Vista "pre-loaded" Games (e.g. Mahjong) - no sound!

[Guest]

The sound on all the Vista (Home Premium) pre-loaded games worked. Now
although the games work, i cannot get the sound to work. I have one other
game loaded into the standard Vista games folder - Rush For Berlin - and that
works perfectly. I have tried disabling the sound to each pre-loaded game,
saving and restarting the computer (Sony Viao VGN-FZ11Z which is 3 weeks
old!) to no avail.

All other sounds work pefectly (e.g. music at start up, bleeps and stuff,
etc) and I have no problems with sound via DVDs.

Very puzzling - but how can I get the sounds back? Can anyone help please.

 

[dean-dean]

You might check this. When playing Mahjong, for example, right-click the
Volume icon in the notification area, and choose Open Volume Mixer. The
game will be listed with its own volume control. Is it muted, or turned all
the way down?

 

[Guest]

Many thanks for your reply. However, the volume for the game (or indeed any
of the pre-loaded games) is not listed separately when I have any of them
running. What is shown in the Volume Mixer is Device (speaker and headphones)
plus another one for Windows Applications. They are both set to 100% volume
and neither is muted.

i am now trying the following - turn off games, switch off laptop (coMplete
shutdown and not just restart). When it boots up again, i will turn on the
games again and hope that they instal correctly (i.e. complete with sound!).
I will post he result (fingers crossed!).

 

[Guest]

Well, turning off games, hard switch off, switch on, turn on games again
didn't work. I am stuck!

 

[dean-dean]

Well, when you reported that Volume Mixer wasn't showing a separate column
for the game, that, to me, indicates a sound driver problem, or that it lost
it's configuration. Try right-clicking the Volume icon, and choose Playback
Devices. Double-click the Device in the window that pops up. On the
Enhancements tab, put a check next to "Disable all sound effects", then
click Apply. On the Advanced tab, click on Restore Defaults, and make sure
both check-boxes, under Exclusive Mode, do have a check mark. (Apply, OK).

What country do you live in? Is VGN-FZ11Z the complete name for your Vaio
model? In Device Manager, under "Sound, video and game controllers", what
is the name of your sound device?

 

[Guest]

Did all that and still not working (pity!). i really do appreciate your help.

I work in Nigeria (Lagos) and live in England (where I bought the Viao). the
complete name is VGN-FZ11Z - It's the new one that is designed for
entertainment!!...some entertainment...fixing the sound afer a few weeks of
owning it! the URL for the Viao is:
http://vaio.sony.co.uk/view/ShowPro...11Z&site=voe_en_GB_cons&category=VN+FZ+Series

The driver is: SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC (it says it is working
properly).

 

[dean-dean]

Using your VAIO Recovery Utility (or some such similar name), can you choose
to re-install the sound driver (SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC)? Also
check C:\Drivers or C:\Utilities. It should give you the option to
selectively choose a program or driver that you want to re-install. (This
should not to be confused with the option to restore your computer to it's
original factory condition, or anything extreme like that). I have a Sony
laptop, and I have that option to choose a driver to re-install. I also
have the option to download the driver for my model from the Sony Support
website, but I don't see that option available for your model. Yours must
be too new

I only see this available:
http://support.vaio.sony.co.uk/downloads/updates/updates.asp?site=voe_en_GB_cons&c=0&s=VGN-FZ&m=2667
Click on Preinstalled Drivers and Utilities for more info, on that page.

 

[dean-dean]

This might help get you to the Recovery Manager, also:

http://kb.sony-europe.com/KB/Solutions/EN/V00000_V00499/V00185.html

 

[Guest]

Thanks again for your help. I have investigated and printed the recovery
instructions - I now have to make the recovery DVDs before I can start the
recovery process. I plan to do this tomorow (Saturday).

I also checked out c:\drivers. the SigmaTel HD Audio driver is there. I
tried to re-install it but it stopped, telling me that certain components
were unavilable????

I can download all the drivers and utilities from the Viao website dedicated
to my particular model of Vaio, which I will also do tomorrow. I have to do
some file housekeeping (e.g. dumping all my data files onto my portable 250GB
HDD) and dumping BBC TV progs I have from 3 of my DVDs to the portable HDD,
then format the 3 DVDs to use as my recovery DVDs. I will then reinstall the
whole lot, get the updates off the web and hopefully all will be well. I will
post the results here - probably on Sunday morning. I was told this evening
that SONY just sent me a free Blue-Ray DVD of "Casino Royale", so I hope that
this one month old notebook is OK for when I get back to England so I can
watch the movie on Blue-Ray!

