Vista PC w/ Realtek HD Audio problems

[Sregnar]

Hello all, my new vista home premium pc is having audio issues. Kinda strange but here goes, sound works fine through windows media player 11 only, any other sounds (such as system sounds, any internet explorer sounds or videos) do not work. No error is given, there is just no audio coming out. I've tried the newest drivers from realtek (R1.80) to no avail. I've tried every setting with sounds and that doesn't work either. I can't uninstall wmp11, to see if it's causing a conflict. I've searched the internet for a solution but there seems to be no one with a similar issue. Soundcard is realtek hd audio 5.1 built on the motherboard. Any ideas? Thank you.

[Reegs]

Hi sregnar,

I don't think WMP11 is going to be the culprit. We need a little more information though.

WMP11 comes preinstalled with your version of Vista? Or does it need to be downloaded/installed?

Did you have sound on these events at any point? If so, what were the last few things you did before losing it?

Model/Brand of PC?

[Sregnar]

WMP11 was preinstalled, yes. When I first hooked up the pc I remember system sounds working (like the windows startup noise and such. Upon my first boot up with the new pc I ran all the critical windows updates needed. I also installed other software, itunes, guitar pro 5.2, winamp, others I can't distinctly remember. I can't exactly remember when I noticed that the system sounds weren't working, but it was within the first few days of use. I have gone back and uninstalled every windows update, as well as all the software on the add/remove list through control panel, restarting after each uninstall, and nothing worked. I've tried every setting in wmp but there is no cure there either. Tried uninstalling realtek drivers completely, and reinstalling newest drivers and codecs. My PC is an Acer Aspire T180 with an athlon 3600+ 64X2 processor, 1 gb ddr2, 250 gb SATA hd.

[Reegs]

Are you early enough into your use of the PC that your amount of customized settings is minimal? I hate to sound like the guy from tech support in India, but if this is the case, and you have the time, perhaps it would be easiest to do a factory restore. You'll (theoretically) get your system sounds back, and as you update and reinstall everything you can isolate where you lose the sound. If you don't get system sounds back through this, it would be identifiable as a hardware or BIOS issue.

The drivers you're reinstalling are the three "Vista" audio drivers located at the end of this PDF (http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/forms/AcerDrivers/Aspire%20T180.pdf?CFID=4398432&CFTOKEN=39762918), right?

[Sregnar]

I've had the pc for a few months, and when I tried a system restore it only goes back towithin a month of my original installs, unless there is another way to d oa system restore. By the way, those drivers you referenced are not the ones I have tried, i got my drivers from the realtek website, I'm downloading the 3 you referenced in the pdf file now.

[Sregnar]

2 of the the 3 files on the pdf were older versions of the drivers (1.53 and 1.50, I currently have 1.80) and the third file was an auto updater, none remedied the problem.

[Reegs]

All right,

Sorry about that, though it was worth a shot. If you open up "Sound" from the control panel, what do you see? Which device is selected as default? Also, check to see that system sounds are enabled on the third tab?

[Sregnar]

My default playback device is "Speakers" with realtek hd audio working written in gray underneath that. If I right click speakers and click test, the test works, I hear the chime. When I go to the sounds tab and try to test any of the system sounds, nothing happens, no sound, no error. I did verify that the .wav files used are actually there, and they willpaly through wmp if so selected.

[Reegs]

My default playback device is "Speakers" with realtek hd audio working written in gray underneath that. If I right click speakers and click test, the test works, I hear the chime. When I go to the sounds tab and try to test any of the system sounds, nothing happens, no sound, no error. I did verify that the .wav files used are actually there, and they willpaly through wmp if so selected.
That's really odd! Have you been in touch with Acer tech support?

The only other thing I could think of it being would be the per-application volume control. I just checked and it might be the cause because I can replicate what you've described above.

Do this: open up a bunch of applications and then right-click on the volume button in the taskbar to open the Volume Mixer. Vista allows each application (including Windows Sound) to have an independent, adjustable volume. Are sliders that should be at 100 at 0 or muted?

No volume button in the taskbar? Right-click on the bar, hit properties and check the "Volume" button.

I hope this works!

[Sregnar]

I called Acer, and they said I should reinstall vista, but I have about 60gb worth of personal files.I tried the volume trick you mentioned, every program I tried opening has the volume set to 100. My PC has a c drive and a d drive. The d drive is labeled data and when I double click it it just says this folder is empty. Can I transfer all of my personal files from the c drive (which has vista installed on it) to my d drive (which is empty), and then reinstall vista without losing the personal files on the d drive?

[Reegs]

Damn, I really thought that was going to be it.

Anyways, transferring to D is likely a bad idea. My guess is that's the recovery partition you'll be reinstalling Vista from.

Treat this situation as an excuse to get that really big external HD you've always wanted;)

Sorry it comes down to the fresh reinstall.

Reegs

[Sregnar]

Thanks for all the help, just a crazy vista bug I guess is what I'll blame it on. I have a 40gb external, I'll have to rent some hd space on my sister's pc, thanks again.

[samerater]

I have the exact same problem. Realtek HD, Vista, sound only works in wmp11. Except my pc is not an acer, its an HP

[Sregnar]

I got mine fixed about a month ago, just check out this link..

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/08/15/fix-windows-no-system-sound-and-audio-problem/