device in use... a little help?

[guttadaj]

Howdy, folks. I'm having a problem that I can't figure out and could use some help. I noticed it when I tried to use the SONAR (using version 3 Studio) tuner. I got a popup that said "M-Audio Delta ASIO Analog In 1 Delta-AP [1]: The specified device is in use. Wait until it is free, and then try again." I have an Audiophile 2496 soundcard, and it's been working fine since I installed it about 6 months ago. I've just started getting problems like this recently, and I can't think of anything I've changed that could have caused this. Otherwise, I can record and play stuff back just fine in SONAR.

Another symptom of this outside of SONAR is when I try to run my Dell MusicMatch Jukebox, it doesn't give me its opening sound, and, when I try to play a song in it, it gives me a similar error to what SONAR is saying. It tells me "MusicMatch Jukebox could not access the sound card device, because some other application is or was playing audio. Make sure no other application is playing audio and then try to play from MusicMatch again." I can play songs in Windows Media Player, though. Very strange.

Anybody know what might be going on here? It happens right after reboot too, so I'm not sure what it thinks could be using the soundcard. Any and all suggestions welcome!

Thanks!
-Jeff
Dell Dimension 8200 - 2.4GHz w/ 512M RDRAM - using Windows XP Pro (SP1)

[Monsoon]

Originally Posted by guttadaj

Howdy, folks. I'm having a problem that I can't figure out and could use some help. I noticed it when I tried to use the SONAR (using version 3 Studio) tuner. I got a popup that said "M-Audio Delta ASIO Analog In 1 Delta-AP [1]: The specified device is in use. Wait until it is free, and then try again." I have an Audiophile 2496 soundcard, and it's been working fine since I installed it about 6 months ago. I've just started getting problems like this recently, and I can't think of anything I've changed that could have caused this. Otherwise, I can record and play stuff back just fine in SONAR.

Another symptom of this outside of SONAR is when I try to run my Dell MusicMatch Jukebox, it doesn't give me its opening sound, and, when I try to play a song in it, it gives me a similar error to what SONAR is saying. It tells me "MusicMatch Jukebox could not access the sound card device, because some other application is or was playing audio. Make sure no other application is playing audio and then try to play from MusicMatch again." I can play songs in Windows Media Player, though. Very strange.

Anybody know what might be going on here? It happens right after reboot too, so I'm not sure what it thinks could be using the soundcard. Any and all suggestions welcome!

Thanks!
-Jeff
Dell Dimension 8200 - 2.4GHz w/ 512M RDRAM - using Windows XP Pro (SP1)

"Perpetual Newbie" Awesome tag-line!!!

I don't have an answer for you, but it's not just you. I have been experiencing the same thing myself. If I open Sonar and then open Windows Media Player, Media Player can't play because Sonar is in use. But if I open Media Player first, and then open Sonar, everything works just dandy. Not sure about the tuning, either - that function has never worked for me at all.

[Atterion]

I use a Delta 44 with Sonar, and don't have this problem. The only thing I can think of is to check the "Do Not Map Through This Device"

Control Panel/Sounds and Audio Devices/Hardware Tab/Highlight your sound card/Open Properties/Properties Tab/Expand Audio Devices and Select your device/Open Properties

It may be all you need. Try using the WDM drivers in Sonar too, they are much better for MultiClient applications and Sonar has pretty good support for them. I can get pretty low latency with them (About 11ms WDM / 6ms ASIO). Good Luck!!!

[crosstudio]

i had a similar problem. in control panel --> sounds and audio devices, i turned off microsoft sounds in the Sounds tab, then I went to the Audio tab, selected my regular sounds card in the playback and recording spots and then selected "Use only default devices".

Everything has been working fine since.

[guttadaj]

Originally Posted by Monsoon

"Perpetual Newbie" Awesome tag-line!!!

Thanks, Monsoon. Once my auto-title became "Senior Member", I knew that I had to take swift action lest it give people the impression that I actually know what I'm talking about. Sorry to hear you're having this kind of problem too. Keep me posted on what ends up fixing it, and I'll do the same.

Thanks, Atterion and crosstudio. I tried both your suggestions and already had Windows sound turned off. I think there's something really screwed up though, because when I went to the Audio tab, there was "Modem #0 Line [Out/In]" selected in the Playback/Recording spots respectively. My Audiophile wasn't in the list at all. [see image] I tried disabling my modem, but then I had no selection options in any of those Audio dropdowns. I then uninstalled my Audiophile (software - not physically... yet) and reinstalled it, but same thing and the Modem selections are back in my Audio properties.

It's really weird though, because it seems to be like half-working, because I can record/playback audio in SONAR without any problem and play stuff in Windows Media Player. Although some other things don't work, like my MusicMatch Jukebox program and, like I mentioned, the tuner in SONAR and also I don't show any MIDI Devices available to select when I go into SONAR's Options -> MIDI Devices window. Very strange. I may try a physical uninstall/reinstall if I can't get this figured out. Anybody have any other suggestions?

Thanks,
-Jeff

[Bulls Hit]

I'm not at home right now, but I recall a setting on my delta 44 on the tab where you set the sample rate, there's a switch in there that says something like 'reset rate when idle/rate locked'. This might have an effect if you're not recording in 44.1.

Another thing to try is to go back to a old restore point

[Atterion]

If you physically remove card, try reinserting in a different PCI slot if possible (Remember slot 1 usually shares with AGP, check your motherboard documentation).

