SB16 PNP Error: Wave Device not ready

I have an AMD K6/2 500 cpu, Win98 SE, SB16 PNP sound card, 256 megs memory.

I have a voice recognition program that allows me to speak a command into my
microphone and then it will send the correct keystrokes to the currently
open application. This works fine *except* when the application is a 3D
game. If I try to run both the game and the voice recognition program, the
latter returns: 'Error: Wave device not ready', then exits.

I suspect it's because both programs are trying to allocate the sound card
at once, and yet, I know many people who do this successfully, and searches
have *not* returned any help.

FWIW, DirectX Diagnostics doesn't find any problems with my sound card, but
on the 'Music' tab, it *does* say that 'Default Port Acceleration: Not
Available'.

The sound card is at least 8 years old, but I have had no problems w/it
before, and it is a full duplex sound card.

If I need to upgrade to a different sound card, what is the cheapest choice,
since I never use it for any critical uses, etc.

Another possibility: Could I just add a second sound card to this system?
Or, would the IRQ's, DMA's etc. conflict.

Thanks in advance.

I suspect it's because both programs are trying to allocate the sound card
at once, and yet, I know many people who do this successfully, and searches
have *not* returned any help.

Right.Are you using VxD (Win95 style) drivers? I´m also using a SB16
on a similar system, but under Win2000 instead - it works well with
multiple applications running at the same time. Check wether there are
WDM drivers for the SB16 available, these provide playback for
multiple applications at the same time by default.

Also check wether you are using 2 DMA channels for full duplex, and
try wether both applications use the same sample rate.

FWIW, DirectX Diagnostics doesn't find any problems with my sound card, but
on the 'Music' tab, it *does* say that 'Default Port Acceleration: Not
Available'.

I´m not sure about the programs you´re using, but typically only
DirectSound / DirectSound capture

If I need to upgrade to a different sound card, what is the cheapest choice,
since I never use it for any critical uses, etc.

Any simple PCI card should do, most ISA cards as well (note that these
might be a bit tricky to configure, but they will work fine afterwards
as well)

Another possibility: Could I just add a second sound card to this system?

I´ve used up to 4 different sound cards in a single PC without
problems...

Or, would the IRQ's, DMA's etc. conflict.

No problem with PCI cards (you might need to disable "legacy SB
emulation, though"). For ISA cards, make sure that you can assign DMA
and IRQ settings freely: Some cards are hardwired to DMA1, which might
conflict with the existing card.

This computer runs Win98SE, so the drivers are .vxd yes. The DirectX
Diagnostic has a tab to test the speech capability for use in games, and it
passes the test. It's definitely full duplex because I can record and play
at the same time.

I have no control over what sample rate the game uses, and the only place
I've found to control the recording sample rate is when you click the
Advanced Properties of the Multimedia icon in Control Panel, and it only has
3 settings, and I've tried them all.

On Fri, 08 Apr 2005 20:45:27 GMT, (TS) wrote:

I suspect it's because both programs are trying to allocate the sound card
at once, and yet, I know many people who do this successfully, and searches
have *not* returned any help.

Right.Are you using VxD (Win95 style) drivers? I´m also using a SB16
on a similar system, but under Win2000 instead - it works well with
multiple applications running at the same time. Check wether there are
WDM drivers for the SB16 available, these provide playback for
multiple applications at the same time by default.

Also check wether you are using 2 DMA channels for full duplex, and
try wether both applications use the same sample rate.


It's a PNP card, so it creates this environment setting whenever I boot:
BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H1 P330 T6

FWIW, DirectX Diagnostics doesn't find any problems with my sound card, but
on the 'Music' tab, it *does* say that 'Default Port Acceleration: Not
Available'.

I´m not sure about the programs you´re using, but typically only
DirectSound / DirectSound capture

If I need to upgrade to a different sound card, what is the cheapest choice,
since I never use it for any critical uses, etc.

Any simple PCI card should do, most ISA cards as well (note that these
might be a bit tricky to configure, but they will work fine afterwards
as well)

Another possibility: Could I just add a second sound card to this system?

I´ve used up to 4 different sound cards in a single PC without
problems...

Or, would the IRQ's, DMA's etc. conflict.

No problem with PCI cards (you might need to disable "legacy SB
emulation, though"). For ISA cards, make sure that you can assign DMA
and IRQ settings freely: Some cards are hardwired to DMA1, which might
conflict with the existing card.

baldwinwh (at) netscape (dot) net