Sounds can disappear, but not reappear

[Bram Weiser]

Hello, and thank you for reading my post.

Today, suddenly, some sounds I always had (such as "Windows XP Start.wav"
for "Start Navigation") weren't there when I expected them to be. (Yes, the
file IS on my hard drive, but the sound itself wasn't happening when it was
supposed to.)

Puzzled, I explored further and tried to re-select that sound in the Control
Panel's "Sounds and Audio Devices", and "Apply" it, but, unfortunately, even
though it "looked" like it was selecting a sound, the second I tried to click
somewhere and navigate (such as within IE), expecting to hear the sound, it
still wouldn't be there AND a review of that same area again in Control Panel
showed that my choice was gone once more.

Also, if I tried to choose a sound scheme that used fewer sounds than I had
to start with, THAT would work but I couldn't then re-add manually those
sounds I'd now de-selected. (I hope that makes sense... )

Please advise what I can do about this soon (yes, I'm fully updated via
Microsoft/Windows Update), and thanks again.

Sincerely,
Bram Weiser

 

[Bob Horvath]

On Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:48:06 -0700, Bob Horvath wrote:

I run Windows 7 and if you Google that problem, you'll see that it is
sort of common. It happens periodically on my system for no apparent
rhyme or reason. I just go to device manager, disable the sound
driver, then enable it, and then it works again.

 

[Bram Weiser]

Thank you for responding, Bob. I'd have followed up sooner, but I never got
notified of your post.

Two thoughts, please, about what you wrote...

1) I have Windows XP, not Windows 7.

2) I just tried what you suggested (I have a number of possible sound
drivers -- Audio Codecs, Creative SB Live! Series (WDM), Game Port for SB
Live! Series, Legacy Audio Drivers, etc. -- so I'm not sure which one you
meant, but I DID disable...and then enable...Creative SB Live! Series (WDM),
then tried to manually assign a sound to "Start Navigation"...but that still
wouldn't work as the event continues to be done quietly, and, when I returned
again to the list of Sounds, that event's newly-assigned sound was cleared
out, as has been true with this issue I've been having.

Thanks, though, for your advice, but could you please follow up in response
to what I've written above? Am I missing something? Is something else,
perhaps, afoot?

Thanks again,
Bram Weiser