[Solved] Guest OS not playing audio, Win 7 host, Win XP guest

[Zoey_Trope]

My host system plays audio fine, but as of this morning, my guest system isn't playing any audio, even though the volume button/options still appear on the guest OS and appear to work fine, but output no audio.
When I try to test VirtualBox's audio in my host's volume mixer, no sound plays and no green bar appears when it plays the tone.
The problem started when I tried to display the VM on another monitor by connecting my laptop to said monitor via a VGA cable, and outputting the audio to an external speaker via my laptop's headphone and microphone jacks. I'm pretty sure the problem is on my host system's end, but I'm having a hard time narrowing it down.
I've tried every combination of host driver and controller in the sound menu, but none of them work.

VirtualBox version: I was using version 4.0.6 when the problem occurred. I tried updating, hoping that it would fix the problem, but it didn't. I'm currently using version 5.1.22. Guest additions, sans DirectX, are installed.

Host: Windows 7 (service pack 1) 64-bit with 4 GB of memory.

Guest: Windows XP 32-bit with 192 MB of base memory.

My VBox.log and VBoxHardening.log files from my guest OS's last startup are attached.

[KyleAH]

On the host machine, go to Control Panel -> Sound -> Playback devices. See what is active. You can set defaults and disable unused devices.

[Zoey_Trope]

I already tried working with the playback devices on my host system to no avail. I disabled the headphone jack and kept only my built-in speakers enabled, and still nothing. Here's what the playback devices panel looks like on my host system (Windows 7).

sound_setup.png (48.44 KiB) Viewed 11099 times

When I have my guest system open and loaded, the volume mixer on my host system looks like this:

volume_mixer.png (48.14 KiB) Viewed 11099 times

When I click on the slider for speakers/headphones or system sounds, there is an audible tone and the green bar moves slightly. But when I click on the slider for my guest OS, there is no audio tone and the green bar does not appear at all. Maybe the virtual machine thinks it's plugged into a non-existent speaker?

I also changed the title of the thread, the wording was a little confusing and made it seem like my host was XP when it's not. My host is Win 7, my guest is Win XP.

[KyleAH]

Have you tried updating your audio driver on your host machine?

Something else to check...
In virtualbox -> settings -> Audio -> Enable Audio checked?
If yes, then try changing the audio controller setting below it.

If the host is playing audio and you can hear it from your headphones then it must be a setting in virtualbox or the guest.

[Zoey_Trope]

I tried updating my host's audio driver, and it says I already have the most recent version, so that didn't work either. Granted, the laptop that I'm doing this on is from 2009, so maybe there is a new audio driver available, but it's just not compatible with my old hardware?

And yes, enable audio is checked in settings. I've tried every combination of host driver and controller in the sound menu, but none of them produce anything audible. The only combination that appears to "work" is having WindowsDirectSound as my host driver and ICH AC97 as my controller. With those selected, an audio button appears in the taskbar on my guest system, but no audio is produced when I try to work with it. Any other driver/controller combo doesn't put an audio button in my guest's taskbar at all.

My host plays audio fine and my guest doesn't play anything, whether I have headphones plugged in or if I'm playing it through the speakers, it's all the same.

Do you think uninstalling and reinstalling VirtualBox might fix the problem? I want to try it, but I'm afraid I'll lose my virtual machine and have to set it up again. Do any of you know if your host system keeps the guest's files and configuration intact even if you uninstall VirtualBox?

[scottgus1]

Uninstalling and reinstalling Virtualbox will not touch your guests - they will be there ready to run again after the reinstall. (That said, backing up is always a good idea...)

The default sound settings for XP are Windows DirectSound and ICH AC97, and Enabled.

I'm not certain about the no-audio-from-the-guest situation, though.

outputting the audio to an external speaker via my laptop's headphone and microphone jacks

This is a rather normal setup for a laptop. What was the host audio set to before? If I remember right, Virtualbox has no controls for where to send the audio - sound just goes to the default audio device the host has picked. A VGA cable doesn't carry audio, shouldn't have upset the sound connections.

Have you tried muting and unmuting the guest volume control, or changing the guest volume level?

[Zoey_Trope]

I fixed it. And it was a really easy fix, too.

Turns out I had to go into the master volume controls on my guest OS. I didn't realize that a few of the other sliders (Wave, SW Synth, CD Audio, Line In,and PC Speaker) were muted or on low volume. I turn all the sliders up, test the master volume slider and, boom, it's playing the tone!

Darn, I really feel sheepish for making a big deal over something that could be fixed so easily. But the bigger question here is, how did the sliders get lowered/muted in the first place? I didn't touch them myself, so maybe plugging the speaker into my headphone jack while the guest OS was captured must have screwed up the levels.

Hey, at least I got a newer version of VirtualBox out of this whole debacle! I was running a seriously outdated version (4.0.6) and the newer 5.0 version is so much better in comparison! Thank you guys so much for the help and advice!

[socratis]

I was running a seriously outdated version (4.0.6) and the newer 5.0 version

Could you please post a new VBox.log now that everything is working? I remember taking a quick look at your log and discovered several issues. Please update the VBox.log if you can and let me know...

I'll mark the thread as [Solved].

[Zoey_Trope]

Here's a new VBox.log file from my most recent startup, after I got everything working again. Let me know if you find any other issues.

[socratis]

Nope, nothing. Everything looks fine. I must have confused your post with another one...
Too many posts. Must take a break...