Troubleshooting Speaking or Converting Documents

If Text Speaker cannot convert or speak a document, it displays a message that helps you solve the problem.  This section gives you some hints on how to proceed on when you receive an error message.

One of the following errors appear when the Windows Audio Service is not started.

• Unable to find Audio Device

• Audio Hardware Problems

• Audio drivers not present

By default, the Windows Audio service is turned off in Windows Server 2008, and it can be stopped in other versions of Windows.

To fix this problem, start the Windows Audio service.  You can do this by clicking Start >> Control Panel >> Administrative Tools >> Services.  In the list of services, double click the Windows Audio service.

In the Settings window that appears, set the Startup Type to Automatic.

The following message may appear if a voice you selected is installed on your computer, but is not working correctly.

The voice [name] is not working.  Please reinstall the voice.

Test the voice by clicking Tools >> Voice>>Test Settings.

If the voice plays normally in the Voice Options window, there is some text or phoneme present in the document which this voice cannot speak.  Try using a different voice to read the document.

Some SAPI 4 voices can read text aloud correctly, but cannot convert the same text into an audio file.  If possible, always use the SAPI 5 version of a voice.

If the voice does not play correctly when you click Test Settings, the voice may be damaged or corrupted.  First, restart the computer and try again.  If this does not work, you should reinstall the voice.  You can download the voices again from your Account, or purchase AT&T voices.