Subject:"An error occurred while starting playback"

Posted by: dbasement

Date:4/28/2002 10:50:46 PM

I have been getting this error when trying to play recent .acd files, and the possibility that the files are locked is terrifying. I have 20 gigs of music that I've recorded in a home studio, and am not able to play many of the .acd files all of a sudden. This weekend every time I went to open one, I got an error that says, "An error occurred while starting playback, An unexpected error has occurred". On some of them it says, "An unsupported media type was requested".

Is this a virus? Should I re-install ACID? I really need help, as there are hours and hours of music that appear to be unaccessible.

Subject:RE:

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:4/29/2002 10:40:30 AM

Try reinstalling DirectX if possible.

I would also consider uninstalling and reinstalling ACID or using the repair option under Add/Remove Programs.

HTH,
Iacobus

Subject:RE:

Reply by: dbasement

Date:4/29/2002 10:50:35 AM

You're the man. I'll try this tonight and report back tommorrow......Someone else suggested it may be soundcard-related. Is this likely?

Subject:RE:

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:4/29/2002 10:55:17 AM

It could be, but probably only if you've changed your system configuration or transferred the ACID projects from another computer with a different soundcard.

Iacobus

Subject:RE:

Reply by: dbasement

Date:4/29/2002 11:04:15 AM

Well, I actually did install a new SoundBlaster Audigy card late last week, around the same time the problem started...Shoot, I wonder what configurations would've changed so that I can't open .acd files now?

Subject:RE:

Reply by: dbasement

Date:4/29/2002 6:06:27 PM

Well, I changed back to the old soundcard, and re-installed ACID. No luck. This could be really catastrophic if I can't recover the files. Is there anything else that the soundcard might've changed in my setting that would give this error? Could a virus cause this? Is there an easy way to duplicate a functioning copy of the .acd's so that they're not lost forever?

Subject:RE:

Reply by: dbasement

Date:4/29/2002 7:55:31 PM

Well, I feel a little better now. I burned some malfunctioning .acd files onto a CDR-W at home and brought them into work and played them on ACID there, and they worked fine. So it must be something in my system settings at home? It must not be the files themselves. I'm still totally confused, but I guess if worse came to worse I could move the files to another machine, same them as new files, burn them again and migrate them back home.

Subject:RE:

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:4/29/2002 9:23:08 PM

Like I said in my other post, try to reinstall DirectX on your system if possible. Be absolutely sure there's no driver residue and Registry bloat from your previous soundcard too. A utility like Norton Cleansweep is pretty good at this. (Although it does miss material that should be deleted.)

You could run an antivirus utility on your system to be on the safe side, but I doubt it's a virus.

Probably wouldn't hurt to uninstall/reinstall ACID either. If it's been awhile since you formatted your PC (more than a year or so), you may want to consider doing so soon. Too much software/driver/Registry residue can remain long after programs are uninstalled and hardware removed from the system, causing bloat and slowdown over time.

Iacobus

Subject:RE:

Reply by: DataCowboy

Date:4/29/2002 10:29:27 PM

Are you using any DirectX effects?

I get the problem you describe when loading older Acid 2 projects with certain DirectX effects, and the problem is entirely in Acid (it should certainly handle this more gracefully). Try deleting any effects you are using before starting playback (don't save), and then try to play the project.

If the project will then play, don't save it (you'll lose your effects). I then reload the project and carefully write down the effects I was using, then remove them and save the project. Close Acid, reload the project, and add the effects back in.

It is a royal pain in the a**, but it is the only way I have gotten many projects to work under Acid 3. For whatever reason, Cakewalk effects seem to be particularly likely to cause this problem in my experience.

Hex

Subject:RE:

Reply by: dbasement

Date:4/30/2002 8:59:36 AM

Cool, thanks for the advice y'all. I did install the latest verion of Direct-X, as well as re-installing ACID. No dice. I guess I'll try and either de-bloat my driver/registry files, or just back everything up and re-install Windows. It'd be best to wipe the hard drive anyway. Thanks again..

-d-

Subject:RE:

Reply by: dwlb

Date:5/14/2002 6:15:50 PM

Hey--did you ever find a solution to this? I have been having the same problem since upgrading to 3.0.

Subject:RE:

Reply by: Squirrlee

Date:5/15/2002 11:58:24 AM

I'm getting this also. only difference is I get it when I attempt to play a recorded track or rendered wave file.

Subject:RE:

Reply by: Squirrlee

Date:5/26/2002 1:39:22 PM

Hi all......I'm back with good news!!!!!I've got it all fixed!!!!! I found out that the problem was between my soundcard and XP....NO not as easy as a driver....come on you get one more guess.....no...not that eaither...the correct answer was.....ADVANCED POWER CONFIGURATION INTERFACE!!!!!!that is the mode windows runs in by defult and how do you change it you ask????Oh.....just uninstall THE WHOLE OS and write zeros to the drive...YES reformat..and reinstall the OS and ASAP get into the device manager click on hardware then click on the computer icon it will drop down the APCI mode double click on that go into IRQ steering and click on update driver..now don't let it do anything on it's own...don't click on any tab that reads recommended.....the tab you want says something to the effect of I will select the driver from a list so keep going till you get to a choice that says STANDARD PC mode that's the one you want finish that and you are free and clear!!!!Onnce you get into standard pc mode the errors will go bye bye.I was told that the Advanced power mode will basically starving the soundcard of power to convert the wavs from analog to digatal and back to analog so you can hear it.Thus providing you with an error message and a time out for the device...the soundcard.so there you have it in a nut shell. Thank you to everyone that gave me help....pass this on to others if you get the chance!!!!

Subject:RE:

Reply by: Squirrlee

Date:5/26/2002 1:44:24 PM

Sorry my topic has the same heading as this one so I posted this in the wrong topic sorry for the mix up!!!!!!!