Win98Se - No Direct Music ports in DX-8.1 diag

In an historically very stable Win98Se system running on an Asus board,
AMD Xp-1600 and 512M RAM I suddenly lost Direct Music which affects my
sequencer performance.

I can, however, still play Midi, Mp-3 and Wav files.

I've checked all sound and video drivers finding no problems.

I've re-installed DirectX 8.1 with no install problems, but also no fix
for the Direct Music problem.

All DirectX tabs indicate no problems except for Direct Music which
hangs the Diag on load unless Direct Music is excluded.

The system is maintained regularly with no problems in the registry,
the drives or missing systems files.

I'm stumped, but .. I suspect that a program (or game) I may have
installed, then uninstalled is the culprit at the root of the issue.

Any and all thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks much ...

PoGo

PoGo,

Oh the woes of registry problems!

Here are a couple of possibilities:
I discovered an AdAware installation slowed my PC's video performance by 10%. Being this is an older, s-l-o-w PC, a 10% performance
hit was unacceptable. Could not find what registry entry(s) or DLL's (files) may have been the issue. The resolution to correct the
problem (after uninstalling AdAware) was to restore a registry which was backed-up FIVE months ago (just before AdAware was
installed)!!
(all this happened two weeks ago)

Solution 1. If you have a registry from BEFORE the game was uninstalled you may need to go back and restore IT to regain DM
functionality. If you do not back-up, and this uninstall happened within the last four to five days (or four to five BOOTS, which
ever is longer), Windows SHOULD have backups of your registry. You could restore from there. Look for RB???.CAB files (RB001.CAB,
RBBAD.CAB etc) in \windows\sysbckup

It really sounds like a registry entry was removed BUT, maybe not, maybe it's a correctable file error:
Solution 2. Uninstall Dx http://www.dxbuster.de/index_e.html and reinstall DX8.1. BTW, if you choose this route I'd suggest booting
to a 'clean' OS http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192926/EN-US/ before you remove Dx and reinstall Dx. Then restore your normal boot
environment.

Now I realize some may speak against this procedure (uninstalling Dx), but I've done this MANY times and have had good results.

These are not the solutions you were looking for I'd venture to say, but the only ones I can think of. Hopefully someone with MUCH
more knowledgeable of DM functionality in Win98 can help!

Oh the woes of registry problems (and bad uninstall programs)!

All the best,
Vic
___

"PoGo" wrote in message ...
In an historically very stable Win98Se system running on an Asus board,
AMD Xp-1600 and 512M RAM I suddenly lost Direct Music which affects my
sequencer performance.

I can, however, still play Midi, Mp-3 and Wav files.

I've checked all sound and video drivers finding no problems.

I've re-installed DirectX 8.1 with no install problems, but also no fix
for the Direct Music problem.

All DirectX tabs indicate no problems except for Direct Music which
hangs the Diag on load unless Direct Music is excluded.

The system is maintained regularly with no problems in the registry,
the drives or missing systems files.

I'm stumped, but .. I suspect that a program (or game) I may have
installed, then uninstalled is the culprit at the root of the issue.

Any and all thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks much ...

PoGo

Pogo, something I forgot:
did you check the system properties to see if your sound card entries are as they should be? All direct-music features, as far as I
know, are tied to your sound card. Also, did you try to 'Add New Hardware' to see if your sound card could be RE-detected? If there
is a sound card issue (including missing reg entries) uninstall, then reinstall the sound card drivers and I would think
direct-music entries should be re-established.

Vic
___

"Vic" wrote in message ...
PoGo,

Oh the woes of registry problems!

Here are a couple of possibilities:
I discovered an AdAware installation slowed my PC's video performance by 10%. Being this is an older, s-l-o-w PC, a 10%
performance
hit was unacceptable. Could not find what registry entry(s) or DLL's (files) may have been the issue. The resolution to correct
the
problem (after uninstalling AdAware) was to restore a registry which was backed-up FIVE months ago (just before AdAware was
installed)!!
(all this happened two weeks ago)

Solution 1. If you have a registry from BEFORE the game was uninstalled you may need to go back and restore IT to regain DM
functionality. If you do not back-up, and this uninstall happened within the last four to five days (or four to five BOOTS, which
ever is longer), Windows SHOULD have backups of your registry. You could restore from there. Look for RB???.CAB files (RB001.CAB,
RBBAD.CAB etc) in \windows\sysbckup

It really sounds like a registry entry was removed BUT, maybe not, maybe it's a correctable file error:
Solution 2. Uninstall Dx http://www.dxbuster.de/index_e.html and reinstall DX8.1. BTW, if you choose this route I'd suggest
booting
to a 'clean' OS http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192926/EN-US/ before you remove Dx and reinstall Dx. Then restore your normal boot
environment.

Now I realize some may speak against this procedure (uninstalling Dx), but I've done this MANY times and have had good results.

These are not the solutions you were looking for I'd venture to say, but the only ones I can think of. Hopefully someone with MUCH
more knowledgeable of DM functionality in Win98 can help!

Oh the woes of registry problems (and bad uninstall programs)!

All the best,
Vic
___

"PoGo" wrote in message ...
In an historically very stable Win98Se system running on an Asus board,
AMD Xp-1600 and 512M RAM I suddenly lost Direct Music which affects my
sequencer performance.

I can, however, still play Midi, Mp-3 and Wav files.

I've checked all sound and video drivers finding no problems.

I've re-installed DirectX 8.1 with no install problems, but also no fix
for the Direct Music problem.

All DirectX tabs indicate no problems except for Direct Music which
hangs the Diag on load unless Direct Music is excluded.

The system is maintained regularly with no problems in the registry,
the drives or missing systems files.

I'm stumped, but .. I suspect that a program (or game) I may have
installed, then uninstalled is the culprit at the root of the issue.

Any and all thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks much ...

PoGo

"Vic" wrote in
:

Pogo, something I forgot:
did you check the system properties to see if your sound card
entries are as they should be? All direct-music features, as far
as I know, are tied to your sound card.

SNIP
------------------------
Vic, m'boy ... you are a wee genius ...

The sound card had not been changed or modified in any way. but a
driver uninstall and re-install fixed the problem. I suspect that
whatever program changed my system at uninstall as the culprit and this
only furthers my suspicion that it was a game ...

I should have gone further than merely checking properties and driver
version under Device Manager/Properties, but seeing your response
pulled a big - "DDDduuhhhhh!"- from me.

Further, I agree with you on uninstalling and re-installing Dx. I, too,
have done it several times with just the program you suggest and no bad
effects. I hesitated to post that here, though, since I was chastised
once for posting my procedures for re-installing Win 95/98/98Se
overtop an older installation... although I've been doing it since 1996
- 100s of times - and had no bad effcts there either.

Thanks, Vic, I appreciate your time and the "Wake Up" reminder.

Take care ...

--
PoGo

"Teaching a pig to sing wastes your time and annoys the pig".