OK, since I got my new machine I'm polishing up the old Compaq for my wife to use.
It runs Win98SE and has an ESS Solo-1 onboard audio chip. Had my SB Live! 5.1 in there before but pulled it.
I have no DirectX hardware acceleration whatsoever. If I go to the Multimedia control panel and click on Advanced Properties (for the playback/recording devices) it freezes up - so bad I have to cold-reboot.
Trying to run dxdiag.exe, same thing. It starts up then just sits there frozen. I have no chance to even look at the Directsound or DirectMusic panel!!
I made the mistake of installing WDM drivers for the ESS soundchip ... then found out that 1. WDM on 98SE is not the greatest thing and 2. WDM means no DirectX hardware acceleration is available by design according to Microsoft.
"Aha," says I, and uninstall the drivers and go back to VXD ones.
Alas, the issues mentioned above persist, even after updating DirectX to the latest available. I can't shake the feeling that Windows is still trying to use audio the WDM way rather than the VXD one.
I'm stuck. What can I do?
At this point I don't care if the acceleration has to be turned off/emulated in software, but I want to be able to use the Multimedia control panel and dxdiag without freezeups. Plus I want my wife to be able to play some older DirectX games...
It runs Win98SE and has an ESS Solo-1 onboard audio chip. Had my SB Live! 5.1 in there before but pulled it.
I have no DirectX hardware acceleration whatsoever. If I go to the Multimedia control panel and click on Advanced Properties (for the playback/recording devices) it freezes up - so bad I have to cold-reboot.
Trying to run dxdiag.exe, same thing. It starts up then just sits there frozen. I have no chance to even look at the Directsound or DirectMusic panel!!
I made the mistake of installing WDM drivers for the ESS soundchip ... then found out that 1. WDM on 98SE is not the greatest thing and 2. WDM means no DirectX hardware acceleration is available by design according to Microsoft.
"Aha," says I, and uninstall the drivers and go back to VXD ones.
Alas, the issues mentioned above persist, even after updating DirectX to the latest available. I can't shake the feeling that Windows is still trying to use audio the WDM way rather than the VXD one.
I'm stuck. What can I do?
At this point I don't care if the acceleration has to be turned off/emulated in software, but I want to be able to use the Multimedia control panel and dxdiag without freezeups. Plus I want my wife to be able to play some older DirectX games...