Text-to-Speech app crashes on system with no sound card

Last reviewed: 8/19/1999

PRB Article ID: P089905

The information in this article applies to:

  • SpeechKit 2.1

Symptoms

I am using the SpeechKit Text to Speech functionality on a system that does not have a sound card. I was able to install the MS SAPI and Engine. My app runs fine, and lets me select a voice. But, when I try to speak it crashes.

If there is no sound card, why does it not speak, or give me an error? Why would it just crash? I am worried that my app will crash if someone does not have their sound properly configured. I am just calling your TextToSpeech function. It is not crashing in my code, but either inside your library, or Microsoft's. Does your library take into account the fact that the sound may not be properly set up?

Cause

Currently there is no code to check in the Chant component since we are relying on SAPI engine that is referencing the audio object to generate a return code.

The Chant components are set up to use the default multi-media device. If you know of a situation where your user may have multiple devices, you will need to use the SetDevice method before the StartTextToSpeech method.

Status

Fixed in SpeechKit 2.1.1.