Unable to Play MIDI Device After Rebalance, Removal, Refresh, or Hot Dock

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View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q247396

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SYMPTOMS

If your computer contains an audio device that uses Windows Driver Model (WDM) drivers, you may be unable to play MIDI files after performing one of the following actions:

You "hot-dock" a portable computer (insert the computer into the dock without shutting down or suspending the computer).
You insert a PC Card after the computer has started and is running Windows.
You disable and re-enable a device in Device Manager.

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All of these actions cause hardware resources (IRQs, IO port addresses, and so on) to be rebalanced. When hardware resources are rebalanced, the Windows WDM audio driver (Wdmaud.sys) does not correctly reinitialize itself to allow proper functionality with the new hardware configuration.

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RESOLUTION

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support (http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support)

Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

The English-language version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

Date Time Version Size File name 
---------------------------------------------------
1/3/2000 4:24pm 4.10.2224 68,896 Wdmaud.sys

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

This problem has not been observed with Windows 98 (original edition).

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MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about other issues resolved by this update, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

247398 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/247398/EN-US/ ) Volume Control Disabled After Rebalance, Removal, Refresh, or Hot Dock

For additional information about Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition hotfixes, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

206071 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/206071/EN-US/ ) General Information About Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition Hotfixes

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APPLIES TO

Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition

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kbhotfixserver kbqfe kbhardware kbprb kbqfe kbsound KB247396

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Retired KB Content Disclaimer

This article was written about products for which Microsoft no longer offers support. Therefore, this article is offered "as is" and will no longer be updated.

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