Sound is gone......

**Lusitani** · 07-07-2008, 20:02

I have recently upgraded my win Vista with Service Pack 1. As I was playing EB I noticed that sound is gone. Does anyone have that problem?

**bovi** · 07-07-2008, 21:49

Perhaps it upgrades DirectX to something that RTW can't use?

**Tellos Athenaios** · 07-07-2008, 22:22

I guess it's something to do with Vista resetting (pre-)configured default values (had something similar happen to my sound settings once).

I suggest you right click your desktop background (which brings up the Control Panel\Personalization window), click the "Sounds" option (the 'big list'); check (& modify) the options & settings of your devices under "Playback". (Just click the icon of the device in the list that appears, and click properties.) Pay particular notice to "Exclusive Mode" under "Advanced", make sure both options are checked. AFAIK RTW tries to influence sound-ouput directly, so it would file under "Exclusive Mode".

Of course, especially if you're using an external audio-system (not buit-in or monitor speakers); it would probably be worth the effort to check that input settings are configured properly & everything works. For all I know it could be as simple as an audio cable that hasn't been properly attached.

**Lusitani** · 07-08-2008, 03:27

Thanks for your reply T.A. I had already checked what you suggested and although I didnt knew about the "exclusive mode " thing it was correct in the 1st place.
I got to EB again and there was still no sound...so I went to the sound config and tried choosing another device. As I did that and even though it didnt let me change anything, I started hearing sounds again.
In short problem solved, thanks again.

**Lusitani** · 07-09-2008, 01:34

Well i take that back....as i was pplaying today....at 1st...i could only hear the background sounds..like birds and stuff...but as i tried to change sound device and stuff all sounds went mute. I do have sound when listening to music and stuff....so far only EB got affected.
i'll just blame Microsoft for it and wait for better days i guess...

**Tellos Athenaios** · 07-09-2008, 03:55

Sounds really obvious, but have you been moving 'something', before the system went mute? Say adjusting your monitor, with its inbuilt speakers (if you have any) ? Because starting with sound and it slowly fading away could be related to cables which haven't been properly plugged in.

Otherwise could you alt-tab to your desktop and see if the speaker-icon in the tray has a big red X covering it? (Which would indicate something wrong with the hardware/software.)

Also, really obvious, but make sure the default playback device actually points to your speakers (and not your soundcard) -- the soundcard can't (well, it can but then something is really wrong...) make the noise!

**Lusitani** · 07-09-2008, 17:02

Originally Posted by Tellos Athenaios

Sounds really obvious, but have you been moving 'something', before the system went mute? Say adjusting your monitor, with its inbuilt speakers (if you have any) ? Because starting with sound and it slowly fading away could be related to cables which haven't been properly plugged in.

Otherwise could you alt-tab to your desktop and see if the speaker-icon in the tray has a big red X covering it? (Which would indicate something wrong with the hardware/software.)

Also, really obvious, but make sure the default playback device actually points to your speakers (and not your soundcard) -- the soundcard can't (well, it can but then something is really wrong...) make the noise!

The only thing I did was the installation of the SP1 for Vista that i mentioned on the 1st post, and I only started having problems after that. There are no apparent hardware conflicts, I didnt do anything and I always use headphones when using the computer.
There was no sounds fading away. What happened was that when i loaded my game on EB i could only hear the ambient sounds. Then I tried changing the sound device on the sounds menu (this had worked a previous time), and even those sounds dissapeared abruptly, no fading off.

I did ALT-TAB in order to check the status of the sound icon and it was normal, no red X.

The default playback device points out to the speakers also....so I suppose its just a software problem.

**Tellos Athenaios** · 07-09-2008, 18:49

Am a bit at a loss here, so I just gave it a try via a quick

It appears to be a [well] known issue, so much so the Microsoft guys dedicated a troubleshooting article to it: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948481

Have only briefly skimmed it, so I'm not sure wether it works (I don't have Service Pack 1 for Vista either); therefore let us know.

**Lusitani** · 07-11-2008, 02:20

Thanks I've been trying to look for solutions but my crapy connection keeps going down. I tried most of the solutions presented...and...well my problem seems to happen randomly but i managed to play with sound today.