Sound in all other programs, but suddenly none in Audacity!

[SenorN]

I've been assisting an old friend over Skype as she learns to do sound editing. (I've become reasonably proficient with Audacity and LOVE the program!)
We are using 2.0.0, and her OS is XP (assuming with SP3 update). She installed Audacity from the exe file, and has a 64-bit machine.

Today, she called and said that, after she'd successfully recorded and played back several guitar and vocal tracks earlier in the day, the program had suddenly stopped producing sound on playback. She's not very computer-savvy, and I assumed this would be easy to fix, but we went into Windows sound and checked all the playback (and record) settings, which looked correct. Then we tried playing sound with Quicktime, iTunes, and Windows Media Player, all of which worked fine.

So then I looked for some Audacity setting she might have clicked by mistake. The tracks were NOT muted. We tried changing the output device from "Primary sound driver" to "Realtek high definition audio." That didn't help. We turned "Software playthrough" and "Overdub" on and off. When that didn't work, we re-scanned audio devices (also under Transport) and restarted the program. When that didn't work, we rebooted. When that was no help, we uninstalled Audacity and downloaded and re-installed it using the exe file and rebooted again.

None of this helped. She was sharing her screen with me, and I could see Audacity playing a typical waveform and watch the playback output level indicators as they showed sound being produced, but we could hear nothing. We opened pre-recorded MP3s and wavs, and she recorded a few seconds of speaking while I watched. It recorded just fine---again, the waveform was just what you'd expect---but as it played, there was no sound.

We also checked the driver in Device Manager. It had NOT been updated recently, and Windows told us it was the best driver available.

I'm at a complete loss. Is there way to mute the program that I don't know about? I couldn't find any apparently-relevant settings under Edit>Preferences. Of course, I can't imagine why anyone would want to mute all playback anyway!

As I said, every other audio program on her machine is producing sound just fine. Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

[kozikowski]

At the risk of getting all Help-Desk on you, I didn't see "Restart the Machine" in that monolog (which was very complete and helpful).

Koz

[SenorN]

Thank you for responding, but " When that didn't work, we rebooted. When that was no help, we uninstalled Audacity and downloaded and re-installed it using the exe file and rebooted again. " (end of para. 3)

[Gale Andrews]

For the sake of completeness, you should reset Audacity settings to Audacity defaults. This is done not by re-installing Audacity, but by quitting it and editing the audacity.cfg settings file. Please see the instructions to do this here.

It seems like you have checked most things, but has your friend turned up the Audacity output volume slider (the left-hand one) on Mixer Toolbar?


Is she actually using the inbuilt Realtek device to listen to audio in other programs? If she is using some other device like a USB headset, she has to select that as Audacity playback device, or set it as Windows default and choose "Primary Sound Driver" in Audacity.


Gale

[SenorN]

Thanks for responding, Gale!

When I work with my friend again later today, we'll reset the Audacity settings to their defaults and let you know if it helps.
(Yes, the output slider was up and all programs were using the Realtek device...)

[SenorN]

Neither Notepad, nor Wordpad would allow us even to find, much less open audacity.cfg, even though we made sure to uncheck "hide system files" in folder settings. (I'm sure you know these are very secure folders...)

Resetting security settings is SUCH a nightmare that I couldn't ask my not-too-computer-savvy friend even to try that after we'd tried over and over to open the file in various ways, including dragging it into the text editors (When we did that, Wordpad showed only the icon.)

Anyway, we uninstalled Audacity and deleted every possible remaining Audacity-related file afterwards, including audacity.cfg (used the free and excellent "Everything" search tool). Then we created a new audacity.cfg in a text editor, typing only "NewPrefsInitialized=1," re-installed Audacity2.0.0,and rebooted.

None of this gave us sound in Audacity. (As a result of these problems, she started using Mixcraft, which she purchased recently. It worked fine for us.)

My intention now is to again delete all things Audacity and then to go into Regedit and delete all references to the program. (backing up the Registry 1st, of course) and then to re-install it. I now understand that Audacity's configuration info is stored in the registry. I think it's keeping those settings in spite of the uninstall and the edited cfg file.

I'd be happy for any suggestions about finding related registry entries that might not contain the term "Audacity." I doubt there could be any, but there's a lot I don't know!

Thanks in advance for any responses!

[Gale Andrews]

I have never had a problem opening audacity.cfg in Notepad, certainly not when dragging it in.

The next 2.0.1 release of Audacity will have an installer that lets you reinstall and reset the audacity.cfg file automatically at the same time.

we uninstalled Audacity and deleted every possible remaining Audacity-related file afterwards, including audacity.cfg (used the free and excellent "Everything" search tool). Then we created a new audacity.cfg in a text editor, typing only "NewPrefsInitialized=1," re-installed Audacity2.0.0,and rebooted.

None of this gave us sound in Audacity.

Did you place the new audacity.cfg in Documents and Settings<user name>Application DataAudacity while Audacity was closed? It will have no effect if you did this while Audacity was running.

I now understand that Audacity's configuration info is stored in the registry.

No, the 2.0.0 settings are stored in Documents and Settings<user name>Application DataAudacity.

I think it's keeping those settings in spite of the uninstall and the edited cfg file.

It won't be keeping any explicitly configuration settings in the Registry unless you have previously installed Audacity 1.2. And even if you have, "NewPrefsInitialized=1" would make Audacity ignore the 1.2 settings.

Have you tried System Restore back to before the date when the problem started?


Gale

[SenorN]

Thanks for the multiple responses since I last commented here.

Since that time, we again uninstalled Audacity and searched for and deleted all residual Audacity files (again, including the audacity.cfg file kept in "Documents and Settings<user name>Application DataAudacity/").

We then followed advice I found on another site and deleted all references to Audacity in the registry. (That suggestion had been provided in response to someone having a problem similar to ours.) Following all this, we rebooted and re-installed the program.

Again, no sound, no matter what file we tried to play! (The files are not muted, nor is the volume turned down in the Track Control Panel.)
All other audio programs are working normally.

To remind folks... Audacity worked fine for my friend for a couple of weeks. Then, one day last week, after she had successfully recorded, played back, and started editing a three-track file in the morning, she returned to work more that afternoon and discovered that Audacity had stopped making sound, even though her files were clearly playing and the meters showed sound being produced. She assumed she had somehow clicked the wrong control by mistake.

I can't program, but consider myself a fairly advanced Windows user, and I've spent hundreds of hours in Audacity over the past month with no problems. Nevertheless, I can't figure out what's causing this. We'll be extremely grateful for any additional suggestions.

[SenorN]

Quick follow-up... We did do a system restore.

Also, I realized last night this must a a problem in Audacity's output device settings. I'm sure we looked at them, but we'll take a closer look tonight Audacity is receiving and playing sound, but not sending it to the speakers or headphones. I should have realized this before.

I plan to post the results of our efforts here.

[Gale Andrews]

We then followed advice I found on another site and deleted all references to Audacity in the registry. (That suggestion had been provided in response to someone having a problem similar to ours.) Following all this, we rebooted and re-installed the program.

Again, no sound

Hardly surprising since no audio configuration settings for Audacity 1.3.x and later are kept in the Registry.

We did do a system restore.

Back to a time when Audacity produced sound? And it didn't make any difference?

has a 64-bit machine.

Then the Realtek sound device will need drivers meant for Windows XP 64-bit, supplied by the computer or motherboard manufacturer (not by Microsoft). See http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Updat ... ce_Drivers .

Also, is Skype running? If so, ask your friend to quit Skype completely using the system tray icon or Windows Task Manager.




Gale