Sound Not Working; Playing Music/Videos Freezes Keyboard and Mouse

MisterFriday · 03 Sep 2016

Greetings all,

So this problem seemed to pop up after I enabled the guest account feature. I have since disabled it.

Anyway, whenever I attempt to play music, a video, or anything with sound (including internet videos and stuff) the keyboard and mouse will both freeze. But the weird thing is, the video will keep playing and the computer will continue to apparently operate.

I have already tried uninstalling my integrated sound card drivers, deleting them, and re-installing them, but no luck with that. Also tried SFC /scannow, but no discrepancies were noted.

I don't have any system restore points either...

Any ideas on what might be happening here? I hope it's not a hardware issue...

EDIT: When I hit the restart button (hardwired to MOBO) and programs start to shut down, the mouse and keyboard start to work again before the computer shuts down.

fireberd · 03 Sep 2016

I suspect the sound is just a byproduct of whatever is causing the keyboard and mouse lockup.
The key, as I see it, is the reset and when "programs start to shut down" it unlocks, again suggesting some program or other hardware device is the problem.

Are the keyboard and mouse wired or wireless? and if wireless are they separate or on the same wireless connection?

What media player(s) are you using?

MisterFriday · 03 Sep 2016

Both keyboard and mouse are wired. The media players I'm using include Winamp, VLC, Media Player Classic, Youtube, et cetera et cetera.

The sound also doesn't work when windows starts up. Usually there's the "intro" sound when the login screen pops up, but that hasn't played since this issue arose.

MisterFriday · 03 Sep 2016

The plot thickens...

Normally, my keyboard seems to be working a-okay and I can type and all that. But when I Control+F for stuff in websites and try to type in things, characters are often repeated two or three times. During these times, the mouse will also lock up, and num- and capslock won't change the lights on the keyboard either.

Maybe it's because of the sounds that play when you use Control+F? I can't tell, as I don't have sound, haha.

fireberd · 03 Sep 2016

I still think the sound problems are secondary and caused by whatever causes the keyboard mouse I/O problems.

Start it in Safe Mode plus networking. The sound won't work and many programs that normally load at startup will not load. But, see if that works OK. If it does, I would suspect a startup program. If it doesn't work in Safe Mode then its either hardware or OS related.

F8 BEFORE Windows starts to load will get the menu to start in Safe Mode with Networking.

MisterFriday · 03 Sep 2016

Okay, I'm in safe mode right now. I can play videos, music, use control+F, et cetera, and everything works fine save for errors I get in Winamp and MP-C that result from sound being disabled.

Should I attempt to enable sound in Safe Mode per these instructions?
How to enable sound in Safe mode ~ Hawkdive

MisterFriday · 03 Sep 2016

Aha!

I followed the instructions to edit the registry as said in the link above. When I restarted in Safe Mode and tried to play sound, the keyboard and mouse locked up just like before.

So this whole thing has something to do with the registry values that were changed. Something about those values is causing my keyboard and mouse to lock up once sound is attempted.

MisterFriday · 03 Sep 2016

Even more interesting. (In normal mode) when I play a sound clip, the computer locks up. But once the sound clip is over, the keyboard and mouse unlock again.

MisterFriday · 03 Sep 2016

Okay, I'll update some stuff on my MOBO. Here's the page to get newest version of BIOS...

GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1155 - GA-Z77-D3H (rev. 1.2)

Note that it says after updating BIOS, please update VIA audio driver. Maybe I'm reaching the end of the rabbit hole?

MisterFriday · 03 Sep 2016

We're getting closer. Updated the BIOS and the Windows startup sound played at the login screen. Keyboard and mouse still lock up when attempting to play sound, but Let's see what happens when I update the audio driver...