I contacted Phatnoise regarding the PMM hanging when creating voice prompts. This is what they sent me:
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We apologize for the problem you are experiencing. Please make sure you have an ATT voice selected from the Voice Prompts section under tools. Preview a voice and see if the PMM hangs. If it hangs, follow the instructions below:
Please close all other applications when generating voice prompts, especially anti-virus software. Any process running on your computer could be causing this problem. Please end all the processes running on your computer that are not Windows related in the Task Manager.
To do so,
-Hit Cntrl+Alt+Delete
-Click Task Manager
-Click the Processes tab
-Click End Process for all the processes that are not Windows related
--The processes you end should be under your User name (NOT the SYSTEM processes). You may end all processes under your user name EXCEPT
taskmgr.exe
and explorer.exe.
You should also go to your startup configuration and disable all unnecessary programs. To do so:
-Click Start>Run
-Type "msconfig" (no quotes)
-Click the Startup tab
-Uncheck all programs that should not be launched on startup -You may exit without restarting
If you continue to experience problems, please reinstall the PMM from the CD that came with your system. You may also download and install PhatNoise CAS Speech support from this link:
http://www.phatnoise.com/downloads/speech.msiPlease let us know if we may assist you further.
Best regards,
PhatNoise Customer Support
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Closing all other applications (as suggested) appears to eliminate PMM hanging while creating voice prompts. I did not implement any other suggested fixes, since they seemed unnecessary.
I wrote back to Phatnoise support suggesting that disabling all owner processes was a sub-optimal solution (especially anti-virus). They replied:
"Unfortunately, PhatNoise has no control over the AT&T Natural Voices Engine and AT&T is not offering support for this product. We apologize for the inconvenience this causes you."