WMA Files Won't Play in WinAmp

[StephenG]

First off I don't have WMP7, but have instead stuck with 6.4 since it does a LOOP instead of the gapped stuff one gets elsewhere (including alas WinAmp).

However, I encode a WAV file into a WMA file, and WinAmp won't play it, though it does load it and display its data. I start up WMP 6.4 and it does indeed play it. Suggestions?

[NeoRenegade]

Probably because it's a "packaged" WMA file. They're pieces of sh!t. I hear they can only play on the computer they were made on. I guess that also means they play only on WMP.

[StephenG]

Well, you either know about this or you don't. You seem to know what a "packaged" WMA file is but don't describe it - and then say you "hear they only play on the computer they were made on." Obviously this couldn't be the case if they're ever supposed to be used for netcasting in one form or another. Kindly use more detail or stick to subjects you KNOW about.

WMA files used to play on WinAmp on my PC, prior to last month. These are files that were encoded with not just the current tech but previous revisions. I have figured that this isn't a situation where the files only play on WMP. Isn't there someone who's had some experience - better yet, someone who's had something to do with the wma plugin, who could help with this?

1) don't be an ass and still expect help.

2) Make sure you have the FULL version of winamp installed.

[StephenG]

Well, sorry about the miniscule flame. But I still haven't gotten an answer.

My WinAmp is a full installation. I've redone it with no change in non-operation with respect to WMA files alone.

[StephenG]

In the possibility that this would be best posed in another forum I did so. Now I find that the threads were closed and returned back to this one.

Is there someone who can then answer my questions here? The following is the post placed elsewhere:

I don't exactly know when this happened - but the last time I was able to play WMA files in WinAmp, the last time I tried, was about a month ago. The files in question were encoded over the past several years.

Now for some reason, the file loads, the title displays, and no scroll bar appears. The file doesn't play.

If one loads Mplayer2 (6.4, and not the awful 7.x) WMA files play.

I've reasserted file associations and uninstalled-reinstalled full WinAmp. No change. Suggestions would be useful as opposed to comments about how "WMA files suck" etc. Even useful would be feedback on this from the guys who wrote the WMA plugin!

[DJ Egg]

Presuming these are your own songs, what Program/Encoder did you originally use to encode these files?

There's no reason why Winamp_Full shouldn't play WMA files, especially if WMP plays the same files ok. Both players use the same Micro$oft system codecs.
Is the File Info accessible in Winamp?
(Playlist Ed -> rt click title -> File Info)
If so, what does it say for the following entries? (True/False):
Seekable | Is_protected | Is_trusted | Copyright
Any other information in there that could prove helpful to us?

Is Winamp currently playing all other formats ok? (MP3, WAV, MID, etc)
Have you recently installed any (potentially dodgy) 3rd party plugins (Input; General Purpose; DSP/FX) that might be interfering/conflicting with normal playback functions?
Bear in mind that WMA's cannot be played back through alternative Output plugins.
WaveOut is recommended, though DirectSound should work ok too.
Also, set DSP/FX to "None".

[Edited by DJEgg on 05-19-2001 at 05:46 PM]

[StephenG]

Is the File Info accessible in Winamp?

Yes.

If so, what does it say for the following entries? (True/False):
Seekable | Is_protected | Is_trusted | Copyright

Just filename and size. Nothing else.

Is Winamp currently playing all other formats ok? (WMP, WAV, MID, etc)
Yes, no problems with everything BUT Windows Media.

Have you recently installed any (potentially dodgy) 3rd party plugins (Input; General Purpose; DSP/FX) that might be interfering/conflicting with normal playback functions?

Nothing present in DSP/FX.

