"Start Windows" sound option in "Program events" disappeared

[Guest]

The "Start Windows" sound option listed in "Program events" on the "Sounds"
tab in the "Sounds and Audio Devices Properties" has disappeared. All the
"wav" files are there and work fine. All other system / application sounds
work fine.

I discovered with assistance from and IT Support person at work that the
registry entry had been deleted. He gave me a copy of an imported Registry
entry to replace it, however, after a few system restarts it disappears
again. I can keep putting it back, but this shouldn't be happening.

I've compared the imported Registry entry with other Windows sounds entries
and all settings are identical apart from the different sound option
obviously. I've tested the "wav" file by attaching it to other Windows sound
options - all works fine.

The system is well protected, there are no viruses or any other unwanted
programs or files. System housekeeping is very regular and I have good
utilities to check and fix system problems, e.g. I run the Registry check
weekly.

XP SP2 is fully up to date. There are no errors in the "Event Viewer" that
matter. The Realtek sound driver is the latest available.

I have searched Microsoft any many other support sites and no other sound
problem has even come close to this one.

As I have no wish to do a clean install for such a minor (albeit annoying)
problem. Can anything help with this please?

Thank you and cheers

Ken Campbell

 

[Guest]

Try Delete current sound scheme, then select Windows default. "Windows Start"
should point to file "Windows XP Startup.wav" that has to be in your
(c"\Windows\Media" library. Try to play it from there. You can make your
own; my shutdown is a flushing toilet.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Will

I forgot to mention that I did try creating a "Custom" sound scheme to avoid
the "Windows Default" in case there was a problem there - without success. I
followed you suggested and deleted the Custom sound scheme and reselected the
Windows Default. As you probably know you can't delete the Windows Default
sound scheme. This essentially puts everything back where it was, but perhaps
the process may have fixed it.

The wav files have always worked. The problem has never been in this area.

I won't know for a week or so if your suggestion has fixed the problem as it
normally goes this lone between failures. It depends on how often I need to
restart the system to induce the failure, if it's going to. So I will delay
answering "Yes" or "No" to your Post until it can be correctly accessed. I
hope the answer is this simple.

 

[Guest]

Sorry Will, the Registry entry disappeared again last night.

If any propeller-heads from Microsoft are reading this, please feel free to
help as this a weird problem.

 

[Guest]

It's okay everybody, you can stop your research into this problem, I've
solved it.

A Registry cleaner I was using was taking out the "Start Windows" key. I
won't name the cleaner concerned because the vendor's support service has
been very responsive and is being very helpful in fixing the problem so that
it won't happen again. They don't deserve the bad publicity.

I can only recommend that if anybody has any weird problems like this one,
verify that the system maintenance utility you're using is not causing it.

Ken