Audio Problems. Please Help!!!!!

[Machine]

Okay, here's my situation. I am trying to restore an old Emachines for a friend. It's an Etower500is. I had to do a LOT of work on this thing. To cut things short, I did a clean reinstallation of Windows 98 SE. Okay, during Setup I got a message that said "Win98_56.cab could not be extracted". A very small portion of the CD was damaged, so I can't access the file, even after using a CD scratch remover numerous times. So I continued on with installation which went fine. I updated to Windows Media Player 7.1 which is what I have on my own PC at home. Everything installed fine except for one thing.......I had no sound.

So I searched the web and according to Emachines Site(http://parts.emachines.com/emachines/sys_lookup.asp), the Audio comes from a built in CS4280 3D PCI sound card. So I searched around and finally found the correct Crystal Sound Fusion Drivers for that model. After installation, I finally got the Windows Miscellaneous sounds working, midi files play, and even the CD player worked fine. Music Match Jukebox, which I also installed, is fine too. So I reinstalled Windows Media Player 7.1 and STILL get no sound through it. I get video just fine. I even installed Nimo Codec Pack and Divx player 5.0 and it plays video but also gets no sound. When I try and play a cd with Windows Media Player, I get a message saying "The pins cannot connect", or "cannot find proper codec".

I even went into System in Control Panel and reinstalled the Audio Compression and still no luck. I've got every codec installed on this Emachine that I have on my Compaq, which works fine. The Emachine had sound before I did a Windows 98 SE clean install. It's like the Media Players can't play MP3, CD's, Wav's, or sound from .avi,.mpeg,.asf, etc. What are the contents of WIN98_56.cab and is that the reason I'm not getting music? I've gone through every step in the Windows Help file and still no music.

I know I've told a story and a half, but I've been working on this thing like a mad scientist. I just don't get it. What more do I need to do? :confused:

[malcore]

Hi Machine

I think this Win98_56>cab contains files pertaining to real media and real networks. It does contain codecs, (dll's),and just may have a connection to media player.
You can download the entire Win98_56.cab, but use caution and maybe wait to see if the more experienced techs here suggest this.


You can D/L it here:
http://www.law.uj.edu.pl/nw/install/system/WIN98/

Luck

;)

[Machine]

I did a google search and checked out a couple websites where I might be able to download another version of the .cab file(The link you posted isn't working for me). The only problem is I don't know if the file is the same for BOTH Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE. Also, I wouldn't know exactly how to install it other than unzipping it. I know some files belong in certain folders. If any of them are drivers, wouldn't they have to be installed, or wouldn't the registry have to be configured for these files that were to initially to be installed during setup?

This has me absolutely puzzled. I've never known ANY version of WMP to not be able to play a normal music cd because it couldn't find the codec. Even the bare version of WMP that comes pre-installew with Windows won't play. Nor have I ever heard of it playing avi files with no music. I thought Nimo Codec pack would've had WELL over enough codecs to get the job done. ESPECIALLY seeing that I've got the exact same codecs on my Compaq. Are there any codecs that don't show up under "Audio Compression" in the Multimedia Devices section that could be installed and working on your pc?

One last thing. I noticed you said the WIN98_56.cab file could possibly contain some Realmedia and Realnetworks codecs. If that's true, then wouldn't Windows 98 SE come with at least a trial version of Realplayer installed? If it helps any, Realplayer was nowhere to be found after installation. Could it be that WMP uses the same codecs that the missing Realplayer would?

[Sylvander]

Hello Machine

1. If you have more than one drive or partition on your PC, you could copy and paste all the Windows installation files from your installation CD to a temporary folder [named Win98se or something simple].

2. If the CAB file was ok you could re-format the C: partition and use a startup disk and DOS to navigate to the "setup.exe" file in the "Win98se" folder on your other [non C:] partition and run windows setup off that partition on that HDD. You don't have to run it from the CD!

3. If the CAB file is not ok [before you re-format your C: partition] you could download a new, good copy to overwrite the old, bad copy. Then carry out 2 above.

4. If you have a CD-R drive or CD-RW drive you could copy those [good] installation files off the HDD to a CD-r or CD-RW disk. End of bad-disk problem.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;wmp

The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows Media Player for Windows XP Home Edition
Microsoft Windows Media Player for Windows XP Professional
Microsoft Windows Media Player 7.1
Microsoft Windows Media Player 6.1, 6.2, 6.4,

Error=80040265 (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=/support/mediaplayer/wmper/wmp80040265.asp)
Verify that Windows Media Player supports the file format that you are using. Windows Media Player supports the following file formats:

Windows Media formats: .asf, .asx, .avi, .wav, .wax, .wma, .wm, .wmv

Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) formats: m3u, mp2v, .mpg, .mpeg, .m1v, .mp2, .mp3, .mpa, .mpe, mpv2

Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) formats: .mid, midi, .rmi
UNIX formats: .au, .snd

Obviously no .cda files... :(

Edit: Then I look in properties of WMP7.1 and find that it states that .cda files ARE supported. Oh well, NEVER MIND!!!

[Machine]

LOL. Yeah, it's VERY STRANGE!!!! .cda files are actully the extensions that your CD audio tracks have(not burned cd tracks). Even stranger is the .WAV demo files(By the artist BECK)don't even work. The media player tracking bar says it's playing, but I don't hear any music at all! I read the Microsoft help links you gave me, and STILL no answer to my problem. The WIN98_56.cab file is damaged beyond repair, so there's no way to reinstall it. I downloaded 2 different WIN98_56.cab files from doing a google search on it. There's only one problem, they both have different contents and I don't which one is for Windows 98 or Windows 98 SE. I'm kinda intimidated at extracting BOTH files to the windows directory, because I don't wanna mess anything up. Since the cab file is destroyed, it won't really do me any good to run Setup again since I can't extract that file anyway. Hmmmmmmmmm.

[Sylvander]

Hello machine

how about going to the Windows update site here

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/default.htm?Page=productupdates

and downloading all critical updates plus the "Windows Media Player 7.1" update. The site software will check out what you have installed and what is missing and make up a list of what you don't have.

[mjc]

Not really sure about the WMP7.1 update...it does fix a couple of security holes, but at the same time the EULA give MS admin rights to your machine...

Actually, if you haven't added much to your machine since the reinstall, go ahead and run setup, over top of the current install...but first copy all the cabs to a folder on your hard drive, insert the missing cab and then run setup. (like Sylvander was hinting at.....)

You can look at the contents of the cabs and the one with the later dates/version numbers will be for 98SE....

[Whyzman]

I'm curious about the salvageability of your CD. If you've a FuncoLand close by they have commercial disk repair machines that will truly resurface a CD. Cost is around $3.00.....

If, however, you hold the disk up to a bright light and see any pinholes which reside in the label side of the CD, then it is indeed toast! :(