Dave-H

Terrible sloppiness on Microsoft's part, even if it is the last ever update for this operating system!

I just ran the commands one by one in the "Run" box. And yes, it has fixed the problem! Quite unbelievable that they missed such a basic thing as re-registering the DLLs in the KB4494528 patch! Thanks to @roytam1for spotting it!

Does that fix it? Was that all it was, the DLLs not being registered?

They probably do know, but they don't care and now won't fix it, although I'm assuming Office 2010 is supported until next year. They would just say that none of their software is now supported on Windows XP, even if it was when it was originally released. I doubt that Office was ever officially supported on POSReady 2009, as that OS variant wasn't designed for that sort of use in the first place!

@dencorso Yes, it fixed things for me too. I have reinstalled it now I've sorted out my Office 2010 installation. I assume this problem will affect all MSI installs, but I'll wait and see!

@deomsh Just to report that the "HDA Sound" option seems to have now stuck in the "Multimedia" Control Panel applet. I've rebooted several times and it's always been there. The "Sounds" applet test button seems to always be "live" now too, but just pops up the "your sound card may be in use" message if I use it. Cheers, Dave.

Exactly what I do!

The fact that my Windows XP system drive is FAT32 killed any chance of me even trying Kaspersky!

Yes, as I discovered when I tried to uninstall the latest faulty Office 2010 update! I'm seeing two error messages in the Windows logs. In the Windows Application log from MsiInstaller "Failed to connect to server. Error: 0x80080005". In the Windows System log from DCOM "The server {000C101C-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout." I certainly hope this gets fixed if it's hosed the whole Windows Installer system!

Same scenario to report here I'm afraid. Complete failure of Office with KB4462223 installed. I also had a problem uninstalling it, with the very helpful "Uninstall failed due to an unknown error" message. Uninstalling KB4494528 fixed that. It is in fact preventing any modifications to the Office installation being made, with the equally unhelpful "The Configuration changes were not made" message! I hope that's fixed if it has completely hosed the Windows Installer! Just for the record, I was getting two error messages logged. In the Windows Application log from MsiInstaller "Failed to connect to server. Error: 0x80080005". In the Windows System log from DCOM "The server {000C101C-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout."

Ah yes, I forgot AVG, although that's virtually identical to Avast as far as I can see. Not surprising as they're the same company now, and I don't understand why they are still marketing them separately as they are now so similar. I did try AVG, and it did work a bit better on my system than Avast did, but still had a lot of issues. The UIs of Avast and AVG are now very similar indeed, and the Avast support guy said they were pretty much the same under the hood too.

Yes, and Avast and Malwarebytes too. Although the most recent versions of their software don't support XP, there are XP compatible legacy versions which they say will continue to receive definition updates for the foreseeable future. I couldn't get the supposedly XP compatible version of Avast to work on my XP system. Apparently this is a known issue with some systems, which hasn't been resolved (and now probably won't be), but they still have many XP users with no problems. I'm now using Malwarebytes, after my AV of many years, Trend Micro Internet Security, finally dropped support for their last XP compatible version, which actually stopped even running!

I tried this, but no joy I'm afraid. I tried both with the TSR program enabled in autoexec.bat and with it disabled, same result. Here is the intelhda.exe output after it then loaded Windows. It looks as if we're still not talking to the hardware, even in DOS.

I've got this installed on my original 1993 PC, dual booting with Windows 98SE! A Windows NT system that looks like Windows 3.1, what's not to love?!

OK, I've put system.ini back to normal, and put the tsr entry back in autoexec.bat. Here's the intelhda.exe output. Cheers, Dave.

I did go back to Skype 7.36 on Windows 10, and I've been using Skype 7.36 on XP, 8.1, and 10 for the last couple of months with no problems. Just today I found it will no longer work on Windows 10, just giving an non-overridable upgrade window. I guess that's probably it for Windows 7-10, it will no longer be possible to use versions before Skype 8. Don't know about Vista. 7.36 is still working OK on Windows XP though, at least at the moment!

I don't think that the way the system is booted makes any difference, not as far as I've been able to determine. Can I put my system.ini entries back to normal now, so I can get all my RAM back? I think the next stage will be important, as presumably it will tell us whether the driver is actually interacting with the hardware or not. The symptoms at the moment would seem to indicate that it isn't.

