Sound doesn't work in XP SP2 guest on BootCamp partition.

[Yang_Guizi]

I spent 10 hours trying to get Creative AudioPCI device to work under Windows XP SP2 guest OS system. I've read all of the many user posts on the Fusion forum about their similar problems and have tried all of the suggested solutions. Sometimes I can get Winamp to play .mp3 files, if I remove the Sound Device from the powered-off guest OS, then add it back in and reboot XP. But the microphone never works: never, ever. I tried with MS Sound Recorder and Audacity. Error messages generally say DirectSound drivers aren't working.

The microphone used to work when running XP SP2 under Fusion 1.1.3, but it surely does not work under Fusion 2.0.0.

I hope VMware fixes this in the next version.

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My host config: MacBook Pro 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3 Gb SDRAM, OS X Tiger 10.4.11, VMware Fusion 2.0.0

[Yang_Guizi]

I decided to go back to Fusion v 1.1.3, to see if I could get the microphone and speakers working under the guest XP SP2 on the Boot Camp partition there. So I opened Fusion v 2.0.0; selected the Boot Camp partition vm; downgraded the Boot Camp guest; closed Fusion 2.0.0; uninstalled Fusion 2.0.0; installed Fusion 1.1.3; opened the Boot Camp guest; used Control Panel » Add/Remove Software to remove VMware Tools; installed the old version of VMware Tools; rebooted XP; manually added the driver for SVGA II; and reactivated XP by calling Microsoft.

The downgraded guest did not contain a setting for sound, which I found interesting. But I was able to add it to the settings.

Unfortunately, this did not eliminate the problems with sound. Neither Sound Recorder nor Audacity showed any quaver in the trace line for a microphone input. After some reboots, those two sound recording programs didn't even advance the needle on the trace scale, indicating, I would presume, that they did not register any input device. I tried using both the microphone built into the Macbook Pro's keyboard and an external mic plugged into the line-in connector. At least the built-in microphone worked as late as last February, but that may have been under Fusion 1.1.1 and also under earlier versions of OS X, before 10.4.11.

Winamp Pro 5.541 did play the first five seconds of .mp3s recorded in the guest's shared file directory, but then it crashed and dumped. I've tested this six times, after various reboots: always same results. Winamp 5.53 did work before the upgrade to Fusion 2.0.0 and before I upgraded Winamp to 5.541.

I may try to install Fusion 1.1.1 to see if sound will work on an XP SP2 guest in the Boot Camp partition under that version. Or I may just switch to Parallels...

[jmendo]

Hello Yang,

Thanks for your support and feedback for our Fusion product. I am trying to look into your issue and was wondering if you could gather a few pieces of data for me. Can you please give me the driver details for your Creative AudioPCI? This device isn't removed with tools uninstall so I would like to see what driver your VM is trying to operate with. I have outlined the path below

Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager -> Sound, video and game controllers -> Creative AudioPCI -> Driver -> Driver Details

If you can screen capture all the data I can pull it manually from there.

Thanks,

-jesse

[Yang_Guizi]

Hi, Jesse,

I'm not sure what your sentence, quoted below, means.

... Creative AudioPCI? This device isn't removed with tools uninstall ...

Thanks in advance for any help in locating and removing the problem.

Attached is a screenshot you asked for.

It takes two images to show all the driver names. But after I had uploaded two images, I couldn't get the

pop-up window to insert either of them. It kept giving me an error

saying "Please select the image which you want to insert". Apparently

clicking with the mouse on the thumbnail of the image did not select

it. You might want to alert VMware's Website development team to this

problem. Here I am talking about Firefox v 3.0.1 for Windows. I also

tried Firefox v 3.0.1 for Mac, Safari for Mac, and Internet Explorer

7.0.5730.11: none of them worked to insert multiple images.

The only driver that does not show in the attached image is:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\wdmaud.drv

Notes:

1) Because the sound didn't work under Fusion 2, I downgraded my guest

virtual machine, removed Fusion 2, and installed Fusion 1.1.3 instead.

I also removed the upgraded VMware Tools and installed the old VMware

Tools version 7.63 build 94249.

2) The Audio tab of the Sound and Audio Devices Properties window refers to this device as Creative SoundBlaster PCI.

3) Previously, the device had had older drivers from Creative Labs.

Because the sound did not work using those drivers, I used some

procedure of Windows XP to update the drivers to the newer ones shown

in the image above. The newer drivers show Microsoft Corporation as the

author.

4) Device Manager says the device is working properly

Thanks,

Yang Guizi (洋鬼子)

[K-MaC]

Hello Yang, I found some information in another thread today about this issue. Although he has SP3 I think it will help you.

Cheers

Kevin

If this helps award some points and close the thread

[Yang_Guizi]

Thanks, Kevin (aka K-MaC) for pointing out to me that other thread. It was posted after I had already started this thread, and I hadn't seen the new thread.

I went to that thread, read what uruiamme had written about restoring the previous Creative AudioPCI driver, and did likewise. Then I tested it. No sound could be recorded, using as input the internal microphone built into the MacBook Pro. (The internal microphone was the input source on the MacBook Pro, chosen in System Preferences » Sound.)

Note that uruiamme's config is somewhat different from mine: he is using XP SP3 and Fusion 2, while I am using XP SP2 and Fusion 1.1.3, at the moment. It may be that if I were to update again to Fusion 2, XP SP2 might produce sound with the old driver. Or perhaps uruiamme's Mac uses OS X 10.5, while mine uses OS X 10.4.11. Hard to say where the problem lies. Actually, I am more likely to downdate Fusion to 1.1.1 and test it, because the sound worked under that old Fusion back in February.

In case some other reader of this thread would like to try rolling back the sound driver to the old version, the procedure follows below, in excruciating detail. (Using the Roll Back Driver button did not work.)

Opened Device Manager » expanded "Sound, video and game controllers" » highlighted Creative AudioPCI (ES1371,ES1373)(WDM) » right-clicked » Properties » Driver tab » Driver Provider shown was Microsoft, Driver Date was 31/03/08, Version was 6.0.0.0 » clicked Update Driver button » Hardware Update Wizard opened and asked "Can Windows connect to Windows Update to search for Software?" » selected "Yes, this time only" » Next » chose "Install from a list or specific location" » Next » Chose "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install." » Next » cleared the checkmark from the box "Show compatible hardware" » selected Manufacturer "Creative Technology Ltd." » selected the second model shown, labelled "Creative AudioPCI (ES1371,ES1373)(WDM)" » Next » Finish » Close button closed the device's Properties window » back in Device Manager, right-clicked again on Creative AudioPCI (ES1371,ES1373)(WDM) » chose Properties » clicked on Driver tab » Driver Provider was still Microsoft, but Driver Date was now 01/07/01 and Driver Version was now 5.1.2535.0 » OK button » closed Device Manager window.

Checked to make sure that, in the Recording controls, the Microphone checkbox was selected and the volume pushed to the max. Attempting to record with Audacity did not advance the trace line. Attempting to record with Sound Recorder displayed the error window "Your audio hardware cannot record into files like the current file. To record, create a new document" » creating a new document in Sound Recorder did not help whatsoever. Opened Control Panel » Sounds and Audio Devices » Voice tab » Voice recording Default device was shown as Creative Sound Blaster PCI (no other option available) » clicked "Test hardware" button » Sound Hardware Test Wizard opened » Next » result window displayed "Your sound hardware cannot play sounds" » Finish.

Rebooted XP » ran again the tests with Audacity, Sound Recorder, and Sounds and Audio Devices » results were exactly the same.