VCR not running (already tried recommended Wiki fix)

Whenever I try to load a VCR it gives me the following message

"Unable to initialize DirectSound - sound card may not be present" and
sometimes afterwords will give me another message that boots me out of
planets

"Run-time error '282':
No Foreign application responded to a DDE initiate"

I'm using a VAIO SZ running Windows Vista Ultimate and all other sound
files are working both in planets and in my other computer usage.

Any ideas?

Is it Vista 64-bit or 32-bit? From what I've been hearing, 64-bit has
nothing but trouble with Planets4.

In general, when I see the DDE initiation error, I ask players to
clear our their temp folders, which usually helps.

Magik