Zero Duration

[MaliasRV]

I've used Express Scribe for quite a while with no problems. Due to recent computer crash, I re-installed v. 4.16 on a different computer and now get 0 duration on DSS files. After reading similar posts, I tried installing 4.15 with no luck. I looked on old computer and I was using 4.08. It still works on old computer, but after transferring over to new one, it still won't on the new computer. To further complicate matters, the same program did work on the new computer before I had to reformat its hard drive, so I don't think it's the computer itself. It won't even load older files I know I transcribed on this computer with no problem before. I'm running Windows XP.

 

I've tried installing and reinstalling several times, have restarted the computer, etc. and am just unreasonably stressed about it now because work is piling up and I've really gotta get it working on the newer computer. Any suggestions from the gurus out there, please???

[MaliasRV]

I've been reading all the other posts about this subject and don't understand why the older versions worked for you guys, but not for me. So far I've tried 4.16, 4.15, 4.08 and 4.05. This very program used to work on this very machine before I had to reformat hard drive and reinstall. Could there be any setting that got screwed up that you could point me to? I've looked at everything I can see - properties of DSS file opens with scribe, but still with zero duration. I could really use some guidance here and really would appreciate your help.

[MaliasRV]

Aw, come on guys - doesn't anybody have anything else I can try? I'd be willing to pay for tech help, but the initial response I got from them suggested the older versions that I've already tried. If there is something else I can check, please, please, please let me know. This has really stumped me and I'd really appreciate some suggestions here. Many thanks! Malia

[malowi]

Aw, come on guys - doesn't anybody have anything else I can try? I'd be willing to pay for tech help, but the initial response I got from them suggested the older versions that I've already tried. If there is something else I can check, please, please, please let me know. This has really stumped me and I'd really appreciate some suggestions here. Many thanks! Malia

 

I had the same problem, it's very maddening. I kept playing around with different things and a window popped up and asked me to describe my problem, i did, and he sent me an email with a link that fixed it. Give it a try, it coudln't hurt. Good luck

 

Nikolay

[MaliasRV]

I had the same problem, it's very maddening. I kept playing around with different things and a window popped up and asked me to describe my problem, i did, and he sent me an email with a link that fixed it. Give it a try, it coudln't hurt. Good luck

 

Nikolay Semenkov <nik@nchsoftware.com

 

Hi Nikolay,

 

I really appreciate your reply, but I did get the link from ES tech which installed older version 4.05. However, I had already tried that from other replies on this forum and it doesn't work. I'm now convinced it is some sort of incompatibility problem between Windows XP Media Center Edition which won't allow DSS files to download properly. I've even tried downloading Switch and another conversion program to convert the DSS files to WAV, but I keep getting message about invalid file format. ES works fine on my older computer with regular Windows XP. I'm not getting any help from Windows support group, though. No replies yet, so it seems this problem has stumped everyone. Really don't know what to do at this point...I'm pretty frustrated.

[Guest nchda]

Have there been any changes to the system used to record and save the dss files?

I think there has been a change to the codec used to save dss files recently, and the new codec may not be released to 3rd party developers.

[miguel3239]

Just out of curiosity, I am wondering if anyone could try the following and report back if it works or not. My wife was having the same problem and tried going back to an older version and everything worked but then it would happen again even with the older version. Next, I would reinstall the newer version and it would work again for one or two but then back to not loading the files.

 

So, I started fiddling around with it and noticed that under Recover Old Files... there were quite a bit of files there. Therefore, I went in under settings and under the file tab. I changed the setting to remove Done files after 1 day. Closed ES and started it again. This cleaned everything out and I was then able to load in new files without any problems (and without having to re-install any programs).

 

My theory is that perhaps Express Scribe is choking if there are too many old files being saved for recovery. Just a theory and I would be curious if this helps anyone out or not. Although, it won't explain why the person who installed ES on another system, which didn't have the program to begin with, isn't working. We have been using ES for many years without any issues until recently. We really need to get to the bottom of this so everyone can get back to doing their work.

 

Regards,

Michael Y.

[MaliasRV]

I hope you find your solution, Michael. I just wish I could get it to work at all on my new computer. After much investigation and talking to more tech people in the last week than I ever want to talk to again in my life, I got a response from Olympus. It was as I suspected - DSS files won't play on Windows XP Media Center Edition. I had come to believe this when none of the file conversion programs that said they could convert DSS to WAV wouldn't work, either.

 

Here's what Olympus said:

 

"Windows XP Media Center Edition does not support any of the Olympus software program. The difficulties you have might be cause by incompatibility of your current software and the operating system too. Olympus products are not compatible with Media Center edition as this is a specially modified WIN version. Reverting to WIN XP will solve you a lot of difficulties related to the compatibility (as all the software programs available in these days are compatible with WIn XP Professional edition)."

