Brain Spew - Neville Mehta's Blog

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Sound/Midi Not Working in Adobe Flash, YouTube etc. using CMedia sound card

About two months ago, I was playing around with the codecs on my Windows XP machine...I cant exactly remember why, but I think I was trying to install a new DivX one. I installed a few differnet players and codecs until I found the one I wanted. Everything seemed to be fine...until I went to YouTube and noticed that I was not getting any sound. I thought it was an Adobe Flash problem, so reinstalled it, but still no luck. I found that I could play MP3s normally but couldnt play MIDIs or any Flash sounds. It appeared to be playing as normal but no sound came out. I thought it may be a sound card problem (C Media) so I reinstalled the drivers...no luck.

I noticed in Control Panel under "Sounds and Audio Devices" (Windows XP) that my "default device" for MIDI Music Playback was blank and also my "default device" was blank. Even if I selected an option from the drop down list and pressed "Apply" then "OK", the settings would not be saved and next time I go back in, it would be blank again.

I also noticed that the speaker icon in the bottom right hand corner of the screen (in the task tray) had disappeared as well.

I was getting really frustrated and googled the problem and found that this was a very old problem with no resolution.

After playing around and tweaking alot of settings, I finally found the solution with a little help from an old friend RegMon. I found that Windows was looking for two keys in the registry and couldnt find them. These were:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/drivers32/midimapper

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/drivers32/wavemapper

It seems that one of the programs I installed then uninstalled when looking for the codec/player that I wanted must have deleted these keys.

Anyway, the solution is that these two registry keys should be set to the following string values:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/drivers32/midimapper should be set to midimap.dll.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/drivers32/wavemapper should be set to msacm32.drv.

If you are still having problems, you may need to reinstall some default audio codecs the instructions found here.

Finally, everything is back to normal again! I can now select my voice playback and midi playback default device and the speaker icon is back in the system tray...and I can watch Flash videos and listen to MIDIs.

posted by Nev at 1:03 pm

28 Comments:

  • Had the same problem. thank you so much mate.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:37 pm  

  • you legend!! thanks so much for that. Pretty sure it was removing Realplayer that did it for me.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:57 pm  

  • Thanks so much - this problem has been bugging me for so long!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:18 am  

  • Thanx friend. I had the same problem and solve it thanx to you.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 7:25 am  

  • Thank you! Your post helped me solve my problem.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:41 pm  

  • THANK YOU VERY MUCH 1000 TIMES !!!! I DID POST MY PROBLEM ON AT LEAST 20 FORUMS IN LAST THREE WEEKS AND NONE CAME UP WITH A SOLUTION. THE BEST IS THAT I CAN SEE THAT LOT OF PEOPLE HAS THE SAME PROBLEM AND ARE FORCED TO REINSTALL G.D. WINDOWS, AND YET YOU FOUND A SOLUTION THAT REMOVES THIS PROBLEM IN 30-40 SECONDS. I WAS ALREADY THINKING OF LOSING THIS WEEKEND TO REINSTALL. THANK YOU FOR MY WEEK-END. I ALSO AGREE WITH PEOPLE THAT YOU REALLY SHOULD POST THIS SOLUTION ON MORE SITES SINCE THIS IS OBVIOUSLY A COMMON PROBLEM. I ALSO CALLED MY HP SUPPORT AND GUESS WHAT ---- THEY DID NOT KNOW JACK A.. I WONDER WHAT THEY GET PAID FOR. WELL, MAYBE IN THE FUTURE I COULD HELP YOU WITH SOMETHING SO DO NOT HESITATE TO WRITE ME ON dtlesq@yahoo.com !! God bless you !!!




    Any idea or possible solution to workaround this below would be highly appreciated. I am currently going mad with this issue. God help us all with windows !!!

    Below is description of my machine:


    OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
    Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
    OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
    System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
    System Model HP Compaq nc6320
    System Type X86-based PC
    Processor x86 Family 6 Model 14 Stepping 8 GenuineIntel ~1828 Mhz
    Processor x86 Family 6 Model 14 Stepping 8 GenuineIntel ~1828 Mhz
    BIOS Version/Date Hewlett-Packard 68YDU Ver. F.0B, 12/15/2006
    SMBIOS Version 2.4
    Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
    System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
    Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
    Locale United States
    Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2765 (xpsp.050928-1517)"
    Total Physical Memory 1,024.00 MB
    Available Physical Memory 115.53 MB
    Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
    Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
    Page File Space 2.39 GB
    Page File C:\pagefile.sys

    Name SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio
    Manufacturer Analog Devices
    Status OK
    PNP Device ID HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_11D4&DEV_1981&SUBSYS_103C30AA&REV_1002\4&2A4C52EC&0&0001
    Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\adihdaud.sys (5.10.01.4321 built by: WinDDK, 172.00 KB (176,128 bytes), 2/28/2006 14:36)

    Name USB Audio Device
    Manufacturer (Generic USB Audio)
    Status OK
    PNP Device ID USB\VID_062A&PID_9004&MI_00\6&1D2D687&0&0000
    Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\usbaudio.sys (5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158), 57.88 KB (59,264 bytes), 1/9/2007 18:45)