 

[dean-dean]

Well, rather than completely restore your computer to its original factory
state, I would just try the Driver installation first, if everything else on
your computer seems to be okay. If the the SigmaTel HD Audio driver in
C:\Drivers isn't working, try to find first) an updated version of the sound
driver from Sony's internet site for your model, or, if an updated version
isn't available, then (second) download the original version of the sound
driver that came with your computer. If you have to download the Original
Drivers Package, then do that. After you download the file, right-click on
it and choose "Run as Administrator". If you downloaded the Package, find
the SigmaTel HD Audio driver setup in C:\Drivers, then right-click that and
choose "Run as Administrator" to install.

Too, since the sound driver uses a few files from Vista's system files, you
might try this to see that things are okay:

Run the System File Checker. To do this, right click on Command
Prompt (Start Menu\Programs\Accessories), and choose
Run as Administrator. Copy the following, and Paste it after the prompt:

sfc /scannow

Press Enter. It will scan all your system files. It may take a few
minutes. If things are okay, you are
given the text message "Windows Resource Protection did not find any
integrity violations".

 

[Guest]

Thanks again for the suggestions. i downloaded the Utilities and Drivers pack
from the Vaio website and i will try them on Sunday. i reinstalled the
SigmaTel HD Audio drivers and they are working fine. i did the system scan
and there are no probs there. 7 out of the 9 games do not show the usual
stuff: Name is there, but 7 of them show Track number???, Artist??? and
rating??? instead of Modification date, Size and Type. So I have uninstalled
I-Tunes cos that it what i installd before the problem occured. Still no good
though. If i could simply re-install the 9 games I think things would then be
OK. Any ideas on how to do that? I have to buy the DVDs in the morning to
create the 3 Recovery discs.

 

[dean-dean]

So, back to your original problem, do the games' sound work correctly now?
And do they show, when you right-click the Volume icon in the notification
area, choosing Open Volume Mixer, the game listed with its own volume
control? (Note that not all games will have sound, and thereby not have the
option to turn sound off or on.)

When you ran sfc /scannow, and it found no problems, that indicates that all
the games' files are okay.

When you click on the Games folder in Start Menu (listed on the right-hand
side of the initial menu), does that look okay? (showing the correct
columns, correct preview pane, correct toolbar).

If your C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games folder and subfolders are showing
odd columns, try right-clicking a blank spot inside the Microsoft Games
folder, and choose Customize This Folder. In the drop-down list for
templates, toggle it by choosing, say, Pictures and Video, and then change
it back to All Items. Then put a check next to "Also apply this template to
all sub folders". (Apply, OK).

When making your back-up DVDs, if you have the option to leave a copy of the
restore partition on your hard drive, I would do that. That way you could
have the option to either restore from your Drive, if it hasn't failed, as
well as from the DVDs, should one or the other not work. Too, if push comes
to shove, you probably can order the DVD's from Sony for your model for a
small fee.

 

[Guest]

Well, the recovery discs are made (3 of 'em). i didn't get the option ot
leave a copy on the restore partitiion, but i know its all there on the HDD
still. Making the DVDs only produces a copy.

Thanks to you I now have the correct colum headings showing with all the
correct info about each game displayed. one problem solved. still not sound
though. Games folder and start menu stuff are all OK.

I managed to get onto the E-support part of the Viao website and I have left
a case file there about the problem. If I could simply re-instal the game
files I am sure that whatever the problem is, it would cure it. I have all my
files copied onto my external HDD and if I haven't solved it by the end of
this coming week, i will re-install the applications using the DVD I created
this morning.

I will Post here what happens with the E-support from Viao.

 

[dean-dean]

You could try this. Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features.
Look to the left for Turn Windows Features On or Off. Click on that. Look
through the listing and and find Games. Un-check Games, and
then click OK. Restart your computer. Then go back to Control Panel >
Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features On or Off, and put a checkmark
next to games. Click OK. This will re-install the Games.

 

[Guest]

I have done what you suggested to no avail. I have noticed that the volume
needs to be set to 100% to get anything like a decent amount of sound (it
wasn't this way to start with).

I am going to try this: uninstall the Rush For Berlin game, turn off the
games, restart, turn on the games, restart and see if that has made a
difference. If that doesn't work, then I will reinstall Windows Vista + the
Drivers and Utilites to get the laptop back to how it was when I first
purchased it. I have all my data backed up on my 250GB external HDD already.