I said the attention word, but HAL's not responding.

Cause:

The wrong attention word was said or it was mispronounced.

Solution:

Double-check that the correct attention word was used and that it was said correctly. Go to the Personal Assistant Configuration screen and look at what's entered for the attention word. Click the SPEAK WORD button to hear HAL read the attention word. How HAL reads the attention word is how HAL expects to hear that word. For example, HAL pronounces the word "Gina" as "jin a". You would also have to say "Gina" as "jin a" in order for HAL to respond. (Change the spelling of the word from "Gina" to "Geena" to get HAL to pronounce it correctly.)

Cause:

The attention word mode is disabled. If HAL's attention word mode is disabled, then you can't get HAL's attention by saying the attention word.

Solution:

Right-click on the ear icon and verify that ENABLE ATTENTION WORD is selected (the square next to the option is blue, not gray). If it's not selected, then left-click on that option to enable it.

Cause:

Microphone is bad, of poor quality, or not installed correctly. If the microphone doesn't work or if it's of poor quality, then there may be no audio going into HAL from the microphone or the audio could be of such poor quality that HAL can't understand what you're saying.

Solution:

Determine if there is a problem with the microphone. Run the Microsoft Sound Recorder program by going to Start… Run… Type sndrec32 and click OK. The Sound Recorder screen will appear. Click the record icon (circle), say a few sentences into the microphone, then click the stop icon (square). Click the play icon (right arrow).

Cause:

Sound card not working or not installed properly. If the sound card isn't installed properly, then audio may not be going into the sound card or the audio may be intermittent.

Solution:

First determine if there is a problem with the sound card. Run the Sound Recorder program (see above). If you don't hear your test recording, but you can hear other sound files (music CDs, MP3 files), then the problem could be a bad sound card or a bad microphone. If replacing the microphone doesn't solve the problem, then install a new sound card.

Cause:

HAL isn't running or the computer's power management is enabled. If HAL isn't running or the computer's power management is enabled (hard drive spins down when not in use), then HAL can't control lights or appliances, download information from the Internet, answer phone calls, respond to verbal commands, or anything else.

Solution:

If HAL isn't running, then start it by double-clicking on its desktop icon, if available, or by going to Start… Programs… HAL… HAL.

Disable the computer's power management if it's enabled. To disable it, go to Start… Settings… Control Panel. When the Control Panel screen appears, double-click on POWER MANAGEMENT. In the Power Management screen, set the field "Turn off hard disks" to NEVER. If the computer's microphone is part of the monitor or draws power from the monitor and you want to be able to talk to HAL at any time through the monitor, then you must set the field "Turn off monitor" to NEVER. If the computer's microphone isn't connected to the monitor in any way, then you can set the "Turn off monitor" field to any option.