 

And according to Toshiba, I can't get a restore disc from them for this computer with just the regular XP. So it looks like my only options at this point are to buy the retail version of Windows XP for about $200 and hope that doesn't cause more problems than I have now (and I'm not convinced of that). Or just use my old computer for DSS dictation. That's probably what I'll do because I really like the new computer for everything else.

 

I sure wish somebody (Microsoft, Olympus, Express Scribe, God) could do something to fix this, but apparently not...

 

If anybody ever comes up with an idea, I'd love to hear it.

 

Thanks,

Malia

 

 

 

 

 

Just out of curiosity, I am wondering if anyone could try the following and report back if it works or not. My wife was having the same problem and tried going back to an older version and everything worked but then it would happen again even with the older version. Next, I would reinstall the newer version and it would work again for one or two but then back to not loading the files.

 

So, I started fiddling around with it and noticed that under Recover Old Files... there were quite a bit of files there. Therefore, I went in under settings and under the file tab. I changed the setting to remove Done files after 1 day. Closed ES and started it again. This cleaned everything out and I was then able to load in new files without any problems (and without having to re-install any programs).

 

My theory is that perhaps Express Scribe is choking if there are too many old files being saved for recovery. Just a theory and I would be curious if this helps anyone out or not. Although, it won't explain why the person who installed ES on another system, which didn't have the program to begin with, isn't working. We have been using ES for many years without any issues until recently. We really need to get to the bottom of this so everyone can get back to doing their work.

 

Regards,

Michael Y.

[dianarms]

I've used Express Scribe for quite a while with no problems. Due to recent computer crash, I re-installed v. 4.16 on a different computer and now get 0 duration on DSS files. After reading similar posts, I tried installing 4.15 with no luck. I looked on old computer and I was using 4.08. It still works on old computer, but after transferring over to new one, it still won't on the new computer. To further complicate matters, the same program did work on the new computer before I had to reformat its hard drive, so I don't think it's the computer itself. It won't even load older files I know I transcribed on this computer with no problem before. I'm running Windows XP.

 

I've tried installing and reinstalling several times, have restarted the computer, etc. and am just unreasonably stressed about it now because work is piling up and I've really gotta get it working on the newer computer. Any suggestions from the gurus out there, please???

I am just getting started and downloaded ES. SOOO confusing and now I see that its not just me that has zero duration. I don't even know where to type! I have Windows XP.

[MaliasRV]

I feel your pain! From what I read on this forum from other people who had the same problem, you may need an older version if you're using 4.16. Here's what tech guy from ES sent me:

 

uninstall this version of ES(via control panel->add or remove programs) and download older version from link below and install it,

http://www.audiochannel.net/software/es.zip

 

Hopefully that easy fix will work for you!

 

Malia

 

 

I am just getting started and downloaded ES. SOOO confusing and now I see that its not just me that has zero duration. I don't even know where to type! I have Windows XP.

[ldjacka]

I feel your pain! From what I read on this forum from other people who had the same problem, you may need an older version if you're using 4.16. Here's what tech guy from ES sent me:

 

uninstall this version of ES(via control panel->add or remove programs) and download older version from link below and install it,

http://www.audiochannel.net/software/es.zip

 

Hopefully that easy fix will work for you!

 

Malia

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I have been searching for ages trying to find a fix for the problem described in this thread! I have uninstalled and reinstalled the older version as noted above, and all is good with the world again! Who said newer versions were always the best versions!! Give me tried and true anyday!

[bsptss]

I downloaded the link in the previous post but it did not solve my problem. I can download the voice files on my desktop and they work fine but when I download to my laptop the files still come out zero. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the above version, as well as earlier versions and still nothing works. I love Express Scribe and would like to use it on my laptop so I can work and travel. Thanks in advance.

 

Barbara S

[MaliasRV]

Barbara, are the operating systems on the laptop and desktop both exactly the same? Like on my two laptops - one has regular Windows XP and the other has the Media Center edition. As you saw from Olympus' reply I posted above, DSS files won't open in the Media Center edition, but everything works fine on my other laptop. Are you trying to open DSS files, also, or another audio format?

 

I'm glad this discussion has helped some and I hope you find the solution to yours, too. It's nice when people report back what worked - maybe if we keep this up we'll eventually find a solution to all our glitches!

[bsptss]

Yes, I have Windows XP Professional on my laptop and the same on my desktop. I'm still getting nowhere with this. I will definitely report back if I do figure it out. Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I'm glad some of you have been able to fix it.

