Hello! I noticed today that there was no sound events in Windows. I *believe* it happened after I had changed my NVidia Detonator display drivers 2 times.. ..from 45.28, to 67.22, to 60.85. I've now changed back to 45.28, but still the sund events are gone. I haven't been using Add/Remove Programs, but instead in Device Manager, I've right-clicked my Display adapter and chose "Update driver..." Everything else regarding sounds is working. I can play .wav, .mp3 and .mid files. I've checked in Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices -> Sounds tab -> Sound scheme. I saw "Windows Default" was not selected, so I selected it, and verified for all the program events that the correct sounds were used..; Asterisk = Windows XP Error.wav Critical Battery Alarm = Windows XP Battery Critical.wav Critical Stop = Windows XP Critical Stop.wav Default Beep = Windows XP Ding.wav ..etc. I tried to select "No Sounds" scheme, reboot, select "Windows Default", reboot.. ..it's still at "Windows Default", but no sound events are heard. That is, with the exception of the system tray's volume icon's volume slider: it gives a "Beep" from the PC speaker, and if I turn up the volume, I hear this "Beep" sound also from the 2 desktop stereo speakers. If I remember correctly, that "Beep" sound from the PC speaker is used as an event sound when no audio card is installed - or before the audio card drivers are installed. So, it seems to me as if Windows doesn't "know" that I have audio card & drivers.. ..but still, it plays .wav's, .mp3's, .mid's, everything.. ..in Media Player, Real Player, Quick Time.. I suspect something has went wrong in the registry. (At least I cannot find "Don't use Windows sound events" checkbox anywhere..!) By searching in this forum, I found a reference to 2 places: [HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps] [HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Names] Now, I found something I think is a bit strange: Under "Names" I have.. [HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Names\.Default] = Windows Default [HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Names\.None] = No Sounds ..but "Apps" I have only ".Current" and ".Default", but no ".None"..? Like this..: [HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\SystemAsterisk\.Current] [HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\SystemAsterisk\.Default] Does any of you have a [HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\SystemAsterisk\.None] which is missing in my registry..? Another - very - strange thing: I have installed asian fonts on my PC. If I save a new sound scheme, and I call it "my test", there will be a new key under "Names", of course, but it's name become "my test0" and a chinese character..! [HKCU\AppEvents\Schemes\Names\my test0"+chinese character"] = my test I cannot enter Unicode here, but if you go to http://www.toutou.info/c1/004837072.html you will see it, it's the title of the HTML page <title>ëÂ</title> .since Unicode is a double-byte character set, the 2 bytes "ëÂ" becomes this one chinese charcacter. Maybe both these 2 things are just normal. I just mentioned them.. Other than that - I hope that there is some place in the Windows Registry that has a "UseWindowsSoundSchemes"="0" that I can change to "1".. If anyone know of anything, anything at all! that I can try, please tell me..! Thanks in advance, Clokkevi.

Resources for Troubleshooting Sound Problems in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q307918 Windows XP KB Articles About Working With Sound http://support.microsoft.com/common/canned.aspx?R=d&H=Windows%20XP%20KB%20Articles%20About%20Working%20With%20Sound&LL=kbwinxpsearch

Thank you, Johnw! The Sound Troubleshooter did not have any options that matched my problem, unfortunately. I am cuurently looking at http://support.microsoft.com/search/default.aspx?query=sound+AND+events&catalog=LCID%3D1033 I have seen a lot of topics, but none is working.. - I had a hope for http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;262256 but I had no such null value there. Also, by using the "SoundSentry" function for the hearing impared, Control Panel -> Accessibility Options -> Sound -> Use SoundSentry one should be able to "see" the system sounds. But here too, the only sytems sound I could "see" was the Volume Slider "Beep" sound. Hmm.. I will try to make a new User Account, and see if the Sound Events are missing for that one, too..

OK.. I made a couple of new user accounts, one with administrator rights and one without, and [b]both are having Windows Sound Events working perfectly..![/b] :) So, that's reassuring, now I can have a hope that it's the HKEY_CURRENT_USER for my original account that's faulty in some way. Maybe I can compare the to admin user accounts HKEY_CURRENT_USER sections.. S-1-5-21-1757981266-1004336348-725345543-1003 (my original user account) S-1-5-21-1757981266-1004336348-725345543-1006 (my new test user account with admin rights)

Hi... I have been on the phone for HOURS with HP in relation to a NEW laptop and noone could figure it out (in fact, they wanted me to return it). If you get this figured out (clearly you are move savvy than I as your new user account worked for you and me), can you let me know? Michelle

Same problem as others. XP sound schemes don't work anywhere except in preview. Help!

I had the same problem as described above: no Windows Sound events even though I verified all of the sounds in the sound scheme in the control panel. I used the above mentioned link: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;262256 and like you, clokkevi, I didn't have a null value there either. Nevertheless, I deleted that entry. And, my sounds now work! So, try deleting it, it will probably work for you.