I know that strictly speaking this is the wrong forum for this Windows problem. However, as it is impacting on my ability to use FS2Crew I thought I'd ask here in case anyone else had experienced the problem.

 

Firstly, my system is set up correctly to use my Plantronic headset & mic perfectly ok with the FS2Crew Voice Control version as I have been doing for almost a year now.

 

The other day, having fired up the 737NGX I could not get a response after firing up FS2Crew. It came up as normal and all looked fine but when I spoke there was no response and when I turned on the green stripe (which I normally have off) nothing showed there. I checked that the mike was not muted.

 

So, to dig a bit further I opened up speech recognition and clicked on "set up mic" to see what happened and to check that my mic was working. Up came a message "The Wizard could not start. Make sure your audio hardware is working properly...etc."

 

I clicked on "Advanced Speech options" and got a message "Speech Properties could not initialize volume meter. Please select a different audio input device."

 

I could go on with detail of how I go around in circles but eventually the reason is that "Windows Shell Common DLL is not working." I've Googled this but without much joy.

 

Has anyone else had this problem and found a solution, please? Until then I'm back to the button control version.

 

Iain Smith

Hi Iain,

 

Have you tried contacting MS support... doubt it would be do much good.

 

Sounds like you have a corrupt system file.

 

Can you repair Windows 7?

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/412561-reinstalling-win7-without-re-installing-fsx/

 

try this if all fails

Maybe you could try to open a command prompt window, type 'sfc /scannow' (without the apostrophes) and hit [Enter]. The System File Checker will now verify the integrity of every protected operating system file on your computer and repair/replace them when necessary. Reboot your computer.

Hi guys,

 

Thanks for your responses but solution was not as drastic as some feared. I remembered after posting that this happened after some Windows updates were installed. So, knowing the install date of the 24 or so updates I worked through them removing them one at a time and checking - a laborious process - until I found the culprit. This was update KB2875783. As soon as it was gone all was back to normal!

 

I have re-installed all the other updates but that one gets a wide berth from me!

 

This isn't the first time that a Windows 7 update has messed up something on my system. MS are getting careless, although to be fair with so many different systems running Windows things like this are bound to happen.

 

At least me and my FO are on speaking terms again!  :lol:

 

Iain

Glad you got it sorted :-)

Just an update - Windows kept insisting on re-installing that update so I let it and this time everything was ok! Either my original d/load was corrupted or MS have corrected something.

 

Anyway there is no further need to be wary of W7 update KB2875783.

 

Iain