sound(s) suddenly gone from FSX

[CurlSnout]

Hello Citizens,

Although I lurk here often, I rarely post. I find myself in need of help/suggestions and hope such might be found here among the experts. I recently purchased a new computer, running Windows 11. Earlier today, for no reason that I can identify, ALL sounds are gone from FSX. Sound(s) on this computer are otherwise fine - I can listen to online audio/video, play archived music, etc. And sound in all other applications works fine. I can even run FS9 and the sound there works like it always has. But suddenly, and inexplicably, FSX is completely silent.

In my FSX Sound - Settings:

Volume levels (Engines, Cockpit, Environment, Voice) are all set to 50%
Windows sound devices ('Sounds' and 'Voice') are assigned to 'Default Primary Device'
And, I have the box checked for 'Play user-interface sounds'

Any ideas?

Thanks in any case,

Sam

edit: I can go into the FSX > Sound directory, choose an individual *.wav file, and that works fine. The same for *.wav files that reside inside individual aircraft folders - those play fine as well. But in the sim, there is no sound.

[Dangerous Beans]

Did you accidentally hit Q on your keyboard while in FSX?
That mutes all sounds.

[CurlSnout]

Thanks. I meant to include in my post above that the sound is NOT muted. I have tried muting/un-muting, with no success.

[MrZippy]

This is from an old post on the Flightsim.com site. It fixed a "no sound" problem for someone else.

"On the opening screen of the sim at the bottom left hand corner in small print is a selection "contacts". Not knowing what it's for I opened it and "VOILA" the sound turned on. Now all's well in my little world."

[CurlSnout]

Thanks, MrZippy, I saw that post (I've spent most of today searching for a solution) and that is not a solution in my case.

Mysterious. And, frustrating.

[TARPSBird]

If you saw the post MrZippy mentioned you've probably already seen this one, but if not there may be something here that can help you:
https://www.flightsim.com/forums/top...-what-so-ever/

Also, an input from me: Check your sound settings and see what selections you have in the Windows Sound Devices box (see attached pic). Changing these might resolve your sound problem.

[Manschy]

Second this - some windows updates change the sound options! In my case, I always choose "speakers" and after this, it works again

[centuryseries]

If Windows 10 try right clicking the volume icon at bottom left while FSX is running and click on 'Open Sound Settings' then 'App volume and device preferences' - make sure FSX isnt muted there.

[CurlSnout]

TARPSBird: Yes, I came upon the post you referenced early on in my search. No help there. And, I have tried all of the options available in the SETTINGS - SOUND / Windows sound devices dialog box - no change.

centuryseries: This is a good suggestion, but I'm running Windows 11. So far I cannot see that it is possible (as in Windows 10) to pair specific output devices with specific apps (many people who liked this option in Windows 10 are complaining about the lack in Windows 11).

Thanks to everyone who has chimed in. I'm still trying to figure this out. Although I have not been able to re-install FSX using my original discs, I WAS able to copy the contents of the discs onto a hard drive and run the setup.exe that way (I was not certain this would work). So I was able to reinstall FSX. BUT: I still have no sound and only in FSX. I'm beginning to suspect that something is broken/corrupt in my system that is independent of FSX (but is somehow specifically affecting FSX).

Reinstalling FSX also took me back to the days when the application was brand new. I was an early adopter, and now I recall that there were many problems at first with the sim out-of-the-box - lack of bridges, etc. Service packs were offered up fairly quickly, and we all started figuring things out. Not sure I want to go that far back and relive all of that. What I really need is a time machine so I could go back about three days - when everything was running fine. Actually, maybe I would go back about 40 years....

[MrZippy]

If you have external speakers, have you tried unplugging them while FSX is running and then plugging them back in? Just a thought...I have so few!

[CurlSnout]

Thanks MrZippy; I tried that early on. No joy.

[CurlSnout]

Update - Problem SOLVED (sort of):

This has been driving me nuts and I have spent way too much time trying to get it sorted. In case anyone is interested in this or encounters a similar issue in the future I found a working solution. I copied an image of my FSX directory onto another hard drive (D: ), deleted the original FSX (from C: ), launched FSX from the new directory and the sounds are back!

I experimented with copying the 'working' FSX back onto C: and the sounds in that install are gone. So, it seems something on my primary system hard drive is somehow incompatible with sounds in FSX. I still don't understand what or why, but I will run the sim from D: (and hope the sounds there don't get killed as well).

Thanks again to everyone who offered help and suggestions.

Peace,

Sam

[MrZippy]

That's interesting! First time I've heard of that problem being caused by a hard drive! Thanks for the update!