May 12 2008

No Major Issues To Report

Category: PersonalChrisM @ 12:07 am

[edit]
Please see this comment at the bottom for a helpful fix from Alex Ron. Where the hell did ‘Alex’ come from. Only just noticed my error, apologies Ron.

Well, all seems well post-SP3 installation. There were a couple of hiccups – Windows Live Messenger now complains (error 2771) when it is started up that there is a component missing, and installation fails. This has been observed by others who have installed Service Pack 3, but it looks as though a simple re-installation (assuming you already have the latest setup downloaded) should fix it.


Secondly, though not SP3 related, I noticed that Windows Update had a new audio driver for my motherboard. I installed it and rebooted, this has resulted in the Intel Audio Studio app from failing to load, complaining that “Sonic Focus drivers must be loaded for this application to work”. However, I still have sound coming out of my speakers, and the only use the Intel app was put to were graphic equalizer-related. Think I’ll just leave this be for now…

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17 Responses to “No Major Issues To Report”

  1. Oleg Frantsuzov says:

    Anything nice and/or useful in SP3?

  2. ChrisM says:

    Not much that is obvious externally at least.
    From the positioning of start menu shortcuts to their default position, I’m guessing Outlook Express and the ‘Set Program Access and Defaults’ app may have been updated.
    Also, recurring calendar appointments in Outlook 2007, which were imported from a previous PST file (are they stored in there? it was from an old OS install at least) were finally editable – before I was given errors when I tried to amend them.
    Whether the above are down to SP3, other updates, or completely unrelated, I can’t be sure.
    The IE address box toolbar (no idea what it is really called) has been removed; don’t know if this was to prevent issues, or due to various legal rulings re. Microsoft’s integration of their browser into their OS etc.

  3. Oleg Frantsuzov says:

    Thank your for the review. No need to hurry with the SP3 installation for me, I guess.

  4. Susan Powell says:

    I also now get the “sonic focus drivers must be loaded for this application to work” related to Intel Audio Studio controller. Again, the problem started after microsoft windows xp update and I installed the update named “IDT – Audio – IDT High Definition Audio CODEC”. I havean Intel 945G Express chipset and my understanding is that it has something to do with this. I will keep checking your posts for a fix if you find one.

  5. ChrisM says:

    I have a very similar motherboard to you, and other than un-installing that update, or manually rolling back the driver, I can’t think what to try. As I said, as I don’t use the non-loading app itself, I’m not overly worried, but if I do happen to find the proper solution, I’ll be sure to post it on this blog 🙂
    (I’ve used the MSCONFIG command to stop the application from attempting to load each time I boot up.)

  6. wam says:

    I had the sonic crap error too… using an DP965LT … I go the latest AUD_allXP_5762_PV_IDT_v14_IAS driver and it fixed it…

    Seems that uSoft’s attempt to be “everything to everyone” is fragile at best.

    I recall a guy, Jack Kilby from TI, dealing with a similar issue years ago with regard to electronics – called it the tryanny of numbers. Had to do with TI, Fairchild and the like trying to make discrete “micromodules” of electronics back in the day… only about 20% actually worked.

    He ended up designing the first IC …

    One of the reasons I design hardware, is that exception handling has been dealt with by nature for about 12 billion years – a fairly mature system. If I screw up, the way an electron will go is pretty cut and dry…

    Software guys – man, i give you credit, you play god – you have to do the same thing, with an infinite amount of variables in the wild… hats off to you.

  7. ChrisM says:

    Thanks for that, I am trying out the suggested audio driver now. Once installed, if Windows Update no longer suggests the ‘new’ hardware driver, this PC will be safe from me drunk updating it 🙂

    In case anyone else comes across this post in the future, the file (which can be found here) also works for the following motherboards…
    (Obviously the Intel DP965LT motherboard, as mentioned above)

    D945GBO
    D945GCL
    D945GCZ
    D945GNT
    D945GPM
    D945GTP
    D945PAW
    D945PLM
    D945PLNM
    D945PLRN
    D945PSN
    D945PVS – My motherboard
    D945PWM
    D955XBK
    D955XCS
    D975XBX
    D975XBX2
    DG965MQ
    DG965MS
    DG965OT
    DG965PZ
    DG965RY
    DG965SS
    DG965WH
    DP965LT
    DQ963FX
    DQ963GS
    DQ965CO
    DQ965GF
    DQ965WC

    It is listed as 5790.3v22 and is WHQL certified.

