Strange Sound-related issue

[Zenoth]

I'm experiencing strange sound-related issues and I can't remember when it actually started, because I clearly recall that at some point, before it started, everything was fully working. I noticed that during gaming some times the sounds will stack up and will cause crackling (stack up as in some sounds playing at the same time). The thing is that it doesn't always happen, but still it's quite frequent, and that's for any games, be it D3D or OGL or even some free web-based Flash games.

Then, in Windows, some OS sounds are missing such as the beeping sound that plays when one stops an application in the Task Manager, for example if I click on some .EXE I want to stop and press the Delete key on my keyboard it will play a little beep sound confirming the action, well that sound is missing. Also, when I'm clicking on the main volume bar in the Sounds/Devices options I get a beep sound from my motherboard, and no sounds at all from Windows, here's a picture: http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/3032/soundcf1.png

If I click anywhere on that volume bar or if I try to move the slider the motherboard beeps instead of Windows. Additionally, when I clean my Recycler/Bin there's no cleaning sound from Windows, it's pure silence. Then I tried remembering what I had done relatively recently to perhaps revert back to what I had set before. The only thing that came to my mind was the Service Pack, Firefox and my motherboard's BIOS version. I started by downgrading my Mobo's BIOS from a beta version (F9c) to the latest and official (final) release (F8). So I flashed it back to F8, loaded the factory defaults to start with and rebooted Windows... but no go, issues are still there. Then I uninstalled Firefox 3.0 RC2, went back to 2.0, no go. And finally, as far as the Service Pack is concerned, I cannot remember getting those sound issues right after going to SP3 from SP2. In fact I clearly remember posting on different forums that I had no issues going from SP2 to SP3 and that everything worked. So I put SP3 as a potential cause of my issues aside.

Then, what's even stranger, is this; I ran DXDIAG, and tested the Sounds (Direct Sound Test), and all sounds played just fine, all tests passed. The one thing I also tried and still haven't mentioned is of course to change my Creative sound drivers. I tried the official (final, and latest) WHQL version 2.15 from their web-site, which I've always had before. And also just today I tried their newest Beta version which was released only a few days ago, 2.18 I believe, which is the one I'm currently using, but again, no go. I went into Safe Mode to delete all of the drivers traces with both Driver Cleaner and Driver Sweeper, went back into Normal Mode and each time I re-installed the installation process went just fine, no stopping, no errors, no files replacement asked or anything. I just cannot for the life of me figure out what's going on. I certainly hope that my X-Fi isn't just dying on me? I haven't touched it lately nor in a long time, the last time I did anything with it was to physically re-install it after blowing the dust off of it with a can of compressed air.

I'm posting this now because as I said I just recently noticed all of my missing sounds and strange sounds behavior in my games. And that's the whole point, which is that it all worked fine not so long ago. I can't find the source, the cause, the origin of my problems, what I changed, or installed, or uninstalled or disabled or enabled somewhere, I can't remember. My Audio Windows service is activated and set to automatic, Plug-And-Play is activated... I mean I can't find out really.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Sounds elementary, but have you tried reloading the audio drivers?

 

[Zenoth]

Reloading drivers? Never heard of reloading drivers, you don't mean reinstalling do you? If not please explain, I ignore it.

 

[Zenoth]

Ok, hummm, a little update.

I physically removed my X-Fi from the motherboard, and I activated the integrated audio from the BIOS (Intel HD Audio/Azalia/Realtek). Then I went to Giagbyte's web-site and downloaded the latest audio drivers. I then installed the drivers and guess what? I have the exact same issue. That means that my X-Fi isn't dying on me, good thing. It's probably the OS not recognizing the audio, either from hardware or integrated, but honestly I don't know how that can be at all. I do have sounds, but most of my Windows sounds are missing, when I click on the volume bar my motherboard beeps and in-game some times the sounds stack up or are delayed.

I think I'll reformat.

 

[robisbell]

sounds like the windows core files and prefetch are corrupted, or infected. I'd disable system restore, permanently remove all backups it's made, use CCleaner to clean out all prefetch data, and then run the registry option in it till it can hit 100% without a error, then run a scan with housecall, and if it finds anything, remove and reboot.

