hoot not starting? by JILost at 11:33 AM EDT on March 12, 2014
I followed the steps on the hoot archive to install it (unzip, add ini enhancements, etc.) but every time I try to run hoot.exe, I get a little dialog that says " device initialization failed." and nothing happens. There's no indication of whether it's a video or audio device at fault and I can't figure out what the problem is. I tried changing from Direct3D to DirectDraw in the ini and changing Windows to not "only use default devices" in Sounds and Audio Devices; neither helped. I've tried googling but that was fruitless.
which version of Hoot are you using, and under what OS? I've had a number of obtuse problems under XP, and sometimes it would stop working until I restarted the computer, always for unclear reasons. I think the program might sometimes bump into territorial disputes with other software that is running (or was run recently). I occasionally seem to get the same thing with BridgeM1.
Did you try the curated package uploaded by MIJET? It's set up to be (slightly) easier for someone new to the program to use, so it might simplify the process of figuring out the problem by removing some chances of user error.
Most recent version of hoot, downloaded from the link on snesmusic.org/hoot, running on XP SP3. I'll reboot and see what happens, then try your link and see whether anything changes.
You're getting the exact same error for both the original install attempts and the MIJET package? A window that says "Device initialization failed", with nothing else and nothing helpful in the window's header?
Windows should actually have several available tools for you to try and figure out what went wrong. Unfortunately, it's sometimes hard to figure out which to go to and how to parse the information they record.
After you try running Hoot and getting the error, try searching your system for files (including hidden ones) that were created or modified in the last day, and look for any that were updated in the last few minutes. They might contain logged debug information on what went wrong, although it could be difficult to understand.
One program that specifically tries to track these sorts of problems is Dr. Watson, which should be included with your Windows install. It might be producing useful error logs when Hoot tries to run - if you can find the specifically relevant information, someone here might be able to understand it, even if it looks like gibberish to you.
I tried googling "Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 redistributable" and the result took me to a Microsoft download page, so I installed that. No change.
The small dialog's title bar says "hoot"; the dialog itself says " device initialization failed." including the space but without the quotes, and there's an ok button. That's it.