Dave-H

I have Opera 12.02 on Windows 98 (with KernelEx) and Opera 12.18 on Windows XP on my multi-boot system. If I copy the Windows XP Opera 12.18 folder to the Windows 98 Opera 12.02 folder, will it work as long as I don't copy opera.dll? I would be amazed (and delighted) if that's true!

Just out of interest, I also tried running the DOS Media Player in Windows in a DOS box, It went through all the motions exactly as in pure DOS, but didn't produce any sound. I connected the speakers to all the sockets, both in that mode and with testing the Windows sounds, but nothing.

Just to add that I've now tried many different "wait" settings in HDACFG.INI. None seemed to make any difference. Is it actually possible that even if the DOS Media Player worked, that the Windows driver is sending the output to a different jack? That will be very awkward if that's the case, as I have to maintain the hardware configuration for my other two operating systems! I'm afraid there are no BIOS settings on my system that affect the on-board sound hardware, only the plug-in card expansion slots. I think the most likely solution is probably writing a specific HDAICOUT.HDA for ALC883, but I wouldn't know where to start there!

Indeed so. I make a full iso backup of my Windows 10 drive every week, as the facility is built-in there. I think it's time to make one of my Windows XP drive too!

OK, here's the result. I did have to press ESC to stop the file playing. I hope it gives some clues! I have to say that it does look identical to last time to me.

Wow thanks, that's great! Yes, Opera 12 does handle .mht[ml] files. The later Chromium versions probably don't, at least my copy of Opera 36 (the last XP compatible version) doesn't. They may have added the capability in later versions, but I don't think so.

I just tried the DOS Media Player, and I'm delighted to be able to report that it works! I tried playing several wav files, and they all sounded fine. It did seem to be on repeat though, playing them over and over! Before it actually played, a load of text scrolled through on the screen which I couldn't read, but this is how it ended up - I have no idea what all that means, but I'm hoping that it may help! Getting some sound out of the hardware in DOS mode has encouraged me enormously. Now all we need to do is get it working in Windows! Thanks, Dave.

Ah, I hadn't made the connection! Where to I need to put CWSDPMI.EXE? In the same folder as MPLAYER.EXE?

Just tried to use Skype 7.36 on my dual boot netbook. I got the same result on Windows 8.1 as I did on Windows 10 on my main machine, a non-overridable update window. On the Windows XP side I got this - Strangely, Skype 7.36 still seems to be working under XP on my main machine, now the last place that it is working! I can't explain that, and I suspect that it won't last for long! Such a pain, I really don't like Skype 8, quite apart from the fact that it won't work on XP, as it doesn't keep your entire conversation history any more. You can save what you've already got locally from Skype 7, but that's it. They say Skype 8 only keeps the last year's worth of conversations, and only in the cloud, not locally, and as far as I can see after they're more than a year old the posts are irretrievably binned, and there's nothing you can do about it. Absolute rubbish!

I actually found a copy very like the second one in between your two last posts, it seems to be pretty much the same thing, although it's missing a few files, the PUNKFM.BAT file is not there, and the Codecs and Font folders are empty. Anyway none of the mplayer files actually worked, all just saying "Load error: no DPMI - Get csdpmi*b.zip" I've found a copy of csdpmi*b.zip but it contains just an executable file, which I'm a bit apprehensive about just running on my system unless I know what it is! I've started the wait settings testing, no conclusions yet but nothing seems to be changing.

Not yet, but I will look for it. All I was asking was that if I'm going to test different "wait" settings in HDACFG.INI, what should the other settings in the file be set to? We have changed quite a few from their defaults. Should I return to using the default file before doing the "wait" setting adjustments?

Thanks again @deomsh. I tried changing to Mytimer=$1 in HDACFG.INI and indeed the "HDA Sound" option disappeared. However, when I changed it back to Mytimer=0 again and rebooted, it didn't come back! Over several reboots my conclusion was that it seems to come and go as it pleases regardless of the settings. I will experiment with the "wait" settings, but what should the other HDACFG.INI settings be for that to be a valid test?

Apparently it's only MSI.DLL you need to re-register, but it won't do any harm to do the other two as well. Personally I wouldn't bother changing the INF files, as this is the last lot of updates anyway.

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!