 

Barbara

P.S. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

[wjboozer]

I feel your pain! From what I read on this forum from other people who had the same problem, you may need an older version if you're using 4.16. Here's what tech guy from ES sent me:

 

uninstall this version of ES(via control panel->add or remove programs) and download older version from link below and install it,

http://www.audiochannel.net/software/es.zip

 

Hopefully that easy fix will work for you!

 

Malia

 

Thank you Malia! I thought I had an older version saved but could not find it. You saved my day AND my paycheck!

Wanda

[dms1448]

I had to reinstall Vista due to a crash. That meant reinstall Express Scribe. The new 4.16 version showed "ZERO DURATION" and wouldn't play my dss files. I tried the suggested 4.15 version, but same thing.

 

Then I tried the older 4.05 suggestion (from http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/index.html choose "primary"). PHEW! It didn't play at first, but then I remembered to also download the component "dss32.exe" from http://www.nch.com.au/components/index.html. It works better than ever! I hope this helps someone to know that these steps helped me. If you download the older versions, get the dss component too, or else it won't work!

 

THANKS to all of you who threw suggestions out for us, WITH posted links!

[wjboozer]

Friends,

 

Quite by accident, I may have stumbled on to a solution.

 

I had to finally reformat my hard drive and start over with a clean Windows install to stop all the other problems I was having. When I was reinstalling everything, I reinstalled ES 4.17 by mistake but just left it to go back and remove later. Then I updated my Java Script components and when I went back to ES, shock my socks off , the files were showing the correct duration times..........I loaded and unloaded files several times just to be sure it wasn't a fluke.......It does hesitate a second before changing from all zeros to the correct count, but it IS working..........I'm running Windows 2000 SP 4 so I do not know if this will help you XP folks but I'd give updating the Java Script components a shot any way.

 

Wanda

[luminosity]

I built a new computer. I'm running WinXP Pro SP2. It's the same OS I was running on my old computer, and Express Scribe worked just fine with DSS files. Now, it doesn't.

 

So, I tried the suggestions here, but the link to http://www.audiochannel.net/software/es.zip leads to version 4.17, which doesn't play the DSS files I have here. Does anyone have an older version I could try? I'm getting tearful with frustration, and I'm on a deadline!

 

Thank so much!

[luminosity]

Answering my own question-- I found an older version of Scribe (4.05). I uninstalled the latest version of Scribe. I edited my registry, removing all instances of Express Scribe from the registry. Don't try this at home unless you've backed up your registry and feel comfortable/experienced enough to work with the registry.

 

Anyway, I did that, reinstalled the DSS32.exe, then installed the older version of Express Scribe, and it works now.

 

Luminosity

 

I built a new computer. I'm running WinXP Pro SP2. It's the same OS I was running on my old computer, and Express Scribe worked just fine with DSS files. Now, it doesn't.

[Guest nchgb]

Express Scribe v4.17 is out and has correct all problems regarding this issue. Please use this version in future, it is available directly from our site.

[paula05]

I installed 4.17 and tested it with new dictation and it works!

 

Paula

[MaryB]

Express Scribe v4.17 is out and has correct all problems regarding this issue. Please use this version in future, it is available directly from our site.

I have the newest version. The audio mp3 files on my computer when loaded show zero duration (file types enabled). I have downloaded other transcription software and they play. However your software looks as if it would be better as it has more features but unfortunately it won't play the mp3 files though it shows the time the duration is zero - windows media player also plays them. Is there a fix for this as I have looked through the forum and cannot find one.

[rjcinportland]

I oversee dozens of secretaries who use Express Scribe, and when several of them received new computers as part of a periodic upgrade, we began to experience the zero duration problem. The new computers were set up with 4.16 as a part of the system configuration, and when we uninstalled 4.16 and reinstalled other versions we still had the problem. I tried all of the recommendations in these forums, and nothing worked. Then I noticed a new dss decoder (dssdec.exe) on the NCH components page, and loaded on several of the problem computers, and this fixed the problem.

 

RJC

[MaryB]

I oversee dozens of secretaries who use Express Scribe, and when several of them received new computers as part of a periodic upgrade, we began to experience the zero duration problem. The new computers were set up with 4.16 as a part of the system configuration, and when we uninstalled 4.16 and reinstalled other versions we still had the problem. I tried all of the recommendations in these forums, and nothing worked. Then I noticed a new dss decoder (dssdec.exe) on the NCH components page, and loaded on several of the problem computers, and this fixed the problem.

 

RJC

Thanks for your reply, but it did not help. These are mp3 files. Could it be the type of mp3 file?