    Your setup looks quite impressive there. I only ever had one battered old oscilloscope, and ended up swapping it for some PC hardware. SB16 ASP. That was a loooong time ago now 😉

  8. PC No Longer In Pieces :-) says:

    […] and all the apps on it. It is most probably just a coincidence, but this occurred directly after I updated my on board audio drivers. Upon rebooting, I was presented with an error message stating that […]

  9. ChrisM says:

    See this post – hopefully was just a coincidence, but directly after installing the driver mentioned above and rebooting, I had major issues with file corruption

  10. ron says:

    I had same problem with Sonic Drivers. In order to properly (re)install Intel Audio Studio, you have to UNinstall the existing IAS. Intel’s installation routine does not do this.

    In order to UNinstall the existing IAS, if Remove is not an option under Add_Remove Programs, you need to search the

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

    key for the Intel Audio Studio key which is likely identified by a GUID and NOT by name! Once you find it, change the NoRemove subkey from “1” to “0”. Then when you go to Control Panel/Add_Remove Programs you will be able to select UNinstall.

    By re-installing without first un-installing, you may have an “extra” IAS entry in Add_Remove Programs. You can clean this up with “Windows Installer Clean Up” downloadable from the MS web site, someplace.

    This worked for me, and the Sonic Drivers issue was the only one I had with SP3.

  11. ChrisM says:

    Wow, many thanks for your advice, very comprehensive. This particular post still gets a fair amount of direct traffic, so hopefully others will be able to fix this as well 🙂

  12. Mike says:

    Well, finally got around to installing SP3. Also downloaded and installed the IDT High Definition Audio CODEC from Microsoft Update. Like others, the only issue I had was the dreaded “Sonic Focus drivers must be loaded for this application to work” error from the Intel Audio Studio Controller. I have a D945PVS motherboard.

    After Ron’s registry tip, I was able to uninstall IAS. Downloaded and installed the latest version of IAS from Intel. Problem resolved. Thanks ChrisM and Ron.

  13. ChrisM says:

    Thanks for the reminder, I’ve still not taken the plunge and actually tried it yet.

  14. Douglasazo says:

    Thank you for the help. I have had the “focus drivers…” warning for a while but it started to affect my sound quality as of late. Thanks for making it easier on me. I edited the registry, uninstalled and reinstalled the latest driver. works great.

  15. ChrisM says:

    Glad it worked, though obviously the thanks should be solely directed at Ron, the man who kindly posted the solution.

  16. Bruce says:

    I know I’ve come to the party late but I’ve had the same problem for months and have been unsuccessful in resolving it…… until today.

    First let me say I an not very computer literate. My operating system is WinXP Media Center Edition SP3.

    With a great deal of hope I did as Chrism (7) suggested, restarted and got the same pesky notice.

    So I did some exploring. I found IASETUP.EXE at C:\Program Files\Intel Audio Studio\SONICFOCUS. I set a system restore point, held my breath and started the install and upon completion, restarted my computer.

    Voila! The pesky notice is gone and my computer, so far, is working normally. I don’t how or why it worked but it did.

    This posting is no criticism of Chrism’s suggestion. I have no doubt others were successful. It caused no harm and for all I know, was necessary for my installation to work!

    My thanks to all you helpful people on all the computer forums who attempt to explain computerese for us neophytes.

  17. ChrisM says:

    Just FYI, ChrisM is me, as in ChrisMerriman.com 🙂
    Thanks for the further info on the process. I’ve been away from my own PC since mid-November, and hadn’t yet tried sorting it before we left.