Diablo 2 randomly muted

[zakw1982]

so the sound just randomly stopped working 1 day. switched the speakers to the headphone jack up front and it worked for like a month but now the same thing happened to the headphone jack. reinstalled the game and nothing. opened up volume mixer and its not muted in there. everything else works fine : /

 

[fredfinks]

possible windows has auto updated your sound drivers.
Last time it auto updated the GPU and set the default sound device as the digtal output from the GPU.

 

[elbert]

Click on start and go to control panel. Once there select hardware and sound and then sound. You should then have a menu sound that has all your outputs. Check to see which has a check part next to it. If its not the correct one you want change the default by right clicking. The drop down menu should have set as default. See if that helps.

 

[zakw1982]

Click on start and go to control panel. Once there select hardware and sound and then sound. You should then have a menu sound that has all your outputs. Check to see which has a check part next to it. If its not the correct one you want change the default by right clicking. The drop down menu should have set as default. See if that helps.

my speakers are the default so that's not it. are sound settings saved somewhere secret that wouldn't get deleted when you reinstall?

 

[elbert]

When I first started playing D2 I had to deal with IRQ on the sound card. Now I'm guessing your on Windows 7 so also look if your running in compatiblity mode. Now if your not running in compatiblity mode try resetting your windows startup.
Type "msconfig" in the run box on start menu. Click the bullet to "Selective startup" under the "General" tab. Under the "Services" tab click "Hide all Microsoft services" check box. Click "Disable all". Restart and the sound should work.

 

[zakw1982]

When I first started playing D2 I had to deal with IRQ on the sound card. Now I'm guessing your on Windows 7 so also look if your running in compatiblity mode. Now if your not running in compatiblity mode try resetting your windows startup.
Type "msconfig" in the run box on start menu. Click the bullet to "Selective startup" under the "General" tab. Under the "Services" tab click "Hide all Microsoft services" check box. Click "Disable all". Restart and the sound should work.

I'm on windows 10 and I think ive tried every single compatibility mode already. it was running fine for months and then just randomly no sound one day. one weird possible clue is that it seemed like both times it happened (on speaker jack and then headphone jack) I had played another old game (age of empires) earlier in the day. could that game have changed some setting or messed something up somewhere? tried disabling all the non windows services and still nothing : /

 

[elbert]

Ok windows 10 issue. Well I haven't found a fix for diablo but blizzard games seem to all be effected. I suggest trying this warcraft3/starcraft work around.

Open up notepad and enter the next line.
Start-Process ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\diablo2\diablo2.exe’

Save it as “D2_SoundFix.ps1″. Then, create a shortcut to the file. Right-click the new shortcut, click properties, then add the following in the “Target” box *before* the path to your ps1 file:

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -file

Apply and click "advanced" select run as administrator.

Ok now you should have a shortcut you click twice to start D2. Try it and let me know if that worked so others can fix the issue.

 

[zakw1982]

its supposed to start diablo right? when I double clicked it it just opened up a small window for a brief second and then nothing.... do I need anything in between the 2 lines in the target box? I tried it with and without a space in between them

 

[elbert]

Check to make sure diablo 2 is in C:\Program Files (x86)\diablo2\diablo2.exe. If not change the path to your correct location on c drive. Sounds like the shell is working but the location is incorrect for diablo 2 best I can tell.

 

[zakw1982]

Ok windows 10 issue. Well I haven't found a fix for diablo but blizzard games seem to all be effected. I suggest trying this warcraft3/starcraft work around.

Open up notepad and enter the next line.
Start-Process ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\diablo2\diablo2.exe’

Save it as “D2_SoundFix.ps1″. Then, create a shortcut to the file. Right-click the new shortcut, click properties, then add the following in the “Target” box *before* the path to your ps1 file:

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -file

Apply and click "advanced" select run as administrator.

Ok now you should have a shortcut you click twice to start D2. Try it and let me know if that worked so others can fix the issue.

Check to make sure diablo 2 is in C:\Program Files (x86)\diablo2\diablo2.exe. If not change the path to your correct location on c drive. Sounds like the shell is working but the location is incorrect for diablo 2 best I can tell.

looks like the path is right and its still doing nothing. something is wrong with my volume mixer. ive noticed that it randomly mutes other programs too sometimes but they all work again after you restart the program. diablo 2 for some reason is stuck muted :/

 

[elbert]

I'm still on windows 7 64bit and use a shortcut with comtabilty xp pack 3 and graphics in 640x480. My shortcuts target is "Z:\Games Z\Diablo II LOD\Diablo II\Game.exe". Also check to see if you have the LOD expansion with the other suggestions. Without the expansion you may be using greatly out of date sound settings.

 

[zakw1982]

I'm still on windows 7 64bit and use a shortcut with comtabilty xp pack 3 and graphics in 640x480. My shortcuts target is "Z:\Games Z\Diablo II LOD\Diablo II\Game.exe". Also check to see if you have the LOD expansion with the other suggestions. Without the expansion you may be using greatly out of date sound settings.

I dunno man. I'm using the same path as my regular d2 shortcut. the sound doesnt work with the original game or the expansion and over multiple patches. it almost seems like d2 isn't communicating very well with the volume mixer. is there a way to reinstall the mixer or just the sound settings on windows?

 

[elbert]

You could try updating to see if it works, open your Device Manager, find your sound card, and right-click on the icon. Select Uninstall. This will remove your driver. Download the newest version of your sound drivers from the company that made them. IE most have realtek for example.

Find your drivers for your sound and with any luck it should work. Check to make sure what audio chip you have to get your exact drivers.
http://www.realtek.com/