WMC lost sound

[juls]

I have lost the audio output of WMC on one of the 4 user accounts on my desktop PC, WMC audio working fine on the other 3 accounts. All other audio & sound etc are ok on the problem user account (have audio from Media Player/iTunes/CD's) I have tried turning WMC off & back on again but no joy.
Has any one any suggestions as to how I can fix this?

Many thanks
juls

[newfiend]

Open WMC
On the main Menu Select Tasks/Settings
Then General
Then Windows Media Center Setup.. (Somewhere in here are Audio Settings.) I'm not in front of a PC with WMC at the moment so I can't be exact sorry.
Run through the Audio Setup and make sure the audio settings are setup correctly and see if that fixes the issue.
newfiend

[adam1991]

This happened to me out of the blue a couple of days ago. Son was watching, no problem, he leaves, 10 minutes later I sit down and--no sound out of WMC. I fooled around and determined that it was limited to WMC, and not the TV or the speaker system.

I rebooted the entire computer, and all was well. Hasn't happened since. ?????

Next time, I head to an extender to see if they're also affected.

[juls]

I have been through all the WMC settings on all 4 user accounts and they are all the same, so there must be something else affecting it. Unfortunately I don’t have an old enough restore point to go back to either.
I have created several new user accounts to test things and WMC audio is working on all of them.
Beginning to think only way around the problem is to transfer the entire contents of the problem user account to new one; unless any one has any further suggestions I could try

[mcewinter]

This happened to me out of the blue a couple of days ago. Son was watching, no problem, he leaves, 10 minutes later I sit down and--no sound out of WMC. I fooled around and determined that it was limited to WMC, and not the TV or the speaker system.

I rebooted the entire computer, and all was well. Hasn't happened since. ?????

Next time, I head to an extender to see if they're also affected.

If you have ATI and mute the system, the sound may not come back until after reboot. I believe it was fixed with a driver update. If you use an AVR then the point is moot.

Just thought it was worth a mention. This does not help the OP.


OP - The problem only occurs inside of media center? No system issues with sound?

[juls]

No system issues with sound at all, just with WMC on the one user account (which is in fact the only administrator account)
No opening/loading jingle from WMC or sounds when navigating within it.

[mcewinter]

Have you installed any codecs lately, or tinkered with any existing codecs?

Have you or Windows updated any drivers? You may be able to roll back drivers via device manager if that's the case.

I guess it makes sense to ask how your audio is connected.

[juls]

mcewinter

Thanks for your help it is appreciated.
To my knowledge no codecs installed lately. Can’t say I would know where to go to tinker with them.
Windows is set to automatic updates and install.
Looked through all drivers via device manager – all are dated 2012 or before.
No inbuilt screen speakers so audio is played back through a stereo HiFi system.

Wouldn’t changes to any of the above effect all users?
juls

[mcewinter]

HDMI to the receiver? analog? SPDIF/Toslink?

I really have no advice as of yet but let's look at the whole picture.

I would think that all users would be affected too.

I would compare the audio properties via the icon on the lower right of your screen...right click, select playback devices, highlight your connected audio and check the properties against the other users specifically in the advanced tab. I'm pretty certain you need both of the boxes checked on that tab.

[signcarver]

Did you check the mixer? I usually have to keep WMC's volume about twice that as anything else.

[juls]

Mcewinter
Just for the record I am using a stereo analog connection, both boxes in Speaker Properties>Advanced>Exclusive Mode are ticked.

Signcarve
Your mention of the mixer made me go back and look at the settings again; been in and out of it on all the user accounts numerous times comparing settings.
With WMC turn OFF (Off not Disabled) on the currant User Account …Right click volume icon in Task Bar>Open Volume Mixer what you see is, Device>Speakers and Applications>SystemSounds.
Just by chance I Opened Volume Mixer with WMC turned ON; low and behold what you see is Device>Speakers and Applications>SystemSounds and WidowsMediaCenter. Guess what? Volume slider was set to zero!!!

As to how that happened is good question as I control volume levels with the HiFi volume dial as it is simply quicker and easier.

10 days of frustration finally sorted.

Thank you for all the help.
Juls