VB3 How to Detect If Your Computer Has a Sound Card

- Standard and Professional Editions of Microsoft Visual Basic for

  Windows, versions 2.0 and 3.0

SUMMARY

It is often useful to be able to detect if a system has a sound card capable of playing back wave audio data (.WAV files). This article demonstrates how to do this.

MORE INFORMATION

The multimedia Application Programming Interface (API) has a function, waveOutGetNumDevs(), which returns the number of devices in the system capable of playing back wave audio data.

Step by Step Example

1. Start a new project in Visual Basic (ALT, F, N), and place a Command' button (Command1) on Form1.

2. Add the following declaration to the General Declarations section of Form1:

      Declare Function waveOutGetNumDevs Lib "MMSYSTEM" () As Integer
   
   

3. Add the following code to the Command1_Click event:

      Sub Command1_Click ()
         Dim i As Integer
   
         i = waveOutGetNumDevs()
         If i > 0 Then         ' There is at least one.
            MsgBox "You Can Play Wave Data"
         Else
            MsgBox "Cannot Play Wave Data"
         End If
      End Sub
   
   

4. Press the F5 key to run the code. Then click the command button. An appropriate message will let you know if your computer play wave audio data.