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Recently Captured Audio Has No Sound On Playback


lommasson

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This is being posted for a friend who describes himself as technologically challenged. This friend is “TK” (with apologies to anyone else here using that as a username). We discussed the possibility that TK might misuse some terminology if he described the problem himself thus adding confusion to the situation. TK has entrusted me to describe his problem as best I may. I will e-mail TK a link to this thread. It is up to TK to register here and respond to and participate in further discussion. First some background:

 

Hardware:

 

1-Dell Dimension 8400 (circa. 2004), Windows XP SP-2 with current updates, integrated sound on motherboard.

 

2-Crosley CR-73 Conductor, is a self-contained CD/cassette/AMFM radio/turntable combo unit with RCA line out jacks. The RCA cables at the Crosley end become a stereo mini-plug at the other end and are inserted into the Dell’s audio line-in jack.

 

Installed Software:

 

1-Roxio EMC 7 Suite with last program updates from January 2005.

 

2-Windows Media Player (A recent version, but perhaps not the latest version)

 

3-Audacity freeware audio software

 

Internet Connection:

 

Broadband or DSL (I don’t remember which one)

 

Some History:

 

TK has used Roxio EMC 7 Suite’s Audio Capture feature to preserve to his Dell’s hard drive selections from his old LPs. These audio recordings have been played through Windows Media Player software. These audio recordings also may be played through the Audacity software when the file was accessed through that software.

 

Background, the You Tube incident:

 

Recently TK found a You Tube video that contained music he wanted to preserve to his Dell’s hard drive. TK used the Roxio Audio Capture feature that created a file on his Dell’s hard drive. Upon attempting playback the Windows Media Player visualization showed the “bars” moving but there was no sound (or video). (Later, on this forum I found information that You Tube uses encoding that prevents capturing their media.)

 

The Resulting and Current Problem:

 

Dating from the attempt to capture audio from You Tube, TK has made several attempts to use Roxio Audio Capture to preserve additional selections from his LPs to his Dell’s hard drive. In each instance the resulting file seems to play with the “bars” moving on Windows Media Player visualizations but there is no sound heard.

 

Dating from the You Tube incident TK has also made several attempts to capture LP audio through the Audacity software. TK reports no success through that program and the “bars” do not move during the recording attempt. Audacity is also unable to play back Roxio audio capture attempts that followed the You Tube incident.

 

Audio captures dating prior to the You Tube incident play back satisfactorily as before.

 

Problem Solving Attempts:

 

Another of TK’s friends and I have searched in vain for possible instances of muted sound in various Windows settings, Control Panel, Windows Media Player, Roxio and Audacity menus. All the settings that would seem to be related to the problem are enabled. The Dell continues to make its own sounds upon boot-up/shutdown and many other routine operations, and TK’s older audio captures still play satisfactorily through Windows Media Player so "muting" does not seem to be the problem. TK’s LPs still play through the Dell’s speakers as well as the Crosley combo speakers.

 

Roxio EMC 7 Suite was recently uninstalled and then reinstalled (again without Drag-To-Disk), and the updates through January 2005 were reinstalled, but this did not resolve the problem. Audacity was also uninstalled and reinstalled, but this did not resolve the problem.

 

We have discussed the possibility of adding an actual sound card but have not acted on that since TK’s Dell had previously functioned satisfactorily for him with integrated sound.

 

Among TK and his friends this problem seems to be beyond our resolution.

 

Hopefully someone here may be able to furnish the missing pieces to get TK back into action capturing audio from his old LPs.

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I cautioned TK that purchasing the retail version is to be preferred to a downloaded version for this reason.)

Except that the downloaded version has a 30 day money back guarantee ( if nothing has changed ) and once you open the box of a retail version, you own it forever in most cases.

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This is being posted for a friend who describes himself as technologically challenged. This friend is “TK” (with apologies to anyone else here using that as a username). We discussed the possibility that TK might misuse some terminology if he described the problem himself thus adding confusion to the situation. TK has entrusted me to describe his problem as best I may. I will e-mail TK a link to this thread. It is up to TK to register here and respond to and participate in further discussion. First some background:

 

Among TK and his friends this problem seems to be beyond our resolution.

 

Hopefully someone here may be able to furnish the missing pieces to get TK back into action capturing audio from his old LPs.

Since you checked all normal Windows settings, have you tried testing the audio in DirectX? It may have been corrupted. Go to Windows Start Run, type in dxdiag the OK. When the window opens go to the tabs related to audio and run the tests. If there is still no audio, you might want to install the latest version of DirectX 9 from Microsoft. You seem to know computers so I'm sure you can find the web site.

 

Make sure TK does not install WMP 11 or IE 7; both of those will wreak havoc on EMC 7/7.5 and even 8.

 

Let us know if that helps.

 

By the way, perhaps the drivers for the audio chip were also corrupted; TK should reinstall those also. If the computer is a name brand, go to the brand's web site and reinstall/update both the audio and the video. Since an audio card costs about $30, that may be something for TK to consider (along with a stand alone video card.)

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Since you checked all normal Windows settings, have you tried testing the audio in DirectX? It may have been corrupted. Go to Windows Start Run, type in dxdiag the OK. When the window opens go to the tabs related to audio and run the tests. If there is still no audio, you might want to install the latest version of DirectX 9 from Microsoft. You seem to know computers so I'm sure you can find the web site.

 

Make sure TK does not install WMP 11 or IE 7; both of those will wreak havoc on EMC 7/7.5 and even 8.

 

Let us know if that helps.

 

By the way, perhaps the drivers for the audio chip were also corrupted; TK should reinstall those also. If the computer is a name brand, go to the brand's web site and reinstall/update both the audio and the video. Since an audio card costs about $30, that may be something for TK to consider (along with a stand alone video card.)

 

Sknis,

 

Thank you for your prompt advice.

 

In an email to TK I provided links to the original posting and your response, and links to download DirectX from Microsoft and Dell's updated driver for the integrated audio for his Dimension 8400. I suggested that he install these. TK reported that he did the dxdiag but doesn't know what to make of it. He hadn't yet installed the linked updates so I suggested that he should do this.

 

I suggested that the next step would be to purchase and install an actual sound card. I suggested the Creative sound card usually priced around $30 at Office Depot stores. (I have installed two of these on our family computers that came with integrated sound.)

 

Since I do not know what versions of WMP or IE are installed on TK's Dell 8400 I suggested that he may want to purchase Roxio 10 at a retail store. (On my own Dell XP MCE 2005 computers I have retail versions of Roxio 8 and 9. My suggestion of the retail product is due to earlier discussions of the lack of Roxio updates for downloaded versions of these programs. I cautioned TK that purchasing the retail version is to be preferred to a downloaded version for this reason.)

 

I (once again) suggested that TK register and participate in this Forum.

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