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

[SenorN]

We will try installing the 64-bit drivers: however, I will point out again that the program had been working fine on her 64-bit machine for several weeks before the problem arose. Also, we have worked OVER Skype repeatedly and without difficulty in Audacity on her machine.

[SenorN]

We had device manager look for updated drivers on the machine and on the Net. It said we had the most up-to-date driver available. It also gave no opportunity to roll back the driver (grayed out)

Even though we've worked over Skype with Audacity in the past, she quit Skype completely and attempted to play a file in Audacity to check out Gale's suggestion. Again, playback meter indicates sound being produced, but no sound comes from speakers.

We tried changing playback settings in Windows sound today, so far with no luck.

[kozikowski]

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

What day exactly? Day of the week?

You have a fuzzy gap in there. You can understand why we're really interested in the time and date of the failure. She was editing a show and then ...[gap]... she starting editing again and Audacity was silent. Does she leave the machine running with Audacity and just sit down again with a fresh cup of coffee after lunch? Does she shut Audacity down and then open it up again? Is she actively working on email or Skype or any other application during this gap?

Koz

[kozikowski]

Audacity is usually so reliable in its recording and playback that we used to use it to confirm signal continuity in recording and entertainment systems. It's most unusual for it to fail like this.

She doesn't remember anything during the gap because that's when the aliens came....

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

We had device manager look for updated drivers on the machine and on the Net. It said we had the most up-to-date driver available. It also gave no opportunity to roll back the driver (grayed out)

Who was the driver provider? If it was Microsoft, they are the wrong drivers, not matched to your motherboard, however up-to-date they are.


Gale

[SenorN]

(Parts of this message may end up duplicating a post I submitted yesterday that, for some reason, hasn't yet appeared here.)

Well, we were not successful at getting sound in Audacity by changing the output configuration. I believe we tried all available settings in the program and in Windows sound. I've run out of ideas...

To answer your questions, Gale,

Yes, the system restore point we used was made while Audacity was still working. It had been automatically created by Windows when it did a critical system update earlier on the same day Audacity quit working. I know that sounds suspicious, but the program worked for several hours after the update and, more telling, Device Manager offers no opportunity to roll back the driver. Also, Device Manager searched her machine and the Net for the latest driver and said she has the newest one. (Incidentally, I believe we used the only existing SR point. Guess we'll need to change her System Restore settings so it saves more than just one!)

I had her shut Skype down (completely QUIT it--- NOT running in background), then try Audacity again, and then call me back on Skype. She confirmed that there was still no sound in Audacity when Skype was closed. I didn't expect this to have any affect, because her problem had initially arisen when she was not using Skype and, before the problem arose, she and I had done a good deal of work together in her Audacity program while we were sharing her screen over Skype.

Thanks again for your help, Gale. I remain open to suggestions!

[SenorN]

Sorry... For some reason, I didn't see some of the above comments/questions until now.

I'll try to get more details about exactly when the problem arose and just what she was doing that day, especially between the time the program made sound and when it no longer did. It's now been a week and a half or two since then. I hope she has some recollection. (As I mentioned, she's not at all computer-savvy.)

All she told me was that she had recorded several tracks in the AM and things had been working fine. She said she then took a break and stopped working in Audacity for a couple of hours and, when she came back to listen to her recordings and send them to me, she couldn't get any sound. (I'll ask if she'd closed the program during that hiatus.)
-----------------------

Next time I talk with her, I'll find out if the driver is from Realtek Semiconductor like mine.

I think I should again mention that sound plays fine in all her other audio programs. (inc. iTunes and Windows Media Player)

[kozikowski]

It had been automatically created by Windows when it did a critical system update earlier on the same day

So that would be Tuesday.

(I'll ask if she'd closed the program during that hiatus.)

That would be good to know. Most well-behaved updates wait until the machine is loafing before applying updates, and service modules may not update until the program is stopped and restarted.

I really want to split up the system. Do you/does she have any usb sound "loudspeakers" to use an older phrase? Anything USB, speakers, amp systems, headphones. interface devices? You see where I'm going with this? A method of getting sound out of the computer without going through the conventional sound services.

Koz

[kozikowski]

when she came back to listen to her recordings and send them to me, she couldn't get any sound.

Did she send them to you anyway and what do they sound like?
In My Opinion, you should trash Audacity 2 and install one of the earlier Audacity versions. I think I was happy with Audacity 1.3.13 or 1.3.14 before I finally did the global update to push my machines to 2. In the overall scheme of things, Audacity 2 is very new and we may not have found all the problems yet.

If the System Restore didn't bring things back to life, that's pretty scary.

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

In My Opinion, you should trash Audacity 2 and install one of the earlier Audacity versions. I think I was happy with Audacity 1.3.13 or 1.3.14 before I finally did the global update to push my machines to 2. In the overall scheme of things, Audacity 2 is very new and we may not have found all the problems yet.

2.0.0 was produced from very similar code to 1.3.14. In my opinion, you would have to go back to 1.3.12 to find much difference in audio input/output code.


Gale