Windows 10 System Sounds Not Playing

Hey, everybody.

I've been using this computer for well over a year and all of the sudden this week for no reason it stopped playing system sounds. Like, they literally don't play.

A common problem is that it's set to zero in the volume mixer. Well, I set the system sounds volume to full blast and they still aren't playing. I have tried updating my drivers but that didn't help one bit. I tried reinstalling my drivers but I've found no possible option to reinstall them, just an option to uninstall them. The problem is, I don't know where to download my drivers, again.

All the other sounds work, like in my browser and my games. Just the system sounds like the ones you hear in explorer don't work. I have no restore points and sfc /scannow does not work at all.

I looked all over the internet for a solution and I haven't found any solutions for this, so if you have a solution, please leave a reply other than telling me to reformat my computer or telling me to buy a new computer.

dalchina said:

= you have more basic problems than just your system sound.

Error message from SFC /SCANNOW?

Basics:
1. First check your disk(s):
Download and run Hard Disk Sentinel (trial) (includes SSDs)
(This gives exceptionally good text comments)
Post a screenshot of its GUI using the Insert Image icon above your post.
If all disks are reported as good, continue.

2. Now check your file system:

From an admin command or powershell prompt
[Windows key + X, click command prompt (admin)]
chkdsk C: /F
Your PC will need to restart.
Post back the result, which you can get after a restart as follows:
Read Chkdsk Log in Event Viewer in Windows 10 | Tutorials
or
How to read Event Viewer log for Chkdsk in Windows 10 [Tip] | dotTech

If all ok above, see post #2 here:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

Or you could just go for an
in-place upgrade repair install which keeps all programs, data and most settings.
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade | Tutorials

You will need an iso of the same base language and build as your existing Windows.

Do you use disk imaging routinely as is so often recommended to users?
Macrium Reflect (free) + external storage for disk images. This often gives a quick way to recover from problems, especially those which occurred recently, and acts as a full backup.

What is the make/model of your computer? (See my specs for comparison).

If you uninstall and delete drivers, on a restart Windows should install new ones automatically.
Only exceptionally should you need to specifically download drivers.

All I could do is chkdsk and I got this:

Code:

Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Wininit
Date: 12/27/2018 3:02:20 AM
Event ID: 1001
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: DESKTOP-03TPAP9
Description:


Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.


A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk. 

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
1447168 file records processed. 

File verification completed.
8930 large file records processed. 

0 bad file records processed. 


Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
5687 reparse records processed. 

1724134 index entries processed. 

Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 

0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found. 

5687 reparse records processed. 


Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Cleaning up 1204 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 1204 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 1204 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
138484 data files processed. 

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
41494296 USN bytes processed. 

Usn Journal verification completed.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

125032447 KB total disk space.
116323304 KB in 1117682 files.
523816 KB in 138485 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
1564059 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
6621268 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
31258111 total allocation units on disk.
1655317 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 15 16 00 f1 2a 13 00 6c 6c 21 00 00 00 00 00 .....*..ll!.....
b9 04 00 00 7e 11 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....~...........

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Wininit" Guid="{206f6dea-d3c5-4d10-bc72-989f03c8b84b}" EventSourceName="Wininit" />
<EventID Qualifiers="16384">1001</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>4</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2018-12-27T11:02:20.167836600Z" />
<EventRecordID>980534</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>DESKTOP-03TPAP9</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.


A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk. 

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
1447168 file records processed. 

File verification completed.
8930 large file records processed. 

0 bad file records processed. 


Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
5687 reparse records processed. 

1724134 index entries processed. 

Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 

0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found. 

5687 reparse records processed. 


Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Cleaning up 1204 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 1204 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 1204 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
138484 data files processed. 

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
41494296 USN bytes processed. 

Usn Journal verification completed.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

125032447 KB total disk space.
116323304 KB in 1117682 files.
523816 KB in 138485 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
1564059 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
6621268 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
31258111 total allocation units on disk.
1655317 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 15 16 00 f1 2a 13 00 6c 6c 21 00 00 00 00 00 .....*..ll!.....
b9 04 00 00 7e 11 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....~...........

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.
</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

This probably means my hard drive is fine.

BTW I'm not installing any third party programs since I know for a fact that my hard drive is fine.

I am not doing a repair install like you said. I wrote in my post that I don't want anybody suggesting me to reformat my computer.

Lastly, I heard that when you uninstall a driver, Windows doesn't reinstall the driver. Instead, it installs a generic version of the driver.

The best choice for me is to just wait until the Windows system sounds start playing again.

dalchina said:

This does not - repeat not- involve reformatting.

Did you read the tutorial?

If you are not going to trouble to follow advice, there's little point posting here and using our time, given freely.

Not even a 'thank you for your reply.' Good luck with your PC.

It says I will lose all my custom fonts. I don't think so.

The best thing for me to do is to just wait until the sound comes back up, again. It has worked before after all.

Lastly, I'm sorry if you thought I came off as rude in my last reply. Thanks for trying to help and I hope that you can help even more.

dalchina said:

This does not - repeat not- involve reformatting.

Did you read the tutorial?

If you are not going to trouble to follow advice, there's little point posting here and using our time, given freely.

Not even a 'thank you for your reply.' Good luck with your PC.

Okay, so I couldn't do sfc /scannow at all. So I tried to boot into Safe Mode and run sfc /scannow instead, but I couldn't get into Windows. It was stuck in an automatic repair loop and it took me hours to fix. Once I finally got my computer fixed all by myself, there's still no system sounds, but I could care less, right now.

WareNetwork2000 said:

Hey, everybody.

I've been using this computer for well over a year and all of the sudden this week for no reason it stopped playing system sounds. Like, they literally don't play.

A common problem is that it's set to zero in the volume mixer. Well, I set the system sounds volume to full blast and they still aren't playing. I have tried updating my drivers but that didn't help one bit. I tried reinstalling my drivers but I've found no possible option to reinstall them, just an option to uninstall them. The problem is, I don't know where to download my drivers, again.

All the other sounds work, like in my browser and my games. Just the system sounds like the ones you hear in explorer don't work. I have no restore points and sfc /scannow does not work at all.

I looked all over the internet for a solution and I haven't found any solutions for this, so if you have a solution, please leave a reply other than telling me to reformat my computer or telling me to buy a new computer.

System Sounds are gone! - Windows 7 Help Forums

-----

I found the solution..and someone thinks that Adobe Flash Player is causing this problem sometimes.
Anyway, here is the fix:

My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32

create "wavemapper", type in "msacm32.drv"