WinME sound card problem

Have you disabled Power Management in the BIOS?  Have you tried booting in SAFE MODE and checking Device Manager of any unknown devices and/or ghost devices/ports or multiples in error?

I'd also try changing my Power Management settings to anything other than what you are using to test.  I suspect you have conflicts based on what you've said here.

WindowsUpdate current?

Also try running all the DirectX diagnostics and check the results to see if problem there.

I'd also consider the normal maintenance runs with regularity (cleanup/scandisk/defrag), and ensuring that you've got updated drivers for all your multimedia devices.

Did you change a sound card or related software recently?  If so, may have ghost joy sticks shown in Control Panel, Multimedia as a remnant that may also cause conflicts.

Busy the next two weeks, but will check back when I can.  If none of these things help, tell us more about your setup.

Good luck,
":0)
Asta

Since you didn't mention which sound card you have, try looking through the Google results (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Windows+ME%22+%2B%22sound+card%22+site%3Asupport.microsoft.com&btnG=Google+Search) to see if one of the Microsoft Support documents addresses your problem. Also, it would help to know if you upgraded from a previous OS to ME; as most of these articles seem to deal with upgrade issues.

It would be very nice to hear from you, jhussain, as to what happened with the information we provided.  Without your feedback, we all waste our time guessing.
Asta

I am sorry that I did not response back. I was quite busy in some of the other stuff with home and office. Anyway, I tried both the suggestions and none worked.
One thing want to clear is that when power up, the sond card works great, no yellow signs in Device Manager. If the system does not go into screen save mode, no probelm. As soon as it goes into screen save mode for a while and then come out of it , sound card vanished, still no yellow signs. If I try RealPlay, it complains that sound channel is being used by another application.
I even went to web site and downloaded setup files and reloaded on top of the old one( I have not tried to un-install first and then load, I think I will do that also) and no luck.
So here I am. Please forgive me for the delayed response.

Thanks for all your help. This web site has helped me in the past and I admire the people who take their time out to help others.

Have you tried different screen savers?
Have you tried completely discontinuing any screen savers, or changing the screen saver to something like one hour before kicking in?

I had problems with Real as well, updated my system to the most current fixes from WindowsUpdate for the Windows98SE system, most current Browser version and most current version of Media Player and had no problems since.

Also, did you ever change sound cards?  Often times when this has been done, the control panel - multimedia shows more than one joy stick, even though incorrect, and this can also cause a resource conflict, which is what you are experiencing.

Also try this:
start-run-msinfo32 then check the left panel for your IRQ usage, DMA usage as well as any problem devices shown there.

Make sure you've got all the correct and current drivers.

What else shares your sound card that may be running at the time?  Hit ALT+CTRL+DEL and let us know what all is running in Task Manager when the problem arises.  

What version and type of Browser are you using?  Also, are the problems with specific types of sound files?  MP3, wav, mid or what?

The DirectX diagnostics I recommended that you run (all tests) should have alerted us to some problems when you checked the details after all tests were run.  Nothing found?

Have you been helped here, jhussain, or is more needed?
Moondancer - EE Moderator

hello astaec!

I checked as you suggested for irq, dma and others but find no conflict. Under Problem devices, I see IRQ Holder for PCI Steering, error code 22. This prblem occurs with any screen saver and occurs with all types of sound files. Basically, system says no sound card once the comp. goes into screen save mode and comes out of it.
I am thinking to close this question and go buy another sound card.
Thanks for all the help.

Hi, jhussain.  It is, of course, your choice on how you want to proceed.  This error message sounds very familiar to me.  That (if memory serves me) means that specific device calling for this resource is not being used.  I'll see if I can find more details on this and return shortly.

"ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering" Problem Device Entry in System Information Tool (Q272291)
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q272291
This behavior can occur if you change hardware in your computer and the IRQ holder is no longer required. IRQ holders for PCI steering are listed with error code 22 when they are not in use. Although IRQ holders for PCI steering that are not in use are not displayed in Device Manager, the System Information tool displays them.
STATUS
This behavior is by design.
-----------------------------
Have you tried disabling unnecessary start up items and rebooting to see if the problem still exists?  Some have reported this to be a problem with Firewalls and other start up programs, as noted below.

http://www.computing.net/windowsme/wwwboard/forum/19730.html

Have you also checked the ASD tool (Automatic skip agent) and see if drivers are being skipped because of problems?

Asta

These general links to the Microsoft Knowledge Base to help you troubleshoot sounds problems for Windows ME, may be helpful to you as well (I hope)
http://search.support.microsoft.com/search/nlsearch.aspx?Catalog=LCID%3d1033%26CDID%3dEN-US-KB%26PRODLISTSRC%3dON&Product=winme&Query=troubleshooting%2520sound&Queryc=troubleshooting+sound&withinResults=false&srchstep=0&KeywordType=ALL&Titles=false&numDays=&maxResults=100

Off to work.
Good luck,
":0) Asta

Please keep experts updated as they spend time helping you.
Moondancer - EE Moderator

Since astaec spent lots of his time to help me out, I have decided to give him the credit and close this question. Most of his answers helped me to figure out the problem which is still not cpompletely solved. I will try to get a new card.
Thanks astaec.

Jhussain

Thanks.  I'm sorry to see your problem is still not resolved.  Personally, I would try a few other things, such as making sure the card is seated properly (not loose nore too tight).  I'd definitely quit using the screen saver and turn off the Power Management controls to see if the problems are not present as the system continues to run without the known problems.  I'd also make sure if you want to continue using RealPlayer, that you've got a version compatible with your setup and environment.  

If you'd like to work further on this, just comment and I'll return when I can.

Asta

Thanks for the comments.
If screensaver and Power management are turned off, the problem never occurs. RealPlayer is compatible to the system I have. The problem only occurs when sytem is idle for a while and goes into power save mode, such as screen save, then when it gets out of it, sound driver and the sound icon is gone. If now I run any sound program ntohing happens. If I restart the system, everything works fine again till another idle time occurs.

I would, again, make sure that Power Management is turned off in the BIOS so Windows can manage it.  I would also modify my Windows environment in terms of Power Management settings to try different settings and eliminate the hibernate option completely.  I'd also seriously consider using different screen savers and changing the timing for all to test.