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

  • Thread starter Thread starter Machine Messiah
  • Start date Start date
M

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.
 
Machine Messiah said:
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.
Click to expand...

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/
 
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.
Click to expand...

(Shot in the Dark)
Might the drive's BIOS setting affect anything?
 
(Shot in the Dark)
Might the drive's BIOS setting affect anything?
Click to expand...
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.
 
Machine Messiah said:
snip
What should I be looking for?
Click to expand...

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.
 
Go into control panel->multimedia and check the settings for your sound out.
Click to expand...
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.
 
Machine Messiah said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
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.
Click to expand...

Possibly the challenge of finding a cost-free solution for any problem?
 
Possibly the challenge of finding a cost-free solution for any problem?
Click to expand...
Lol.
Swapped out the dvd-rom drive for another, still no joy.
Wonder if I should reformat and re-install windows?
 
Machine said:
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.
Click to expand...

You might try here also:

alt.comp.periphs.cdr
 
Machine said:
Swapped out the dvd-rom drive for another, still no joy.
Wonder if I should reformat and re-install windows?
Click to expand...

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 wrote:
Click to expand...
Does a format achieve very much?
Click to expand...
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. :-)
Click to expand...
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.
 
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.
Click to expand...

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
 
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