RealTek HD Audio - sounds in applications issue

[MoxieMomma]

Hello:

I know less about hardware than I do about everything else, so please indulge.
And I have found so many threads re: RealTek HD Audio, but they don't seem to apply to me. Mods, please feel free to merge this to another thread as needed.

Problem: Sounds/sound effects for SOME (but not all) 3rd-party programs do not play.

Details: All of the apps in question played their sounds fine on my XP & Vista/32 boxes. And, they all currently play fine on my W7/32 laptop.

However, these same sounds (plain, old WAV files) do not play on this W7/64 box from within their applications.
When I try to play them with WMP or MediaMonkey, they play fine, so there is nothing wrong with the WAV files themselves.

For example, MailwasherPro 2010 includes options to play a sound for "new mail".
The ONLY sound that will play is one chosen from the Windows\Media default collection. So, I currently use "Windows ding.wav". If I try to use any other of my many WAV files in a different location, they don't work. If I try to move one of my WAV files to the Windows\Media folder, they also do not work. it is a similar issue for a couple of other programs.

Another example: KIS2011 (11.0.1.400 (a.b)) is also configured to play sounds, but it does not. (This may be b/c the only sounds option for this program is "Windows Default" and I use "Quirky"?)

All of the Windows sounds (I am currently using Quirky theme) play fine, as does audio in any media player or web application. So, the hardware itself seems to be OK. And some programs, such as Thunderbird, DO play their audio.

According to device manager, my RealTek HD audio driver version is 6.0.1.5953 (dated 10/2/2009), and this is the most current one offered for my system at the Dell website.

So,
1) Can someone explain what might be causing the problem?
2) Is there a fix?

Thank you very much,

MM

 

[fireberd]

I don't have a fix or answer. I've seen other posts about user or custom wav's not playing for windows functions. I've got the new M/W but have all system sounds turned off as I also use this PC for my Recording Studio PC.

 

[HammerHead]

Similar Problem

I had sound but the Win apps didn't. Solved by calling up the App for the sound and discovered the setup I was using was not set as the default. That's allmost to easy but bears checking out.