Fallout 4 - No Sound in Game

[rlhart1234]

I need help. I've been playing Fallout 4 since it came out on an MSI GT72S. Last month it started turning itself off after a few minutes whenever I played any game. I bought a new MSI GT75 but when I run Fallout 4 (or Skyrim SE) there is no sound in game. The title screens (TV test pattern or SPECIAL video) have sound, but once I get to the main menu and beyond, there is no sound. Other games (Fallout 3, Fallout NV, Skyrim) are OK.

I moved the game files and save files from my old PC to the new one and then installed using Steam. I've verified integrity of the game cache (several times) and uninstalled and reinstalled the game, but that didn't help. Researching the web found quite a few other posts of the same problem going back several years. Some said that it was a DirectX problem -- Fallout 4 uses DirectX 10 (June 2010) but Windows 10 uses DirectX 12. I've tried reinstalling DirectX 10 to the Fallout folder, but no joy. That can't be the problem though because the old PC also has Windows 10 with DirectX 12.

I'm at a loss. I know this isn't related to Sim Settlements in any way, but the community is full of very knowledgeable people so I'm hoping someone has an idea how to fix the problem.

Thanks for your time.
Please let me know what additional info I need to provide.

Bob Hart
rlhart1234 (on the Forum)

 

[Zonary]

Well, I'm at work but there is no work to do... I'm pretty sure I'm not part of the "very knowledgeable people" you're talking about (but it sure does have many of them here!), but I decided to google it for you (by the way, really sorry if you already stumbled upon those answers I could find and none of them worked for you)! Let's see...

1. LINK:

   "I finally found a fix for it, it's ofc reinstalling directX.But bear in mind, the first thing i recommand you guys is to install directx found with your steam folder, or in the installation folder of the downloaded cracked version and then restart your pc.If all fails, the second thing you might want to do is head to the provided link below and download the file.Repeat the above process, pretty sure its gonna be all fine. DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010) https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

   Ok, I know that you already reinstalled directx using the installer inside the fallout4 folder... you can still try the link above, maybe "it just works".
2. LINK

   Had this problem with Skyrim when it came out. This MIGHT fix it - Right click the speaker icon in the bottom right on Windows, and press "Playback devices" then highlight your speakers (will probably be one with a green tick) then click "properties" in the bottom right. Head to the advanced tab and change the "default format" to 16bit 48000 Hz (DVD Quality) or any of the other ones See if that works! Another potential fix thanks to Stanlejm "Changed from 5.1 surround to 2.1 stereo and now it works just fine!"

3. LINK

   For those struggling, I found another fix! This will probably not help anyone but it sorted it for me.
   Recently I've been playing assassins creed unity which started to crash every 10 mins. The fix for this was to replace C:\Windows\System32\XAudio2_7.dll with the one in the UBI Game Launcher directory.
   When I did this ACU worked! Little did I know, that it was causing the issue with FO4. Fortunately I kept a backup of the original, replaced it, and FO4 sound works!!
   I'm guessing this only applies to those who did a similar fix before for another game, but it definitely solved it for me. So try an clean copy of XAudio2_7.dll

4. OK, I had this problem too, and tried everything in this thread (and a few others) with no joy, but I finally got sound to work. Not sure exactly how, but here's what I did.
   
   

   1. Reinstalled the DirectX Runtimes (June 2010), the same as found in the "_commonRedist" folder in Steam's Fallout 4 directory, though I redownloaded mine from Microsoft.
      
      
   2. Step 1 actually didn't work at first, until I stumbled on a Portuguese-language Youtube video (
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      ) claiming that installing a file called "DirectX 9.0c Extra Files" did the trick.
      
      
   3. I checked the Megaupload link in the video description and decided to risk it. It was a German-language DX9 installer, from what I could tell, and replaced a bunch of Xaudio .dll files, among other things. I'm not sure if these were the same as the DirectX 9.0c Runtimes available from Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34429).
      
      
   4. After installing them, Fallout 4 had sound. My best guess as to what happened is it my original problem may be related to me messing with the Xaudio2_7.dll file in the past in order to get Assassin's Creed to run with sound. Maybe something got broken then and not properly fixed?

   Sorry this isn't more detailed, but this is what worked for me. I welcome anyone who can verify.

Let us know if any of the options above works out!

​

 

[rlhart1234]

Zonary, thanks for your reply & taking the time to do some research. I finally bit the bullet & did a complete delete & reinstall from scratch. That fixed the problem. Evidently the game didn't like using files copied from my old PC. Of course I then had to uninstall & reinstall all the mods I'm using, but things are fine now. By the way, the no sound problem for Skyrim SE got fixed by fixing Fallout 4. Don't have clue why, but I'll take it. Anyway, thanks again for your help.

 

[Zonary]

Zonary, thanks for your reply & taking the time to do some research. I finally bit the bullet & did a complete delete & reinstall from scratch. That fixed the problem. Evidently the game didn't like using files copied from my old PC. Of course I then had to uninstall & reinstall all the mods I'm using, but things are fine now. By the way, the no sound problem for Skyrim SE got fixed by fixing Fallout 4. Don't have clue why, but I'll take it. Anyway, thanks again for your help.

Hmm, by your response I guess you don't use a mod manager, right? If you do not, I strongly recommend using it, it's much easier to manage your mods, and you don't need to reinstall the mods when you reinstall the game if you're using one. My personal preference is Mod Organizer 2, but some users here are using Vortex, I think both can get the job done. I don't know about Vortex, but MO2 creates virtual separate folders for each mod, that means, your Fallout4/Data folder will remain intact, totally separate from your mods.

 

[rlhart1234]

Actually I do use a mod manager - Nexus Mod Manager. (Yes, I know it's at end of life, but I didn't want to start with something new.) NMM also had a problem with copied files, so I had to do the uninstall/reinstall bit anyway. I should have just gone with MO2 in the first place. Live & learn.

 

[Zonary]

Actually I do use a mod manager - Nexus Mod Manager. (Yes, I know it's at end of life, but I didn't want to start with something new.) NMM also had a problem with copied files, so I had to do the uninstall/reinstall bit anyway. I should have just gone with MO2 in the first place. Live & learn.

Yeah I always had trouble with NMM too... but I'm glad that you got it fixed!