Dave-H

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!

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?