Input plugins present (this was a full install, with the only modules added being the CD Reader, and gapless CD player):

Nullsoft MPEG Audio Decoder 2.75i (IN_MP3.DLL)
Microsoft WINAMP/WMA plug-in v.1.11 (x86) (IN_WM [obscured]
Mjuice Secure MP3 Decoder (x86) (IN_MJF.DLL)
Winamp2 MIDI plug-in v2.54b (x86) (IN_MIDI.DLL)
Nullsoft Module Decoder 2.2.8(x86) (IN_MOD.DLL)
Nullsoft VOC/WAV plug-in v1.23(x86) (IN_WAVE.DLL)
CD Reader v1.71 (x86) (IN_CDREADER.DLL)

Output plugins:

Nullsoft waveOut plug-in v2.3 (OUT_WAVE.DLL)
Nullsoft WMA Output plug-in v0.90(x86) (OUT_WM.DLL)
Nullsoft Disk Writer plug-in v1.0(x86) (OUT_DISK.DLL)
Nullsoft DirectSound plug-in v2.0 (OUT_DS.DLL)
Dudsoft Gapless Output v1.4 (OUT_GAPLESS.DLL)

[DJ Egg]

And you definitely have WaveOut selected as the Output Plugin? (Prefs -> Output)
WMA's will NOT playback with the Gapless plugin selected.

I can't think of anything else at the mo!

[NeoRenegade]

Sounds like maybe your in_wm.dll is corrupted if it's not even displaying the proper info.

Try downloading this replacement for your in_wm.dll

It's an older version but it plays just as well. In fact as an added plus you can now decode WMA to WAv with the DiskWriter plugin.

Our little secret, okay?

[StephenG]

Well, if I have Wave_out selected won't this write to a WAV file instead of outputting to hearable audio? I thought the DirectSound output was for that. Tried it, alas, nothing changed.

Downloaded the ZIP file and copied it into the Plugins directory, no dice either.

I've completely uninstalled and reinstalled as well. How is it then that only the filename and size comes up, in a perfectly legit-looking dialog? What's THAT coming from?

in_wm.dll is as of this writing 100k, 8-apr-00 1100am.

Hasn't anyone ever experienced this before? What a mofo this is.

[DJ Egg]

Originally posted by StephenG
Well, if I have Wave_out selected won't this write to a WAV file instead of outputting to hearable audio? I thought the DirectSound output was for that. Tried it, alas, nothing changed.

No! WaveOut is the default Output plugin for normal audio playback.
Diskwriter plugin is the one used for writing files to WAV.

Downloaded the ZIP file and copied it into the Plugins directory, no dice either.

If you're going to replace a default input plugin with an alternative plugin, you need to rename the original one in order to disable it, eg. in_wm.dll.off
Otherwise you'll have two input plugins trying to deal with the same file, thus causing conflicts.

Main thing tho' is to make sure WaveOut is selected as the Output plugin.
This is a stipulation made by Micro$oft themselves.

btw, you still haven't told us what you originally used to encode into WMA.

[StephenG]

>WaveOut is the default Output plugin for normal audio playback. Diskwriter plugin is the one used for writing files to WAV.<

Nonetheless I tried WaveOut, no change.

>If you're going to replace a default input plugin with an alternative plugin, you need to rename the original one in order to disable it, eg. in_wm.dll.off
Otherwise you'll have two input plugins trying to deal with the same file, thus causing conflicts. Main thing tho' is to make sure WaveOut is selected as the Output plugin.
This is a stipulation made by Micro$oft themselves.
<

Renaming in_wm.dll to in_wmdll.off actually effected a change, but just that now the wma files don't appear in the "+File" dialog. However, a previously-selected wma file still in my playlist DOES give the extended information, and briefly the scrollbar shows up, but still no audio output from wma files.

>you still haven't told us what you originally used to encode into WMA.<

Windows Media Tools 6.0, all the way up to Windows Media Encoder 7.0 - and I should repeat that they all play in WMP 6.4, and used to play in WinAmp 2.73.

I also have a sample of a new work of mine, "Hitchhiker's Lament" (dedicated to Douglas Adams) posted at http://www.earthlight.net/Studios.html which is a good example.

[DJ Egg]

Warning:
Please read my next post below before this one!

Well, I just visited your site, copied the url for the WMA version of HitchHiker's Lament & pasted it into Winamp's "Open Location" box, and the file streamed & played perfectly ok.
Is this one of the files that you can't get to play in Winamp?

It played fine using both WaveOut & DirectSound Outputs.

