DirectSong Error

Hi there,
Just to be clear from the beginning, I'm not some noob who has a problem and comes straight to other people for help. I have been doing my research, and yet after literally years of trying, I just can't fix this problem.

The problem, in a nutshell, is DirectSong's little yellow warning sign in the sound options. I have asked the DirectSong support centre directly, but it has been over two weeks and there has been no reply - a problem that seems to be very common. I have downloaded the latest .ds and .dll files, and updated the path. I have tried amending the GuildWars target path with -dsong. I have tried playing all the songs in Media Player, and they all work. I even tried buying a new soundpack in-case that contained something I couldn't get anywhere else - no difference.

I have visited these threads and websites, and tried everything they suggested, but to no avail: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10131422 , http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10179485 , http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Talk:...to_play_ingame , http://www.directsong.com/support/he...view.asp?ID=17 , http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ght=DirectSong , http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ght=DirectSong , http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ght=DirectSong .

I don't know what to do, short of completely uninstalling all of GuildWars and DirectSong, and starting from scratch.

As far as I remember, the game folder and DirectSong folder have never changed since installation. I don't remember there being any significant upgrades to my PC since their install... besides my graphics card, possibly. That having been said, I just now bought and downloaded the EotN soundtrack (having to use this link: http://www.directsong.com/zip to download the file, as the website was not working) and that still doesn't work. I can't reinstall any of the other soundtracks from the setup files they were downloaded with, showing this error: "Error Message - 11010 [ ip req timed out ]" - which was not being blocked by a firewall. The setup also popped up with a message saying I need adobe flash on my computer, which I already have.
I don't remember DirectSong ever really working... at least not after any of the expansions coming out. Its not a case of DirectSong not turning on, as the icon is there, just permanently with the yellow warning sign telling me to go to their support page.
For the record, I have Windows XP and Media Player 10.
I'm sick of having paid money for these soundtracks and not being able to use them. Any help anyone can provide will be extremely appreciated and I'll be happy to provide any additional information.

I'm getting exactly the same problem dude..have no clue what to do next..

same problem here to. trying to get it working for ages.

In regedit goto: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DirectSong\MusicPath and be sure the path points to the current location of DirectSong directory. For XP it is: C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\My Documents\DirectSong ...Vista will be different. Also be sure the music files have the DMA unlocked, by loading one in each directory from Windows Media Player.

That worked for me when I finally switched back to XP, after getting sick of Vista. As far as I can tell their installers no longer work, and they no longer support their product.

Also, this might be stupid, but once i did that:

I had my DirectSong folder on other account in my documents. I play on the other user, and i couldnt play ds due to the restrictions. Maybe check if you play on the same user as you have ds.

As I said, I updated the path with the .exe they provide, and also like I said, I've tested them all in WMP and they all worked. As for DirectSong... Well, I hope ANet provides these upgrades through their in-game shop, rather than a third-party.

Sadly this can't help me either, as there is only one user set for this computer, and that's mine (the admin account).

Moku, sorry to ask you this, but I just want to be sure (it sounds like you're going everything right)... you're actually running that .exe they provide from the same directory that contains ds_guildwars.dll, correct? Are you seeing a message: old path was ..., new path is ... when it runs? Do those values look correct?

For me...they look correct..still trying to make it work..almost giving up..

What antivirus software are you using? Just wondering, no specific reason.

Yeah, I'm running that exact .exe, with the right path showing up in the window. None of these 'official' methods described by DirectSong seem to work, at least not any more... perhaps ANet accidentally patched the in-game sound without updating DirectSong's in-game access? Perhaps some programmers out there could create a ANet approved mod to bypass this problem? (Of course, I'm making a complete guess as to the cause...)

I have Sygate Firewall, AVG Resident Shield and Spybot-SD Resient all passively running, and a couple of other anti-spy/ad programs to scan with periodically. However, I don't see why a firewall would interfere with DirectSong when it is running from my computer, and if so, why it wouldn't be affecting GuildWars itself. Plus if it were my specific firewall/programs, why would these other people be having the same problem?
I will try running GuildWars without protection to see if they fixes the problem, though I highly doubt it. I'll update this post when I do.