    Name Bluetooth Audio
    Manufacturer WIDCOMM
    Status OK
    PNP Device ID {95C7A0A0-3094-11D7-A202-00508B9D7D5A}\BTAUDIO\1&30EE4AD&0&1000000030000
    Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\btaudio.sys (4.0.1.3300, 392.25 KB (401,664 bytes), 1/18/2006 19:09)

    Name Bluetooth High Quality Audio
    Manufacturer WIDCOMM
    Status OK
    PNP Device ID {95C7A0A0-3094-11D7-A202-00508B9D7D5A}\BTWAUDIO\1&30EE4AD&0&1000000030001
    Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\btaudio.sys (4.0.1.3300, 392.25 KB (401,664 bytes), 1/18/2006 19:09)


    Also, I have WMP, Real Player and Quick Time installed and Flash Player 9 as well. Well, your post helped me and gave me an idea where to look in my machine for the problem and I discovered these facts:

    1. My speakers are working fine
    2. My mic's are working fine
    3. My sound card and driver works fine SoundMAX HD Audio
    4. All my players work fine except audio when playing FP9
    5. My windows sound recorder does not work at all
    6. I cannot play MIDI files by default Microsoft Synth and I have to use Quick Time to play it.
    7. I cannot play my default ( and other themes ) system sounds
    8. Also, I can see Microsoft GS wavetable SW Synth when setting Audio Properties but after apply it disappears again.
    9. My all drivers are updated and machine as well.

    So, I did realize that problem is in default Microsoft Windows MIDI Synth like you also found it but after spending hours on the forums and use nets I couldn't find any solution to work around this problem except to reinstall my windows. I also can confirm that this problem have nothing to do with different codec installed like AC3, ffdshow etc.

    Furthermore, there is no any help on HP Support site for this kind of problem.

    SO, IF I WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO FIND WORKAROUND SOLUTION I WILL BE FORCED TO REINSTALL MY WINDOWS AND HAVE AT LEAST 8 HOURS OF "FUN" TO SET UP ALL THE STUFF I HAVE NOW ON MY COMPUTER !!! SOMETIMES I REALLY DO HATE WINDOWS AND THINKING TO SWITCH FOR A LINUX !!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:43 am  

  • Thanks man nice work.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:35 am  

  • THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!! I've been trying to figure out this problem for over a YEAR now! Thank you thank you thank you!!! =D

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:33 pm  

  • Thanks, I'm pretty sure this is the solution to the problem I'm having, but how do you DO this, I'm not exactly computer smart.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:51 am  

  • How do i add the strings or whateva im only 11 i dont understand sorry

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:38 pm  

  • i dont have drivers 32

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:30 pm  

  • I am going mad with this problem. I'm sorry; I'm 13 and I don't know how to add the strings. Besides, people say that messing with the registry can screw up your computer if you're not very tech-experienced.

    My problem is that itunes works, fine, but when I get to an internet site like youtube, no sound comes out. At the bottom right of my screen, the sound device item has disappeared and when I go to control panel to sounds, speech, and audio devices, there is no audio device under volume. Someone please help me! I'm going nuts with this problem!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:33 pm  

  • Sheer awesomeness. Much thanks to you.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:07 pm  

  • i dont know how to do that!
    some one pleasee help! bee a good personn!
    ~eliza

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:16 am  

  • you resolved one year of pain!
    YOU ARE MY GOD NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:26 am  

  • I had the same problem.. so i figured why not do a clean up on things i don't use and found a couple things i have never installed... so i uninstalled alot of stuff and rebooted. it worked. 2 of the microsoft update packages unworking were part of the problem i think?...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:18 pm  

  • I have the same problem, but i dont understand your instructions on how to fix it? Can you show me a video or something?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:43 pm  

  • U r my GOD! thank you !

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:35 pm  

  • This was driving nuts, you have no idea how grateful I am to you for doing such a find job of posting this fix. THANK-YOU!!!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:32 pm  

  • Thank you, thank you, thank you,
    I had someone install a program on my work pc - voicewave player - and this same issue came up where nothing worked on youtube and other flash sites
    THANKS AGAIN!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:22 am  

  • wow, you are definitely the man. Saved me the cost of a new computer since it was just about to go out the window.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:03 am  

  • Good post, but I had everything set like u said it should be, but nothing changed, not even after restart, any other ideas?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:40 pm  

  • Thanks man, you just saved me from os reinstall

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:00 pm  

  • Please can any1 tell me how to add these two strings in my registry.. plzzzz help!!!

    By Blogger Unknown, at 1:32 am  

  • holy crap, i tried everything... and nothing would work... coudl not for the life of me set the fricken default sound device... untill i added those two keys.. now it works like a charm. I must have read through well over 100 useless pages of junk before i got here. Thankyou.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:52 am  

  • i really dont understand wat r dose keys for and were do i put dem!!!!?????

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:00 am  

  • PLEASE help how do i set the string values thing...i went to the link and reinstalled the codecs but still nothing works...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:27 am  

  • (1) Click on Start menu
    (2) Go to 'run' box
    (3) Type in 'regedit'
    (4) select the appropriate boxes as per above post and check they are intact.

    Good luck.

    By Anonymous Graham, at 3:26 am  

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