Sometimes there is no sound when running CD-ROMs or in other applications. For example, when running Encarta Encyclopaedia 99 (CD version) in some instances the music and sound plays. However, often a display appears saying ‘Sound Card either in use or not available’ and no sound is played. Any suggestions?

There is a good possibility that the problem is exactly what the error message is saying - something else is using your sound card, but you may not know which application. The best way to narrow this down is next time the problem occurs, press CTRL-ALT-DEL and shut down running applications one-by-one (except for any essential Windows services, generally these are systray and explorer, and the application which gives the error message). After you shutdown each program, try to play the sound. You should eventually reach the stage when you have closed a program and the sound will play (in which case you know which is the problem program) or you have shutdown all applications but the problem persists. In the latter case, the problem may actually be with the program that is giving the error message. For example, it could be occupying the sound channel for no reason. The way to test this would be to close the application (e.g., Encarta) and then open Sound Recorder and attempt to play a *.wav file. If you can, it seems that the particular program is causing the problem. In this case, try reinstalling the software which is causing the problem. In the unlikely event that the problem is not fixed, please contact me again.