No Sounds from Win98se

[ErnieK]

Clean install of Win98se.

I cannot get any windows sounds from the above installation.

If I drag a wav file onto computer from disk (floppy) Media player comes up with unspecified error.

DXdiag shows the following error with sound

The file CMAUDIO.SYS is not digitally signed, which means that it has not been tested by Microsoft's Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL). You may be able to get a WHQL logo'd driver from the hardware manufacturer.
DirectSound test results: Failure at step 19 (User verification of software): HRESULT = 0x00000000 (error code)

I have tried updating media player to latest version. DirectX from the installed version to version 9b. (As reccomended by Win Update) (both these from the basic win istall ver) to try and sort the problem, this has made no difference.

No errors/faults showing with sound card.
No error messages except as shown above in DXdiag.
Speakers in good order.(sound from music disks)
CD drives play music disks OK. Sound from both of them (RW & DVD)

[ErnieK]

SUCCESS!

I have finally managed to get sound.

I had disabled the onboard sound in the BIOS thinking that this was all that was needed.

A sudden flash of frustration gave me the idea of disabling the pins on the board as well. With both the onboard sound pins and the BIOS disabled, sound appeared first time round. Doing just one of them had no effect and was causing a hidden conflict. Though I would like to know why no conflict showed up anywhere.

[Sylvander]

Perhaps the Windows Configuration Manager detected a device conflict and to resolve that it disabled one of the sound cards?

But perhaps the one it chose to disable was the one that could not work because you had disabled it in the BIOS?

Hence, neither worked?

[ErnieK]

Hi Sylvander
that is what I am assuming, but why if two sounds install did no errors/conflicts show?

This is beside the point now and mearly curiosity. Windows sounds can be annoying but also a good audible warning when something is wrong

[Sylvander]

Some Windows sounds can be very useful.
The "Open Program" & "Close Program" sounds tell you that there is activity even when none can be seen.
I use a "beep" and a "whoosh" and this tells me what is happening unseen. It's surprisingly informative.
I use "leave me alone" [got it from my daughters game sound files] as the "Default Sound", so when anyone [usually me] tries to do something that is not available it plays this little voice and I say "oops" "shouldn't otta have done that".
I use "whoops" for the asterisk, "oh dear" for critical stop, "uh oh" for exclamation, and "explode" [sound of an explosion] for program error. They can be quite "expressive".

I fancy going even further and having such as:
a sexy female voice breathing "your printer is low on black ink. Please replace the cartridge soon".