SigmaTel on WinXpSP2 - Audio just playing once.

[bregor]

Hi all, can anyone help me on this one?

I have done a clean install of WinXP & SP2 on a VAIO VGN-AR31S. I used the preinstall drivers set from the Sony site for the AR21S (WMC2005) and the AR31S (VISTA) and NVIDIA. I have everything working except for the fact that the Audio only seems to work once. When i start Media Player it plays out a track only once without problems. But when it stops and i replay the same track or any other it gives me an error message indicating that there is a problem with my Sound device (not installed, in use by another program, or not functioning properly). After a reboot Media Player can play the track again, but again just only once.

Opening two sound sources (e.g. Media Player and a Audio Tuning wizard) and letting them playout continuously does give me audio until i stop the audio entirely and then try it again. My impression is that something is not reset correctly when the audio is stopped.

All audio devices are installed properly in device manager, no errors indicated. Also no errors or warnings are indicated in the eventviewer (Syst or Apps). The Sigmatel Audio Service is running (can be stopped and started but this does not solve anything). The Sigmatel Audio driver is 5.10.5067.0 (26/5/2006) from the AR21S preinstall set.

When the problem occurs the Sigmatel Audio service has stopped and there is a error in the apps event log:

Event Type:Error
Event Source:STacSV
Event Category:None
Event ID:65535
Date:18/04/2007
Time:18:01:11
User:NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer:VGN-AR31S
Description:
The description for Event ID ( 65535 ) in Source ( STacSV ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: Connection to m_spDeviceCtrl COM interface failed.

Currently i 'm looking for a newer driver (or a WINXpSP2 patch) than the one i have which does install on the Sony AR31S specifically. I have tried a few from Intel and one from Dell but the one i have is the only one i have found that makes a "noise" up till now.

Anyone can give me a help? I d be eternally grateful !!!!!