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Remote desktop sound problem - any ideas?

7up
Community Veteran
Posts: 15,824
Thanks: 1,579
Fixes: 17
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Remote desktop sound problem - any ideas?

I love remote desktop, it's so much faster than VNC even if it is a bit greedy on the bandwidth. Unfortunately I have a slight problem that I just cannot get around and it involves the sound on two specific machines. The problem is not being able to hear the sound on youtube / anything browser related on one machine... while on the other it works perfectly.

 

The first machine is my old main rig - no longer my daily user due to the sheer noise it generates from the fans. When i remote desktop into the big rig and hit youtube (or any other site that plays sound) all is A-OK! It's a Windows 7 Pro machine. This machine also went through a patch of refusing to play sound (started at the same time actually) - but I got around that by adjusting the "what to do" setting on the communications tab of the sound properties of the client machine - setting it to reduce other sounds by 80% (apparently windows treats RDP like a phone call!). I've no idea why that worked especially when it doesn't make any difference to the existing sounds on the client machine.

 

The second machine - which started refusing to play sound at the same time - did in fact used to play sound via RDP but then just suddenly stopped one day. It's a WinXP pro machine. All the windows sounds still play - eg the login music can still be heard and sound effects when you get a popup message etc but for whatever seriously annoying reason, there is no sound from google chrome - or firefox. Tinkering with the sound settings on the client machine made no difference like it did the other machine and likewise tinkering with sounds on the remote machine itself makes no difference (please don't say the obvious like have you checked the volume - of course I have).

 

I've seen lots of other people reporting chrome not playing sound via RD all over google but nobody seems to have a cure. Any ideas?

I need a new signature... i'm bored of the old one!
2 REPLIES 2
VileReynard
Hero
Posts: 12,616
Thanks: 582
Fixes: 20
Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: Remote desktop sound problem - any ideas?

Bit old fashioned - but have you considered a KVM style switch which allows two computers to be wired to share one keyboard, screen, mouse and (possibly) audio?

No software required. Cheesy

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

7up
Community Veteran
Posts: 15,824
Thanks: 1,579
Fixes: 17
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: Remote desktop sound problem - any ideas?

I do have one somewhere with PS2 sockets for the mouse and keyboard but no wires etc. Got it off ebay for a silly price years ago. The power supply isn't a problem it's just all the other wires... when skint. My budget for parts is precisely £0.

I need a new signature... i'm bored of the old one!