Microphone or Sound Input Device Problem

[Guest]

Hi, I recently purchased a new computer with Windows Vista Home Premium. I'm
loving it so far, incredibly fast, the machine is incredibly more powerful
than my old machine, but I've got a problem.

I enjoy playing online video games, in many of these games, I use a voice
chat program called Ventrilo. I chat just fine, but there are times when I
get a weird message. Granted, I can't get it right now for the life of me,
but basically says that something else is using my sound input device, so
Ventrillo can't access it and send my voice through. Any idea how to fry
whatever is using my sound input device?

 

[Guest]

thatguy181,

It's sometimes hard to tell, but maybe a sound application like iTunes or
Windows Media Player, perhaps. When this happens, look in Task Manager (right
click task bar, select Task Manager) and determine whether anything could be
using sound and close whatever it is and try again. Sometimes an application
that WAS using sound has a bug and thus doesn't release sound when it's
finished with it. That's the best I can do. Anyone else?