 

[Zenoth]

Originally posted by: robisbell
sounds like the windows core files and prefetch are corrupted, or infected. I'd disable system restore, permanently remove all backups it's made, use CCleaner to clean out all prefetch data, and then run the registry option in it till it can hit 100% without a error, then run a scan with housecall, and if it finds anything, remove and reboot.

Thank you for your input, I'll copy and paste this to my notes files concerning various issues and their solutions (we never know). But I read your post after I managed to fix the issue. I simply reformatted the whole thing, started from scratch, and now it all works fine. I still do wonder what caused the sound to partially go away, I guess I'll never find out, unless it's something like you mentioned.

Still, thanks guys for trying to help me, it's appreciated.

 

[Zenoth]

Well, a little update guys. A few days ago, after I re-installed Windows, all my problems were gone. And last afternoon after starting my PC I noticed that I still have a problem that seems to be a start towards the exact same issues I had. At the moment I do not have any beeps from my motherboard, and audio in-game behaves correctly, there's no sound stacking anymore, etc. It's almost all working, I say almost because I do miss one sound type from Windows.

You know, when you're in Explorer (not Internet Explorer but just the regular one, the Desktop in other words), and when you click on "Previous" and/or "Next", there's a little clicking sound right? I know there is one because I had it just two days ago, from the moment I re-installed Windows to this very day, which is just when I noticed it's gone. That clicking sound doesn't play anymore, it's just... gone, apparently magically. I installed my games, their respective updates, some mods, went on Microsoft.com to get official updates, got Flash Player, WMP 11, Internet Explorer 7, I installed C++ 2005, PhysX Drivers (required by some games to runs such as UEngine 3-based games, for God knows what reasons), .NET Framework 2.0 + Service Pack/Updates. I still haven't installed any third party codecs.

I just don't get it. At the moment my sounds in-game are all working, but in the Desktop/Explorer I got that missing clicking sound, and I fear that I am moving towards the exact same issue I had. There might be a point when once more the Recycler sounds will be gone, when the welcoming music sample in Windows will be gone, and when I click on the volume panel in Windows my motherboard is going to beep instead of Windows. That was my problem originally and seriously I don't want that to happen again. What could be wrong guys? What am I doing wrong? Are there any essential Windows services that must be enabled other than Windows Audio for the sounds to work properly? Honestly this issue is driving me crazy now.

By the way, I tried my X-Fi yesterday on a test PC (with XP SP3) at my local store to make sure it works, and it does work without a problem on their system, so it's not hardware-related.

 

[Gilby]

Not to belittle your troubles, but, um, sounds played during system actions is something that a user can completely change. I'd guess that something you updated changed the sound scheme from the default (possibly IE7.) You can open up the "Sounds and Audio Devices" control panel and choose a new sound scheme (including going back to the default.) Of you can dump them entirely. As for the sound issues you had before, I'd guess that they're unrelated. You had some corrupt system files and that caused some issues.

The PC Speaker beeping when adjusting audio is, on its own, a solvable issue--it's just a "hidden device" in the device manager that can be enabled or disabled.

 

[Zenoth]

Originally posted by: Gilby
Not to belittle your troubles, but, um, sounds played during system actions is something that a user can completely change. I'd guess that something you updated changed the sound scheme from the default (possibly IE7.) You can open up the "Sounds and Audio Devices" control panel and choose a new sound scheme (including going back to the default.) Of you can dump them entirely. As for the sound issues you had before, I'd guess that they're unrelated. You had some corrupt system files and that caused some issues.

The PC Speaker beeping when adjusting audio is, on its own, a solvable issue--it's just a "hidden device" in the device manager that can be enabled or disabled.

Ah, the Sound Scheme was changed, you were right, thank you very much man, that's very appreciated, indeed IE7 might have changed it. It had no Schemes selected, so I chose Windows Default and now all my Windows sounds are active, back to normal. Many thanks