Audio Issue: No Voice for Dovahkiin

[Edelritter]

I decided to revisit Skyrim to start a fresh game and play Dragonborn, and I've run into what seems to be a unique problem: I can't hear the main character's voice. This includes:
- No grunts, yells or heavy breathing;
- No sound when using Thu'ums.

Swinging a sword, hitting walls, footsteps, using magic and so on—all sounds which are not related to the main character's voice—work as normal. The problem happens for both male and female voices, and for every saved file I have and any new characters I've created. Every NPC I've met has a working voice and sound. The music seems to be working fine. As far as I can tell, it's an isolated problem limited to Dovahkiin's voice.

I've tried everything that I can think of, and it hasn't worked. I would appreciate any insights you have.

Problem Details:
- I did not have this problem on a previous Skyrim install (stopped playing when my dedicated games HD failed months ago when under Windows 7, am now running Windows 8 on the same machine using a faster external RAID array).
- The problem occurs on any new characters I create as well as pre-existing characters. I have tried Nords of both sexes, Redguards, Wood Elves and Argonians and all are completely mute. Have tested by using console commands to change race and sex and adding dragon shouts to newly-created characters at Helgen Keep.
- The problem occurs with no mods installed.
- The problem occurs even when Dawnguard, Hearthfire, Dragonborn and the HD texture add-ons are disabled.
- I have wiped Skyrim fully (ini files in My Games\Skyrim, all files in AppData\Local\Skyrim, the entire steamapps\common\skyrim directory) and downloaded it again via Steam twice and the problem still persists.
- I have tried installing mods which override or replace the main character's voice (those had no effect, the character was still mute).
- Verifying integrity of game cache had no effect.
- I unpacked the Skyrim - Voicesbsa and Skyrim - VoicesExtrabsa archives into the Datasound directory and that didn't help.
- I have adjusted my audio settings to Stereo 16-bit 441 kHz.

[DrZann]

This is a common problem encountered when playing the game from an external HD. Install Skyrim on an internal drive. Most probably will fix you up.

[Edelritter]

At first, I suspected that you were trolling me. But I was out of options, and it wouldn't take long to test, and so I did.

And it worked. The voices work. You are my saviour, a scholar and a gentleman, and I proclaim you now to be a god among men. Thank you.

(Is this really a common problem? Any alternative? I'm just asking out of curiosity, because I failed to find any reference to it when searching online!)

[ACID FAN]

Try sign language

[DrZann]

Originally posted by Edelritter:

...
(Is this really a common problem? Any alternative? I'm just asking out of curiosity, because I failed to find any reference to it when searching online!)

Common problem might be over stating it. Every time I've encountered the symptoms you've described we've been able to narrow it down to an external HD. But I can count on one hand the times I've encounter this in the past year.

As for alternatives, I don't know. I have more experience with Unix OS's than I do with Windows. Usually when a game doesn't play well with an ExHD it's a DRM issue or a little slipped programming. My guess here is someone forgot to include an appropriate header file someplace and instead of looking for software resources dynamically it's looking in some default location (like C:\). If you could mount the filesystem on your ExHD to the Steam directory on C:\...that might fix things. But I have no idea how that would be done with Windows.

EDIT: Do I really come off as a troll? It's the horns isn't it? >:-)

[Edelritter]

Your explanation makes perfect sense. I was a little suspicious by the way you mentioned casually that it was a common issue (I really put a lot of effort into finding similar cases in Google!), and then gave me a fix that would take time to test. :)

[ThunderYak]

I have a similar issue as stated here, but I do not have Skyrim installed on an external HD, but rather, a secondary internal HD. My C: drive is a small solid state and doesn't have enough room for Skyrim to be reinstalled there. Are there any alternatives to changing the installation location?

[Edelritter]

The issue (most likely) has nothing to do with whether the drive is internal or external. Rather, it (most likely) fails because it's not installed in your C: drive. I don't have any alternatives to help you with—the best you could do is contact Bethesda support. :/

[Hairy Dick]

I am having this issue as well, i have around 40 mods installed and have cleaned it with LOOT. i can hear music and voices. But i cant hear any sounds generated by my character, footsteps, weapon sounds, shouts, ect. If needed i can provide my mod list. I would also like to add it cant be the external drive issue as my game is installed in my C: drive

[Hairy Dick]

lol im a couple years late

[Montyggdrasil]

This happened to me as well actually. Strange.

[KiaKitsune]

I also have this problem but for me Skyrim is installed on my C: drive so obviously that can't be the problem. Can anyone please help me with this.

[Kalo]

searching for help. I have a friend with this problem but he has the SE so no Idea if this applies

[[PBB] Rby]

I have this problem, but on an internal HDD

[Wontarii]

Wait, what the ♥♥♥♥? I play with Japanese voices and on the internal SSD I have, and like, nothing? Any fixes? This is the first time it has happened to me?

[Gorgovoid]

And it seems the problem is still going strong.
I have the same issue. My skyrim is in my D drive and I have no player generated sounds to speak of. Only landing sounds seem to work.
Has anyone found a fix as of late?