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[yps]

Hi.

I've searched the forum, and this problem was mentioned at some places, but without any hint for a solution:

On any Windows 98 system I've tested, BASS_Init fails with error 3 (BASS_ERROR_DRIVER). This happens in my own software as well with the precompiled BASS demos in the C directory. MULTI.EXE shows the correct devices, but initialization fails as well.

Systems I've tested so far include a Windows 98 with an EWS64 sound card, a Windows 98SE running in VMware with an emulated Soundblaster Audio PCI card (WDM driver), both with the latest DirectX, plus some systems of people using my software.

Any idea what might be the problem?


yps

[Ian @ un4seen]

It's working on Win98SE here, so it's ok on at least some systems

BASS_ERROR_DRIVER means that DirectSound could not be initialized for the device, eg. there may be no driver. Do your soundcards/drivers have "emulated" in the device description? Also, are you able to use DirectSound output in other apps/players?

[yps]

On the machine with the EWS64, which is a two-channel card, the "Wave Play #1" device is not "emulated", but the "Wave Play #2" is. On the VMware machine, the AudioPCI device is not "emulated". What's the meaning of that emulation anyway? I didn't find a reference in the manual.

To answer the DirectSound question: At first I thought it would, but testing on the VMware machine (the EWS64 one is at our college radio station's studio, and I'm at home right now), Windows Media Player gives error 80040256 when trying to open a file.

I've found a knowledge base article at Microsoft referencing this error. It says, if everything else looks ok (as it does - Windows start sound and system sounds - probably played through waveOut - play without problems!), one should try to put down hardware acceleration. I've tried that, but it didn't work, as the slider was back at 100% each time I went back to control panel.

So finally, I ran dxDiag. On the "Sound" page, having set hardware acceleration to 1/4 or above, I get error 0x88780032. With hardware acceleration turned off, DirectSound works fine.

This is what dxDiag reports about my sound card:
 

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
            Description: Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI
 Default Sound Playback: Yes
 Default Voice Playback: No
            Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1274&DEV_1371&SUBSYS_13711274&REV_02\BUS_00&DEV_12&FUNC_00
        Manufacturer ID: 1
             Product ID: 100
                   Type: WDM
            Driver Name: sbpci.sys
         Driver Version: 5.12.0001.4046 (English)
      Driver Attributes: Final Retail
            WHQL Logo'd: n/a
          Date and Size: 12/1/2000 14:15:32, 437390 bytes
            Other Files: sbpci.sys
        Driver Provider: Creative Technology Ltd.
         HW Accel Level: Full
              Cap Flags: 0x0
    Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 0, 0
 Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
              HW Memory: 0
       Voice Management: No
 EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
   I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No
               Registry: OK
      Sound Test Result: Not run

Looks like it's a driver problem and not closely related to BASS. I must admit that the VMware virtual machine is not the best platform to test on, so I will investigate further on the other machines.

yps

[Ian @ un4seen]

On the machine with the EWS64, which is a two-channel card, the "Wave Play #1" device is not "emulated", but the "Wave Play #2" is. On the VMware machine, the AudioPCI device is not "emulated". What's the meaning of that emulation anyway? I didn't find a reference in the manual.

"emulated" means that the device doesn't have DirectSound drivers, so it'll be emulated using the waveOut API instead.

Note that with some old sound cards (eg. those without multiple outputs or hardware mixing) + VxD drivers, it's only possible for one app to use the device at a time. So if something else is already using it, that could be why BASS/DirectSound can't.

[Arendjan]

I'm happily  using the ews64 asio driver for this card. Gapless playback even with 100% processor usage. Use the codec driver in the windows audio setup. As soon as you start XMplay the codec output is automatically disabled. One good advice: switch to windows XP or w2k. You can install this card in XP but you'll have to use some w2k drivers from the drivers.cab on the w2k cd to use all the functions this card is offering.