Hi, IBM Laptop with W 98, couldn't get sound from my CD Player or radio online. Error message was 80040256 - "Cannot play the audio stream, no audio hardware is available, or hardware is not responding."
I downloaded the up to date audio from IBM and my CD Player sound now works fine, but still getting the same error message for the O/L radio.
I went in to multimedia under Playback/Performance, to move the Hardware Accelleration, which was set at full, a notch closer to none, but despite hitting Apply/OK it won't hold to the new setting. Have also tried restarting with the new setting, but it refuses to budge, holding it's setting at full.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

In the appropriate bit of the Multimedia Control Panel applet, does it list your built-in sound card as the device that it is going to use for sound playback? If not, select it from the list, click Apply or OK and see if that helps.

Is there a tick-box for 'Only use preferred devices'? If so, try ticking it or un-ticking it to see if it makes any difference.

Hi, in multimedia, the device is listed as Audio for Crystal WDM Audio Device, which is enabled and active. I unticked the Only use prefered devices, but no difference.
In the W98 help slot it suggests altering the hardware accelleration.
What I cannot understand is in the Device Performance, any alteration to Hardware Accelleration is ignored. I've also noticed that the speaker setup is set for Desk Top Speakers, and that to alter them to Laptop, is again ignored.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

What's the exact model of your laptop and what processor is fitted (e.g. Intel Celeron 400MHz) ?

It's a IBM 770X Pentium 2 300MZ.