I also managed to get the full file info (Alt+3):
Filename: http://www.earthlight.net/Smedia/HitchhikersLament.wma
Duration: 10:38
Bitrate: 32604 bps
Seekable: false
Broadcast \ Is_Protected \ Is_Trusted: false (3 seperate entries)
Title: HitchHiker's Lament
Author: Stephen Goodman
Description: for Douglas Adams
Rating: G
Copyright: c.2000 Stephen P. Goodman, Earthlight Productions, a.r.r.
WMFSDKVersion: 7.000.00.1956
WMFSDKNeeded: 0.0.0.000

This suggests that there is nothing wrong with the file whatsoever.
I noticed that "Seekable" is set to "false" which means you can't use the seekbar (or scrollbar as you call it), infact this means that the seekbar won't appear at all for this track. However, I'm not sure if this just applies to the stream only & that the file would be seekable if downloaded to HDD? Alas, I didn't go that far!

As you undoubtedly know already, there is no configuration for the WMA Input plugin, so we have to look elsewhere for the problem.
You're now using the older version of the WMA Input plugin that you acquired via Neo-R's link above. However, as I say, I got it to play ok with the current default plugin, so that definitely can't be the problem.

(WaveOut/DirectSound) Output Plugin config/s:
You can try changing the Output Device to one that best describes your soundcard (via drop-down menu).
btw, what make of soundcard do you have anyway? Have you recently installed any latest drivers? Is it an SBLive by any chance?
If it is an SBLive, goto the Winamp\Plugins dir & check to see if there's a file in there called gen_nomad.dll. I'm clutching at straws a bit here, but if it's there, delete it!

The only other options that could effect anything are in Prefs -> Options
eg. Process Priority Class should be set to normal
If checked, try unchecking "sort files on load" (or vice-versa)
Have you changed anything else in here recently?

Another thing you can try is removing/renaming winamp.ini (main Winamp dir).
Make sure Winamp is fully closed first!
Next time you open it, a new ini file will be created & all the default settings will be restored.

The only other thing I can suggest is that you uninstall (via Add/Remove Programs), delete the Winamp dir, then reinstall.
Maybe try redownloading a fresh setup file just to make sure that the WMA input plugin hasn't got corrupted in any way.
You can get an older version c/o http://www.winampheaven.com - but remember, it played ok for me in 2.75 . . .

I'm a bit baffled still, but I'm sure we'll get there in the end!
I've definitely not given up yet!

[DJ Egg]

Hmm . . . thinking about it . . . make sure that there still is an active WMA Input plugin installed. I've a feeling that the replacement one you installed could also've been called in_wm.dll & it overwrote the original one when you installed it.
If this is the case, close Winamp, goto the Winamp\Plugins dir & rename the file back to in_wm.dll
What a carry on, eh ?!?!

Basically, WMA should definitely appear in the list in Prefs -> Filetypes.

[StephenG]

Uninstalled, removed all plugins, reinstalled. WMA's definitely there - but still no action.

I'm going to go find a copy of 2.72/2.73 on a CD somewhere here and see what happens.

[StephenG]

Dig this!

There are two winamp.ini's on my machine, one in the C:\WINDOWS directory, the other in C:\Program Files\Winamp.

I renamed both to winamp-ini.old, and started up WinAmp, to get prompted for registration info ("Stop bugging me!"), but no change in this problem. This is an installation from scratch, no leftover plugins, by the way. The one in C:\WINDOWS gets recreated as well when I start up WinAmp, and contains:

[WinampReg]
NeedReg=0
ID=208DEC51B24ED511A9990020AFF10365
RegDataLen=452
RegData2=00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000073706
76F6F646D616E4065617274686C696768742E6E65740000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000007761322E37353A6165322E31000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001000000DF
Stats=00000001,00000006,00000006,00000000,00000000,00000000,00000000,

Does this point me to a registration key I should also delete after killing the dual winamp.ini's? SHOULD there be two of these files?

Thanks for your help.

[DJ Egg]

Yes, there should be two winamp.ini files, one in the Windows dir, the other in the Winamp dir.
The one in Windows stores installation & registration info, plus any user stats if these options are checked in Prefs -> Setup (allow winamp to report.../check for new versions).
The one in the Winamp dir stores all the prefs, status, input/output plugin info, etc.

