CompuServe Thread

"I have a Toshiba XM-3401B and am new to the CD-ROM World. I was wondering if I can play WAV file through the CD-ROM drive or do I need a sound card also." No, you cannot. The CD-ROM drive itself is only capable of Red-book sound played from the CD-ROM through the CD-ROM's audio circuitry. You can get a copy of a speaker driver for Windows which gives almost decent sound from your PCs speaker while hogging the CPU. It is much better to get a sound card, however. Soundblaster clones are available for under $100. You can get somewhat better sound out of a Disney SoundSource which can be found for as little as $15 or bundled with a disney game. The newer ones, I believe, come bundled with a driver for windows. Otherwise, you get the driver on-line. The quality is much better than the PC Speaker, and it does not completely hog the CPU (e.g., disabling interrupts), but it is still not like a real sound board, and it has no synthesis (MIDI) section (just WAV). Neil