Problem with Audio

[LargicalFamily]

I finally got the entire Sims 3 collection installed, WA and Ambitions along with High End Loft Stuff.  I played the game one day and rebooted and came back and my audio is gone from my computer now.  My drivers all say they're working properly and show no problems hardware wise either.

I wondered if this was a bug of some sort.

TIA for help.

[Jed8762]

Hey there,
I was using the digital download version of Sims3, Adventures, and Ambitions.  I then later recieved a disc version of High End Loft Stuff.  After installing that, I had near constant crashes on saves and crashes to desktop.  I spent about a week exchanging e-mails with EA but after exhausting all of thier suggestions, I decided to try to figure it out on my own.  What I concluded was that there is a conflict somewhere in the content of the High End Lot Stuff when installed with the full game + expansions.  I'm running relatively stable now after re-installing the Sims3, Adventures, and Ambitions and starting a new game.  I did not install High End Lot Stuff.  I let EA know about this so maybe they can or have investigated the issue further.... I hope this helps.

[LargicalFamily]

Thank you that helps a lot!  I guess I'll have to reinstall, or do you think I could get away with just taking away the CC for H.E.L.S.? 

[Pam]

Welcome to both of you!

First of all, Jed's problem doesn't seem related to Largical's problem, so I'm not sure why that response was posted.  I have some questions, though.

@Largical: Did you lose audio on your entire computer or just the audio of the game?  Sometimes the game just stalls on audio and then suddenly comes back.  It's a glitch of some sort.  Have you restarted the game since then?  If it's within the game, it should come back on.  I don't think you have to reinstall just yet.  And there haven't been any real reports that HEL is causing crashes or loss of audio.

@Jed8762: What you describe doesn't have anything to do with loss of audio that I can see.  I wonder if your problem came because of the difference between digital downloads and downloading from a disk.  Also, did you install them in order?  It's best to install them in the order that they were released, so that would be:  Base game, World Adventures, High End Loft, Ambitions.

Also, I changed the subject of this thread to more accurately describe it.  Please be as specific as possible when naming your topics so that people who are browsing the forum have a good idea of what the topic is about.

[LargicalFamily]

Okey dokey then... sorry for not posting this correctly.

This is a global audio problem, not just with Sims but it came about immediately after installing all 3 iterations of Sims 3 and the H.E.L.S. files.    
I have been through several shut down, and restarts since installing this Sunday.  The problem with the audio came the morning after installation.

I thought there might be a known problem with audio.

[Pam]

Sorry, there's no global audio problem that I know of.  We have other members who are more technical, though, who may be able to offer some suggestions.

[Metropolis Man]

LargicalFamily — wipe all Sims 3 stuff off of your computer (back up important save files, of course). Reinstall everything in this order: base > WA > HEL > Ambitions. See if that solves your problem. It sounds like you dumped HEL on your files after you had installed Ambitions and you don't want to do that.

[Archer0]

I assume you've checked to make sure your sound is not muted in software or via a button on your speakers?  Also that the volume levels are all up in software and on the speakers?

If that's ok, you can run the dxdiag tool to test your sound functionality.  On WindowsXP, goto Start, run and type dxdiag and click ok.  In Windows Vista/7 goto Start and in the search box type dxdiag.  Once dxdiag is up, there is an audio sound tab and then a button to test sound.  You should also use that screen to verify that the system recognizes your sound device.  I'm attaching an example screenshot of my dxdiag audio screen.

[LargicalFamily]

Well, I get a big, gigantic round of DUH.

I kept looking and looking to make sure my audio was plugged into my computer.  What I did not check was that my audio was plugged into my actual MONITOR.  DUH. 

We believe it may have been attack of the fat cat butt that did it.  She has a penchant for sitting behind my monitor to look out the window and watch the "things I can not eat".