Fix for voice conversations on MSN Messenger

I have windows XP. Having problems with voice on MSN messenger. I renamed the bad rtcdll.dll file and put in the good one. But everytime I run MSN messenger, the bad one magically appears in the System32 folder….HELP!

YES!!! Exactly same thing happens to me. I thought I was goind Mad(der). I thought it was something to do with my Virus checker but no….I disabled it and it still behaves in the same way. MSN is now not even installed on my machine so what the hell is changing this DLL back. Even if I delete it and refresh the directory, wow. It comes back as if my magic. How very annoying.. :o(

Marcus.

I am running Zone Alarm Pro, should I disable this before starting audio and webcam

I tried this fix with XP home and it worked!!
Before I found the fix I:
-went through the audio/video tuning wizard in MSN msg 6
-removed all anti-virus s/w
-shutdown ICF (Internet connection firewall) – go to control panel->admin tools->services)
-connected directly to my cable modem instead of through my SMC router

After I had tried all those things and nothing worked I then discovered this post. Thanks for the info Petem.

Here are some XP notes that may help.

XP will automatically replace rtcdll.dll with a saved copy if you just delete it from c:windowssystem32. I did a search of c: and found three copies and one of them was a different version and a bigger file. I selected them all in the search window and deleted all of them at the same time. XP immediately tried to replace the missing rtcdll.dll, but this time it couldn’t find it so it complained with an error message and told me to insert my XP service pack 1 cd. Yeah right.

I then installed Windows Messenger 5 not MSN Messenger 5. I didn’t really read the post too closely and didn’t realize the difference. Anyway I tried to have an audio conversation with my friend who was doing exactly the same thing on a Win 2000 machine and VOILA it worked with Windows messenger 5!!

Next I installed MSN Messenger 6. I then tried it again fully expecting it not to work becuase I hadn’t replaced rtcdll.dll, but it worked TOO!

I then checked c:windowssystem32 and I don’t even have an rtcdll.dll anymore. I then did a search for rtcdll.dll on my drive and found two different copies then the originals ones I had. I am guessing one is for MSN MSG 6 and one is for WIN MSG 5. I don’t really care because everything seems to work.

So currently I have WIN MSG 5 and MSN MSG 6 installed and audio works on both.

I finally connected my computer to my router again. Then things stopped working again. I had already emailed SMC tech support and they gave me a list of things to try. The first item on the list was:

All you need to do is enable a proxy server in MSN messenger.
Open MSN
Click tools > options > connections
click use proxy server
under server use 192.168.2.1 under port 80 using a HTTP proxy.
using the user ID and password from your internet service provider.

I did exactly that except I left the user ID, password and realm blank. Then things started working again!!

Next my friend connected his computer back to his SMC router and setup the HTTP proxy, but now we can’t do audio anymore. At this point we had to quit for the night, but he uses a different ISP and I am sure that once he enters the correct user ID and password everything will start working again.

I hope this helps someone.

robray-
Did you have to insert the Service pack cd at anytime during this process? Computer will still work after you delete all three rtcdll.dll files? I have three files like you and plan on trying out your fix fairly soon.

I still have the audio problem;
I don’t use the audio conversation much but I have it with one particular friend. I am running Windows 2000 with messenger v6.1.0203 and the friend has Windows XP with the same messenger. The problem is that sometimes the audio connection will never establish a connection, sometime it will establish the connection but only in one direction (I usually can hear him, but he can’t hear me), and on the rare occation it seem to work properly. I tried with the original rtcdll.dll, I tried all the combinations of that fix and still the same problem. We are both behind linksys routers with a recent BIOS, I have enabled uPNP on both. He seems to have problems sometimes connecting to others were he has to try the audio connection a few times before it establishes a connection.
He uses the video and that always makes the connection, just seems to be the audio that has the problem.
Ideas?

I have upgraded my MSN to 6.1 and the rtcdll.dll has gone back to version 4.2.4949.1001. I haven’t had chance to test audio and visual with anyone outside of my network yet. Like you said it is about time Microsoft fixed these gremlins out.

Tom – this could be good news indeed! I shall download the new version asap and give it a go! This problem has been plaguing me for weeks. Thanks.