I still recommend a FULL uninstall -> Reinstall, but you must follow these instructions exactly. Also make sure you are reinstalling the FULL version of Winamp (the standard & lite versions do not include support for WMA), and make sure "support for WMA" is checkmarked during installation setup.
_______________________________________________________________________

Uninstall -> Reinstall procedure:

Backup the Skins dir & any 3rd party plugins (vis, input, etc)
If relevant, also backup the bookmark list (winamp.bm) & any saved EQ presets (.Q2 & .EQF files)

Uninstall Winamp (via Add/Remove Programs)
If you installed support for it, first uninstall MJuice Components.
Also check to see if you've installed any other 3rd party plugins that also may've created entries in Add/Remove programs (eg. WildTangent games). If so, uninstall these b4 Winamp.

Delete the Winamp dir (and MJuice dir, if relevant).
Delete C:\Windows\winamp.ini

At this point, if you wish to be totally thorough, you can now safely use Regedit to remove all references to Winamp from the Registry.
Start -> Run -> Regedit -> Okay
Edit -> Find -> Winamp -> Okay
Edit -> Find Next (F3)
When done, close Regedit.

Reinstall Winamp (Full)
If you want, you can get an older version from http://www.winampheaven.com

Try the default setup at first *
If this works ok, add your backups one by one, closing & reopening Winamp inbetween.

* Naturally, you can change/uncheck the prefs in the final setup screen, eg. Associate with files/CD's; maintain associations; create shortcuts; etc.

_______________________________________________________________________

If you still can't play WMA files in Winamp, then there's definitely something wrong that's beyond me & possibly beyond everyone else on the forums.
If WMP plays them, then it can't be a codec issue.
Obviously the relevant files already exist in C:\Windows\System
MSAUD32.ACM (Windows Media Audio Codec)
WMAUDSDK.DLL | ATL.DLL | AudioExCtl.DLL
Can you confirm this?

Naturally, the WMA Codec is enabled via: MultiMedia Control Panel -> Devices -> Audio Compression Codecs -> WMA -> Properties: use this codec (checkmarked)

And you've scanned your HDD for viruses, run scandisk, reinstalled soundcard drivers/DirectX, tried every relevant setting in Winamp . . . thinking about it, there's not much else left you can do really!

Anyway, let us know how you get on!
I'm still intrigued!

[StephenG]

Will do! For some reason I wasn't notified about your reply. Will let you know when it hits.

[StephenG]

Okay, here goes.

Did the uninstall/regedit routine, and reinstalled Winamp full, v.2.75. No change.

Here's something interesting: WMP 6.4 does indeed play the WMA files. Here's an interesting thing though - when I right-click on any WMA file, and get File Info, it only gives the Path/Filename, and the size.

When I rename in_wm.dll to in_wm-dll.old, and restart Winamp, doing the File Info again, it gives me ALL of the WMA file info, as it's supposed to otherwise. However, it won't play WMA files, as the input plugin isn't there.

Files in question are indeed present:

MSAUD32.ACM - 277K - 8-8-00
WMAUDSDK.DLL - 160K - 8-9-99
ATL.DLL - 73K - 3-16-01
AudioExCtl.dll - 86K - 7-5-00

With SFC I replaced the ATL.DLL with one from the original Win98SE CD. No change.

Changed the priority of the WMA Codec from 13 to 9. No change. Reinstalling DirectX 8 to see whassup. Ah'll be bach.

[StephenG]

Nope, installed DirectX 8, no change. I wish there was some kind of debug flag you could give Winamp so that I could get a listing of what goes wrong. I suspect it's about the time that the sliding cursor goes away, after clicking on the play button.

Actually if someone would send me a debugging copy I could figure out what this is that's not working.

[StephenG]

I'd repeat, if I had a copy of Winamp that allowed for some logging feature as far as the innards went, much in the same way that Outlook Express allows for logging SMTP and so forth, I could identify exactly where this is going south.

[DJ Egg]

Wow! You've been busy here!
Sorry to hear it still doesn't work

I'm a bit concerned that you can still get the file info when you disable in_wm.dll (by renaming it with the OLD extension).

To me, this suggests that you still have 2 input plugins installed that both handle WMA files. Could you please provide a list of all in_*.dll files in the Plugins dir.

