I have a Gateway PIII computer running Windows 98 SE.  Several months
ago the sound stopped working in the Windows Media Player.  Also, the
"Sound" icon is missing in the control panel.   I have tried
reinstalling the media player and uninstalling and reinstalling the
Multimedia module from the WIN98 disk via the control panel.  This has
not fixed either problem.

When I tried to reinstall the entire Windows program from the disc, I
received a message saying that I would have to create a new partition
before proceeding.  I have tried the install both with the Gateway
restore disk and also using a startup disk.  Is there a simple
solution to the problem?  Is there a way to reinstall windows w/o
destroying the programs and data I already have on my computer? 
Formatting and starting from scratch is not an attractive option.

I would appreciate any help you can offer.

It seems that either your sound card drivers are missing, or your
sound card is loose inside your computer. Assuming your computer was
prebuilt, the sound card is probably screwed in so I would check for
the sound card drivers first.

Hold the Windows key and press the system/break key (near the top
right of your keyboard, around the numeric keypad and generally
directly above the Page Up key.) If you don't have a Windows key, you
can alternately either right click on My Computer and click
properties, or go to Start, Control Panel and select System.

Once you are in the System Properties, switch panels to the Device
Manager, and look for the category "Sound, video, and game
controllers" -- if it exists it will have an icon identical to that
generally in the system tray and Control Panel for adjusting sound
settings. Before doing anything else, please write down what is in
this list if it is present. If there is anything marked with a red X
or a yellow exclamation point, you can try either double-clicking and
picking "Reinstall Drivers..." from the box that comes up, or if that
fails try going back to the listing and highlighting the item that is
X/!ed out and then pressing delete to allow Windows to detect the
device again and rebooting.

If you do not have the driver disks for your sound card, but you can
tell me what model it is, I will locate the drivers onlinie for you,
or you can try clicking Skip File when given the option and assuming
the file is already in its correct place.

If there is no listing in Device Manager, look for a section marked
Other Devices or any section with a X/! and try the steps above. If
there is no such listing at all, your sound card probably has a
hardware problem. Sound cards are relatively cheap these days, and I
can find you one at a price you specify if you wish.

Please post a clarification request if this does not solve your
problem.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by user001-ga on 03 Jun 2002 05:01 PDT

Thank you very much for your speedy answer.  I am sorry, but this does
not solve my particular computer problem.  All other sounds work on
the computer including general website sounds and other media players,
such as Real Player and Quicktime.  It seems to be just the Windows
Media Player sound that does not function.  The sound card seems to
work fine and all drivers are present and seem to function.  Video for
Medaia Player is also fine.
 
Please also note the other half of the problem, the missing Sound
icon, which can not be recovered through the Control Panel>Add/Remove
Programs>Windows Setup.  This has not yet been addressed.  My
apologies for not mentioning that the sound problem was specific to
the media player.  Please let me know if have an additional answer to
these problems.
 
Once again thank you very much.   

---

Clarification of Answer by bookface-ga on 04 Jun 2002 19:27 PDT

I'm sorry, I was unavailable to respond to your clarification
yesterday; rico-ga seems to have provided an answer below, though.
Please follow the steps he outlined and request another clarification
if that fails to solve your problem.
 
Thanks for the help, rico; I'd give or at least split the money on
this one with you if I could.  

Google researcher bookface-ga was unable to solve my problem,
providing only one very basic solution which I had already checked
previously and ruled out. Still have original problems - Sound icon is
missing from Control Panel and Windows Media Player still plays no
sound with video.

I wish to highly commend, however, user rico-ga, who is currently
waiting for final approval to be a Google researcher.  Rico's comments
were detailed and although they have not solved my problem, so far,
they represent excellent and thorough research.  I would give my
highest recommendation to rico-ga and recommend that he/she be
approved as a researcher without delay!

It's possible that when you installed another program (such as
RealPlayer or QuickTime) the default associations for sound playback
was changed by one of those programs.  For example, RealPlayer will
try to become the default player for all sound formats unless you
explictly instruct the installer not to do so.

You can check this by opening Windows Media Player, selecting "Tools,"
"Options", and then the "Formats" tab. See if "Windows Media Audio
File", and "Audio File" are checked.  If you want the Windows Media
Player to be your default device for audio CDs, check "CD Audio Track"
too. Click on "Apply."

Given that the Sound icon has disappeared from the Control panel, is
there an icon that says "Multimedia"?

rico-ga

Thank you.  Unfortuanately, there is no Multimedia icon.  Also, making
all associations default to the Windows Media Player does not solve
the sound problem.  I appreciate your assistance.

Hmmm ...

