Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2001 12:01:15 +1000 (EST) From: DONALD PEDDER To: Subject: non-DOS question Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: opendos AT delorie DOT com Okay, this isn't a DOS question, but this is the only list I'm on with lots of gurus on it. :-) I have recently had a CD-RW drive put into my computer. From the beginning it hasn't worked properly (it's a Sony! ;-) ). As I may have mentioned before, the guy at this place isn't all that good (I'm not going to go there again in future). He performed all sorts of variations (different brands of CD-RW drive and normal CD drive, changing their logical order, etc.), and ultimately got everything to work properly when he used HIS hard-disk in my computer. He was using Win98SE, just as I was, so the only OBVIOUS difference between his and mine is that mine is partitioned. He therefore blames it on my partitions (I TOLD you he wasn't very good). I have noticed that when I re-install Windows, in particular the software for my main-board (which has integrated sound-card et al), I get a message which says "unknown hardware key". This message never came up before the CD-RW drive was put in (but I've not yet followed up on this clue). Anyway, that is just background. Since I couldn't get the software to work, I decided to try the "create CD" option I had in VideoBlaster MovieMaker. Lo and behold it works! :-) I haven't yet worked out how I can do audio discs, but that isn't what I got it for anyhow. Now, here is my problem..... I created an MPEG in Ulead Videostudio 4.0SE. I saved it to my MovieMaker folder, and did the "create CD". It worked fine..... or so one would think. When I play back this file, my sound suddenly becomes low. Now, I must stress that it is not JUST for the duration of the clip - my sound has been PERMANENTLY made lower by playing this clip (the sound at start-up is now lower too). What I've done, is re-installed the main-board audio stuff, and it's back to normal. I tried playing back the CD in my original drive instead of the CD-RW drive, but the same thing happens. It is the actual playing of this MPEG that makes my sound go low. Now, when I re-install the main-board audio stuff, I see Windows come up with a message "unknown device detected...... PCMIA multi-media device" and the drivers are installed. This is unusual. it shouldn't do that, as the drivers were already installed. In other words, playing the clip seems to effectively kill the main-board audio stuff, thereby (presumably) reverting to the default Windows drivers. Very, very strange, but this is what all my testing brings me to. Anytime I play this clip from this CD, I have to re-install the mainboard audio stuff (and I get the aforementioned "unkown device" stuff subsequently) in order to get my volume back to what it was before. Now, this isn't such a big problem in itself (although it's a major hassle), but I'm reluctant to GIVE this CD to anyone in case it does the same thing to THEIR system, and they're not as computer-literate as *I* am (i.e. they may not know how to re-install the drivers). :-( None of the actual volume SETTINGS are getting changed - just the actual PHYSICAL volume coming from the speakers gets way less (with the volume knob about 1/3rd up, it sounds like it's barely on, when that is normally reasonably loud). Any ideas as to what could be going on here? regards, Donald.