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[iant54]

Hi, I seem to have lost the WASAPI option from the Audio Device dropdown.  I've still got ASIO but this seems to be from the driver that came with my DAC.  When I first installed everything I also had a WASAPI option which seemed to give slightly better sound.  Since then (and after a Windows clean-up) it's gone and I'd like to get it back.  Is there a way to do this without doing a complete reinstall?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Ian

[BryanC]

What do you mean by a "Windows clean-up?"

[Ninouchka]

 A little bit more info please, which DAC do you use, windows version etc.?
For me I choose as windows playback device - JRiver media center (with this selection, you have to run MC and other windows programs play then via MC using the asio driver of your choice)
and as playback device in JRiver MC I choose the asio driver of my DAC which is ASIO RME on the htpc and on MC Server ASIO Avid MBox Pro 3.
Mostly ASIO is the fastest and the cleanest in sound, if you got a descent DAC.

[ken-tajalli]

some two-bit win cleaning softwares go through the registry and delete stuff they don't recognize.
Do a system restore, to get your registry back, it'll turn up.

[iant54]

Thanks for the replies everyone.  By 'windows cleanup' I mean that I used a program called 'Should I Remove It' which is excellent at identifying things that could or should be removed.  It allows the user to decide program by program what to get rid of.  I did this as part of getting rid of as many background processes as possible to ensure best possible performance for JRiver.

I'm using Windows Vista (32 bit) into an iFi Nano direct into a Rotel RB870BX power amp then into Klipsch Heresy speakers.

When I originally got everything set up I had both an ASIO and a WASAPI option in the JRiver Audio Device drop down.  After comparing the two I picked the WASAPI option as sounding slightly better.  Since my cleanup I've only got the ASIO option.  I assumed that these options came with JRiver but maybe they came with my DAC.  maybe I'll try reinstalling that.

[BryanC]

Thanks for the replies everyone.  By 'windows cleanup' I mean that I used a program called 'Should I Remove It' which is excellent at identifying things that could or should be removed.  It allows the user to decide program by program what to get rid of.  I did this as part of getting rid of as many background processes as possible to ensure best possible performance for JRiver.

I'm using Windows Vista (32 bit) into an iFi Nano direct into a Rotel RB870BX power amp then into Klipsch Heresy speakers.

When I originally got everything set up I had both an ASIO and a WASAPI option in the JRiver Audio Device drop down.  After comparing the two I picked the WASAPI option as sounding slightly better.  Since my cleanup I've only got the ASIO option.  I assumed that these options came with JRiver but maybe they came with my DAC.  maybe I'll try reinstalling that.

Registry cleaners and the like are not necessary nor good. Your computer is not a carpet. Any modern computer has enough resources to run many, many background programs simultaneously.

Who really knows what damage that program caused. If you can't understand what a program is doing, you shouldn't run it.

It sounds like it may have gone through the device manager and removed any unused devices. You can try reinstalling your iFi drivers, but again, who really knows.

[iant54]

Thanks Bryan but I've got a reasonably good idea of what I'm doing and the process did uncover a lot of stuff including a couple of ad-insertion malware programs that Kaspersky had missed.  The PC runs much faster now.  I love the carpet analogy btw!

Good news is that I checked the iFi directories and there was one dll that looked like it might be the one I needed.  I registered it and, sure enough, I now have the WASAPI option back.

[JimH]

Registry cleaners and the like are not necessary nor good. Your computer is not a carpet. Any modern computer has enough resources to run many, many background programs simultaneously.

Agree with this.  Registry cleaners should not be used.

[alglove]

Good news is that I checked the iFi directories and there was one dll that looked like it might be the one I needed.  I registered it and, sure enough, I now have the WASAPI option back.

This is good news, at least, for anyone else who accidentally zaps his WASAPI drivers. What did you do to reregister the dll? Find where the driver is installed and type "regsvr32 some.dll" from a Command Prompt with administrative privileges? How did you figure out which dll to register?

[iant54]

This is good news, at least, for anyone else who accidentally zaps his WASAPI drivers. What did you do to reregister the dll? Find where the driver is installed and type "regsvr32 some.dll" from a Command Prompt with administrative privileges? How did you figure out which dll to register?

I did exactly that.  I looked in the iFi Drivers directory and there were only a couple of dll's, one with ASIO in the name and one with API in the name.  I registered the second and the WASAPI option showed up in JRiver once I restarted it.

The WASAPI driver sounds significantly better IMHO.  The music sounds more natural and much more rhythmical.