Windows sounds

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bogey Man
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Bogey Man

Operating system Vista Home Premium 64.

Windows sounds suddenly don't play. All I get is a click but no sound.

Any ideas?

No new installations.
 
Bogey Man said:
Operating system Vista Home Premium 64.

Windows sounds suddenly don't play. All I get is a click but no sound.

Any ideas?

No new installations.
Click to expand...

I'm assuming sound used to play?
I'm assuming you checked Windows Volume controls and sound level is turned
up and is not muted?
Are you using external speakers? If not, can you try some? If so, I assume
you unplugged and can't get volume from internal speakers either?
Is this a desktop or laptop?
So many potential issues, from the sound setup to the sound drivers to the
sound card to the speakers. Try to eliminate as many as possible.
 
Bogey Man said:
Operating system Vista Home Premium 64.

Windows sounds suddenly don't play. All I get is a click but no sound.

Any ideas?

No new installations.
Click to expand...


A 'click' also falls under the category of being a sound.
 
Jon said:
A 'click' also falls under the category of being a sound.
Click to expand...
When OP said "get" and "click" I assume they meant from the mouse. If
Windows makes a clicking sound when you click the mouse, it's working
properly, unless you clicked on something which is supposed to produce a
different sound.
 
Eric said:
When OP said "get" and "click" I assume they meant from the mouse. If
Windows makes a clicking sound when you click the mouse, it's working
properly, unless you clicked on something which is supposed to produce a
different sound.
Click to expand...

Quite possible / true. Either way, checking the current sound scheme would
probably be worthwhile.

Control Panel > Sound > Sounds (tab)
 
Jon said:
Quite possible / true. Either way, checking the current sound scheme would
probably be worthwhile.

Control Panel > Sound > Sounds (tab)
Click to expand...

None of the sounds in the Windows Sounds will play. All I get is a click
sound from the speakers when a sound is selected and the Test button is
clicked on with the mouse. All other sounds (wav files) play properly ...
just the Windows sounds for alerts etc don't play.
 
Bogey Man said:
None of the sounds in the Windows Sounds will play. All I get is a click
sound from the speakers when a sound is selected and the Test button is
clicked on with the mouse. All other sounds (wav files) play properly ...
just the Windows sounds for alerts etc don't play.
Click to expand...
That sounds like it would be a problem with the speakers. Are these the
internal or external speakers? Have you tested with other speakers
(headphones should work as well)?
 
Eric said:
That sounds like it would be a problem with the speakers. Are these the
internal or external speakers? Have you tested with other speakers
(headphones should work as well)?
Click to expand...

I have tested 2 other sets of speakers as well as the head phones and it is
the same result for all of them.
 
That sounds like it would be a problem with the speakers. Are these the
internal or external speakers? Have you tested with other speakers
(headphones should work as well)?
Click to expand...

Note that Bogey Man said "All other sounds (wav files) play properly".

I wish I could help. I just played around a bit with my sound settings, but
I couldn't find a way to make the Test button fail while the wav files play
OK otherwise.

Have you tried playing the files in Windows Sounds using Media Player or
your favorite audio player? Maybe those files, and only those files, have
been corrupted. Somehow...
 
Eric said:
I'm assuming sound used to play?
I'm assuming you checked Windows Volume controls and sound level is turned
up and is not muted?
Are you using external speakers? If not, can you try some? If so, I
assume you unplugged and can't get volume from internal speakers either?
Is this a desktop or laptop?
So many potential issues, from the sound setup to the sound drivers to the
sound card to the speakers. Try to eliminate as many as possible.
Click to expand...

The Windows Sound Scheme sounds used to play perfectly. I have used 3
different sets of speakers plus headphones without any change. I just get
clicks instead of the selected tone. All other sound files play perfectly
with more than ample volume.

This is a desktop with external speakers. Nothing is muted or set at a low
volume (as I said before, ALL other sounds are normal. It is just the
Windows Sound Scheme files that are acting up.) Heck, they even play
normally if I use Windows Media Player to play them.
 
Gene E. Bloch said:
Note that Bogey Man said "All other sounds (wav files) play properly".

I wish I could help. I just played around a bit with my sound settings,
but
I couldn't find a way to make the Test button fail while the wav files
play
OK otherwise.

Have you tried playing the files in Windows Sounds using Media Player or
your favorite audio player? Maybe those files, and only those files, have
been corrupted. Somehow...
Click to expand...

Ah, I must've misread that. I thought the OP was saying all sounds produce
just a 'click'.

If you can play other sounds (like through WMP) and they come out fine, but
only "windows alerts" sounds don't come out right, can you restore all
Windows sounds from Windows setup/control panel? Is there a one click
option to reload or would you have to copy them all in manually? It sounds
like those particular sound files are corrupted.
 
