Windows 7 System Sounds Issue

Here's a strange one (at least to me): I did a reinstall of Win 7; the default Windows sounds work fine, even if I change the theme in the personalization options or in the Sounds control panel tab. But if I change a system sound to a .wav file from my own folder of custom sounds, Windows won't play it. Oh, by the way, they will play fine through Windows Media Player (or any other media player I've used--just not in the System Sounds function.

I've used these sounds many times before and my other computers running Win7 have been customized to use my sound files, but this one will not play them. I'm guessing I could reinstall Windows and they would probably work, but I really don't want to go to that extreme (yet). Any thoughts on why Windows won't use these substitute sounds?

Thanks, but WOW! I don't think I want to go through that process. I'm not trying to change the startup sound anyway, just some of the program event sounds such as logon, logoff, New Mail, etc.

Update: Looks like I finally identified the problem as the Realtek HD Audio application for my ASUS motherboard. I installed a newer driver from the Realtek site (not approved for my motherboard), and things seem to be working so far.

rchris said:

Update: Looks like I finally identified the problem as the Realtek HD Audio application for my ASUS motherboard. I installed a newer driver from the Realtek site (not approved for my motherboard), and things seem to be working so far.

I was forced to do something similar when I was using the formula board, I switched to the striker extreme later... let me tell you asus has not impressed me with their support for win7 and boards over a year or two old. They basically just want you to use the existing drivers, but that's very problematic.