Dragon 7 problems Options

[AFarCry]

Got a question for you. I use Dragon Naturally Speaking 7.2 and have had wonderful results with it for the last couple years. Lately, it's been acting up. We did a reinstall of the CD and service pack 2, but the problem still exists. About 9 times out of 10, it will not recognize "Press Enter" and only gives me question marks. If I say "File", it generally reads it correctly, but will only actually open up File about 1 time in 10. If it recognizes what I say and opens up File, it will let me scroll down and "Press Enter" will work. That, unfortunately, is working less and less.

We checked Scan Soft's knowledge base and it said to make sure the box was checked to Enable Natural Commands. That box is checked. Any ideas?

Don

[AFarCry]

When was the last time you ran audio setup Wizard? If that does not do the trick, create a new user profile as your current profile is likely corrupted.

Martin
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Thanks Martin. We ran the audio setup wizard but things were still inconsistent. We then did a whole new user profile, went through a bunch of training, and tried it again. It works well sometimes, but at other times, is still being weird. For example, sometimes when I say "File", it reads file and then places the mouse just off the word file. When it does that, it will not open anything, and if I do it with mousegrid and move down through the menus, that part will work fine, but it will not let me "Press Enter" for anything. If we can't figure it out, is there some command that tells it to take what you say as a command and not just as a word?

Don

[RossWales]

We ran the audio setup wizard but things were still inconsistent.

We then did a whole new user profile, went through a bunch of training, and tried it again.  It works well sometimes, but at other times...

Don
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Don, to me it sounds like your microphone cables are damaged, the 3.5mm plug has come loose from the computer or soundpod, or even the microphone element itself has a problem.

Has the mic been dropped or damaged lately?

One other thing - 'Press Enter' begins with a letter P and causes a 'pop' of air as you speak it - is the microphone a tad too close to the path of this air disturbance - the worst place to have the mic as I trust you will know, as an experienced user, would be near to the front of the mouth. My best results come from slightly to one side, and down off the corner of the mouth approx 1/2" or 12mm lower than the mouth corner, and, approx 1" or 25mm away from the face, and reposition carefully every single time - otherwise Dragon hears your voice differently and your accuracy will suffer.

Finally, have you installed any other software or upgrade which coincided roughly with this problem's start date?

Ross

[AFarCry]

Don, to me it sounds like your microphone cables are damaged, the 3.5mm plug has come loose from the computer or soundpod, or even the microphone element itself has a problem.

Has the mic been dropped or damaged lately?

One other thing - 'Press Enter' begins with a letter P and causes a 'pop' of air as you speak it - is the microphone a tad too close to the path of this air disturbance - the worst place to have the mic as I trust you will know, as an experienced user, would be near to the front of the mouth. My best results come from slightly to one side, and down off the corner of the mouth approx 1/2" or 12mm lower than the mouth corner, and, approx 1" or 25mm away from the face, and reposition carefully every single time - otherwise Dragon hears your voice differently and your accuracy will suffer.

Finally, have you installed any other software or upgrade which coincided roughly with this problem's start date?

Ross
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My mic is mounted on my wheelchair. It's actually a wheelchair mounted hands-free phone by SAJE Technologies. I'll try to give them a call next week and see what they think. Can't think of any recent installations that could do it so maybe it is a hardware problem. I'll see if I can scare up another mic to try when it's acting up as well to see if that makes a difference. Thanks for the advice.

Don

[DAS]

Did you Install IE7?

If yes, this is likely to be your problem.

[Still Time]

How is your dictation accuracy? For example: while dictating in DragonPad do you experience less accuracy than you're used to? or the problem is only in navigation commands such as accessing menus and pressing keystrokes?

If its navigation only commands it might be due to installing IE 7 or Microsoft Office 2007.

Check if you have this process running on your system "ctfmon.exe"
to do so, right click on an empty space on your task bar, choose task manager, select processes tab, and check if "ctfmon.exe" is in the list.

Another program that causes such problems is Windows blinds5. If you have installed this program, you should uninstall it.

[AFarCry]

I'll do some digging around but I actually use Netscape for a browser. I know dragon isn't supposed to work with it but I've been using it with dragon for three years without problems until recently. I had the a few minutes on here this evening and found out some pretty bizarre stuff. If I say "bookmarks", and it doesn't work, I say "tools". That works, then I say "move left one" and I can go through things and press enter as I choose. Same game in the mail except that I start with "window" and move around with fine results! I don't know what's going on but at least I don't have to stop using the computer until somebody comes home to help me restart it!
Don

[AFarCry]

How is your dictation accuracy?  For example: while dictating in DragonPad do you experience less accuracy than you're used to? or the problem is only in navigation commands such as accessing menus and pressing keystrokes?

If its navigation only commands it might be due to installing IE 7 or Microsoft Office 2007.

Check if you have this process running on your system "ctfmon.exe"
to do so, right click on an empty space on your task bar, choose task manager, select processes tab, and check if "ctfmon.exe" is in the list.

Another program that causes such problems is Windows blinds5.  If you have installed this program, you should uninstall it.
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Yes, the problem is only in navigation commands and I don't have any updated IE or Office, but I do have ctfmon.exe as a process. What is it, and do I need it, or might it be giving me the problem. If so, how do you uninstall it?

No, I do not have Windows blind5.

Thanks
Don

[Still Time]

You can read the following message board on how to uninstall it.
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=871169