[crosstudio]

Thanks, Atterion and crosstudio. I tried both your suggestions and already had Windows sound turned off. I think there's something really screwed up though, because when I went to the Audio tab, there was "Modem #0 Line [Out/In]" selected in the Playback/Recording spots respectively. My Audiophile wasn't in the list at all. [see image] I tried disabling my modem, but then I had no selection options in any of those Audio dropdowns. I then uninstalled my Audiophile (software - not physically... yet) and reinstalled it, but same thing and the Modem selections are back in my Audio properties.

I had a similar problem years ago... I had both a modem and a NIC card and the modem was interfering with my sound card, so I tried moving the sound card to another PCI slot, but then I had a problem with the sound card and the NIC card because the motherboard was performing some type of sharing.

I finally had to chuck the modem. I wasn't really using it anyway, but I didn't want to take it out just in case i ever needed dial-up internet access.

The problem with Dell Music Match may be that their software doesn't allow you to share whereas Sonar has a setting that allows sharing.

I've got Dell Music Match on my laptop... I'm going to try it and see what happens.

[guttadaj]

Thanks, guys, for the additional suggestions.

Last night I actually pulled out all the stops and completely uninstalled the soundcard (software-wise and physically) and the modem both. Then, I tried reinstalling the soundcard... tried it once in the same PCI slot (it's in #3 now) and then another time I switched it to #2 which is the slot vacated by the modem. The results are always the same though - this sort-of half-working status I mentioned before. It doesn't seem like it's being fully recognized. It's really weird because it was working beautifully for quite a while (including MusicMatch Jukebox) and then just quit, and I'm racking my brain trying to think of what could have changed to do this, but I really haven't done anything. Maybe the card's fried??

I sent an email to M-Audio tech support the other night after all of this, but I still haven't heard back. This will be my first experience with M-Audio support - I hope it's a good one. I think I'll give them a call some evening when I have some more time to work on it. Anyway, I really appreciate the help. Keep it coming if you think of anything else! Thanks!!

[Atterion]

If it is an IRQ problem, you can try changing to Standard PC configuration (In device manager/Computer...It is probably set to something like ACPI Uniprocessor PC...You update the driver, and choose do not search, I will choose driver to install). It is best to install windows freshly with this option (By pressing F6 when windows asks you if you need to install specific SCSI drivers). With standard PC, Each hardware device will get its own IRQ (No Sharing), You can also freely modify your IRQ assignments (I don't recommend you do anything of this scope, if you are not truly proficient with your PC's architecture). Buy trying Standard PC configuration you lose certain minor conveniences, like when you shut off your computer, it doesn't shut completely down automatically, it shuts down to the old familiar "It is now safe to turn off your computer" screen, and you have to reach down and hit the power button. Minor gripes though for a far more stable platform (IMHO).
As a side-note, I had a similar problem with a Diamond 56k modem, and a Terratec EWS88MT . It actually kept crashing my system, tried moving PCI slots, and it still crashed, but not quite as often. I removed the Modem and Voila, no more crashes. If you can do without the modem, ditch it.

[minofifa]

are you using ASIO drivers or WDM? i thought that programs couldn't share the soundcard when ASIO drivers were being used but they can when kernal streaming (WDM) was. I may be way off base but i have found that in general WDM is a good choice to use with a lot of programs. if i'm strictly recording, i use ASIO

[guttadaj]

Thanks for the ideas, guys. It's not an IRQ conflict - the soundcard is happily alone at IRQ 18, and it looks fine in the device manager listing (no exclamation point or red x or anything). Also, I was using the latest drivers for it. In SONAR, I was using it in ASIO mode, but I'm not too sure if I actually ever specify any particular mode for it on its own.

I actually did call M-Audio tech support the other day, and the guy was completely baffled. Had me check all the things that I had already checked, which I dutifully did just in case I was missing something. He was as confused as I am as to why it's not working. He suggested I try it in another computer, which I will do sometime soon (sounds like a good turkey-day weekend task ). I guess it's possible that the soundcard is hosed. It may have a trip to California in its future, and it looks like I'll put my old Santa Cruz back in for the time being.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and time!
-Jeff

[K-dub]

This was alluded to above.

Try this w/ Sonar:

Options>Audio>Advanced -- then check "Share drivers w/ other programs"

K-

[guttadaj]

Well, after only a month and a half, I'm back up and running!!

What I ended up doing was installing XP on a new hard drive that I got for Christmas. I was then able to install my Audiophile just fine, so I thought that it must have been a system driver (PCI bus driver or something) that got hosed somehow in my old O/S install.

So, then I happily went to M-Audio's site to download the latest driver, installed it, and holy crap!! same problem! Showed up as 'No Audio Device' in my 'Sounds and Audio Devices' control panel just like before. In the process of putting a fresh install of XP on my new drive, I took the opportunity to upgrade to SP2. Apparently SP2 is a bit more sophisticated when it comes to recognizing devices, because right after I updated to the recent driver, the system started saying that it detected an unrecognized device (M-Audio Multimedia Controller) and prompted me to install it. SP1 was content to leave things screwed up. Anyway, so I put the original CD in and installed the old drivers (not that old from 07/2004) and now everything is at peace!

I will leave it with the old drivers and send M-Audio tech support an email about this, but I just wanted to let everyone know what was going on in case anyone else has this problem. Thanks again everyone for trying to help!!

Oh, yeah, I also installed my new version of SONAR 4 - yeah, baby!! Dying to get at it - got a new outboard compressor (dbx 266xl) and some new monitors (not very good Samson Resolvs but better than my computer speakers - LOL) and some other goodies I'm anxious to play with.

Happy New Year to all!
-Jeff