PlaySound issue with Windows 7 64 bit

[MikeBillsFan]

I have a popular fantasy football spreadsheet package which I've sold for years. One of the features (frills) in one of the files is the ability to play "trash talking" sound effects. Someone in your fantasy draft makes a pick you want to laugh at, click the appropriate sound file, and hit play. Not a necessary feature of course but a lot of people like it.

Anyway, I've had a couple customers tell me the file won't open at all - throws an error - on their system with Windows 7 64-bit. The error is coming from the countdown timer and sound module.

Since it isn't opening at all, I believe it is coming from the opening section of the code, as follows:

Option Explicit
Public RunWhen As Double
Public TimeStart As Double
Public blnFirst  As Boolean
Public Const cRunIntervalSeconds = 1    ' 1 second
Public Const cRunWhat = "The_Sub"
Public bookName As String
Public sTotalTime As Date
Private Declare Function PlaySound Lib "winmm.dll" _
  Alias "PlaySoundA" (ByVal lpszName As String, _
  ByVal hModule As Long, ByVal dwFlags As Long) As Long
Const SND_SYNC = &H0
Const SND_ASYNC = &H1
Const SND_FILENAME = &H20000
Const SND_MEMORY = &H4
Const SND_PURGE = &H40 'purge the sound

Since this is mostly related to playing the sounds, I've narrowed my search to that. At this point I'm at a loss though. Can someone help me get this running in all versions of Windows?

For those current Win7 64x users, I've taken out this module and now they are fine (but these features don't work). Obviously I'd like a solution that works across all platforms so I don't have to roll out different file versions.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Akihito Yamashiro]

Does the error occur on Excel 2010 ?
If so, this may help you.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee691831.aspx

 

[MikeBillsFan]

Thanks Akihito.

I think it is Excel 2007 on Windows 7 64-bit that is the problem, but I'll double check with some of those people if it is in fact Excel 2010.

If I made that change would it be backward compatible for Excel and Windows?

 

[MikeBillsFan]

I think this is the fix, but I can't confirm for sure since I don't have Excel 2010 / Windows 7 64-bit.

#If VBA7 And Win64 Then
    Private Declare PtrSafe Function PlaySound Lib "winmm.dll" _
      Alias "PlaySoundA" (ByVal lpszName As String, _
      ByVal hModule As LongPtr, ByVal dwFlags As LongPtr) As LongPtr
#Else
    Private Declare Function PlaySound Lib "winmm.dll" _
      Alias "PlaySoundA" (ByVal lpszName As String, _
      ByVal hModule As Long, ByVal dwFlags As Long) As Long
#End If

HOWEVER, since I am doing this in Excel 2003 or Excel 2007, and VBA 6.5, it still gives me a compile error on the first part of the IF statement where I've added "PtrSafe". I can save it as is, close and open. It still seems to work on those older setups, but rather odd/unnerving about the compile error in the revised code.

 

[Akihito Yamashiro]

On my WinXP + Excel2003 , your code does not throw a Compile Error.
Since #VBA7 and #WIN64 are declared only on Excel 2010 ( unless you declare them by yourself),
the first part must be ignored its existence On Excel 2003.

 

[MikeBillsFan]

I should clarify. In Excel 2003 or 2007, when I edit that first part of the If statement the auto-debugger gives an alert: "Compile error: Expected Sub or Function" (after the Declare statement, highlighting "PtrSafe").

However, if I just save it as is, close and re-open, run the macro it seems to work fine.

I need to get this tested in Excel 2010 64-bit and then I'm going to hope/assume I'm covered through the wide range of versions of Excel I'm trying to support for my customers.

 

[MikeBillsFan]

FYI, I had one customer with Excel 2010 try the file with the new code and he reported back it did work for him, thankfully.

 

[Akihito Yamashiro]

According to the Win32API_PtrSafe.txt ,
PlaySound should be as follows.

Declare PtrSafe Function PlaySound Lib "winmm.dll" Alias "PlaySoundA" _ (ByVal lpszName As String, ByVal hModule As LongPtr, _
ByVal dwFlags As Long) As Long

The variable types of dwFlags and the return value
are little bit deiffrent from yours.

You can download Win32API_PtrSafe.txt from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...a5-eef9-4baf-8dbc-63fbd2dd982b&displayLang=en

I wish this may help you.

 

[paul_bennett89]

The replies on this thread are for OFFICE 2010, aren't they.

What about EXCEL 2000, EXCEL 2003 or EXCEL 2007 on Windows 7 64-bit?

I use the winmm.dll and VB code to create sounds from EXCEL, I use this function:

Private Declare Function midiOutOpen Lib "winmm.dll" _
(lphMidiOut As Long, _
ByVal uDeviceID As Long, _
ByVal dwCallback As Long, _
ByVal dwInstance As Long, _
ByVal dwFlags As Long) As Long

On Windows XP, using EXCEL 2003 or 2007 it works perfectly. On Windows 7 64-bit, the calls to the winmm.dll are hopelessly slow, I am playing musical notes from EXCEL, so this is a frustrating problem, timing and speed is important.

Why is Windows 7 64-bit unable to make the calls fast enough? I may make 4 or 5 calls to winmm.dll in one second and only one note is
played, the others appear to be skipped, I don't hear them. Back on my XP machine, all notes are played at a blisteringly fast speed, just as I programmed them.

I have been looking for answer for months now, I don't give my spreadsheets to VISTA or WINDOWS 7 users anymore and have to tell them it will not work. Is this a 64-bit issue, a multi-threading issue, an EXCEL issue, a winmm.dll issue?

Any suggestions are greatly welcome,

Regards,

Paul

 

[RAYLWARD102]

anybody found a fix for this yet? I'm just running in to the same scenario now. Office 2003 32bit on Win7 64bit. I can play chimes.wav, but some wav's cant be played for no apparent reason. I'm not getting any errors either..