Mamewah - Error in SFX_InitialiseDS - Help!!!

[jhuie]

Ok, I set up Mamewah as I thought it should work and get it bombs out and leaves this message in the log:

"Automation error in SFX_InitialiseDS"

Any thoughts?  I'm running Windows XP, DirectX 9.0c, loaded the little extra support files.  I'm stumped.  I looked EVERYWHERE I could think of for something on this error and have no clue.  Oh, and it's an Athlon 3000 processor with a fresh install of everything.

Could it be that I shouldn't have installed 9.0c?  I can't figure out how to remove it to go back.  I reinstalled Window XP over it to try that but I'm still getting the same error.

Anyone out there smarter than I am?  It wouldn't take much....

As Dave Letterman used to say, "Sumbuddy peas hep me!"

[Minwah]

This usually means you don't have DirectX installed...but you do 

Check that your soundcard is DirectX compatible, sometimes they are not, which would also cause this error.

[Bill Mote]

Can you hear sound from your computer?  If it's a fresh load of XP then you may not have the drivers for your sound card loaded yet.  I just installed a buddies PC with XP for Mame and was getting the exact same error.

The SFX_ was a pretty clear give-a-way that it was sound card related.  I didn't have speakers attached so I had no clue there was an issue.  When I looked in device manager the audio device was under the "?" section.  Stupid old Compaq onboard audio   Added the drivers and the problem went away.

dot

[Minwah]

Just for some extra info, the 'InitialiseDS' part means InitialiseDirectSound...so for some reason DirectSound (part of DirectX) is having problems.  99% of the time this is due to hardware or driver issues.

[jhuie]

Thank you.  You were right....sound drivers weren't loaded.  Thank you!  I was banging my head on the wall over this.

[Greenskein]

This is years later, however, just had the same problem with an old PC I was trying to run my mamewah setup on...I read the above posts, took a look at the motherboard and noted down the model number, did a google search and found the driver downloads for the on board audio at the motherboard maker's website...installed the drivers no problem and then my setup ran just fine...

[gaijin4life]

Check your device manager to make sure all your sound drivers are installed.  This seems to be a sound-related error.  I installed machine-specific RealTek Audio drivers and it went away for me.