No system sounds....

[bush dogg]

Look in services for the “Windows Audio” service and see if it’s stopped/disabled. It should be started and set to automatic unless you have changed it for some reason. To get there do the following.

Click Start/Run in the open box type “services.msc /s” without the quotes, click OK then scroll down to “Windows Audio” post back what you find.

Did your son say what he was doing when this happened or what may have caused it/what the system did just before the sound problem was noticed?

Do other sounds play, like sound from CD’S or Movie’s?

What OS are you using?

Have you tried sfc “system file checker”?

Have you tried another user account if so did the system sounds play or not?

 

[Mainframeguy]

wow - this is turning into a Marathon!

Silent Running?

 

[Nixvet]

Thanks for the quick response bush dogg!
We are using Winxp pro, service pack 2 on an IBM clone, VIA AMD 1798mhz and 256 ram. I added a diamond sound card last night with new speakers. He needed them anyway. The event sounds still do not work. They work fine when I click on them in explorer, though. All of his games and online games, CD's etc work fine...just no system sounds. I added a new account and everything works Great! No sound problems. Just with his account. BTW, see the attached jpg. I noticed about 100 of these blue files in his windows root directory. I have never seen so much junk. Can we delete them? Could they be a problem? My son said this has been a problem for at least a month now and can't remember what happened when the sounds went out. I will try sfc when I get home. I think I already checked windows audio but I'll check again this evening to make sure it's enabled. Also, he has a problem downloading updates from Microsoft. It just hangs at 5%. Don't know if this applies to our problem. We really don't want to re-install windows. Perhaps a repair?
Look forward to your help!

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

Well if it works in a new account just move your documents and favorites to the new account and flush the old one ..end of story.

 

[bush dogg]

After you double check that the service is started and run sfc if these two things are Ok and still you have no sound then,There’s a couple ways to go from here you could do what Shamus MacNoob said and probably be done with it or you could look at the registry again with the instructions below, see if there is some difference that stands out.

In the new account you created navigate to the registry “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents” on the file menu select export then name it something like AppEvents New.

Then go to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents” in the problem account and export that Key and give it a name like AppEvents Old.

Then go to the Location you saved both the Keys in and right click them “Select open with” then Select notepad when the Keys open Select File print and then compare both the working account with the nonworking account line per line so we can see if there’s a difference in the two.

Either way you choose to go if you haven’t done so already I would run a virus scan just to see what shows up if anything.

We can touch on the windows update problem after we see what the comparison of the registry Keys hold (if you choose that direction) and the virus scan.

Those files appear to be from windows updates that have been installed “I would leave them for now”.

 

[Mainframeguy]

oh and hey - welcome nixvet - does this mean you are a veteran on the Unix front? Or of the Nixon administration?

Do pop over to the new members thread you can find somewhere and enlighten us

 

[Nixvet]

LOL Mainframeguy...will do.

The service is started and I ran sfc with no problems. Performed a virus scan with AVG which proved clean. I may do an online trendmicro scan tonight. Printed Appevents old and new. Old is 76 kb, 17 pages and new is 50 kb, 10 pages. Most of the differences are in the eventlabels. I don't see anything obvious, but then I'm not a registry guru.
We already moved docs and favs to the new account and all is well. I haven't flushed the old account yet. I wanted to determine the problem. I don't want to treat the symptoms and not the disease. However, do to time constraints and lack of patience, I may just concede and delete it and hope there isn't some mutant virus lurking.
Thanks for your help bush dogg and Shamus MacNoob! If I find something awry, I will post it.

 

[bush dogg]

Yup I should have mentioned it would take a few pages to print them but sometimes it’s easiest to compare them in print.

Using the new account will be just fine, trying to fine the one problem string in that key would be very difficult and time consuming just because nothing stood out in print.

I would suggest backing up “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents” on the new account in the event this problem comes back it may be quicker to fix. You could just merge the backed up Key back into the registry.

If you still have the Windows update problem it would be best to start another thread on that “it would get more attention that way”.