No Sound - Weirdest Issue

[Phrosen]

Hello.
I am new to Qhimm Forums, so please forgive me if I posted this question in the wrong section.

I recently bought FFVII from Square Enix website, played it and beat it - it worked just fine (except for a bug which caused a crash once during the entire playthrough.)

I believe the game was updated not long ago (after I beat the game, so it didn't really matter to me).

I saw a video on youtube where they had modded FFVII and I thought I would give it a try. I downloaded a whole bunch of mods, a bootloader thingie and modded the hell out of my FFVII.
I started the game and quickly realised that all the sound effects are muted (weapon attack sounds, magic sounds, the sound that the "arrow" is making when it browses the menus, etc. -I can't hear any of that.) The music works as it should (both in-game and in FF7Config.exe).
I did not have this problem on my first playthrough.

I immediately started troubleshooting, and found something really weird:
If I start FF7Config.exe and go to the Sound tab, I see Aerith and a couple of different settings. -When I test Left, Right and Center I hear nothing, no matter what Sound Driver I am using.
Here's the weird part, though: (In Windows) If I go to Control Panel -> Sound; I get a new window displaying my Sound Drivers (same as in the Sound tab in FF7Config.exe). If I play ANY sound the volume bar starts moving (just as intended), filling up the bar more with green the louder the sound is.
To the point: When I test out Left, Right and Center in FF7Config.exe the sound bar in Windows moves, as if a sound is playing - only I can't hear it!

So it seems like the sound IS actually playing, but I still can't hear it.. -Which is really weird.
I don't think my modding has anything to do with this; because I tried playing the game a little before I started modding, and I didn't have any sound effects then either. I think the update might be responsible for this, but I can't be sure.

Can anyone please help me with this weird problem?
Sorry about the wall of text.
Thanks in advance. =)

 

[Template]

Just a shot in the dark: Uninstall and reinstall your system's sound drivers.

 

[Kaldarasha]

Are you playing on a HDTV? The HDMI output has usually a different sound card.

 

[Phrosen]

I was playing on my computer when I tried this. But I DO have a TV (well a reciever) connected to the computer via HDMI.

I tried turning on the reciever and the TV and when I do the sound test now the sound comes out of the Reciever's speakers. (But it is set to use the computer's speakers). So the sound partially works.

Is there any way to fix so that I can choose when to use the reciever's sound and when to use the computer's sound?

EDIT: I forgot to test it in-game. When I tried playing FFVII I still have no sound effects in the game. =(
I am playing a modded FFVII, and I'm using the FF7Config.exe file that was installed with the unmodded version. -Maybe I need to change some config file that belongs to the mods somewhere? (I mean there might be a config file that the game uses instead of the original one.)

EDIT #2: I played a little on my TV (with reciever sound), the music was playing but no sound effect.
When I approached the first boss in the game (the robot scorpion in the first reactor) the reactor's alarm started sounding - only problem is that the alarm bell sounded from my computer's speakers, not my receiver's speakers.. This is really weird.

 

[Kompass63]

@Phrosen
Have you connected anywhere headphones?
Do you have HDMI audio set as system-defaults?
Do you have to connect another audio cable from the receiver to the TV?
Do you have to change the settings for the audio on the receiver?
Why is the PC to the receiver and not to the TV?
...
And what is that anyway for a receiver?
...
Do you have a video card driver installed, which also has HDMI with audio installed?
...

 

[Phrosen]

No, no headphones. I tried connecting my headphones and they also only play music, no sound effects.

Yes, I have set my reciever to default; so that when if my computer is on and I start the reciever the sound automatically goes to the reciever (since I usually start it and the TV together with the computer when I want to watch or play something on the TV).

I have connected: my computer to the reciever, my Wii U to the reciever, and my reciever to my TV. All using HDMI cables.

The only settings on the reciever that I change is what input I'm using. (HDMI 1 for Wii U, HDMI 2 for Computer).

Several reasons: The cable isn't long enough to reach the TV. The TV hasn't go enough HDMI inputs. I Prefer to use the reciever remote to change between computer/Wii U. I want the computer to use the reciever's speakers (home-cinema thingie).

It's a Pioneer XV-BD521FSW.

I have a Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 TI, I am updating to the latest drivers as I write this. (Don't think it will make any difference).

