Control panel items missing! Can I reinstall them, and how?

[scissorman]

My installation of WinME seems to have lost 2 options in the control panel - 'sounds' and 'multimedia'.

Last seen about a week ago, now missing!

I wanted to adjust the sound hardware acceleration due to problems in a game and they are nowhere to be found.All that I have is 'Audio Control' which was installed with my soundcard, a soundblaster extigy, and just provied a ver basic adjustment for sound quality. It has always coexisted with the 'sound' and 'multimedia' options in perfect harmony.

Anyone have any ideas what has happened? More importantly, is it possible to bring them back!

 

[BeenThereDoneThat]

scissorman:

Both are controlled by mmsys.cpl
It should be in C:\Windows\System folder.
If not, run SFC and extract a new copy from
your cab files.

 

[scissorman]

Thanks - sorry for being thick but what is SFC?

I've searched and found a sfc.dll file but I cannot open it. I see it may be attached to PC Health, but I don't seem to have an .exe file to open/launch PC health - am I missing something very obvious here (probably!)

I found mmsys.cpl in my systems folder, and I have just replaced it with a copy from my backups folder using msconfig, but it still doesn't appear.

Using TweakUI and the Control Panel tab the mmsys file is shown as working, and even though I have ticked the 'show all folders' option for control panle it will not appear, which seems to be stranger and stranger.

 

[Kento]

WinME doesn't have SFC. (SFC=sytem file checker) Your problem lies in the registry but I don't know in what keys. It looks like you'll need to reinstall.

 

[thatrenowned]

SFC is System File Checker. To run, go to START -> RUN and type sfc<enter>.
Another thing to try is go to c:\windows and find the control.ini file. Cut and paste this somewhere else and reboot. Then launch control panel so that this file has to be recreated. Maybe it has become corrupt.

Regards

 

[scissorman]

Quite right - no SFC on my WinME - just tried the control.ini delete but no difference - it's back exactly the same as before.

I am now going bald with anguish!

If the problem is registry bound I'm going to have to start hunting down some pretty mean streets to find where the control panel settings lurk...

 

[Kento]

I believe it would be far easier if you just reinstalled windows rather than trying to track down those registry keys and also what should info should be there that isn't.

 

[scissorman]

I think this is going to have to be the solution, I'm just a bit worried, that last time I reinstalled WinME (OEM version) I lost all my drivers and settings, and it took 5 days to put right, whereas when i used to have win95 it seemed to just update the parts of the installatio that had become corrupted.

Gulp...

 

[Kento]

If you click on mmsys.cpl does it open? You could just use it that way. It doesn't need to show in the control panel.

 

[scissorman]

See what you mean...all of them work except...mmsys.cpl.

I have another entry in my msbackup folder but that doesn't work either. So somewhere there must be major corruption faults or a conflict? SiSoft Sandra see's everything working fine.

I don't know what the .cpl file should be for the sounds icon, or is it incorporated in the multimedia folder?

It just seems crazy having to do a full system reinstall just for this one thing.

 

[wolluf]

ME doesn't have sfc, but its functionality has been included in msconfig.

 

[thatrenowned]

I didn't realise...I made my post at the same time as Kento...he\she must have hit submit before me