SonicStage under Windows 98SE

[mkeswani]

I had many problems in getting SonicStage working on my Windows 98SE PC and came close to returning my Hi-MD player because of this. To benefit other users of this forum having similar problems, I have put down the problems I encountered and the steps I took to fix them. It took me close to two weeks to get things working satisfactorily. Sony support was of no use and did not respond to my complaints. The only response I got from them was an SS 3.1 CDROM sent in the mail.

Hope the following is of use to readers of this forum.

Regards,

M

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1. Machine setup

My PC is configured as follows:

- Pentium 3, 850MHz, 384MB RAM, ASUS CUS-L2 motherboard.

- Windows 98SE 4.10.2222A and up to date with all Microsoft patches

- Matrox Millenium G450 Dualhead Video Card

- Soundblaster Live! Value soundcard

- Dual harddrives, one CD-ROMs one CD-RWand one floppy.

The machine was built to order through a local computer shop and according to Sony's fine print, SS would not work for such a setup.

My Minidisc recorder is an NH900 supplied with SonicStage 2.1

2. Installing SonicStage 2.1

2.1 The problem

The installation of SS 2.1 on my machine caused it to lock up after re-boot. It would show a DOS screen, load up Config.sys, Autoexec.bat and then show the Windows 98 bootup screen. After that, the screen would return to DOS mode with the following error:

While intialising device IOS:

Error: Real Mode System Memory Allocation failed.

Pressing the return key on the keyboard a couple of times would produce another message saying that the STACKS setting in Config.sys should be changed. The machine would freeze at this point.

Subsequent re-boots would return the machine to the same state. I was only able to re-boot into Safe mode by pressing F8 or CTRL on bootup. Changing the STACKS setting in Config.sys to increase stack allocation did not fix this problem.

2.1 The solution

The most common solution for the IOS problem found on the Internet indicates that you should re-install Win98SE. I was not game to do a full re-installation. More searching revealed that removing Smardrv.exe from Windows might fix the problem.

See: <<http://www.tencorp.com/SALESTIP.NSF/d5510884f791efbd8525681e0000d544/d1a92a925d9803f785256fd8004f2e54!OpenDocument>>

I re-booted in Safe Mode Command Prompt only as recommended and renamed Smardrve.exe to Smartdrv.old as per the above instructions.

System re-booted fine and SonicStage 2.1 started up and recognised my MD player. I had a working system again.

3. Installing SonicStage 3.x

3.1. The problem

After getting 2.1 working properly, I tried to update to SS 3.2 off the web. Result was that after installation and re-boot, 3.2 refused to recognise the MD player. I only had options to create CDs under the Transfer menu.

I could however, open up Windows Explorer and see the MD unit as a removable drive to which I could read and write files.

Contacting Sony (Australia) for support, I did not get any help except for a SS 3.1 CDROM in the mail. Removing 3.2, I installed 3.1. This time, SS 3.1 would not start and produced a Registry error indicating that the OpenMG driver was not of the correct version. Nothing I could do now, including uninstalling/re-installing SS 3.1, OpenMG through Add/Remove Software under Windows Control Panel would fix this.

At some stage, I also received an error saying "Cannot locate the files required to open the database file.", and then SS would exit.

I eventually managed to un-install 3.1 (see below) and restore 2.1 but with the newer OpenMG (from 3.2) still running. I could not get either 3.1 or 3.2 to work.

3.2. The solution

The first problem, of fixing the registry error was straightforward. I looked up the Microsoft site for manually restoring the Registry (Article 221512) for Win 98.

<<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q221512/>>

I followed the instructions exactly to restore the computer to the state before 3.2/ 3.1 was installed. Installing 2.1 again, I had a working SonicStage using the newer OpenMG driver from the 3.2 install.

Since neither 3.1 or 3.2 would work, I resorted to searching the web to find a solution and happened to find the instructions on this forum for getting SS 3.x working.

Refer to:

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?showtopic=8071

I did a complete removal of SS using the instructions provided including the change of the registry but did not install the German version of SS 3.x. Instead I installed 3.1 provided by Sony.

I also disabled multi-monitor support through control panel as Sony recommends that SS will not work under Windows Multi-monitor mode.

Wonder of wonders, SS 3.1 worked first time and saw my MD player. I could do all operations and my PC and SS were stable.

I then upgraded to 3.2 off the web and this worked fine too! I now had a fully functioning system.

Refer to:

http://www.sonydigital-link.com/DNA/HiMD/himd.asp?l=en" target="_blank

to download 3.2 or get the full installer in the downloads section of this forum.

I also restored Multi-monitor support and found that SS 3.2 works fine.

4. Conclusion

Though Sony does not guarantee operation of SS under Win98SE, especially a custom-built system, I have managed to get it working as per the above actions. I have found that for a clean install of SS 3.x on another Win98SE machine with similar configuration, all I had to do was rename Smardrv.exe as outlined in Section 2.2. I was able to install SS 3.1 and upgrade to SS 3.2 with no problem whatsoever.

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Edited October 11, 2005 by mkes