How to solve audio error messages

Archived Articles, Audio How-Tos

Question: I have a rather bizarre problem. I was trying to set up a network game using a beta version of KALI when suddenly my system froze. I rebooted and got a major-league error: “sndport.386 not responding … blah blah,” you get the idea. This was a system error, before I even got into Windows’95.

When Windows finally booted, I got another set of errors saying that Windows could not locate my Zoltrix sound card, although it worked fine in DOS. I reloaded my sound drivers and that seemed to work.

Now, however, I have a new problem. Every time I boot up, I get the following error: “Microsoft Sound System Error-MSSNDSYS.VXD driver is out of date.” This error repeats itself three times each time I boot up. I have no idea how to get rid of it. I have tried reloading the drivers, etc. Nothing works! I have an IPC Pentium 75 MHz, Windows ’95, 8 Mb of RAM and a 1.06 GB hard drive. – RJ

Answer: There are a couple of things you can try.

The first possible solution assumes that you have the AVxxx AudioPlus series of the card. If this is the case, the following maybe a solution: “Use the Windows 3.1 real-mode drivers that came with the sound card. That will give you 16-bit sound support in Windows ’95,” says Mathew Fiszer, a tech-support adviser at Compu-Smart in Edmonton. “Remove all sound devices listed in Device Manager, restart Windows ’95 and run hardware detection,” he went on. “The Zoltrix sound card should not appear in Control Panel/Device Manager.” You should be able to find it in Control Panel > Multimedia > Advanced.

Another option, said Fiszer, is to select Sound Blaster or the Sound Blaster Pro in Windows ’95.

If you have a 16-bitsound card with the onboard mixer, the Windows ’95 mixer may not operate properly. Meanwhile, the Sound Blaster Pro driver will put the card in 8-bit operation. The Zoltrix Audio Plus 6400 PnP is the only model that is currently shipping with Windows ’95 drivers. According to Jim Hendy of Campus Computers in Edmonton, there’s another possibility. “The reader’s clock may have accidentally been changed to the year 2096 instead of 1996. This will cause some software to report that it is out of date and certain programs not to run at all.”

Another possibility is the file is simply corrupted. Zoltrix has a Web site at www.zoltrix.com, where instructions exist on how to set up each sound card under Windows 95.