I've tried running XACT and XAudio tutorial programs on several computers, both say Xact engine failed to init, or Xaudio engine failed to init. It runs on mine, but i have directx sdk march 2008 installed. Any idea what do other PCs require to run the examples?

Of course you've installed the latest runtime redist package on those computers?

Yes, latest directx, Microsoft XNA Framework Redistributable 2.0, .NET are installed.

Just to make 100% sure - run the DX web installer. I can never remember if the XXXX SDK actual installs ALL the optional parts from previous SDKs (it will if you run the redist in the SDK). Plus it never hurts to run it https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3 (Maybe you have already done this in which case please excuse the insistence we get so many people in here who tell us 'DirectX is installed' but it turns out that one part or another is actually missing - the OS doesn't actually ship with all the optional parts and Xact uses those)

If you are running the Xact creation tool then it actually also requires the .Net 1.1 redist too. Crazy eh?

Otherwise you can sometimes use Process Monitor to watch for the files its trying to load and then see the one that fails to find.

 

i met the same problem, and the Engine was created successfully, but init fails error code :XAUDIO2_E_DEVICE_INVALIDATED but the compute can play music by other media player

I HAVE THIS SAME PROBLEM..."FAIL TO INIT XACT.."

I INSTALLED ALL THE DIRECTX SDKs FROM AUGUST 2007 TO NOVEMBER 2008, INSTALLED NET FRAMEWORK 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 SP1, 3.0 SP1, 3.5, AND ALL RELATED UPDATES.
I INSTALLED XNA GAME STUDIO 1.0 REFRESH, 2.0, 3.0.
TRIED USING THE VARIOUS PROJECT SAMPLES FROM THE SDK TUTORIALS FOLDER, AND TRIED CREATING SOME OF MY OWN.
TRIED USING THE ONBOARD AUDIO DRIVERS OF MY SYSTEM, AND THEN AGAIN WITH A SOUND CARD INSTALLED.
MADE SURE MY VISUAL STUDIO 2008 C++ EXPRESS EDITION IDE PROJECT SETTINGS INCLUDED THE CORRECT SDK DIRECTORIES, FRAMEWORKS, LINKER DEPENDENCIES, ETC., ETC.

I TOOK A LOOK AT THE OUTPUT TO SEE WHAT WAS GOING ON..I FOUND ALOT OF TIMES THAT THE setupapi.dll FILE KEPT BEING LOADED THEN UNLOADED.  I HAD WINXP SERVICE PACK3 INSTALLED.

SO I JUST SIMPLY WENT INTO DOS, COPIED THE PREVIOUS VERSION OF THE setupapi.dll FILE BACK INTO THE WINDOWS FOLDER, REBOOTED, BUT THAT DID NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM.  IT MAY HAVE BEEN ANOTHER FILE CONFLICT, BUT IT WAS NOT AS OBVIOUS TO SEE..

I WAS GOING TO UNINSTALL THE SERVICE PACK3, AND REINSTALL SERVICE PACK2, BUT I CHANGED MY MIND FOR FEAR THAT MY SYSTEM WOULD NOW HAVE EVEN MORE PROBLEMS, JUST FOR TRYING TO GET THE XACT AUDIO TO WORK.

IT DID WORK IN AN OLD LAPTOP OF MINE, AN HPZE4805US MODEL.  BUT THE LAPTOP NO LONGER WORKS.

 

ANY IDEAS YOU MAY KNOW THAT I HAVE NOT TRIED...

THANKS!

so much screaming...

Did you run the DirectX web installer, as ZMan said? It often has miraculous results.

YES I DID..I RAN THE WEB INSTALLER WITH THE LATEST DIRECTX SDK (November 2008).

AND THEN AGAIN SEPARATELY VIA THE MICROSOFT DOWNLOAD WEBSITE..

OH, AND I DIDN'T MEAN TO SCREAM SO MUCH..JUST WANTED TO WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING I'VE TRIED SO FAR.

THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTION.

BO391:

OH, AND I DIDN'T MEAN TO SCREAM SO MUCH..

Writing in uppercase is considered screaming/shouting in almost all text based communication channels.

BO391:

OH, AND I DIDN'T MEAN TO SCREAM SO MUCH..JUST WANTED TO WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING I'VE TRIED SO FAR.

Just for your own personal benefit, in the online world, typing in all capital letters is considered "yelling" or "screaming". So by typing your posts in all capital letters it gives those of us used to this world the impression that you're yelling at us.

Figured I should clear that up for you :)  So in the future, turn your caps lock key off and use normal capitalization rules (unless of course you really do want to scream something....)

Thank You for clearing that up, and sorry about that.

I hope I can figure out why the XACT doesn't seem to work.  This issue seems to show up alot on many searches
I've browsed through.

 If I find a fix, I'll be sure to post it here.

Thanks again.

Grin, BO391 and xoyojank - the problems you are hitting may or may not be related.  It is helpful to provide as much information as possible: exact error messages, dxdiag output, debugger output if possible, what's different about the environments/circumstances when it succeeds and when it fails, etc.

But in the cases where both XACT and XAudio2 fail with error 0x88960004 (XAUDIO2_E_DEVICE_INVALIDATED), you may be hitting the problem described in these two threads:
http://forums.xna.com/forums/t/23108.aspx
http://forums.xna.com/forums/t/22528.aspx

To verify this, run mmsys.cpl and see if there's anything unexpected in the device list on the Audio tab.  If more than 1 device is listed, try setting each one of them as the default in turn and seeing if audio works.  XAudio2 (and hence XACT) gets confused if any of the devices in this list are non-functional.  If this is the problem, you could try the workarounds I suggested in those threads.

 Just to let you know, my original creator name was BO391. I had to create another name, bb391, for reasons unknown.
 The website kept asking me to create a new profile, so I did..

Getting back to the subject..
I took a look at the two threads (thanks!), but I'm not sure if that is the real cause of the problem I am having.

I'm not really experienced at programming (trying to learn C++ on my own), but I'll try to explain as best I can:

DirectX SDK (11/2008)..

  -None of the XACT tutorials work, "fail to init xact" message box appears. The following dll's appear in the module
   window of VS 2008 C++ Express IDE as conflicts (! exclamation's):  xactengine3_3.dll , XAudio2_3.dll , sahook.dll
   (The sahook.dll is for the McAfee Site Advisor program. I uninstalled it, but that did not solve the problem)

   The CodeDriven ("Bankless") XACT tutorial shuts down automatically..various codes like 0 (0x0) , win32 thread
   (0x1500), etc., etc..

  -The Xaudio2 tutorials, however, do play audio, and work fine except for the XAudio2Sound3D tutorial (I don't have
    my system properly configured to play 3D audio..).
    As mentioned, I can play/hear audio with the other tutorials, even with some audio files I created/edited on my own.
    There are, however, still some conflicts (!exclamations in the module window) that need to be worked out:

    xaudioD2_3.dll      shows up in the basic sound and basic stream xaudio2 tutorials

    D3DX10d_40.dll     shows up in the Custom APO xaudio2 tutorial, audio sound is fine, and the window controls
    msvcr90d.dll         seem to work fine too (move the volume slider left/right, select/unselect options, etc.)
    xaudioD23.dll
    IadHide5.dll
    sahook.dll
    d3dref9.dll
    xinput1_3.dll


It seems like the xactengine3_3.dll, and xaudio2_3.dll appears the most.
I already ran the latest Web Installer a number of times, but the problem remains..