Did you definitely delete the Winamp dir before you reinstalled?
(as outlined in my Uninstall -> Reinstall instructions above)

I've just tested a theory to see what happens when I rename in_wm.dll with the OLD extension, and when I rt clicked a playlist entry & selected "File Info", what happened was the MPEG File Info box appeared instead (ie. the ID3 Tag Editor for MP3 files). I thought this was a bit weird, but at the same time there is no info in any of the fields whatsoever, they're all blank. What I found even stranger though was, in the MPEG Info section, the filesize & length entries were correct, the "header found at" entry was stated to be 6346 bytes, and it also interpreted this particular WMA to be: MPEG 1.0 Layer 1, 128kbit, 26023 frames, 44100 Hz Stereo.
Basically, it thought it was an MP1 file!

Can you please confirm that you are not getting the MPEG File Info box (ID3 Tag Editor) when you disable the WMA plugin. If you're not, and you're still getting a WMA File Info box, then this confirms my suspicion that you definitely have 2 WMA input plugins, and the non-default one is WELL dodgy!

[StephenG]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by DJEgg
Wow! You've been busy here!
Sorry to hear it still doesn't work

To me, this suggests that you still have 2 input plugins installed that both handle WMA files. Could you please provide a list of all in_*.dll files in the Plugins dir.


IN_CDReader.DLL 91,648 05-17-01 1:52p
IN_MIDI.DLL 123,392 04-07-01 7:02a
IN_MJF.DLL 245,248 07-05-00 5:53p
IN_MOD.DLL 190,464 04-17-01 3:29a
IN_MP3.DLL 175,104 04-02-01 8:33p
IN_WAVE.DLL 18,432 07-05-00 5:53p
IN_WM.DLL 110,592 01-16-01 4:34a
OUT_DISK.DLL 6,144 07-05-00 5:53p
OUT_DS.DLL 12,800 12-04-00 7:34p
OUT_GAPLESS.DLL 24,576 05-17-01 6:27p
OUT_MP3.DLL 20,480 05-23-01 10:55a
OUT_WAVE.DLL 13,824 12-12-00 6:29p
OUT_WM.DLL 7,680 03-04-01 9:52p
READ_FILE.DLL 77,312 03-20-01 9:28p
VIS_AVS DLL 397,312 05-01-01 8:13a
VIS_NSFS DLL 12,800 12-04-00 7:15p


Did you definitely delete the Winamp dir before you reinstalled?


Yep.

[DJ Egg]

Aah well, dang goes that theory then!

Apart from OUT_MP3.DLL & OUT_GAPLESS.DLL, you've got the default setup there for sure. Though, these two aren't active, as long as you've got WaveOut (OUT_WAVE.DLL) selected as Output. Besides, I've got both those extra plugins too, and have no problems with WMA. Most strange!

Sad to say, I'm pretty much stumped. Booh!

Maybe try an older version?
http://www.winampheaven.da.ru

btw, have you ever installed & uninstalled WMP7, then gone back to 6.4 ?

[StephenG]

Uninstalled, deleted winamp.ini and the Winamp directory completely, reinstalled. No change.

It is indeed the ID3 dialog that comes up when the in_wm*.dll is renamed.

I even [glurg] installed the awful WMP7 to see if there would be a change. Alas, nos duces. Uninstalling and getting back 6.4 was again no problem. But no change.

I'm wondering if there are DLLs perhaps in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM that may be having an effect here. Are there such files as installed by Winamp? I have in the past completely uninstalled and replaced codecs to no effect, so it's not the codecs, as we know.

To quote Jimi, "Aw, shucks."

[StephenG]

Removed the sound card drivers, added them back after a reset. No change.

Went into Control Panel.Multimedia.Audio, clicked User only preferred devices (never had to before, but what the hell).

Went to the Devices tab, shuffled the order of priority used by the Audio Compression Codecs, put Microsoft ADPCM codec at 1, Windows Media audio at 2. Closed up.

Eur-frigging-reka, it now works, and the File Info box comes up correctly, as WMA File Info. Mind you, I didn't check after clicking on the 'preferred devices' box, so I wasn't sure. So I went back and unchecked it. Still works!