Ah, I must've misread that. I thought the OP was saying all sounds produce
just a 'click'.

If you can play other sounds (like through WMP) and they come out fine, but
only "windows alerts" sounds don't come out right, can you restore all
Windows sounds from Windows setup/control panel? Is there a one click
option to reload or would you have to copy them all in manually? It sounds
like those particular sound files are corrupted.
Click to expand...

Exactly as I said above, in my last (complete) sentence. It's the only
thing I can think of - but *please* don't ask me how that might have
happened :-)

Aside to Bogey man - find a wav file that works, copy it into the same
folder as the system sounds, and assign it to some event. Now see if you
get that sound properly. Choose a short sound - Beethoven's Ninth is too
long :-)

If that works, the other files there are corrupt; if not, something is
messed up in the logic used by Windows to find those sound files. Of
course, you could test the other system sounds directly in your favorite
player, as I already said.
 
Gene E. Bloch said:
Exactly as I said above, in my last (complete) sentence. It's the only
thing I can think of - but *please* don't ask me how that might have
happened :-)

Aside to Bogey man - find a wav file that works, copy it into the same
folder as the system sounds, and assign it to some event. Now see if you
get that sound properly. Choose a short sound - Beethoven's Ninth is too
long :-)

If that works, the other files there are corrupt; if not, something is
messed up in the logic used by Windows to find those sound files. Of
course, you could test the other system sounds directly in your favorite
player, as I already said.
Click to expand...

Thank you all for your responses. I have found a way to make the Windows
sounds play but the reason that they didn't play before is still a mystery.

I had my sounds set up to play digitally and they had been playing without a
hitch and suddenly stopped even though all other sounds continued to play
perfectly. I got the sounds to play by switching from digital to analogue
sound. Previously, I had audio and video delivered via HDMI from the digital
output of my video card that also is capable of audio. My "tin ear" can't
tell the difference so I haven't really lost anything.

I have a hunch that the auto switching between digital and analogue sound
that is supposed to happen (CMOS settings) isn't happening for whatever
reason.

It is working so I will just forget trying to solve the mystery.

Thanks for all your help.

Ron
 
Hi we had the same problem, and went to help and support on the desktop and
followed the instructions to test the speakers...have you tried this?
 
Thank you all for your responses. I have found a way to make the Windows
sounds play but the reason that they didn't play before is still a mystery.

I had my sounds set up to play digitally and they had been playing without a
hitch and suddenly stopped even though all other sounds continued to play
perfectly. I got the sounds to play by switching from digital to analogue
sound. Previously, I had audio and video delivered via HDMI from the digital
output of my video card that also is capable of audio. My "tin ear" can't
tell the difference so I haven't really lost anything.

I have a hunch that the auto switching between digital and analogue sound
that is supposed to happen (CMOS settings) isn't happening for whatever
reason.

It is working so I will just forget trying to solve the mystery.

Thanks for all your help.

Ron
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update.

I would never have thought of this for the simple reason that I was totally
ignorant of it :-)

In fact, I still am, honestly speaking - it's time to Google a bit.
 
Gene E. Bloch said:
Thanks for the update.

I would never have thought of this for the simple reason that I was
totally
ignorant of it :-)

In fact, I still am, honestly speaking - it's time to Google a bit.
Click to expand...

I hope that you find something interesting!

Ron
 
I hope that you find something interesting!

Ron
Click to expand...

Not sure. All I found, if (big if!) I understood it correctly, was that
some systems will let you have analog and digital active simultaneously,
but it's

(a) Not switched, automatically or otherwise,
and
(b) Controlled by Windows and the sound driver, not the BIOS.
 
Gene E. Bloch said:
Not sure. All I found, if (big if!) I understood it correctly, was that
some systems will let you have analog and digital active simultaneously,
but it's
Click to expand...

My system is such a system.
(a) Not switched, automatically or otherwise,
and
Click to expand...

My video driver has controls for digital video but no separate controls for
digital audio even though the digital video is supplied via HDMI which I
find strange. If I have the HDMI set for the monitor and take the
independent audio connection (Analogue) off of the monitor and plug it into
separate speakers I will get sound from both sets of speakers.....strange.
(b) Controlled by Windows and the sound driver, not the BIOS.
Click to expand...

There is an "Auto" setting for the onboard sound in the Phoenix Bios and
that is the only "auto" setting that I can find anywhere that controls
sound. I have a feeling that the Bios is a hybrid concocted by Acer as I
cannot find the Bios identification on the Phoenix site.

The Windows sound driver has 3 possible devices all of which can be active
with one being set as default. I have a feeling that this is where the
problem lies. Seeing that I am going to do a clean install of Windows 7 in
the future I am not going to waste any more time at this point in trying to
figure it out.

Thank you for the information

Ron
 
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