No Windows Startup or Shutdown Sound

If my guess about drivers is the cause, Windows cannot run some of the special features/hardware of the audio system. That's why the settings are greyed out.

In dxdiag on the Sound 1 tab, at the top left it has Device -> Name:. The name is the audio controller and those are the drivers you should find. If the audio is part of the motherboard (built-in) the drivers will be on the main drivers CD. If the audio is through an add-in card, the drivers will be on a CD of their own.

If you would like to find updated drivers, get SiSoftware Sandra in my signature. Information about the audio will be under the Sound Card heading. Information about the computer and motherboard will be under the Mainboard heading. You could use the "Copy to Clipboard" button and post the information here if you need help.

You can find updated drivers and software by going to the manufacturer's website, go to the Support webpage and find your model from there.

If the computer is a branded type like a Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway, etc, you just need to know the model number of the computer itself. They explain how to find the model number at their Support webpage, that will lead you to the drivers and information about your system.

Matt

 

Restore system sounds.

Hi Jean, this worked for me as I have been in the same predicament since an MS update caused many problems. Do you have Powertoys/TweakUI installed? If so, click TweakUI>General>Beep on errors(verify that the box is ticked). As I said it worked for me. I have tried all the other suggestions you received and then some. Hope it helps. Neil.

 

Sorry I haven't answered sooner but I haven't had a chance to work on the computers.

Matt - I haven't had a chance to try what you suggested. It may be a little to complicated for me but hopefully this weekend I'll check it out unless "Retiredlearner's" suggestion works.

To Retiredlearner - I know I have TweakUI on my computer and when I accessed it, there was a checkmark in Beep on errors. Thanks for the help anyway.

More later.

Jean

 

I'm With Ya Jean!

[SIZE= "3"]Jean, I've just recently noticed the same problem.[/SIZE]
I have re-installed XP today and all was working well.
The ONLY actions I took to make modifications to my new OS were a few tweaks.
Here is the link to the XP tweaking walkthrough that I followed.
http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/xptweaks/supertweaks1.htm
I will be searching for an answer to our troubles and will post a solution soon.
Give me a week.

 

[SIZE= "4"]SOLUTION[/SIZE]
Retiredlearner was correct.

TweakUI is needed.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Run, click on +General
Make sure that "Beep on errors" is CHECKED.

Apply, close and restart your PC.



Incase this isn't working.
Make sure you logging in with the admin (owner) profile for XP.
Try un-checking, apply and restart.
Then check, apply and restart again.
When finished apply the default windows sound theme and restart.
Hope you get this fixed as I have.
Cheers!

 

Grams 79

I do have TweakUI installed and the "Beep on errors" is CHECKED.
I also tried unchecking it, restarting, rechecking but nothing worked.

goddez1

I did create another user account as you suggersted and when I logged on and off, I did hear the startup and shutdown sounds.

So the problem is not an issue with the new account so maybe there will be some help with my corrupted user account which is the only other account.

Thanks for any more help you can give.

Jean

 

Try this....

Start button.
Click Run.
Type in "regedit" and open the tree in this order.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Sound]
Make sure that both of these are set to "yes ".
To change just click on the name and then select modify.
Beep= "yes "
ExtendedSounds= "yes "

I hope this helps.

 

Hi,

I did check the registry on both computers and the sound is set to "yes" on both computers.

It must be something we have installed on both computers that is not allowing us to hear the sounds but I don't know what.

Jean

 

Hi LarsonJean,

How about trying the registry export that I mentioned earlier:

While logged into the new account, (the one you've mentioned you made and the startup and shutdown sounds work), open the registry editor (regedit) by the startbutton>run line>type regedit and hit ok.

Click on the hkey_current_user and right click on the subfolder APPEVENTS.

From the popup choose export

Give the reg key a name you'll recognize(for example...appevents) and save it in a folder you'll be able to get to while in the older account (or the one who's having the startup/shutdown sound issue).

Close out of regedit.

Log off the new account and log into the older account.

Locate and double click on the appevents.reg export you made to merge it into the older account.

Try a shutdown/startup and see if the sounds now work in the older account.

----------------
Keep in mind that this may mean that any personal customized sounds that you've added to other events on the old sound scheme in the old account may have to be made once again. You could avoid this, if you'd rather, by adding an additional step of also exporting the older accounts appevents before merging the new accounts *.reg exported key. The older accounts exported backup *.reg key will give the option of putting everything back the way it was, by simple double clicking on the *.reg file. Of course, "system restore ", if yours is working properally, is also an option. No big deal....Typing this out is taking longer and sounds much more complicated than actually doing anything I've suggested you try.

 

Goddez1

I did try exporting the registry from the new user name and imported it into the old (non-working) name.

I'm so sorry to say it did not make any difference, still no startup or shutdown sounds.

Thanks, it was a good try anyway. I was hopeful it would work.

Do you think that there would be another spot in the registry to try to import?

Jean