Lost Event Sounds

Did you check the volume controls levels and make sure it wasn't muted or turned down?

guidway

Try restoring to a previous operating state of XP:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q306084

guidway

I don't know if this would help, but you could try running check disk and regclean:

chkdsk c: /f
http://download.com.com/3000-2094-881470.html?tag=lst-0-1

You might also try cleaning out your temp folder
   Start->run type "%temp%" and say ok

I've checked volume controls - none muted. I've restored the system to well before the problem started. I've run RegClean. No sounds yet (except Start Navigation click). As for the start\run\%temp%, when I type that in, it takes me to the Temp directory My Computer window. Should I now select all files and folders in Temp and delete them?

yes, make sure you close all your programs first.

There will likely be a few files that you can't delete, if you get an error, just go on to the next file.

Did you install any hardware at the same time this started happening? Here's something I found in a forum:

Question:
"XP startup/shutdown sounds will play when assigned in "Sound & Audio", but won't play when the events occur. I've even verified the assignments in the registry. The only system sound events affected are these two. Anybody ever run across this before? Any suggestions"

One of the answers:
"I had the same problem . It was a conflict with the win(soft) modem using the sound card .I switched to a hardware modem for different reason and then the log on sounds worked."

guidway

also check the device manager and see if there are any unknown devices or devices with errors

I've deleted all temp files & folders. I've checked Device Manager and found no unknown devices or devices with errors. I haven't installed any new hardware in over a month. I'm connected via ethernet to DSL, have been since July. Problem just started 2 days ago.

Ok, something unrelated, but maybe helpful. Do you have the latest updates of Windows XP including SP1?

guidway

also just to rule it out try this go to Start->Run and type

sfc /scannow

this will check your computer for corrupted system files.

Also try this, go to Start->Run and type

msconfig

click on startup tab and uncheck all boxes and reboot.

When you reload try playing sound again and see if that works. Also, in the sound events try unselecting all the events, save changes, reboot, and select them all again. maybe a config file or something got corrupted with the sound settings in them. Maybe that will recreate it.

guidway

Yes. I had most SP1 updates already and I got the rest yesterday. Btw all of this is good advice!

In the forum article you quoted, the person says "I've even verified the assignments in the registry." How would I do that?

Yes. I had most SP1 updates already and I got the rest yesterday. Btw all of this is good advice!

In the forum article you quoted, the person says "I've even verified the assignments in the registry." How would I do that?

good question. Let me see if I can find the answer. ;0) I really don't know. Hold on for a sec...

Ok, in Win95 and 98 they had a key like this:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps

Not sure if this is the same in XP but you probably can do a registry search for Schemes and find it. Hope this helps!

guidway

I'm on Win2000 right now and the same key exists here so you should have it.

guidway

Here's something else to look at:

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/20322222/System-sound-ding-disappeared.html

guidway

I tried sfc /scannow (no problems reported). I tried msconfig Chkdsk did fix one error, promisingly a file error, but still no sounds.

Unselect all events in Sound Events? Do you mean go to each sound and select (none) for the sound? Then save that as a Sound Scheme?

I went to the registry and saw the folders/files but what am I looking for?

I tried the advice referenced in the link - it does sound like a very similar problem - but unfortunately the 98 Control Panel stuff just isn't the same in XP, even in Classic View (aside: is Category View good for anything?).

"Unselect all events in Sound Events? Do you mean go to each sound and select (none) for the sound? Then save that as a Sound Scheme?"

Not exactly, it's been a while since I fooled with sound schemes so maybe I'm wrong on this. Is there a way to unselect all sounds and just save the settings (w/o creating it as a new scheme) and then reboot? You could try saving it as a new scheme just for test purposes if you have to.  I know it will be a pain to do that, but right now until me or someone thinks of something better to do that's all I can think of trying.

About the registry key:

what I'm thinking is try comparing one of the sounds that work (you said navigation does) with something that doesn't work in the registry keys. In fact set the one that doesn't work exactly equal to the one that does, reboot and then try it. If it works we know it is a problem with the actual key that controls it. If not, then it must be something else.

guidway

I copied the value from Start Navigation into the value for Empty Recycle Bin, and then restarted. No dice.

