Recently, I did a complete reinstall of Windows 98 SE. Now I cannot play sound files and I am getting numerous error messages in DXDIAG. After downloading the latest versions of the ‘SB16.vxd’ driver and DirectX, things are not much better. At best I get patchy sound with Windows Media Player and with games even though they had not misbehaved before. I recently added a microphone and that won’t record. Maybe this is the culprit? I can still play audio CDs and run FM radio and Pixelview TV with sound (I don’t load them all at once). Would reverting back to an earlier version of DirectX fix the problem? Any suggestions?

As you inferred, this problem is to do with DirectX. I am assuming that you are using the most recent version of DirectX (version 7.x). If you are not, firstly try upgrading to the most recent version as that will be referred to in this article. When researching your question, I managed to find some information on the following lines in the DXDIAG report which you sent me:
‘Registry: Errors found:
Key ‘ HKCRCLSID{92187326-72B4-11d0-A1AC-0000F8026977}InProcHandler32′ is missing. Reinstall DirectX’. After looking at similar questions on the internet, I found that this error refers to the file ‘gchand.dll’ and input devices into your computer such as Joysticks. I think that if input devices such as joysticks work ok, then we can ignore this error. Your real problem regarding sounds seems to be with the errors under ‘Sound Devices’ and ‘DirectMusic’ in the DXDIAG report. Both of the errors occur when trying to run the test for Sound or Music and both of the errors are seemingly the same, being, ‘The request failed because DirectSound resources, such as the priority level, were already in use by another caller’. I have not seen an error message like this before nor been able to locate anything similar. However, one possible reason for this problem does come to mind. The problem may be due to a conflict between your sound card and another device. As you obviously are knowledgeable with computers, I won’t go into details on how to do this. However, for the benefit of other readers, you can check for conflict(s) between devices by right-clicking on the ‘My Computer’ icon on the desktop and clicking ‘Properties’ from the menu which appears (this is a shortcut way to get to the ‘System’ control panel). When the ‘System Properties’ window appears, click the ‘Device Manager’ tab. From here, navigate to the device type which has the possible conflict (in this case, it would be ‘Sound, video, and game controllers’), expand, right-click on the conflicting device, and click ‘Properties’ in the menu that appears. In the devices properties window which appears, click the ‘Resources’ tab to view any conflicts. If there are, then you may have to change the default settings of the device. However, unless you are knowledgeable in computers, I suggest you don’t attempt this as you may cause a conflict with another, and possibly more important, device. If any other readers have any comments or suggestions on this question please send them in for publication.