Alright, here's something I found in a search through Google Groups
...

"The sounds applet isn't listed in TweakUI, although the Multimedia
one
is (mmsys.cpl).
If I uncheck mmsys.cpl in TweakUI's Control Panel tab both Multimedia
and Sounds disappear from Control Panel.  If I check it again they
come
back.  (You have to close and open Control Panel to see the change.)"

Thread is at ...

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=no+Sound+icon+control+panel&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&selm=%23OFWIaz9%23GA.252%40cppssbbsa05&rnum=3

if you want to read it (click on "Complete Thread").

So, things to explore.  If you happen to have installed TweakUI, I'd
follow the instructions listed above. If you haven't, my next thought
would be that the MMSYS.CPL file on your system is either missing or
corrupted. The file should be located in the WINDOWS/SYSTEM/
directory. If it's not there, I'd replace it from your CD or using the
CAB files on your system.  See ...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q129605

If it is there, try following the procedures at ...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q299923

From "Method 1" on.

That's it for today's ideas. :-) Let me know what happens.

rico-ga

To: rico-ga

  Wow, thanks for putting so much effort into solving my problem!  

1. I checked on the mmsys.cpl file, which was present, and then
restored a clean copy, using the System File Checker's Extract
feature, from my Windows 98 SE operating system CD.

2. Then I searched for all *.cpl files as suggested in the link you
referenced.  When I tried accessing the mmsys.cpl file with a
double-click, nothing happened.  All the other cpl files worked,
activating their appropriate function.

3. I tried renaming the mmsys.cpl to mmsy.old with no result.  Then
extracted another copy of mmsys.cpl from the operating system CD, just
to make sure it was actually replaced.  This was in case the Extract
function was malfunctioning and only claiming it was replacing the
file.  Once a new listing showed a file with .cpl extension appeared,
it would have to be from the CD, as I had just renamed the original
with the .old extension.

4. Renamed control.ini to control.old and restarted with no
improvement.

5. Also tried booting up in safe mode but this did not cause the
"Sound' icon to reappear in the Control Panel.

6. I also tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Multimedia modules
under Control Panel, Add-Remove Programs, Windows Setup just for good
measure.  I received the following message: "Error loading mmsys.cpl A
dynamic link library (DLL) initialization routine has failed."

  So it seems as if you were right on target in suspecting the
mmsys.cpl file as the culprit.  Do you think this means that the
mmsys.cpl file on the CD is corrupted?  Or can it the interaction
between mmsys.cpl and one or more other files?

  You really have put in so much work and I feel more than a little
guilty as you are not even "officially" on the case.  I believe my
question has been reposted and you are most welcome to lock it for
yourself if it is still open.  Even if you are unable to solve this
problem, you have certainly put in the time and effort in working
through this Windows sound problem.  You are truly the person to go to
when a computer question need an answer.  I would gaive the highest
marks if I could rate your answers.

Thank you once again.

I appreciate both your and bookface's compliments.  No prob. Know how
frustrating these problems are. I've got one myself where all sounds
from game CDs have started stuttering, even though the same CDs worked
perfectly a few months back. And I'm in the last stages of becoming an
"official" Google Answer person anyway, so it's good practice.
Hopefully, they'll finally activate the "Answer" capability for me
before I get too old to use the keyboard.

After all that, I wish I had been able to give you a definitive
answer. I did one last search of the Web and Google Groups using
"Error loading mmsys dynamic link library (DLL) initialization
routine" (no quotes and not using the full error message since a
Google search query is limited to up to 10 words). No joy from the
Web. In Google Groups I found a number of threads started by people
with a similar problem, but few concrete answers. The best seems to be
at ...

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&c2coff=1&threadm=6qo04k%2478b%241%40nnrp02.primenet.com&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF8%26oe%3DUTF8%26c2coff%3D1%26q%3DError%2Bloading%2Bmmsys.cpl%2Bdynamic%2Blink%2Blibrary%2B(DLL)%2Binitialization%2Broutine%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg

Don't know whether that link will work.  If not, you can replicate my
search by using the search phrase noted above.  In any case, one
person notes ...

"... However!  You are best off doing this [installation of the new
mmsys.cpl] from a Safe Mode prompt, and NOT a Windows session; so
first extract the file from its cabinet and place it elsewhere on your
disk, THEN start your machine at a Safe Mode prompt, and do the above
steps [rename original to mmsys.old move new extracted file into
\Windows\System directory]."

I'm not sure from your response whether you had tried the installation
from Safe Mode. There's no response in the thread as to whether this
worked.  Only other recommendation from other threads was to do a full
reinstall, whch of course is not what you want.