Loading CD-ROM

[Russ]

I am having problems loading an educational CD-ROM for my
daughter....the program loads but when I want to open it
I get a window saying

"The sound software is not installed properly or has been
disabled. For more info see README file installed with
this program"

I am not sure what to do...on the box it says that a 16-
bit sound card must be installed to run the program. How
do I find out what soundcard I have and if I haven't got
it, can I download it from somewhere !! HELP !!

Russ

[Chris Jackson]

This is probably a compatibility issue. You may want to try right clicking
on the shortcut to the program, going to the compatibility tab, and setting
it to Windows 95 compatibility.

If a 16-bit sound card is all that it asks for, it's probably fairly old
software that is trying to talk directly to the hardware, which is what you
had to do back in the days of DOS. However, there is no quicker way to
ensure a crash than to have every developer on the planet try to talk to
every piece of hardware on the planet, because that's a very difficult thing
to do. So, on Windows XP (or any NT operating system) you are not allowed to
do that.

It could be that your program just isn't compatible with XP at all. What
software is it?

--
Chris Jackson
Software Engineer
Microsoft MVP - Windows XP
Windows XP Associate Expert
--
"Russ" > wrote in message
...
> I am having problems loading an educational CD-ROM for my
> daughter....the program loads but when I want to open it
> I get a window saying
>
> "The sound software is not installed properly or has been
> disabled. For more info see README file installed with
> this program"
>
> I am not sure what to do...on the box it says that a 16-
> bit sound card must be installed to run the program. How
> do I find out what soundcard I have and if I haven't got
> it, can I download it from somewhere !! HELP !!
>
> Russ

[Russ]

Chris,

Thanks for you reply....in answer to your question, I
have tried to change the compatability but I still get
the same window querying the sound card !!! The program
I'm trying to run is a CD ROM that is call Mad About
English...and Wordbuilding fun CD for my daughter to use.

On the back of the box it says that the operating system
is Windows 95/98/NT4/2000....and 16-bit sound card !!

Any further ideas much appreciated

Russ

>-----Original Message-----
>This is probably a compatibility issue. You may want to
try right clicking
>on the shortcut to the program, going to the
compatibility tab, and setting
>it to Windows 95 compatibility.
>
>If a 16-bit sound card is all that it asks for, it's
probably fairly old
>software that is trying to talk directly to the
hardware, which is what you
>had to do back in the days of DOS. However, there is no
quicker way to
>ensure a crash than to have every developer on the
planet try to talk to
>every piece of hardware on the planet, because that's a
very difficult thing
>to do. So, on Windows XP (or any NT operating system)
you are not allowed to
>do that.
>
>It could be that your program just isn't compatible with
XP at all. What
>software is it?
>
>--
>Chris Jackson
>Software Engineer
>Microsoft MVP - Windows XP
>Windows XP Associate Expert

[Brian Tillman]

>How do I find out what soundcard I have and if I haven't got
>it, can I download it from somewhere !! HELP !!

Open Control Panel, click "Printers and Other Hardware" and then select
"Sounds Speech, and Audio Devices" from the "See Also" box on the left.
Then select "Sound and Audio Devices". This will bring up a Properties box.
Click the "Hardware" tab (the last one). Your CD (and/or DVD) drive will
most likely be listed first, with your sound card second. What is the name
of the sound card?

As to downloading a sound card, you can't download hardware over the
Internet yet. Maybe some day.
--
Brian Tillman Internet: Brian.Tillman at smiths-aerospace dot com
Smiths Aerospace Addresses modified to prevent SPAM.
3290 Patterson Ave. SE, MS 1B3 Replace "at" with "@", "dot" with "."
Grand Rapids, MI 49512-1991
This opinion doesn't represent that of my company