Minecraft Forums

Hi there, so I recently got the new minecraft launcher a few weeks ago, and i've so far only been able to play a couple of times. Technically, i could have played all I wanted, but the thing is, I can't stand not having sound: It's just too useful.

So here's the problem, I startup Minecraft via the launcher, and 90% of the time, it switches to silent mode. The other 10% it opens up just fine, and everything's fine and dandy. Here's the thingy, if it helps.

• Client> Starting up SoundSystem...
Client> Initializing LWJGL OpenAL
Client> (The LWJGL binding of OpenAL. For more information, see http://www.lwjgl.org)
Client> AL lib: (EE) MMDevApiOpenPlayback: Device init failed: 0x80004005
Client> AL lib: (EE) MMDevApiOpenPlayback: Device init failed: 0x80004005
Client> Error in class 'LibraryLWJGLOpenAL'
Client> Unable to initialize OpenAL. Probable cause: OpenAL not supported.
Client> ERROR MESSAGE:
Client> Could not locate OpenAL library.
Client> STACK TRACE:
Client> org.lwjgl.openal.AL.create(AL.java:151)
Client> org.lwjgl.openal.AL.create(AL.java:102)
Client> org.lwjgl.openal.AL.create(AL.java:201)
Client> paulscode.sound.libraries.LibraryLWJGLOpenAL.init(SourceFile:164)
Client> paulscode.sound.SoundSystem.CommandNewLibrary(SourceFile:1576)
Client> paulscode.sound.SoundSystem.CommandQueue(SourceFile:2572)
Client> paulscode.sound.CommandThread.run(SourceFile:121)
Client> ERROR MESSAGE:
Client> Could not locate OpenAL library.
Client>
Client> Starting up SoundSystem...
Client> Switching to No Sound
Client> (Silent Mode)

This is an older post, but I'm going to bump it. I'm having this same problem, using the current 1.2.5 launcher.
It inconsistently loads sound, when launching 1.6.2, 1.6.4, any 1.7 snapshot, etc. Think it does it launching 1.5.2 as well, but I'd have to verify.

For me, I can usually get it to work if I close Minecraft (having left the launcher open) and re-hit the play button. But that's pretty stupid that it is necessary.

My console output is exactly the same as what MrAsymo posted above.

I've checked the bug reporting site, and most of the related tickets are closed with "this is a support issue, not a bug". Which, if the sound never ever worked, I could understand. But mine works about 50% of the time, so I'm almost thinking this is a bug, or perhaps a very slow loading sound driver or something (fails initially, succeeds next time)?

One of the closed tickets referenced updating "LWJGL", but mine is already on the latest version (2.9.0).

Any ideas?

(Windows Vista 64-bit, I have both 32-bit and 64-bit version of Java 7 Update 21 installed. Oops, looks like they are up to Java 7 Update 40, not sure if that would help...)

Here are the two most relevant MC bug tickets, both closed as "invalid":
MC-9974: OpenAL isue
MC-20069: soundsystem failure,minecraft no sound