[NTLUG:Discuss] OT: Win98 help

[Leroy Tennison]

Daniel Hauck wrote:
> Fred James wrot
>> All
>> Sorry for the OT, and for such an old OS, but ... daughter sent a VOC 
>> file, and wife downloaded RP5022drivers.exe from RCA 
>> <http://support.rcaaudiovideo.com/downloads.aspx?product=23> because it 
>> was supposed be OK for her Win98 SE ... and then all sound was lost - 
>> including Windows startup sound, Power Pup (one of the paper clip's 
>> persona), YouTube, etc.  Any suggestions on how to reinstate the sound 
>> would be appreciated.  Thank you in advance for any help you may be able 
>> to offer.
>> Regards
>> Fred James
> 
> Oh that's okay.  Run a Microsoft OS and get a Microsoft answer:
> 
> Reinstall the OS from scratch.  Do all updates, service packs and
> drivers.  If the same results are yielded, then install the drivers,
> service packs and updates.  Change the order of installation until you
> get a winning combination.
> 
> One of the problems of dealing with a closed source OS is that you
> really don't know for sure what the failing component is and, as you
> already know, the error messages are less than accurate most of the
> time... when you even get error messages.
> 
> This isn't much help at all, I know.  But it is something of a reminder
> of why we choose to leave Microsoft behind when situations permit.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> 

Wait a minute, you have the right answer, just one minor detail missing. 
  Wipe the hard drive and install - Linux!  (Sorry, I just couldn't 
resist the cheap shot).

Seriously, try Add/Remove programs first.  If that doesn't work then 
either try cleaning the registry manually or get a program that will do 
it.  After doing so try re-installing the old sound components. 
Finally, try and find out what files it installed by this package and 
look in particular for DLLs which may have been over-written, replace 
with original DLLs (if you can figure this all out).

The alternative (seriously) is to switch the whole family to Linux.  Did 
a little Googling and it appears VOC is supported by the 'play' program 
included with 'sox' (see http://dsl.org/cookbook/cookbook_27.html).

I have to agree with Daniel, Microsoft is desperately trying to become a 
Macintosh and hide everything technical from the user.  This appears to 
be great as long as everything works...