Exclamation sound event not working on one account

I'm running XP home ed. with multiple user accounts. Two situations on two different apps seem to use the win exclamation sound event

- attempt to repost data via a refresh in IE
- attempt to find a string not in the file in Textpad

I get the assigned sound on one account but not on the other. I can listen to the assigned sound through the control panel sound assignment screen, but it doesn't sound when the event is triggered through one of the apps above. That account happens to be the admin account and afaik all other sounds function properly.

 

I guess noone has any ideas on this, and I give up. Annoying as it may be, I just don't know what else to try. Have even tried changing sound schemes on that account to no avail. I wonder if it's the exclamation event itself that's somehow been disabled.

Weird.