IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have received this error, you are not using the latest RealPlayer. RealPlayer 8 Basic is a FREE, recommended update available for Windows 95/98/NT and recent Macintosh systems.
If your system meets the minimum system requirements, we recommend that you update your player now by clicking here and following the download and installation instructions.
Error #50 Cannot open audio device.
Windows and Macintosh Operating Systems
This message means that the RealAudio Player or the RealPlayer cannot play sound. If you are trying to play a stereo file, you should check that your sound card supports stereo input by playing the thankyou.ra file which was installed with the RealAudio Player or the thankyou.rm file that was installed with the RealPlayer in the same directory as the Player.
If you receive this error when playing the thankyou.ra clip, then it is possible that your sound card is unable to play stereo files.
If you were able to play the thankyou.ra file, but receive this message when trying to play other files, check the following:
- If you are running a game or other software that is playing sound, exit that application and try playing the clip again.
- Otherwise the error is probably due to your system's sound card drivers being improperly installed, misconfigured, or not current enough to be compatible with RealAudio and RealVideo. The following guidelines will help you troubleshoot the problem:
- Incorrect or missing sound card drivers.
Look in the sound card documentation for driver descriptions to make sure that your configuration is correct.
To see how the system's sound card is configured:
For Windows 3.1:
- Open the Control Panel from the Main program group.
- Click the Drivers icon.
- Compare the window's contents with sound card driver descriptions in the sound card documentation.
For Windows 95:
- Click My Computer on the Desktop.
- Click Properties.
- Click Device Manager.
- Click + next to Sound, video, and game controller. This tells you the current driver that Windows 95 is using.
- Compare the window's contents with sound card driver descriptions in the sound card documentation.
Note: If the installed drivers do not match, it is recommended that you reinstall the sound card.
- Older sound card drivers.
If the installed driver is more than six months old, it may not be compatible with RealAudio or RealVideo. Please update the sound card driver on your system. RealAudio Player and RealPlayer are designed to take advantage of the latest advances in driver technology. Older drivers can cause unexpected errors. Driver updates are usually available for free download from manufacturers' Web sites. The drivers are usually updated every few months. After installing the drivers, be sure to reboot your computer so the configuration changes take effect.
For Macintosh Users:
- Please verify that you are using Sound Manager 3.1 or better
Please see Apple's Web Site for more information about Sound Managers and system versions for compatibility with your system.
If the above actions fail to correct the problem, it is recommended that you contact the sound card manufacturer's technical support department to have your system's configuration investigated further.
- Incorrect or missing sound card drivers.
Error 50: "Cannot Open Audio Device" when using RealAudio Player or RealPlayer can be caused by the following conditions:
- Having a corrupted .raplayerXX file.
- Incorrect permissions on the audio device.
- Using a version of the Player compiled for a different operating system.
- Audio chip can only accept 8-bit audio.
- CPU is not powerful enough to use related codecs.
Most cases of Error 50 under UNIX can be resolved by working through each of these issues. Some issues may not apply to your particular machine or flavor of UNIX. Please note that certain device files or utilities on your system may differ from the ones listed here as a result of proprietary differences in UNIX flavors.
- Verify that you are not using a beta Player. If you are, upgrade to a release version of the Player.
To verify the version of the Player that you are using, please do the following:
- Open the Player.
- Select About from the Help menu to view the version number of the Player.
If it is a beta version, you should download the release version of the Player.
After installation, run the player to test:
- % raplayer welcome.ra
If this still generates Error 50, please move on to the next step.
- Delete your .raplayerX0 file from your home directory, and re-launch the Player to automatically rebuild this file.
To delete the .raplayerX0 file, please type the following at the command line:
- % cd
- % rm .raplayer*
Run the player to test:
- % raplayer welcome.ra
If this still generates Error 50, please move on to the next step.
- Verify that you have the correct permissions on the audio device:
In order for the RealAudio Player to function properly, it is essential that the permissions for the audio device are set correctly and that the audio device is functioning correctly. Also, the audio device cannot be shared, so if there are other audio applications running, this may cause an Error 50.
You can test this by playing an .AU audio file with an audio player. Many flavors of UNIX include an audio player utility in the installation. Irix users should have a utility named sfplay. For SunOS/Solaris users, there are audio files to use for testing in /usr/demo/SOUND/sounds, and an audio player, soundtool may be found in /usr/demo/SOUND/bin. Other UNIX flavors may or may not have a native audio player.
If this does not play the audio file, then try logging in as root to see if you can play an .AU file using soundtool. If you cannot play the .AU file as root, you have a system level audio problem. You should consult with your system administrator or with Sun Microsystems to find out if your machine is audio equipped.
If you can play audio as root, then you most likely have a permissions problem on the audio device files. The file permissions for the audio device files should be set to 777. The audio device files are generally:
- /dev/sound/0
- /dev/sound/0ctl
Note that the audio device files may differ from those listed here. Also note that these files may be "soft" linked to the real device files. If your audio files are "soft" links then you need to change the permissions on file to which the link points. You should consult your system administrator for assistance on changing the file permissions.
If your permissions are correct and you are able to play the .AU file, but still receive Error 50 from the Player, please move on to the next step.
- Verify that you are using the correct version of the Player for your machine.
From the command line, type:
- % uname -a
This will return the version information for your machine's operating system. The OS version returned should match the version of the Player you installed. A Player compiled for one flavor of UNIX will not work on another flavor of UNIX, even if they are very similar.
A common mistake is to use the SunOS 4.1.x Player in a Solaris environment. If your machine returns SunOS 4.1.x, you should be using the SunOS 4.1.x Player. If your machine returns SunOS 5.4.x/SunOS 5.5.x, your machine is running Solaris 2.4/2.5, and you should be using the Solaris 2.4/2.5 Player.
- Try setting the Advanced Preferences to "Disable 16-bit sound":
Older machines, including the SGI Iris and older SunSPARCs (SPARCclassic, SPARC LX, SPARC 1/1+, and SPARC 2/2+), may use an 8-bit, 8 kHz mu-law audio chip. Normally, the Player auto-detects the capabilities of the audio device, and sets itself accordingly. However, manually disabling 16-bit audio in the Player may solve Error 50.
To disable 16-bit audio, do the following:
- Open the RealAudio Player or RealPlayer.
- Select Preferences from the View menu.
- Select the Advanced tab from the Preferences window.
- Check the box to disable 16-bit sound.
- Click OK.
Run the player to test:
- % raplayer welcome.ra
If this still generates Error 50, it may be that your CPU is not compatible with certain RealAudio codecs, as explained in the next step.
- Test the RealAudio Player on older .RA files to check compatibility of the CPU with RealAudio.
Some machines, including Intel-based machines lower than a 486DX66, and older SunSPARCs (SPARCclassic, SPARC LX, SPARC 1/1+, and SPARC 2/2+) contain older CPUs which may not be able to decode RealAudio 3.0 codecs. RealAudio's compression schemes are very CPU/FPU intensive. If you have an older machine, you may be limited to listening to RealAudio 2.0 14.4 and 28.8 encoded files.
If your RealAudio Player can play these files, it is likely that the system cannot play RealAudio 3.0 files. You should still be able to play 14.4 files and RA 2.0 28.8 files. We apologize for this inconvenience, and we hope that you will consider RealNetworks products again when the time comes to upgrade your machine.
If your machine does not fit this profile and has made it through all the troubleshooting steps, please inform RealNetworks Technical Support by completing a support request