Audacity Forum

Hi,
I had Audacity 1.2 series on my computer for the last few weeks and it worked fine until today. This afternoon when I tried to start the app I got an error msg that said it failed to start and would be shutting down. I uninstalled and reinstalled it. No joy. I went to the homepage and saw that Beta was specifically for Vista, which, unfortunately, I have. I downloaded 1.3.13. Started no problem. However, when I try to play any media file I get the following error msg:

"Error while opening sound device. Please check the output device settings and the project sample rate."

I don't know what output device settings are but my speakers are working. I know, I'm a newb. As for the sample rate the window in the bottom left hand corner says 44100. I tried switching it to every other setting but none of them worked.

Thank you for any help in advance.

Jarkeld

In Audacity go to Edit Menu -> Preferences -> Devices (or press Ctrl-P).

You can select your playback and recording devices there.

If you're on Audacity 1.3.13 you can also activate the device toolbar from View menu -> Toolbars -> Device toolbar.

It should give you the same options as in Preferences -> Devices, but it will be always in the main window, so it makes it easier to access and change.

I am having the exact same issue. I'm running 1.3.13 on a Dell Laptop running Vista (IDT High definition sound) with a Samson CO1U USB mic. I finished one project a few days ago using the previous Beta version and then started receiving the "Error while opening sound device. Please check the output device settings and the project sample rate" message a few times while I was working, but managed to get through it despite having to restart a few times. Started a new project yesterday and now every time I open Audacity, I get the message regardless of whether I try to record something or play a file. Then I get NO sound from ANY program/website or anything unless I reboot my computer altogether. I updated to the newest version 1.3.13 and it still crashes my sound. I would just happily use the 1.2 version if it didn't crash on Vista after every time i stopped a recording, but now it seems like I can't use Beta at all because of this sample rate issue.

KrisKinnus, have you tried 1.3.12? if so did it happen too?

Yes. I was originally using 1.2 for years and never had a problem until I got a new laptop with Vista, and then the crashes when I stopped recording tracks became far too unbearable. So, last week I upgraded to 1.3.12. I finished a project and it work perfectly until the last few days when it started crashing out all the sound on my computer at random times, then it eventually started doing it as soon as I opened the program. I basically have to restart my computer every time I open the program if I want sound. I installed 1.3.13 this afternoon and it does the same thing.

Does your computer crashes with other apps too? Or only audacity?

It may be a case of faulty memory. If this is the case, you may not notice it with other apps, because it might be at the end of the memory range and only apps like audacity which are more memory intensive might be able to trigger that...

Though there have been some reports of such problems with audacity, though, so far, it hasn't been tracked down any pattern to reproduce this consistently... If this is a bug, it's the kind of bug which is very hard to track down unfortunately...

Does the problem only happen with the usb mic? Have you tried a different usb cable? There have been a few cases of problems ocurring due to faulty usb cables too. It's not that uncommon. So if you have the chance and if this only happens with the usb mic, try a new usb cable if you can.

Well, at first I thought it was the USB mic. I had been using a 35mm jack mic and just recently got the USB mic. But Audacity crashes the sound now when the program opens and the mic not even be plugged in. But I will look into the memory problem and see if I can do anything about that and then reinstall Audacity.