Sounds May Be Disabled Using PlaySound API with USB HID Devices Present

ID: Q249146

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition

SYMPTOMS

On computers running Windows 98 Second Edition, sounds may intermittently be unable to play after Windows starts (For example, .wav files may not play.) This problem may occur if all of the following conditions are true:

The program being used to play the sound uses the PlaySound() Application Programming Interface (API).
The computer has one or more Universal Serial Bus (USB) Human Interface Device (HID) devices installed. For example, a USB speaker device.

Under these conditions, after a sound fails to play, no further attempts to play sounds using the PlaySound() API are successful until you restart Windows.

NOTE: The Windows Startup sound may play successfully.

CAUSE

This issue can occur if a reference counter is not cleared properly by the Winmm.dll file during the processing of the PlaySound() API. This prevents proper initialization during subsequent PlaySound() API calls, which causes the sound to not play.

RESOLUTION

A supported fix that corrects this problem is now available from Microsoft, but it has not been fully regression tested and should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information on support costs, please go to the following address on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

The English-language version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:


   Date       Time      Version     Size     File name   Platform
   --------------------------------------------------------------
   12/29/99   10:29am   4.03.2201   50,688   Winmm.dll   Win98SE

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows 98 Second Edition.

MORE INFORMATION

This problem occurs intermittently, and may occur up to 10% of the time Windows starts, depending on the specific hardware configuration.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbsound
Version : WINDOWS:
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbbug