Problems playing .wav files

Hi All,

This is a bit of a strange one . . . I booted my computer and found that my startup sound didn't play. Naturally, I checked the speakers and the volume control - everything was just fine. I went into Start | Settings | Control Panel | Sounds and clicked on a couple of sounds and the [->] to play them. Absolutely nothing. I then brought up Media Player (mplayer.exe) and tried some .wav files (the same ones I had tried to play in the system) - this time, I get an error message from mplayer "MMSYSTEM326 No wave device that can play files in the current format is installed". I then tried MIDI - works fine; MPEG videos - work fine both picture and sound; AVI video - picture works but no sound (but no error message). Next, I brought up Windows Media Player (just upgraded to a new version [6.4.07.1112] that I got with MS Internet Explorer 5.5 that I just installed - this is probably a hint!!) and it plays .wav files just fine! Also, AVI videos play both picture and sound. Winamp can play .wav sounds just fine too.

So, what gives? Why can Windows Media Player and Winamp play .wav sounds, but mplayer and my Windows 98 system cannot? Any ideas? Thanks for your help!!

Best regards,

Shaun
Tyler, TX

[This message has been edited by ShaunBlack (edited 07-15-2001).]

[This message has been edited by ShaunBlack (edited 07-15-2001).]

Dear Mosaic1,

Thanks for the link - I'll work my way through the resolutions. Likely, one of them will work.

This brings up a new question. Before I surfed on over to the VirtualDr, I had been at the Microsoft web site, and searched the entire error message, only the MMSystem326 portion, and a variety of pieces of the error message both in the Keyword mode and the Free text search. Why is it that I never found this article? I feel sorta dumb!

Thanks!

Shaun

Howdy again Mosaic1,

I use Google all the time; definitely the best search engine since Inference Find went under a few months ago. And, I had actually searched there too, but didn't know the "site:xyzzy.com" trick - thanks!!

As a final update on this problem, none of the fixes from Microsoft were useful. I fixed the problem by uninstalling Bitware 32 FAX. Interestingly, this also fixed a mapi32.dll error that I was getting with Netscape 4.77 mail. Software conflicts - yech! But, thanks for your help and advise - you are most appreciated!

Best regards,

Shaun
Tyler, TX