All computer sounds mute during certain actions.

[Bear Lover]

Sorry i couldn't be more specific in my title, this is a very strange issue that is hard to communicate succinctly.

My problem is that, as long as steam is open, whenever my computer detects a device (such as plugging in my phone, an external hard drive, controller, anything of that nature), or occasionally when i open a steam game (it always occurs when opening dark souls 2, but for others it is not always occurring), all of my computer's sound goes mute. This will last until i unplug and replug my wired headphone jack into my computer's audio port.

I havent had any luck in finding any fixes on google due to my problem's highly specific nature, but here is some information that may help someone diagnose my issue.

1. problem does not occur when steam is closed.
2. problem is duplicated when, under the 'voice' options in steam, i try to either change audio devices or detect audio devices. note that i only mean when i open to window to do so, so it occurs before any change is made to the output.
3. i have updated all of my audio drivers and the issue persists.
4. I am using an alienware laptop, using windows 7 64-bit OS.
5. i have already disabled the windows option to disable sound when windows detects communications ("do nothing"), which is the most common solution i hear when i try to fix this problem.
6. when my problem occurs, my windows sound options still show outgoing sound (i see green volume marks) for my speaker/headphone audio device.
7. my speaker/headphone audio device is my default audio device.

now, i know that this issue is not a major one, because i just have to plug and unplug my headphone jack to regain my sound. but it is highly annoying.

If anyone could offer any insight to this problem, i would love to hear it.

[Bear Lover]

I have already done those things.

[Kossetsu]

Try this:

1. Right click the sound icon in the taskbar at the bottom right.
2. Go to "Recording Devices".
3. Switch to the "Communications" tab.
4. Make sure the setting is on "Do nothing".

[Ten24-Khale K'itha]

He mentioned, in #5, that he has tried that, unfortunately, Kossetsu.

[Kossetsu]

Originally posted by 10-78 Khale K'itha:

He mentioned, in #5, that he has tried that, unfortunately, Kossetsu.

Derp, gotta read stuff more carefully!

[Bear Lover]

Fred, this is the 64-bit dxdiag of my system: http://ompldr.org/vaDBlZA - i edited the file to remove my PC name, but that was the only edit i performed.

[2CanVanDamme]

Realtek Audio Codec's
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsCheck.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false
click the box and continue to download page, pick your O/S and download. It helped my problem which is similar to yours.