I tried the Sound Scheme called No Sound, which did disable the Start Navigation Sound. I then tried Windows Default, which still plays only Start Navigation.

Then I went through one by one and selected (none) for every sound, restarted (no sounds played for anything), changed back to Windows Default, restarted. Still just Start Navigation click. Egads.

Are you logged on as an Admin or user?

guidway

Admin. I'm the only user of this machine.

Admin. I'm the only user of this machine.

Well this is always an option:

 
How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q315341

will keep looking...

guidway

Here's a new twist - I called Compaq (HP), and the guy there suggested it might be user specific. So I created a new user, logged in, and voila! All sounds worked! The question now is do I want to move over to the new user profile, or instead try to find and modify the specific fault in my current user profile? If I move to new user, full points for helpful solutions for moving my settings from one user profile to another. Of course full points also for fixing the specific problem in my current user profile. (HP support suggested it would be easier to move to the new user profile, but didn't really tell me how to move the settings).

You could try just copying your current profile, who knows?  It might work.

I was unsure about running a potentially harmful 2000 procedure in XP, so I finally tried a Google search for XP restore user profile and found this, which was pretty much right on:

http://kb.indiana.edu/data/aidk.html?cust333236.42979.131

I did have to create a 3rd user profile to make it possible to copy from profile 1 to profile 2.

The only problem was, when I logged into profile 2, guess what? No sound! I then tried copying the individual folders, one by one, from the sound-disabled user 1 profile to the brand-new user 3 profile - to see if I could isolate the cause of the problem - but after copying all folders (including the hidden ones), still no sound problem on user 3 profile. So I figure the problem is in one of the pesky .ini or .dat  files. There were 4 files I couldn't copy - ntuser.dat, ntuser.dat.log, ntuser.ini, and oobcmt.ini. I did try deleting these files from profile 2, but surprisingly it didn't work.

The good news is that I'm about halfway to having migrated to user profile 3, in which sounds work perfectly. I think I'll have to reinstall a number of programs, and recreate a number of settings, but no big. I guess I'm ready to call it solved unless someone has any ideas on how I could get the sounds back in user profile 1.

Many thanks for the good suggestions, guidway and Crash2100! This is my first experience with Experts Exchange - Very Positive!

Points reduced for a split.  You can now accept one experts comment as an answer.  After that, make another question in this topic area for the other expert.  Make the question for the amount of points intended.  Label the question, "Question for (Expert Name) and post this question number in the base of the question, i.e. For your assistance in question # --------


Computer101
E-E Admin

    The actual solution I implemented was to create a new user profile. I first tried restoring the old user profile to a new profile, but that didn't work - the problem was "restored", too (see my comment below guidway's "accepted" answer for link to this procedure). So I created another new profile and used Explorer to "manually" transfer all the relevant files/folders. To do this, navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\[Your User Name]\ and copy all subfolders to the new user profile. This transfers all of your documents and many of your settings. I did have to uninstall/reinstall several programs and recreate a number of settings. It took a while. The cool thing is, I like my computer setup much better now and more important, I learned a lot! Thanks to guidway and crash2100!

     guidway was very helpful in solving this problem. His comments pointed me in the right direction. Originally, points for this question were 150, but since the answer best solving the problem came from HP customer support (Ontario), I felt 60 was fair (crash2100 made several good comments, too, so I'm giving him 15 points). Without all the comments from guidway and crash2100, I wouldn't have been able to provide nearly as much info to HP, and I doubt I would have found a solution there.

A final thought: consider "backing up" your current, (happy) user profile by following the procedure referenced in paragraph 1 here. Then, If something goes wrong, you can simply restore from the backup profile to your current user profile.

Well, I'm glad you got the problem solved! Although we couldn't solve it ourselves. Oh well, always next time. :0) Thanks for the points and "A" grade and great working with you Crash! :0)

guidway