Sound dies after Win10 upgrade

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MuzzleTough
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Sound dies after Win10 upgrade

Post by MuzzleTough »

Hi everyone,

When playing BF42 there seems to be a keystroke/mouse button combination that I haven't figured out yet, that causes a tiny window to open with a bar graph (disappears immediately) and my sound quits. I just lowered sound settings to see if that helps. Haven't tested it yet.

This never occurred before. Most recent change was Win10 update (and maybe proprietary updates as well ... i'll check).

To resolve: I have to quit the game and return.

Typically, once I quit the game and drop back into windows desktop I check sound and it is operating fine. I go back into the game and I have sound till the next time.

I noticed once that this seemed to happen with a keystroke/mouse button combination, but can't be sure.

Any ideas? Anyone else with this problem?

Thanks,

Rob
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I used to be a pacifist, then I started playing BF.
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Trench
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Re: Sound dies after Win10 upgrade

Post by Trench »

Never had that kind of issue related to sound, but certain video drivers (Intel in my experience) come with hot keys enabled by default for accessing features. I always forget to turn them off after rebuilding one of my wife's computers, until she comes home with her screen accidentally rotated 180 degrees asking WTF. Maybe whatever video and/or sound card drivers are running on your computer now have some kind of hot key combination enabled we're not aware of.

If that were happening on a computer in front of me, I would start by looking in Device Manager to see the specific kinds of sound devices it shows as being installed, and search for anyone with similar experiences and/or documentation of what hotkeys might be supported by the current sound card drivers. Microsoft has more vendor-supplied drivers than ever being delivered through Windows Update, so it's not even necessarily anything you installed manually, and is just "the latest drivers supplied to Microsoft by the hardware vendor" delivered automatically during installation or post-installation.

It does seem odd that it would only last "until I exit the game", as though it's changing sound "just for the current program." Which is not a normal concept for Windows to support, in my opinion. I'm trying to think of a way in which it could relate to switching from your sound card to the HDMI sound output of your video card or something like that, but this doesn't fit with "problem continues until I exit the game" either.

Do you have any screen recording software installed? (e.g. FRAPS) Something like that could be more likely to do something "only while a DirectX application is running" and therefore possibly explain how the issue ceases when you exit.

-Trench
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Re: Sound dies after Win10 upgrade

Post by MuzzleTough »

Thanks Trench,
I've discounted the hotkey possibility. Sound operates normally except in game. Now there is no sound whatsoever when in BF42.

No FRAPS or other Screen/sound capture. This machine was a recent complete windows reinstallation and then upgrade to Win10. I don't even have usual work related software installed yet.

I have another installation that has a graphic related problem. I fear I'm going to end up doing 2 new re-installations, but I'd settle for one that worked.

Thanks again,

MT
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Re: Sound dies after Win10 upgrade

Post by Trench »

MuzzleTough wrote:Sound operates normally except in game. Now there is no sound whatsoever when in BF42.
Maybe run DXDIAG.EXE (included with Windows) and see if it's noting anything about the DirectX audio support detected on this machine. Should just say "No problems found" on the "Sound" tab.

There is no "sound card selection" in the game if you have more than one audio device; so far as I know it uses whichever one Windows considers default. If it's not something you've already done, maybe right-click the volume control in the task bar, select "Playback devices", and make sure there is a green checkbox and "Default device" showing on the appropriate one you're expected to hear audio through.

Truthfully I've not had to deal with multiple audio outputs on Battlefield 1942; for example having a USB headphone, which is essentially "an additional sound card" from a Windows perspective. Maybe someone who has such a configuration or is familiar with any other aspect of what you're describing can comment on what it takes to ensure Battlefield 1942 is playing out through the expected audio device.
MuzzleTough wrote:This machine was a recent complete windows reinstallation and then upgrade to Win10. ... I fear I'm going to end up doing 2 new re-installations, but I'd settle for one that worked.
If it helps shorten the work load a bit, note that if you have already performed an upgrade to Windows 10 on a specific machine (one which resulted in a successful "Windows is activated" outcome), you can now take a Windows 10 .ISO / DVD and simply format the hard drive clean, and perform a Windows 10 installation without going through the upgrade again.

i.e. Even further than Windows' own "reset this computer" options for performing a "clean" install, you can do a literal clean installation by deleting all your partitions and then installing using nothing except the Windows 10 DVD during your re-installation.

The previous successful upgrade "registers" your hardware profile as having obtained the free Windows 10 license, so you can just hit "Skip this" and "Do this later" when prompted for the Windows 10 activation key during your new clean install, and your machine will still be successfully activated once Windows 10 contacts the activation server with your hardware profile info. Since you're not entering a key, just be sure and pick the same version of Windows you're upgrade was for (Windows 10 Pro, versus Windows 10 standard edition) when performing the clean installation.

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Re: Sound dies after Win10 upgrade

Post by MuzzleTough »

Hi Trench
thanks for the tip re Windows 10 reinstallation. I actually did the Windows 10 upgrade for the first time on this machine.

I gave up with both Windows 10 installations. Windows 10 apparently has issues with BF - the one with sound wouldn't run except occasionally when windowed.

I decided to keep playing BF42 by re-installing Windows 7 in my Linux box. Now ... no problems!

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Re: Sound dies after Win10 upgrade

Post by Mali Mrav »

Here muzzle maybe this will help u to solve your problem fossbytes.com/windows-10-guide-how-to-fix-audio-issues-in-windows-10-pcs/
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