Sound & audio are dead

vonrow

At the start of the recent Liar's event, I had an error pop up when I launched the game client for the first time after downloading the event's patch. It was an ambiguous error that crashed the game & prompted for an "error report" to be sent off. I thought it was just one of those random crashes ya get after a patch. So I relaunched the game and was able to log in as usual. Things looked fine and dandy, however all audio and sound is gone. The sound hardware is fine and has not physically failed. The game recognizes my sound hardware, and I can even set the "sliders" and in-game sound options.

And as if that wasn't silly enough, my 3.6mhz 8 core, 8 gig rig (with 2gigs of vid ram) started tossing hiccups & lag spikes while running around town. (had no issues prior to the Liar's event) My pc's hardware is not failing however. All tests show that my box is fine, it's just the game that has gone wonky.

I thought that I would wait out the event and at least one server mtc. push and see if things got any better. But that has all come and gone now, and nothing has improved.

Has anyone else had a similar issue? I'm pondering the idea of a full out unin/reinstall of the game, but I welcome any feedback before I go ripping out software. (and I REALLY dread firing up that daggum ARC client to download and re-install the game......ugh)

beckylunatic

My audio mixer occasionally decides to turn the volume on certain programs all the way down, which has included Neverwinter. Worth checking?

vonrow

update:

I ended up doing a complete unin/reinstall of the game client via that ____awful Arc. (took 45 hours....iy yi yi)
With the newly installed client I found the same issues. Still no sound from the game itself, and some jittery laggish like video that was never a problem earlier. I had removed every last shred of the game when I uninstalled it -including registry entries, keys, & temp files. After installing the new client I noticed that my chat, video, and sound settings in the new client were identical to the previous installation. I even attempted to "reset" them to their defaults but the settings returned to their previous state when the game was launched again.

So at this point I'm calling it a "bug" on the game's server side-- whatever info is stored on the server's side has gone funky. I've more than proved that my system is not part of the problem, and my game's client is "clean."

I'm not all that bothered by the lack of sound. The lag does irk me a bit in town from time to time but it's still playable. I can always listen to the internet radio while I play if I need something to tickle my ears.

beckylunatic

Seriously, I have had this same problem, and it didn't stem from Neverwinter, but the mixer (or "Application Volume Controls") from my speakers had turned the volume of Neverwinter all the way down. It did the same thing to Flash a few weeks later, which made Youtube suddenly go mute. I don't know why this happens, but it's an easy enough fix for me because I just go into the mixer (from tray icons) and turn up the application that's been muted.

vonrow

I have to thank you for your example and experience regarding your machine and the way you managed to get things resolved. I am aware of the application /sound interface you mentioned. Windows does not treat all sound hardware the same. The specific options you mentioned in regards to the software app for your system's hardware are not the same as mine. My machine does not separate individual programs, applications, or hardware devices when it comes to the soundcard. My system's sound is either full on, full mute, or full off. System wide, for everything. I kinda wish my soundcard was a bit more advanced; I'd have access to the options you described.