App Sounds sometimes don't work

[Fruit2O]

Sometimes, my app sounds don't work - even though the sound properties
(speaker in the notification tray). If I right click in the
notification tray>Properties, the sound, power and network check boxes
are greyed out. After I reboot, no more greyed out and the sound works
in all apps. What am I doing to stop the sound? Thanks........

 

[KristleBawl]

Sometimes, my app sounds don't work - even though the sound properties
(speaker in the notification tray). If I right click in the
notification tray>Properties, the sound, power and network check boxes
are greyed out. After I reboot, no more greyed out and the sound works
in all apps. What am I doing to stop the sound? Thanks........

It happens sometimes on my computer, too. After no sound for some time,
suddenly the sound kicks in again and several sound files play in rapid
succession, and then everything works again.

When I notice the absence of sounds, if I click on the volume control
icon, it doesn't respond at all. When I reboot, a minor warning tells
me that the shutdown sound is not responding, unless I kill Win Media
Player in Task Manager first.

I *think* it might be triggered when two or more programs try to play a
different sound file at the time, but I cannot confirm or reproduce this
manually.