Audio Issue: No Voice for Dovahkiin

[jdesormeaux]

I decided to revisit Skyrim to start a fresh game and play Dawnguard, and I've run into what seems to be a unique problem: I can't hear the main character's voice. This includes:

- No grunts, yells or heavy breathing;

- No sound when using Thu'ums.

 

Swinging a sword, hitting walls, footsteps, using magic and so on—all sounds which are not related to the main character's voice—work as normal. The problem happens for both male and female voices, and for every saved file I have and any new characters I've created. Every NPC I've met has a working voice and sound. The music seems to be working fine. As far as I can tell, it's an isolated problem limited to Dovahkiin's voice.

 

I had a fair list of mods installed, but I don't believe those could be the problem: I've uninstalled them all and wiped Skyrim fully (preferences, AppData, Steam folder, the works) and redownloaded it from scratch.

 

I know that 9 times out of 10, someone has already had your problem and someone else has told them how to fix it online. I have spent 3 evenings trying to figure this out by reading Google search results and message boards, and I can't find this problem or a solution to it anywhere. I'm at the end of my rope. Please help.

 

 

I have tried fixing the problem by:

- Installing mods which override or replace the main character's voice (those had no effect, the character was still mute);

- Verifying integrity of game cache;

- Deleted the AppData\Local\Skyrim folder;

- Trashing the .ini files in the My Documents\My Games\Skyrim folder;

- Deleting the contents of the sound\voice\ folder (created by mods);

- Unpacking the Skyrim - Voices.bsa and Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa files (where they become the sound\voice\skyrim.esm folder);

- Adjusting my audio settings (Stereo, 16-bit @ 44.1 kHz);

- Uninstalling every single mod (I use the Nexus Mod Manager, so that should revert changes);

- Purging everything (uninstalling all mods, deleting the preferences folder, deleting the AppData folder, uninstalling Skyrim via Steam, then deleting the folder from Steam) and reinstalling from scratch, twice.

 

 

 

System Information

 

OS Name Microsoft Windows 8 Pro

Version 6.2.9200 Build 9200

OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation

System Name BRUNESTUD

System Manufacturer Apple Inc.

System Model MacBookPro8,3

System Type x64-based PC

System SKU Unsupported

Processor Intel® Core i7-2720QM CPU @ 2.20GHz, 2201 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)

BIOS Version/Date Apple Inc. MBP81.88Z.0047.B27.1201241646, 24/01/2012

SMBIOS Version 2.4

BIOS Mode Legacy

Driver Packaging Version 9.002-120928m-148226C-ATI

Catalyst Version 12.10

Provider Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1266

2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/Class/{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}/0000

Direct3D Version 9.14.10.0926

OpenGL Version 6.14.10.11931

Catalyst Control Center Version 2012.0928.1532.26058

Audio: 16bit, 44.1 kHz

Audio driver: Realtek

[FiftyTifty]

Load order. Gi'es it.

[jdesormeaux]

Right now the only things in my Data Files are:

1. Dawnguard.esm

2. HearthFires.esm

3. Dragonborn.esm

4. HighResTexturePack01.esp

5. HighResTexturePack02.esp

6. HighResTexturePack03.esp

 

Tested last night after second complete wipe and reinstall with a new character; as expected, she didn't say anything while wielding an axe. Used the console to give her Thu'ums (and dragon souls with which to unlock them) and, as expected, no voice.

[FiftyTifty]

What's in your Data\Sound\Voice\Character folder?

[jdesormeaux]

There is no Sound folder within Data. Should there be, for a fresh installation with no mods? All I have is the Skyrim - Voices.bsa archive.

[zmann]

Bump.

 

I too am having this same problem. I thought it was just a mod conflict or something at first, and since I had almost 200 mods installed, I never bothered to figure out which one it was. But after doing a clean install of Skyrim (no mods, no .ini tweaks, no saves, just vanilla skyrim with it's DLC) I found I was still getting this problem.

 

Has no one else encountered and fixed this problem?