I honestly don't think any of the above matters much, because the sound effects worked on my first playthrough of the game. And I have no other problems with any sound in any other game; no matter if I use the computer's speakers or the reciever's speakers.
I still think that the update messed something up. -Maybe it corrupted the game's sound files?

 

[Phrosen]

I finished updating the graphic drivers and now I'm confused.

If I set the reciever's HDMI audio to standard, and do the same for sound effects in FF7Config.exe the sound effects actually works!  (But it only works on the reciever).
If I set it the the computer's speakers it still doesn't work.

I'm glad it works for the reciever at least, but I'm worried it might "forget" to work if I shutdown/restart the reciever or the computer.

 

[Template]

Would you consider yourself an advanced sound system operator? For myself I would not, maybe just above average, but I'll try to help anyway:

You've updated your HDMI out driver (which includes the sound out) and it had an effect.
The speaker level output is a different component of your computer, however. It is generally just an onboard sound chip, part of your motherboard, and I'm sure you already know this. If you are using that analog output sometimes, you might want to update those motherboard soundchip drivers as well.

If I understand you correctly, your normal setup (the one that worked on ff7 previously for you) is to use HDMI output, run it to your digital receiver and then the receiver actually outputs HDMI video AND sound to your TV? That's awesome. I'm not able to do that, because I don't have a digital home cinema receiver.
If that's what you were doing to start with, and you don't have any analog cables coming from the standard audio out jack of your onboard soundcard, then speaker level out in ff7config.exe will never work at all. In that case I would actually disable the computer's analog soundcard device from the windows sound control panel.

But finally, are you are saying you mostly have the issue solved following driver update, as you are getting sound effects through your home cinema speakers--but you are getting no output at all from the HDTV's speakers?

If that's all correct, I'm guessing you (or your computer, like the drivers falling out of date) changed SOMETHING since you played last, because I don't think the update(s) SE did affected anyone. They had nothing to do with sound, iirc. Plus, if you are using aali's driver now (or bootleg), I don't think you are even using any of the sound components from the new release at all. Maybe if you used GameConverter.8, idk.

Anyway, if the TV sound isn't working at all, and the receiver output to your home cinema speakers is working fine, that sorta points at the way you've connected the receiver to the TV, no? I mean, I like the setup design fine, makes sense because you don't have a lot of HDMI inputs on the TV, and like you said, you'd need a really long HDMI cable. Still, if the sound is getting to the receiver OK, this then falls out of scope because what the receiver does with that signal has 0 to do with the game or whatever applications are making noise.

 

[Phrosen]

Let's see here.
I have the computer connected to the reciever which is then connected to the TV; which provides me with audio (the reciever's speakers) and video (the TV). I only use this when I play games that needs a controller (I have an Xbox 360 wireless controller for PC), such as Final Fantasy 7, Giana Sisters, Rayman, etc. Or when I watch movies/tv-shows.
When I don't do any of the above my reciever and TV are turned off (removing the sound output thingie completely, reverting back to the computer's speakers as a standard.) That way I can browse the internet while playing music (through my computer's speakers), and more importantly play computer games (such as HoN, Diablo, Team Fortress, etc.)
This way I will have the sound coming at me from the best possible place, when I do either of the activities.

I updated my nvidia drivers and that solved the problem for on of the two possible sound outputs. -Now the sound effects are working when I set it to output on the HDMI (the reciever.) -Which is all good and working as intended. (So the problem is halfway solved.)
It wasn't working earlier, before I updated the drivers.

However it still doesn't play sound effects if I make it output sound on my computer's speakers. -This isn't really a big problem, since I usually play FF7 via my TV and reciever anyway.
I guess I will look for a driver update for my computer sound card as well, and see if it solved the problem.


I have another issue (not related to sounds), though. Which is explained in my other thread:
https://www.ff7catalog.com/threads/9835/
I would be pleased if some of you could take a look at it.

 

[Kompass63]

I'm glad it works for the reciever at least, but I'm worried it might "forget" to work if I shutdown/restart the reciever or the computer.

I think once the HDMI connection is disconnected (PC- or Reciever-restart), the audio output is reset to the system defaults (PC-Speaker).
You can set the system defaults to HDMI audio.