TimeTrax Recording Blank Files

[ggreenfield]

Hoping for help. Timetrax is recording blank files. Has been for a couple of weeks.

Was using Recast 1.8. Switched to TimeTrax 3.4 to see if that would help, but the saved files are all blank.

The radio is not muted. Its sounds fine, but records blank. The MP3 editor shows nothing but flat lines. iTunes plays older recordings just fine.

Can anyone help please?

 

[pretzelboy]

That's addressed in the recast documenatation for TimeTrax under "My Recordings are Blank." You can download it at:

http://www.timetraxtech.com/

Third link:

Recast Documentation PDF (700K)

 

[ggreenfield]

Thanks for your response. I had tried those things. Perhaps I was doing something wrong, because they did not help. However, I used the XP system restore feature to restore my system to a month ago, when I could record non-blank files, and now I can record properly.

Thanks again.

Incidentally, when I went to the Config Screen, as the doco suggests, the Gain Enabled box was already checked, but there no "levels" button on the main screen.

 

[pretzelboy]

That gain and levels thing has been a quirk for some time. They ran into problems with it in the earliest versions of Recast and tried to correct it. It never seemed to be correct after that.

Usually when I ran into blank recording issues it was always a problem with the selected audio source. For some reason it seemed to go and do its own thing and, after some fiddling chaning the sourcing back and forth, it would come back on its own.

There have always been ghosts in the machine when it comes to TimeTrax. There were certainly things we would have hoped had one day been corrected.

 

[TestingTheTester]

Holy Crap - I TOTALLY HATE that stupid thing - when it decides all of a sudden for no reason and no changes made by me to start recording the MIC input instead of line in.

Uhg.

I wonder was installed/removed that you had to restore your machine from a month ago.

Thats ODD.

 

[ggreenfield]

Good question: The only things installed/removed were a new version of iTunes, Microsoft Sofware Distrubution Service for XP (2), an Apple Sofware update (? It's in my scheduler.), and SpyBot and Ad-Aware spyware removal.

Although I was recording fine yesterday, I started getting blank recordings again today. One of those Microsoft updates happened overnight, and I had run SpyBot and Ad-Aware yesterday after the restore.

I restored the system back to the SpyBot check-point - no help. Then I restored back to the Microsoft update - that fixed it. Have rerun SpyBot and Ad-aware and its still recording.

Actually, when I say, "still recording", I mean that I can see good, healthy recording levels bars, not the little, wimpy things that display when it's recording blanks.

We'll see if Microsoft reapplies it's update and what that does. I'm not sure how any of these are related.

Although my original posts says that I was using v1.8, I actually was using using v1.7 and only went to v1.8 when the recording problem surfaced, and then went to v3.4. The restorations have taken me back to v1.7 where I am now.

This a lot of blather, but I'm hoping some of my details will click some one elses details, and then ghosts begone!

 

[TestingTheTester]

Well.. You're a bit too "all over the board" to actually have any real conclusive findings really. Yuo have multiple versions having issues when MS / other patches get applied.

the only thing that will help is when this MS patch gets re-applied. Otherwise. Just upgrade back to the newer versions and see what happens.

 

[ggreenfield]

Well, they re-applied the MS patch, and the recordings are now, once again, blank.

This is with v1.7, which is where all this started, except now it REALLY looks like the MS patch. The ONLY change this time is the MS patch. I was sleeping, literally.

Actually, there were 5 patches re-applied during last night's automatic update:

Security Update for Windows XP (KB925486)
Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - September 2006 (KB890830)
Update for Windows XP (KB922582)
Security Update for Windows XP (KB919007)
Update for Windows XP (KB920872)
Security Update for Windows XP (KB920685)

These same patches were re-applied after my first system restore, when the problem returned, and they were first applied during the middle of last month, when I suspect the problem started.

Curious as to whether or not anyone else with this problem has had any of these patches applied, or, conversely, is anyone has had any of these patches applied and did not have the problem.

 

[ggreenfield]

GOOD NEWS - A big UPDATE: and a big THANKS to TestingTheTestor!

After restoring the system to before last night’s automatic MS patch installations. I downloaded the patches that MS had automatically installed, de-selected the one entitled, Update for Windows XP (KB920872), based on its description, which mentioned an "audio component update", and installed all the others.

The other patches, once installed, had no impact on TimeTrax. The recordings now have sound. (Sound is important in a recording.) So, apparently the patch, KB20872, was the culprit.

Until I find out what KB920872 is screwing up and how I can fix it, I've set the Windows Update feature to download only, so I can install each patch individually and see what its effects are.

Hope these notes help someone. It helped me to use this forum – you know, to organize my thoughts and all – as well as to get that great suggestion from TestingTheTester by way of TTT's remark: ”I wonder what was installed/removed that you had to restore your machine from a month ago.” That was the ticket!

Thanks TTT! Thanks all.

 

[pretzelboy]

Until I find out what KB920872 is screwing up and how I can fix it, I've set the Windows Update feature to download only, so I can install each patch individually and see what its effects are.

Officially MS is saying it, "Install this audio component update to prevent memory corruption issues which may cause an unstable state on a computer that is running Windows XP Service Pack 2."

So, this problem could take either of two paths. Is it an actual audio problem created or did it cause a memory issue? I'd have thought we would have heard from someone else whose audio suddenly stopped. I expect that this is a audio hardware driver/XP SP2 issue that was baing patched.