I recently bought Winstep Extreme from the website, and I'm finding myself having an issue with the sound effects of the doc, specifically I'm not hearing any sound effects at all.

I looked and the "mute sounds" options are not checked. I also tried the sound files themselves and found the files played normally in for example Windows media player. The other sounds on my computer play normally, its just the dock has no sounds at all.

I'm running Windows 7 (64-bit).

Additionally, I should explain a few additional details. I'm hearing impaired and have hearing aids. I use a device called an iCom from a company called Phonak. What this device does is, it uses bluetooth technology transmitting sound from my computer via a wireless bluetooth transmitter to the iCom device (sorta a amulet type device around my neck like a necklace) which then relays that sound directly to my hearing aids allowing me to hear the sound enhanced directly from the computer without background noise interfering.

All of my computer's audio and sound effects play normally for me via the method I'm using. However Wintsep Extreme's sound effects aren't. I also used the "test" button for the sound effects in Winstep Extreme's preferences section and got no sound effects played from the test.

I'm guessing there is some manner of technical issue with the sound effects from Winstep Extreme not being correctly sent to the bluetooth transmitter for sending.

Can anyone help me regarding this issue? I love this product, but this technical issue is really frustrating me. Thank you for your time and help.

i really have no idea what causes the problem, but i get it on i'll say every other install of winstep(mine though is it won't show the sound files). i usually do one of two things to fix it. i shutdown winstep, check that none of the winstep services are running(nextstart.exe, workshelf.exe, wsxservice.exe) and install winstep on top of itself. if that doesm't fix it i uninstall, restart, and then reinstall winstep.

jorge don't have a cow cause i mentioned shutting down wsxservice.exe. i do what usually works.

Well, the Test button will work regardless of any sound settings in WorkShelf or NextSTART.

This tells me one of two things: either the Winstep applications are not detecting a sound card (i.e. the waveOutGetNumDevs() Windows API call returns 0 sound devices), or you have muted them in the Windows Sound Mixer (little loudspeaker icon in the system tray).

Thing is, Winstep Xtreme is a suite of applications, mainly NextSTART and WorkShelf. Those are independent applications with independent Preferences screens. WorkShelf has a Sounds tab in WorkShelf Preferences and NextSTART has a Sounds & Animations tab in NextSTART Preferences. Have you tried both already?

I checked both separate preference screens for each of the programs, the disable sounds is not checked on either of them.

I also checked the sound mixer, it isn't muted.

Still no sound, so I'm not sure how to proceed.

I'll also try out your suggestions chucky as well to see if that helps.

Are you running the latest version of Winstep Xtreme (v12.2)?

You can check the version number in the top right corner of the About tab of NextSTART and WorkShelf Preferences.

Yep I'm running both programs at their latest version.

Good news though. I tried Chucky's suggestion of stopping all the processes and reinstalling Winstep over itself. I got the sound back now.

*enjoys clicky sounds*

Well, glad to know it's working now.

Unfortunately...it seems that the issue came back again.

Reinstalling it as chucky suggested did work, but I found after I (I think it was this) restarted my computer after shutting it down at one point, the problem reappeared again with no sounds playing from either of the Winstep Extreme programs.

I could do yet another reinstall again, but I'd like to get to the root of the problem so I don't have to keep reinstalling over and over.

Any further suggestions/help?

Thanks, and your continued help is very appreciated.

this is now going to bet better addressed by jorge. i have never had it loose the sounds a second time.

Actually, I had a look at that iCom device, just out of curiosity. It seems it's just a Bluetooth receiver, which connects to any Bluetooth adapter on the PC and identifies itself as "Bluetooth stereo headphones".
There's two things I'd consider. Note that I've never used a Bluetooth headset before (hearing aid or not), so it's a bit of guesswork.
First, I would assume that the headset registers itself as a "playback device" in Windows. So, it *should* be listed in the playback devices list. Since that's where you hear things from, it also *should* be listed as the default playback device. You can check that by (I assume you're using Windows 7) right-clicking the 'speaker' icon in the system tray, selecting "Playback devices" and seeing the playback devices list. The default device has a green check-mark. If the default device is not your headset, I'd suggest making it default -- right-click, select "Set as default device".
The second thing I can think of is this: are you sure you're hearing *everything* from Windows as well? I'm asking this because I know that Bluetooth devices, especially battery-powered devices, go to 'standby' mode if there's no activity for a while; when there's activity, they jump to normal operation, but usually it takes a (fraction of a) second or so to start working again. Usually, you don't even notice that, if you're playing a song, for example, but short bleeps (like Winstep's effects) which last for less than a second, you could completely miss. Even worse, some devices will not even "wake up" from stand-by if the activity (i.e. sound) doesn't last for more than a couple of seconds, because they consider battery life a priority.
The easy way to test that assumption is to put some music on the PC, at low volume (the mp3-player volume, not the master volume), so that you can be sure that your headset/hearing aid/Bluetooth is out of any 'stand-by' mode. Then test the Winstep sound effects. If you can hear them, you've got your culprit. If you still can hear no sound effect from Winstep, then... well, there's something else going on and... I don't know.
Cheers!

Thank you for your thoughtful suggestions Skagon.

I checked things out and default playback device is Bluetooth AV audio (which is the stereo headset) and a quick test of that shows its connecting and playing sound correctly.

I know what you mean about standby device mode, but that isn't the case here. I tested it as you suggested I could hear the soft music in the background but still no sound effects from the dock when hitting the test button for a sound in the sound menu of the preferences section for the dock.

However, the female voice did play when I hit test, just not the sound effects (for example like Clock Chime).

I also went and directly played the files themselves separately such as playing the chime.wav in Windows Media Player to check if the sound was working. The chime sound / wav file played normally in Windows Media Player, but still no sound played when I hit the test button from within the preferences sound sub-menu.

one more suggestion check the number of channels that are selected for playback. sometimes the selection will be wrong. i've had it where i'll play a mp3 or video and no prob with sounds, but system sounds would not play.

How would I check that. I looked under configure and it says its set to stereo. Is that it?

This might sound weird, but it might work. Go to http://download.cnet.com/Winstep-Xtreme ... isting;pop and DL a fresh copy. The copy you have may have been corrupted somehow, possibly when DL. Sometimes security software can cause weird issues also.

Uninstall Xtreme using (free version) Revo Uninstaller http://download.cnet.com/Revo-Uninstall ... ag=mncol;1 so it removes everything. Using Windows to uninstall a program leaves behind a lot of crap that can create problems especially when re-installing since some of the same ol' stuff is still there.

If you've never used it before, BE VERY CAREFUL. Once installed, click the Advanced option and follow the prompts.

The part you must be careful of is to only check the boxes where the entries are in bold and click next. If after you've done that and there is still a box left, click the + to open the sub-menu(s)and only check the entries in bold and follow the prompts. Delete all leftover stuff if any. Sometimes it may require a restart to remove the remaining entries.

The paid version does it automatically so you don't have to manually check boxes.

Once removed, I also recommend clearing out the junk files using CCleaner http://download.cnet.com/CCleaner/3000- ... ag=mncol;1 before re-installing but not the registry since a couple of posters here advise against using the registry cleaning part of it. They say it's because cleaning the registry with a program instead of manually can create problems.

Re-install the new copy of Xtreme.

EDIT: Just noticed a post by Chucky that was done while I was composing mine. If Chucky's suggestion doesn't work then try mine.

i'd check with the manufacture of the headphones. i'm so use to my creative card having a icon in the systray that i do everything from, i'm afraid the actual windows settings i really know nothing about. windy is right some programs you do need to down fresh copies of from time to time.