No Flash sound in Firefox

August 20, 2006 6:43 AM

I'm hesitant to ask, because there is probably an easy fix, but Googling has failed me: why do I have no sound when using Flash in Firefox?

The details:

Firefox: 1.5.0.6
Flash: 9
OS: XP

Anything like YouTube, MySpace, even Mefi Music that uses Flash to play sound is giving me nothing. Sound works for everything else, even Flash 9 on IE. Uninstalling and reinstalling doesn't work. Installing an older version doesn't work. This only started happening in the past week or so, and as far as I know nothing changed. Googling just gives me a bunch of people having the same problem but on Linux, so not much help there. Any ideas?

posted by Orange Goblin to computers & internet (11 comments total)

um, do a quick meta-search. i think i may have seen this question before. if i find it first, i'll hit your back.
posted by Davaal at 7:24 AM on August 20, 2006

I already searched AskMe, had no luck. You're welcome to find it for me!
posted by Orange Goblin at 7:47 AM on August 20, 2006

I've seen this on Macintoshes where for some reason the 'Format' of the sound going from the audio speakers gets pushed outside the range it's supposed to be at. For example, it should be at 44100.0 mHz — and it gets bumped up to 96000 mHz.

Now, I don't know (a) if this is the same problem; (b) what the 'correct' value for a PC would be; and (c) where you would find and/or adjust this value.

But perhaps this is a lead. I don't know.
posted by WCityMike at 8:03 AM on August 20, 2006

I thought perhaps something had got buggered with Flash settings, but then I realised I don't even know where Flash settings are stored...
posted by Orange Goblin at 8:21 AM on August 20, 2006

This happened to me the other day. After digging around some, I read that if you open and close Garageband, your sound will come back. It worked for me, but I have no idea why.
posted by jgee at 9:36 AM on August 20, 2006

Considering Garageband is for Mac OS X, probably not, but it turns out in my case all I had to do was reboot. Turns out I'm an idiot.
posted by Orange Goblin at 10:07 AM on August 20, 2006

Having had a similar but ultimately different problem just yesterday (I couldn't get Flash sound to work on either IE or Firefox) and having tried dozens of things to no avail, in case anyone with this problem stumbles upon this thread--here's what worked for me (using WinXP)(found here):

copy the following text to a text file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32]
"midimapper"="midimap.dll"
"msacm.imaadpcm"="imaadp32.acm"
"msacm.msadpcm"="msadp32.acm"
"msacm.msg711"="msg711.acm"
"msacm.msgsm610"="msgsm32.acm"
"msacm.trspch"="tssoft32.acm"
"vidc.cvid"="iccvid.dll"
"VIDC.I420"="i420vfw.dll"
"vidc.iv31"="ir32_32.dll"
"vidc.iv32"="ir32_32.dll"
"vidc.iv41"="ir41_32.ax"
"VIDC.IYUV"="iyuv_32.dll"
"vidc.mrle"="msrle32.dll"
"vidc.msvc"="msvidc32.dll"
"VIDC.YVYU"="msyuv.dll"
"wavemapper"="msacm32.drv"
"msacm.msg723"="msg723.acm"
"vidc.M263"="msh263.drv"
"vidc.M261"="msh261.drv"
"msacm.msaudio1"="msaud32.acm"
"msacm.sl_anet"="sl_anet.acm"
"msacm.iac2"="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\iac25_32.ax"
"vidc.iv50"="ir50_32.dll"
"wave"="wdmaud.drv"
"midi"="wdmaud.drv"
"mixer"="wdmaud.drv"
"VIDC.WMV3"="wmv9vcm.dll"
"VIDC.VP40"="vp4vfw.dll"
"msacm.voxacm160"="vct3216.acm"
"MSVideo"="vfwwdm32.dll"
"MSVideo8"="VfWWDM32.dll"
"wave1"="wdmaud.drv"
"midi1"="wdmaud.drv"
"mixer1"="wdmaud.drv"
"aux"="wdmaud.drv"
"vidc.VP70"="vp7vfw.dll"
"vidc.X264"="x264vfw.dll"
"VIDC.FPS1"="frapsvid.dll"
"vidc.VP60"="vp6vfw.dll"
"vidc.VP61"="vp6vfw.dll"
"vidc.VP62"="vp6vfw.dll"
"vidc.DIVX"="DivX.dll"
"VIDC.UYVY"="msyuv.dll"
"VIDC.YUY2"="msyuv.dll"
"VIDC.YVU9"="tsbyuv.dll"
"VIDC.DRAW"="DVIDEO.DLL"
"VIDC.YV12"="yv12vfw.dll"
"wave2"="wdmaud.drv"
"midi2"="wdmaud.drv"
"mixer2"="wdmaud.drv"
"aux1"="wdmaud.drv"
"wave3"="wdmaud.drv"
"midi3"="wdmaud.drv"
"mixer3"="wdmaud.drv"
"aux2"="wdmaud.drv"
"VIDC.MSUD"="msulvc05.dll"
"wave4"="wdmaud.drv"
"midi4"="wdmaud.drv"
"mixer4"="wdmaud.drv"
"aux3"="wdmaud.drv"

Save it as missing.reg (Make sure you include the Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 line) and then double click on the saved file to import it into your registry. You may have to reedit your sound scheme when you have finished.
posted by needs more cowbell at 10:42 AM on August 20, 2006

I asked this before, and the Garageband thing works.
posted by interrobang at 10:51 AM on August 20, 2006

THE GUY DOESN'T HAVE A MAC. HE HAS WINDOWS XP.

Goodness.
posted by reklaw at 11:30 AM on August 20, 2006 [1 favorite]

Maybe you installed E:\Program Files\FlashMute\ like I did two days ago, and forgot about it lol.
posted by BillyG at 1:05 PM on August 20, 2006

needs more cowbell, you're a genius... been searching for a solution for that in ages. I hadn't realised it was just Flash - thought it was all browser-related video but whatever the issue was, your fix fixes it gooooood.
posted by humuhumu at 12:15 PM on August 23, 2006