Lost sound for SL and Sims 4

[Beebo Brink]

My headphones work fine for system sounds and You Tube videos, but I've lost all sound for both Second Life and Sims 4.

For Sims 4, I've tried these trouble-shooting steps:

• Checked my system settings
• Repaired the game (thru Origin)
• Deleted Options and Config files
• Disabled Mods

For SL, I've double-checked all my Firestorm settings.

SL sound disappeared weeks ago, Sims 4 sound loss is more recent, so it's possible they're unrelated, but that would be weird.

Any suggestions about what to try next would be greatly appreciated. If my headphones weren't working so well with everything else, I'd toss them and a get a new pair. Wireless is a royal PITA, and I'm ready to go back to a wired headset.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Do you have a set of wired earphones to try? That would at least confirm or eliminate the wireless link as the cause. Other than that, I'm out of ideas. Maybe check the sound volume settings when either program is running?

 

[Beebo Brink]

My last set of wired headphones fell apart, but I may buy a new set anyway. I get really tired of having to charge up the wireless pair, especially since I never remember to do that until they konk out on me, usually at the most inconvenient times.

 

[Knutz Scorpio]

My wireless headphones has a jack that a cable with two standard stereo jacks can be plugged into, turns it into a wired set until I can get it recharged. Guess I assumed all wireless headphones have this?

 

[Beebo Brink]

Still no sound during game play. System sounds work fine. Video/YouTube sound is fine. So Bluetooth/wireless headphones are working as intended, but for some reason games -- and only games -- can't find them.

SL - no sound. Sims 4 - no sound.

I've updated drivers, checked every audio/sound setting I can think of, Googled extensively, and still no solutions. This is really depressing.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Yeah, that's a really weird one. I wish I knew what the problem is, and hope you're able to get it figured out.

 

[Beebo Brink]

I spoke too soon. FIXED!

Bizarre hack to fix it. After my 10th Google search, I found a recommendation to disable the mic on Bluetooth headphones.

That did it. I have sound in Sims 4 and Solitaire. I'm too tired to check out SL. Tomorrow....

 

[Free]

I found a recommendation to disable the mic on Bluetooth headphones.

I'm still trying to figure out if bluetooth is supposed to be Scandinavian for 'won't work when you really need it to.'

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

Still no sound during game play. System sounds work fine. Video/YouTube sound is fine. So Bluetooth/wireless headphones are working as intended, but for some reason games -- and only games -- can't find them.

That is freaking weird. Games shouldn't care what you're using and just use whatever sources/sinks you have them set to use.

I spoke too soon. FIXED!

Yay yay. Excellent.

Bizarre hack to fix it. After my 10th Google search, I found a recommendation to disable the mic on Bluetooth headphones.

Whut? That makes no sense, Windows is cray cray. It shouldn't matter even if they don't use the mic.

I'm still trying to figure out if bluetooth is supposed to be Scandinavian for 'won't work when you really need it to.'

Basically. I've got two Bluetooth headsets I got for outdoor use. (I use them while mowing) and neither is very good. One has problems maintaining a connection to my phone and the other one's battery runs down VERY quickly. Neither cancels out the mower engine sound as well as my cheap pair of wired Sony earbuds that you can just pick up out at the Wal-Mart.

The only good Bluetooth earpiece I've ever used is the one Sony made for the PS3, the one that fits on one ear. Worthless for music, because...mono, but great for voice chat.

 

[Clara D.]

W10 sound system is . . . quirky.

 

[Essence Lumin]

I like my Koss PortaPro bluetooth headphones. Good sound, 20 foot range or a little more.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

W10 sound system is . . . quirky.

Yup. And I thought Linux's Pulseaudio was strange.

 

[Clara D.]

Yup. And I thought Linux's Pulseaudio was strange.

Ah, linux and alsa back when you had to edit things so it knows which card you had, and then initially set all the levels via command line...

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Ah, linux and alsa where you have to edit things so it knows which card you have, and then initially set all the levels via command line...

Yep. Pulseaudio is supposed to take care of all of that. When it works, it works great! When it doesn't, it's a real pain in the ass. Fortunately, Pulseaudio has gotten a lot better over the years.

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

Ah, linux and alsa where you have to edit things so it knows which card you have, and then initially set all the levels via command line...

s/have/had.

That was the far past, not the present or even the recent past. Audio “just works“ on modern linux systems including motherboard audio, usb audio, HDMI audio, and bluetooth. You might have to fiddle a bit if you use jackd for advanced stuff, but normal-user type use cases with pulseaudio it works with no fiddling.

 

[Clara D.]

Corrected tense

 

[Anya Ristow]

Audio “just works“ on modern linux systems including motherboard audio, usb audio, HDMI audio, and bluetooth.

I have a 6-channel pro level USB audio interface. In Ubuntu, it is seen as a 6-channel surround system, and it does not work. It is six discrete channels, not some surround encoded thingy, and on Linux I have not discovered the incantation to select 2-, 4- or 6-channel discrete audio. What's worse is that after I've fought with it in Linux and failed, I then boot Windows and the thing is still non-functional until I both power cycle the interface and reset my WIndows audio options.

FWIW Beebo, I never got sound working in Sims 4. Worked fine in the demo but not in the game. Got so fed up with it that I uninstalled Origin and vowed never to try it again.

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

I have a 6-channel pro level USB audio interface. In Ubuntu, it is seen as a 6-channel surround system, and it does not work. It is six discrete channels, not some surround encoded thingy, and on Linux I have not discovered the incantation to select 2-, 4- or 6-channel discrete audio.

Pavucontrol, it's often not installed by default, and don't ask me why it isn't, but it is the easy button way of doing all sorts of things with your sound on Pulse audio systems. The tab called "configuration" is what you want. Your sound device will show up and there will be a drop down selecting "how" you want it to output. For example for the HDMI out on my video card I can select either Off, Digital Stereo or Digital Surround 5.1

Also because Pulseaudio lets you have application level control over where your audio goes, you'll have to use the "playback" tab in pavucontrol to have your audio go to the output you want, otherwise, it will use the default.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Well, talking about Linux the thing is that the sound driver in the kernel - ALSA - is just a big, bad clusterfuck. 14 years ago Jamie Zawinski of former Netscpae fame wrote an article called "Fuck the skull of ALSA" - he bought a standard sound card, it never worked under Linux, but instantly on his Mac. He's been using Mac since then only.

The first important thing to know is what's the exact name of this USB audio interface? Does the kernel come with stock drivers for it? Then which audio system needs to be used?

There are many sound cards/chips out, where Linux offers some, but not all of its functionality. Chances are also that you might not need Pulseaudio is not the way to go for this interface, but maybe JACK, if you do need its advanced features.

To put it into perspective:

ALSA - low level hardware driver in the kernel
JACK - userland interface to driver with low latency and professional users in mind
Pulseaudio - another user land interface to driver for the average desktop user in mind