I've had the same problem as most of you guys (i.e. No sound after the initial 'plane crash movie')

I found that this worked perfectly for me, it now plays in full sound:

Enable Stereo mixing, to do this browse to Start > Control Panel > Sound (in classic view). Once done switch to the Recording tab which will show the currently active inputs on your system (e.g. Line in, Microphone). Right click in the clear space below these devices and select the option for Show disabled devices. This should show an additional device called Stereo mixing, right click on this device and select Enable.

I'm running Vista Home basic, by the way

just wanted to say thanks to lightzen. your solution worked perfectly! and i suggest it to all users of Realtek HD audio mobo's. been waiting months for someone to come up with a fix that worked for me (windows vista ultimate x64)
also a big thank you to Smaug for sticking with this thread for so long bilbo never would have got past you mate

Rapture here i come!!

heh, glad you got it working

i just bought bioshock today.

i got no sound past the intro movie. im running 32-bit vista ultimate. my graphics card is an nvidia geforce 8800. my sound is like sigma hd audio.
running the game on winxp sp2 doesnt work for me, the game just freezes and doesnt load.
changed the audio too, doesnt make any difference.

I just found this forum trying to fix the sound in my Bioshock also and now it's fixed. thanks guys great site!

First off, If i sound a little pissed I don't mean it. Been trying to fix this problem for 5 hours straight and my patience is frayed.


Might as well start off with problems. So far i've only encountered two; A bug in which the game crashes on the loading screen (I managed to bypass this by using the window mode option) and the infamous no sound problem.

What I've tried:
- Run the game in Windows XP SP2 Compatibility mode <-- Made the game crash on startup. didn't even get to the start up menu with this fix

- patching the game, checking drivers are up to date for my graphics card (ATI radeon 3800), sound card (damned if i know. but i've been assured they are up to date) and checked my operating system (vista 32-bit) is fully updated

- Checked for any hotfixes that might apply to me. There are none.

- In vista, go to Control Panel - Sounds - Select Speakers - click on Properties - Then click the Advanced tab <-- I met this one elsewhere. Either the option isn't there when unhidden. Or it's already enabled.

- Changed some audio settings in the default.ini file. Didn't work.

If you can see anything I might have missed, or might be able to try. I'll give it a shot. Otherwise i'll either sell the game on or format and install XP over vista.

Quote::

I have Windows Vista, so the fact that I don't have the tab is pretty distressing. I thought at first that it might not have the tab cause it's only a demo, but I have no idea anymore.

I found this in some other forum somewhere. might help:

Quote::

Start > Computer > local disk c > programme files > 2k games > bioshock > builds > bioshock ( the right click ) > properties which then brought up the correct compatibility tab

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I am currently working on about 12 total hours of sleep since Monday

Try working on 3 hours since saturday.

I have up to date drivers for both video and audio and have tried combinations of older drivers too with no effect.
what does this sentence mean?

You guys rock! I had originally missed the LightZen fix of: Start/ Control Panel/ Classic View/ Sound/ Recording Tab/ Right click open area/ "Show disabled devices"/ Right click on Stereo Mix/ Enable.

I don't know how I missed that post (me = idiot). I actually was told by a very friendly BIOSHOCK customer support agent those exact same steps. The fix worked beautifully! I wanted to come back and share the good news, and thought to myself, "before I go and post this fix, I better be damn sure I'm not just repeating myself all over their forum". Sure enough, there was LightZen's post. So, I decided to post anyway my testimonial of this fix working for me and suggesting it to all others. I'm glad I found you guys and thanks for letting me be a part of this forum.

If any of you have problems, those BIOSHOCK people are actually pretty friendly. If you have other problems, I called them toll-free at 1-866-219-9839.

Cheers!

P.S. - Sorry for bumping an old thread.

I know this is an old thread but I just downloaded the game from steam and of course have no audio. I tried all of the fixes I saw in the thread. One odd thing is when I went through sounds and show disabled devices there was no mixer there. I had updated the realtek drivers as was suggested, don't know if that has anything to do with it. I hope you guys can help, it is a beautiful game but I can't hear it! I have vista basic and I have run as admin and under sp 2 but to no avail