Windows Media Player audio playback issue - Will not play any audio!

[Idz21]

Hey guys,

I did some Google searching and couldn't figure out the issue I'm having with my uncle's computer. Every time I try to play anything through the Windows Media Player I get this error message, "Windows Media Player cannot play the file because there is a problem with your sound device. There may not be a sound device installed on your computer, it may be in use by another program, or it may not be functioning properly." - Error ID = 0xC00D11BA, Condition ID = 0x00000000
This is a new problem that started occurring after I had to roll back his PC due to blue screen errors at boot. The issue only occurs with Windows Media. Everything else works perfectly fine. He has a Dell Desktop with Win XP Home. The sound card is an onboard SoundMax. Here's what I tried so far:

1. Reinstalled drivers many times. Tried different ones.
2. Tried different versions of Windows Media player.
3. Edited some registry keys in order to tell the program to play audio.
4. Made sure there are no IRQ issues (yellow exclamation)
5. Tried lowering Hardware Acceleration but could not because that feature is grayed out. (?)

None of these solutions have helped thus far and my last ditch effort is to reach out to you guys before I simply format and reinstall Windows.

UPDATE 12/16/2006: The fix to my problem was that the DSOUND.DLL file was missing from the Windows/System32 folder. I copied it out of the /i386 folder and pasted it back to System32 and my sound came back. No more errors!

 

[johnpombrio]

Check the hardware dvice manager to see if you have a working sound device(no yellow or red marks). Next, make sure your BIOS does not have integrated sound device turned on if you have a sound card attached. Cehck tools- options with WMP to see if that gives you any help. Do you have any sound at all?

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: Idz21
Hey guys,

I did some Google searching and couldn't figure out the issue I'm having with my uncle's computer. Every time I try to play anything through the Windows Media Player I get this error message, "Windows Media Player cannot play the file because there is a problem with your sound device. There may not be a sound device installed on your computer, it may be in use by another program, or it may not be functioning properly." - Error ID = 0xC00D11BA, Condition ID = 0x00000000
This is a new problem that started occurring after I had to roll back his PC due to blue screen errors at boot. The issue only occurs with Windows Media. Everything else works perfectly fine. He has a Dell Desktop with Win XP Home. The sound card is an onboard SoundMax. Here's what I tried so far:

1. Reinstalled drivers many times. Tried different ones.
2. Tried different versions of Windows Media player.
3. Edited some registry keys in order to tell the program to play audio.
4. Made sure there are no IRQ issues (yellow exclamation)
5. Tried lowering Hardware Acceleration but could not because that feature is grayed out. (?)

None of these solutions have helped thus far and my last ditch effort is to reach out to you guys before I simply format and reinstall Windows.

uninstall soundcard and reinstall including physically reseating the card and see if it detects it.

 

[Idz21]

Gentlemen,

Thank you for the prompt responses however your questions to me have already been answered in my original post, and I have already tried your suggestions, where applicable, also stated in my post.

Just to reiterate. It is an integrated sound card, and sound works everywhere except for Windows Media.

 

[daniel49]

you may have the wrong drivers or


http://www.eggheadcafe.com/ng/microsoft...c.windowsmedia.encoder/post3857440.asp


this also has a suggestion for the directx/

 

[Idz21]

Originally posted by: daniel49
you may have the wrong drivers or


http://www.eggheadcafe.com/ng/microsoft...c.windowsmedia.encoder/post3857440.asp


this also has a suggestion for the directx/

I tried a multitude of different drivers. I tried those supplied by the manufacturer's website, the ones supplied on the Dell support website, and random drivers I found on the DriverGuide website. None have fixed the issue.

The one thing I haven't tried was completely reinstalling the DirectX drivers. I tried an upgrade to 9.0c, but never a full re-install. I'm hoping that windows lets me uninstall that thing Thanks for that egghead link, there seems to be some info there that might help.

 

[Idz21]

Just wanted to update everyone on this one. The solution to my problem was that the DSOUND.DLL file was for some reason missing from the Windows/System32 folder. I copied it out of the /i386 folder and pasted it back to Windows/System32 and voila... the sound is back!!!

Ugh, such a simple solution took me hours to figure out. I was literaly 5 seconds away from reinstalling the whole system.