Well I tried again with the changes made to system.ini, but sad to report that there seems to be no difference. The "HDA Sound" option still seem to come and go as it pleases, and even when it's there sounds don't play. In fact now the slider on the Sound Recorder isn't moving across when a file is played any more, and although the test sounds option isn't popping up the error message about the card possibly being in use any more, it's still not producing any sound when a file is played. I am using @rloew's RAM Limitation Patch 7.0 by the way, just in case this is relevant, but I'm sure you realised that already. Sorry I completely forgot to respond to the the query about installing with the SETUP /p i option. It's so long ago that I last installed Windows 98 that I can't remember if I used that option, but almost certainly no as I would have been installing on what was then a fully compatible system. I have to say that I'm not too enthusiastic about the thought of reinstalling Windows 98 from scratch again just on the off-chance that it might fix this! The system as it stands has been so tweaked and customised over the years that it would take forever to get it back to as it was again. One or more of these tweaks may now be causing this problem of course, but how to eliminate them from blame I really don't know.

Don't worry, I'm not actually ready to give up yet! I was just asking the question as to whether this might not actually be an impossible problem to resolve. If you're confident we can still get there, I'll carry on for as long as it takes. The complete silence from the hardware on Windows 98, not even the faintest click or pop on startup, did make me lose faith for a moment there! I well remember exactly the same scenario some years ago trying to get my old motherboard's on-board Ethernet controllers to work in Windows 98, where there were also no normal drivers. After a huge amount of work with people here, (and an enormously long thread), we got there, using an Intel DOS driver! Thankfully there are the same Ethernet controllers on the latest motherboard, it was only the audio hardware they changed. I'll try with the new settings and let you know how it goes. Thanks again. Cheers, Dave.

Just booted into Windows 98 again, and the "HDA Sound" playback option had gone again! It seems to be completely random as to whether it appears or not. If I go into the Multimedia Properties "Devices" tab and select "Audio for HD Sound 2017" and select its settings and press OK on them, this usually (but not always) returns the option. After getting it back this time I went to the Sounds Properties again, and found that the test play button was available again. However, pressing it now pops up this, which I haven't seen before. Still not a peep from the speakers at all. Is it actually possible that we're wasting our time here because this driver just doesn't work with this hardware? Just wondering now! Has anyone actually had this working with this actual hardware?

Sorry for any confusion, but the slider was not moving in the Sound Recorder. The play button greyed out as expected when pressed, and a static waveform then appeared in the window with some files, but the slider did not move across. It could be manually dragged and the waveform then displayed, but nothing else. Now I have made those changes, the slider does move across when I play a file, and shows the playing waveform, but still no actual sound. "HDA Sound" has returned to the playback settings option. Here's what "Audio for HDA Sound 2017" now shows.

Oops, I spoke too soon! I've just booted into Windows 98 again, without having changed anything, and the "HDA Sound" option has gone again! As you can see, there is an option there, but it is blank.

@ABCDEFG Thanks, I do seem to remember trying all that when the conflicts first appeared, and I didn't have any luck resolving them. As they didn't seem to be causing any problems, I didn't pursue it. If they are now causing issues I will have another go though! @deomsh I tried just rebooting, and yes the "HDA Sound" option in the Multimedia Properties does seem to have stuck. However the system sounds option has its test play button greyed out again. The Sound Recorder doesn't seem to want to play some WAV files at all, but for others it just produces a stationary waveform in its display, and playing produces nothing.

OK, I tried that, and was rewarded with the Control Panel "Sounds" applet actually coming to life, in that the test facilities weren't all greyed out, and I could push the test play button on all the system sounds. Sadly, although they all went through the motions of playing, there still wasn't a peep from the loudspeakers! My HDARUN.EXE window looked exactly like your grab, with the same numbers in the windows. What actually is the writing under the windows? Mine looked exactly the same, with the windows covering the lettering. Should I put the "Mytimer" setting in HDACFG.INI back to as it was before now, or leave it at 0? There is still absolutely no sound from the speakers at all on Windows 98, even when I boot up or shut down. There isn't even the quietest of clicks or pops. I would have thought that there would be something at least as the driver was being loaded, but nothing.

OK, not XP, but POSReady 2009 still going strong in my local Marks and Spencer store today, obviously oblivious to its imminent demise!