"sound driver enabled but not started" error message

[x3m.law]

After trying to install a webcam connected to a USB hub, my system
completely lost audio. I started to have BSODs problems too. Now I
totally got rid of any trace of the webcam drivers, even from the
registry, still I cannot get my system back to a properly functioning
state (System Restore is useless as it says it is unable to roll back
the system state).

The driver is the correct updated driver from the laptop manufacturer,
which I installed myself in an effort to get audio working. Everything
in the Device Manager looks fine. Now if I go into Control Panel/Sound
and Audio Devices/Volume it says "No Audio Device", everything in the
tabs is greyed out. But in the Device Manager, I see that the driver is
there.

Other symptoms: beside sporadic BSODs, I'm getting this "sound driver
enabled but not started" error message when I click Control Panel/Sound
and audio devices/Hardware/Crystal WDM AC'97 driver for ICH4/Properties
button/Properties Tab/Audio devices/Crystal WDM AC'97 audio codec. And
it gives the same error when I click on MIDI, mixer and input devices.
When I enable /bootlog in boot.ini, among other drivers, I can see that
the wdmaudio.sys is not loaded.
My guess is its a registry or driver problem that got corrupted in one
of the BSODs occurred. A lot of people have been
having this problem, as I have been searching over the
internet, but noone could come up with a fix.

Somebody help me. Please reply to me here or
email.
Unfortunately I have no system backups and as I am on a laptop, with
original XP SP1 recovery CDs and a lot of programs installed, a
reinstall would take me a whole day of work.
Thank you in advance.

Diego

 

[Gerry Cornell]

What is the full text of the BSOD Stop Error message.

What computer manufacturer and model?

Do you have a boot disk?

How To Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q305595

Next I suggest you Disable automatic restart on system failure. This
should help by allowing time to write down the STOP code properly. Right
click on the My Computer icon on the Desktop and select Properties,
Advanced, StartUp and Recovery, System Failure and uncheck box before
Automatically Restart.

Enable automatic restart on system failure after you have captured /
copied and pasted the message in a further post here.

There will also be Error Reports in Event Viewer. Please post copies.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools,
Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information
regarding Event ID, Source and Description are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&Product=winxp

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Double click the button and close Event
Viewer. Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. This will paste the info from the Event Viewer Error Report
complete with links into the message. Make sure this is the first paste
after exiting from Event Viewer.


--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
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Stourport, Worcs, England
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suggested solution worked for you.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[x3m.law]

Gerry

Thanks for your help. As I couldn't allow the time to experiment, I
went with an update reinstall. This cured the problem, but it also
broke some other things. So now I'm on a second XP instance, installed
in a small inner partition, using the main partition to go pull
programs data from. I realize I trusted System Restore a little too
much. Now I'm looking for a bare-metal-recovery capable networked
backup program. I tried Acronis' but it seemed a bit unstable to me.
Can you advice about a better backup solution?

Thank you in advance.
Diego

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Diego

Sorry no you've gone too far beyond my knowledge base. Also for the
future it is worth remembering that often reformatting and a new install
( or Repair Install ) of Windows XP may not solve the original problem.
Doing either may be a total waste of time if you do not know the nature
of the original problem. Neither will fix an undiagnosed hardware
problem or problematic third party driver.

--


Regards.

Gerry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[x3m.law]

Sorry no you've gone too far beyond my knowledge base. Also for the
future it is worth remembering that often reformatting and a new install
( or Repair Install ) of Windows XP may not solve the original problem.

This is very true, but sadly couldn't figure until recently. The
following was the second nightmarish situation of my all time XP
experience: I had a "Code 31" error which prevented ANY ethernet card
to get installed and working on my desktop XP machine, no matter what
trick of trade I used. Tried netsh and a few other fixes, tried the
repair reinstall, to no avail. The only chance I was left with was a
clean reinstall. No need to tell you how bad my mood was...

Anyway thank you for your time and for sharing your expertise Gerry
Diego