So I suspect something with respect to the order of the codecs used - or reshuffling and forcing a rewriting of a table somewhere - solved this.

Real Voodoo, huh?

[DJ Egg]

Hallelujah!
So it was the Windows Codecs to blame after all!
I think we were on the right trax earlier ?!?!

If it's all working again, I wouldn't bother changing anything now, but it sounds like a codec with a higher priority setting was causing conflicts.
Probably something to do with WMP7 installation?

btw, the .ACM files in the Windows\System dir are the audio codecs
(Audio Compression Managers)

Anyway, I'm really happy for you. Yay!

[StephenG]

Nope on the WMP7 install. I last installed it - before this week as a test - back when it came out. It's STILL an awful piece of wannabe software. While Winamp can't properly loop either, that's the only common criticism I have of both. Someone at Nullsoft needs to stop using MCI I suspect; it's what give us the gap!

Thanks for all your help. This is one for the books hopefully, so that the next guy who has this happen can have a quicker solution; I think that the "reshuffle the codecs via renumbering" should heretofore be a last step in diagnosis should the others you gave me fail. It's got to happen to someone else...

Thanks again.

[DJ Egg]

No, I meant that it was probably the installation and uninstallation of WMP7 that caused the problems in the first place. Knowing Micro$oft, certain codecs/registry entries may have been added/removed/re-ordered/unregistered/screwed-up/etc during this process.
Winamp has no other way to play WMA's but to share the same Microsoft WMA codec (yes, MCI). This is the same for all players! WMA is a Microsoft format and this is one of their stipulations. They even co-wrote the Winamp WMA plugin! It's unlikely this'll ever change unless M$ decide to change policy and relax this law. I can't see that happening though

Anyway, I'll definitely be bookmarking this thread for all future reference.

Cheers -> Egg.

ps. I agree with you entirely about WMP7. Yeah, I've still got v6.4 too.

[StephenG]

No, what I was saying is that the WMP7 install-uninstall happened when it first came out - months and months ago. The no-play on WMA files started a bit over a month ago, and the only close install event I could think of was IE6 beta. Second place for the probable cause goes to SBLive's LiveUpdate of drivers. Since I use Winamp every day (my wife didn't have a CD player on her stereo when I moved to the UK!), I'd have noticed this immediately and made the correlation. Somehow I wonder if it wasn't a combination of the two. IE6 didn't carry with it any multimedia drivers, but it did have the awful Personal Toolbar, which does a player function all its own, but reportedly uses the codecs you already have. In some respects this might be WDM drivers causing problems, but this is Win98SE, and the only problems documented so far are with Win2k and WDM on the SBLive cards.

Well, it's fixed! Now I'll start pestering the wish list denizens. First subject, hot keys customization!

[DJ Egg]

Aha!
Righty-o, I stand corrected.
Yes, definitely could be something to do with the SBLive drivers update,
as confirmed in this thread:
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=50447
(CTMP3.ACM - CreativeLabs' replacement MP3 Codec causes ACM Stream Error with Shoutcast)
Maybe they're also replacing a few other codecs without telling you, eh?
One way to find out is to list all the ACM files in the System dir, or just look in MultiMedia -> Devices -> Audio Compression Codecs list.
It's already been confirmed that CreativeLabs are installing a replacement MP3 codec with their driver updates, but I wonder if they're also including a replacement WMA codec as well . . . and lord knows what else?
Naturally, bumping the priority of the Windows (MP3/WMA/etc) codecs above the Creative ones will fix the problem.

[StephenG]

Before LiveUpdate (scratch driver install from CD):

MSADP32.ACM 17,920 04-23-99 10:22p MSADP32.ACM
LHACM.ACM 33,040 02-12-01 12:47a LHACM.ACM
MSGSM32.ACM 25,088 04-23-99 10:22p MSGSM32.ACM
TSSOFT32.ACM 8,704 04-23-99 10:22p TSSOFT32.ACM
MSG723.ACM 108,304 02-12-01 12:47a MSG723.ACM
MSG711.ACM 10,240 04-23-99 10:22p MSG711.ACM
MSAUD32.ACM 282,896 08-08-00 12:31p MSAUD32.ACM
SL_ANET.ACM 86,016 05-27-00 6:35a SL_ANET.ACM
IMAADP32.ACM 18,944 04-23-99 10:22p IMAADP32.ACM
DIVXA32.ACM 291,408 04-01-00 4:11a DivXa32.acm
VCT3216.ACM 82,944 02-23-00 5:57p VCT3216.ACM
L3CODECA.ACM 290,816 03-02-01 7:46p l3codeca.acm

