Failed to play test tone

Marco J · 25 Jun 2016

Hi Everyone,

I am after an issue now since months that's affecting my PC: Suddenly, no sound from my Realtek mobo integrated soundcard, and "failed to play test tone" error in sound configuration.
Just discovered this affect also another sound card I just bought.
It does not affect (thanks god!) another audio card installed, but this relying on propietary ASIO driver.
This is telling me it likely depends on Windows mechanics.

I've tried ANY and ALL solutions found on Internet (i.e. operations on control panel, restarting services, disabling FX, register hacks, ...) with no luck and for me reinstalling Win is not a viable option.

I do believe it has to do with file permission set in the system cause some months ago I I stopped an **unsolicited** win10 upgrade started on my machine, rolling it back, and since then I've had any kind of issue with file permissions. Most of them resolved, some other still there (i.e. I had to disable UAC to be able to acces Win in non-safe mode).

Unless you propose me a fresh solution, at this stage I have little hope, and I am more looking for a way to follow the "failed to play test tone" error down to the Windows technology stack to get an hint on the cause.

Thanks in advance.
Marco.

Marco J · 30 Jun 2016

Hi,
No response?

fireberd · 30 Jun 2016

Have you reinstalled the Realtek sound driver?

Download the High Definition Codec (driver) direct from Realtek.

Realtek

However, a rollback from Windows 10, does not always work properly and in those cases a complete reinstall is required.

Marco J · 01 Jul 2016

Hi,
Thanks Fireberd.
I had done that already with no luck, and anyway another brand new sound card is giving me the same error, hence it must be due to windows layer. Any clue how to retrieve deeper info on the error (i.e. where is thus tracked in win logs?)

Thanks M

fireberd · 01 Jul 2016

Sadly, it will probably take a new, clean, install of Win 7. Not all fallbacks from Win 10 are fully successful.

Marco J · 11 Jul 2016

Hi Everyone!

I made it !! .. and want to keep track here!

after MONTHS of any kind of attempts (including other softwares)... this did the job:
Windows Repair FreePro (link as of July th 7th 2016: Tweaking.com - Windows Repair Free/Pro)

I follow all the instructions in the software, and at step 4 (if I well remember - the most significant step ) I selected all fixes except the UAT restore (as I had issue with UAT in the past and had to disable it) and .. voila!! I couldn't believe that was for real!!

Thanks anyway to whom tried to help on this forum.
Marco.