembering Dunblane - http://www.dunblane.braveheart.com/
Echo Echo - http://www.echoecho.com/

 

[Machine Messiah]

Try updating the ASPI drivers (if they're installed at all)

http://www.it-mate.co.uk/turl/?65

Did that, I have a burner on this machine. Thanks.

 

[Roger Hunt]

Howdy, sorry to bug you all with this off topic question.
Does anyone know of a good site to trouble shoot multimedia problems in
windows 98SE?
I can't:
Play dvds
Rip audio cds.
I can play audio cds but none of my ripping apps or dvd progs recognize
the drive. Last time this happened I didn't have dma enabled for the
drive and the cable to the soundcard was unplugged. That's not the case
this time and I am stumped.

(Shot in the Dark)
Might the drive's BIOS setting affect anything?

 

[Ceg]

Go into control panel->multimedia and check the settings for your sound out.

 

[Machine Messiah]

Go into control panel->multimedia and check the settings for your sound out.

snip
What should I be looking for?

 

[Machine Messiah]

(Shot in the Dark)
Might the drive's BIOS setting affect anything?

I was thinking this myself but I'm not sure what to change.
All the drives are set to cable select.
I've tried this with 2 sound cards too.

 

[Ceg]

snip
What should I be looking for?

Look to see if your sound options are not being diverted through your modem.
That appears to be a common screw up for most of the Windows versions.

 

[Machine Messiah]

Go into control panel->multimedia and check the settings for your sound out.

I don't see any settings for sound out on either of my machines, one of
which plays dvds and rips cds w/o problems.

 

[Ceg]

out.

I don't see any settings for sound out on either of my machines, one of
which plays dvds and rips cds w/o problems.

In your multimedia settings you should find a tab that has your devices
listed. Most likely your modem is listed in that list. Check it's
properties to make sure the setting is unchecked where it prompts you for
whether or not to play sounds using that device. I don't have 98SE anymore
so I can't post a pic of the window. You should find your multimedia
hardware and settings to control which device is handling sounds.

 

[Roger Hunt]

I was thinking this myself but I'm not sure what to change.
All the drives are set to cable select.
I've tried this with 2 sound cards too.

Er, um - another shot in dark ....

Do you have "Auto insert notification" turned *off* in Device manager,
for the specific CD drive?
I understand that can screw things up sometimes, with N*ro and similar.

 

[bambam]

Try updating the ASPI drivers (if they're installed at all)

http://www.it-mate.co.uk/turl/?65

Or even down grading the ASPI drivers

http://aspi.radified.com/

 

[Machine Messiah]

Er, um - another shot in dark ....

Do you have "Auto insert notification" turned *off* in Device manager,
for the specific CD drive?
I understand that can screw things up sometimes, with N*ro and similar.

I've tried it both on and off. I prefer to have it off.
It's funny, I posted this question to both Alt.windows98 and
Alt.comp.hardware but this is the only group were I've received any
replies.

 

[Roger Hunt]

I've tried it both on and off. I prefer to have it off.
It's funny, I posted this question to both Alt.windows98 and
Alt.comp.hardware but this is the only group were I've received any
replies.

Possibly the challenge of finding a cost-free solution for any problem?

 

[Machine Messiah]

Possibly the challenge of finding a cost-free solution for any problem?

Lol.
Swapped out the dvd-rom drive for another, still no joy.
Wonder if I should reformat and re-install windows?

 

[jo]

It's funny, I posted this question to both Alt.windows98 and
Alt.comp.hardware but this is the only group were I've received any
replies.

You might try here also:

alt.comp.periphs.cdr

 

[jo]

Swapped out the dvd-rom drive for another, still no joy.
Wonder if I should reformat and re-install windows?

Does a format achieve very much?

My last re-install felt very swift and efficient: copy windows install
files to a folder, delete Windows in DOS, reinstall from folder at the
C prompt.
All data is left intact, some programs work, some don't; reinstall the
ones that don't as you need them.
If you keep the old Windows System folder you have most of the missing
dll's you might need.

The last time I had a mysterious drive problem like yours, a new drive
fixed it but you've tried and failed down that road. The last two
multimedia problems I had were solved by a reinstall. My experience of
doing a lot of multimedia work is that it is an accident waiting to
happen and requires quite a bit of house-keeping to run smoothly.
There are all manner of software conflicts just waiting to happen; a
nice thing about my reinstall method is the way that it helps one to
prioritise program use... it is all too easy to acquire far too many
progs when doing multimedia.

My personal bug bear is Media Player Classic. I used to use it for QT
and rm and everything else, but now don't trust it at all since it
invariably leads to some strange place where I start to lose sound on
all files.

Good luck; don't bite yer nails too much.

 

[Machine Messiah]

Machine Messiah wrote:

Does a format achieve very much?

My last re-install felt very swift and efficient: copy windows install
files to a folder, delete Windows in DOS, reinstall from folder at the
C prompt.
All data is left intact, some programs work, some don't; reinstall the
ones that don't as you need them.
If you keep the old Windows System folder you have most of the missing
dll's you might need.

The last time I had a mysterious drive problem like yours, a new drive
fixed it but you've tried and failed down that road. The last two
multimedia problems I had were solved by a reinstall. My experience of
doing a lot of multimedia work is that it is an accident waiting to
happen and requires quite a bit of house-keeping to run smoothly.
There are all manner of software conflicts just waiting to happen; a
nice thing about my reinstall method is the way that it helps one to
prioritise program use... it is all too easy to acquire far too many
progs when doing multimedia.

My personal bug bear is Media Player Classic. I used to use it for QT
and rm and everything else, but now don't trust it at all since it
invariably leads to some strange place where I start to lose sound on
all files.

Good luck; don't bite yer nails too much.

I will not be suprised if I reformated and reinstalled windows and still
couldn't get my progs to treat this drive as a DVD-rom.
I have had several cd-burning progs installed/uninstalled on this drive
over the years. I suspect this might be the source of the problem. That
or over zealous registry cleaning.
I just built this pc myself, everything is new except the hd. Probably be
a good idea to re-install the os any way, while I don't have alot af data
and progs installed.
I run a highly tweaked and customized windows set up, hence my reluctance
to re-install.
Thanks for the reply Jo, still haven't heard anything to in the other
groups.

 

[Machine Messiah]

You might try here also:

alt.comp.periphs.cdr

Thanks for that tip

 

[Duddits]

Howdy, sorry to bug you all with this off topic question.
Does anyone know of a good site to trouble shoot multimedia problems in
windows 98SE?
I can't:
Play dvds
Rip audio cds.
I can play audio cds but none of my ripping apps or dvd progs recognize
the drive. Last time this happened I didn't have dma enabled for the
drive and the cable to the soundcard was unplugged. That's not the case
this time and I am stumped.

Sounds like your ASPI layer is fubar. You need to check it using
ASPI_Check http://www.uni-weimar.de/~richte10/progs/cd/aspichk.exe
Run ForceASP found here: http://radified.com/ASPI/forceaspi.htm

hth

Dud