After LiveUpdate:

MSADP32.ACM 17,920 04-23-99 10:22p MSADP32.ACM
LHACM.ACM 33,040 02-12-01 12:47a LHACM.ACM
MSGSM32.ACM 25,088 04-23-99 10:22p MSGSM32.ACM
TSSOFT32.ACM 8,704 04-23-99 10:22p TSSOFT32.ACM
MSG723.ACM 108,304 02-12-01 12:47a MSG723.ACM
MSG711.ACM 10,240 04-23-99 10:22p MSG711.ACM
MSAUD32.ACM 282,896 08-08-00 12:31p MSAUD32.ACM
SL_ANET.ACM 86,016 05-27-00 6:35a SL_ANET.ACM
IMAADP32.ACM 18,944 04-23-99 10:22p IMAADP32.ACM
DIVXA32.ACM 291,408 04-01-00 4:11a DivXa32.acm
VCT3216.ACM 82,944 02-23-00 5:57p VCT3216.ACM
L3CODECA.ACM 290,816 03-02-01 7:46p l3codeca.acm

Alas, no alterations there. At least we know the solution to this one!

[DJ Egg]

Aah well, another theory down the drain.
It's just that I like to root out the cause as well as the solution.
Not to worry, like ya say, main thing is it's fixed & we know the solution.

The only ACM in your list I'm not familiar with is SL_ANET.ACM
Any idea what it is? (System dir -> File -> Properties -> Version tab)
If it's not SBLive related, then forget I even mentioned it.

Cheers -> Egg.

[StephenG]

Sipro Lab Telecom Inc.
Version: 3.02
ACELP.net Audio Codec

I admit I'm rather stumped on this one.

Get this - a search for 'sipro' however returns a url of http://svr-www.eng.cam.ac.uk/comp.sp...are/sipro.html

and of course http://www.sipro.com - and I've really got to wonder how this got on the PC. A look at Control Panel.Multimedia.Devices.Audio Compression shows that it is indeed there and matches the description above, priority 13, but does not bring to mind anything beyond VOIP that might use it. However! Yesterday I attempted to use Netmeeting and of course had to do the Test Microphone routine, and try as I might couldn't get the damned thing to take the microphone's input. I've removed it and zipped it first, so we'll see what happens after a reboot, yes?

[DJ Egg]

Sounds like it's part of some fax/voice/data software, maybe off your modem drivers cd, though to be honest I'm not really sure? You'll know if it was important (or not) if you do/don't get a file missing error message at bootup!

Surely your microphone volume's controlled via Windows Volume Control?
Options -> Properties -> Recording : make sure mike is selected -> Okay
Make sure mike volume isn't muted & slider is up high enough.
Options -> Properties -> Playback : ditto

[StephenG]

Surprise! A search of Microsoft's site reveals this!

Windows Media Player 7 File List for Build 7.00.00.1954
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q269/6/05.ASP

So, having removed that beast yet again, I don't need it anyway. Shows how awful the uninstall was in the first version as well!

[NeoRenegade]

I remember losing WMA support once... it coincided with me installing/uninstalling WMP7. Wow, if only I had clued in at the time instead of just fixing the problem in the audio codecs list after half an hour like I had, maybe I could have helped. Oh well *sigh*

[DJ Egg]

Originally posted by StephenG
Surprise! A search of Microsoft's site reveals this!

Windows Media Player 7 File List for Build 7.00.00.1954
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q269/6/05.ASP

So, having removed that beast yet again, I don't need it anyway. Shows how awful the uninstall was in the first version as well!

So SL_ANET.ACM was a WMP7 component after all.
Knew it! Bloody typical of M$
Enough said!

This has been a most educating thread, wouldn't ya say?

[StephenG]

Let's just hope it helps someone beyond just me, eh?

Additional digging shows it's also an Office 2000 component.