Update: Nope, absolutely no difference. Keep using protection, kids.

Update 2: Also, in case you were wondering, XP's inbuilt firewall is off.

DirectSong is working fine for me.


DirectSong uses a different port than Guild Wars. But it only does it once to install your license. Some times when using multiple firewalls/Anti-viruses one will allow access through a port while another will not.

To summerize what we know about your system. You are using Windows XP (version unknown) and Windows Media Player 10. You are getting an IP time out error "Error Message - 11010 [ ip req timed out ]" when you attempt to reinstall using the orginal instaler. You have tried using the "-dsong" parameter.

Is WMP the default music player for WMA files?
Have you tried downloading the zip files and extracting them into a directory that is one or two levels from root? For example c:\directsong\...
Did you or WMP change the name of any of the music files?

However all my licences are installed and working through WMP, which had no problem connecting to the server. It was only the music installer than had problems, though that was bypassed by downloading the .zip from the directory address in my original post.

The .wma files were associated to Winamp, and I changed it back to WMP, but no difference. I've checked all the names and they are correct. As for the directory, it was installed to the standard spot in GuildWars, which is currently on the path:
D:\Games\Guild Wars\DirectSong
I don't really see what removing one tier from that would achieve, and doesn't DirectSong have to be in the GuildWars folder?
Also, I'm running XP Professional, Service Pack 3.

Update: In fact, if your DirectSong is working, why don't you give us all of your details so we can see if there are any differences we haven't mentioned?

Did you check HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DirectSong\MusicPath in registry? thats what Guild Wars needs in order to find the music, otherwise it can't play. No, to your question about the location it can be anywhere, but your registry must point to the that location. By default in XP it installs to C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\My Documents\DirectSong so your registry could be wrong.

If you dont want to use regedit, you can save the following as a text file, then rename it to ds.reg and double click to import it.

DirectSong provided an executable file called "RegisterDirectSongDirectory.exe", which updates the path to the current DirectSong location, and the registry file reflected this change.
I moved the DirectSong file directly to D-drive and updated the path, but this still made no difference

Hmmm... I really wish I could sit down at your computer, anyway...
I know that DirectSong requires WMP to be the default player for WMA files when it is installed. Can I assume that you have reinstalled DirectSong after restoring WMP's association with WMA files?
On a side note I use to have WinAMP installed, but it caused problems with a few other applications so it was uninstalled a few years ago.

Off Topic but; On XP 64bit systems DirectSong does not work if installed in the "default" directory. I ended up installing it in a special folder just off the root of the drive. The installer for Guild Wars is 32Bit so it installed Guild Wars into the "Program Files x86" folder, which name changes to just "Program Files" when Guild wars is running.

I guess you have already checked this, but do have the .wma files in the directories:

/DirectSong/Guild Wars Battle Pak One
/DirectSong/Guild Wars Eye of the North Original Soundtrack
/DirectSong/Guild Wars Factions Original Soundtrack
/DirectSong/Guild Wars Nightfall Original Soundtrack
/DirectSong/Guild Wars Special Edition Soundtrack
/DirectSong/Sorrow's Furnace Mini-Pak

and also have GuildWars.ds and the ds_GuildWars.dll files in /DirectSong/


My default player for wma files is VideoLanPlayer, and DirectSong works fine.

How exactly do you reinstall DirectSong? As far as I was aware, it was created along with whatever the first music pack you bought was... i figured it was added onto the main GuildWars file, and would require an complete reinstallation of GuildWars to do such a thing. If downloading a new music pack would reinstall DirectSong, then yes...

On a separate note, the DirectSong website has been updated... maybe FAQs will work once more.

Yeah I checked out the new site. Go to www.directsong.com/wma and you can download the usable in-game files. Also if you log on and go to past purchases you can (finally) download DRM free MP3s of your Guild Wars music.

When running RegisterDirectSongDirectory.exe on Vista+ make sure you run it as an administrator. Otherwise it does not create the registry key in the correct location for GW to find it.