StarCraft® II

Whenever I run Starcraft 2, my sound output immediately switches to my laptop speakers. I have headphones which are plugged into my laptop, but when Starcraft 2 is running sound will not play through them. It is not only the sound from the game. Any programs running on my laptop such as iTunes will also switch. Has anyone else encountered this or have a solution?

Thanks in advance.

I'm having the same problem. Voice chat comes through headphones just fine, but game sound is only playing through my PC speakers. Alt-Tab to desktop, and sound is coming through my headphones again. Only when in the game does the game sound stop playing through headphones.

Is there an update to this person's issue? Because it's now my issue too and I'm curious to see what the fix is.

Thanks!

Same problem. Whenever Starcraft II is running, my computer doesn't recognize that I have headphones plugged in.

I'm running a fresh install of Win 7 pro. Up-to-date on sound and graphics drivers.

Has changing anything in the Sound panel in the SC II settings helped?

Nope, played around with that for a bit. Here's my dxdiag info:

OS: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
Manufacturer: HP
Model: dv5t-1000 CTO I believe
Processor: Core 2 Duo P8400
Memory: 3GB
DX Version: DX11

Sound 1
Speakers and Dual Headphones (IDT High Definition Audio Codec)
Driver: stwrt64.sys, 6.10.6276.0000, 3/23/2010

Sound 2
SPDIF
Driver: same as above

Sound 3
HDMI
Driver: HdAudio.sys, 6.01.7600.16385, 7/13/2009

Sound 4
Independent Dual Headphones
Driver: stwrt64.sys, same as above

Same thing here. If i have itunes playing before i open SC2, all's good and in my headphones. Same with ventrilo. As soon as i open SC2, everything switches to laptop speakers.

Update:

Uninstalled drivers, installed 6.10.6289.0000 6/17/2010, same problem persists.

However, I have noticed that it also occurs with Left 4 Dead 2. This appears not to be a SC2-limited problem. Trying to resolve, will post if successful.

EDIT: Not attempting modified drivers, they're apparently kind of screwy.

We all know the normal behavior should be that whenever you plug in a new audio device, it should automatically be set to the default. So for example, if you plug in headphones using 3.5 mm headphone jacks on the front or side of your pc/laptop (or even usb), the headphone speakers should the only playback device with sound coming out. To put it another way, the sound playback should switch from your normal speakers to the headphones the instant you plug them in. If this is not happening, you should go to the sound control pannel and make sure that your headphones are set to be the default device, and that they become the default device each time you plug them in. When you unplug them, the default device should instantly revert back to your normal speakers.

If this is not happening, there is something wonky with your drivers/settings. Anyway, normally I think you will want to have the settings for microphone and speakers in StarCraft II set to "Default" in order to take advantage of the normal hot-plugging behavior for audio devices I just described, allowing you to plug and unplug a headphone/headset/mic even during the middle of a game and have it work as it should.

Another thing to be aware of is that some applications will take "exclusive mode" control over audio devices and that this can interfere with other applications. If you have any applications like this (such as an audio player) which you intend to run while you play StarCraft II, then you may want to make sure it is set not to take exclusive control. You may be able to do this from within that application's settings. There is also a setting in the control panel that will let you change whether a device can have an application take exclusive control over it. Normally I like to leave the exclusive mode settings enabled, but others might need to disable them and that's why they are there for you to toggle on and off. You find them in the advanced tab of the properties of your device in the sound control panel.

Hm, thanks.

I should add that I've got the option "Speakers and Dual Headphones" set to default. When not running SC2, everything works as desired. My audio drivers recognize my headphones up until the moment SC2 begins to load, at which point they switch over to speaker output, despite recognizing that my headphones are plugged in. In-game sound selection is set to default playback. I've got the latest IDT drivers from HP. It's weird because this never happened under Vista Home Premium, only after I installed Win 7 Pro 64.

03/09/2011 5:17 PMPosted by logik

I should add that I've got the option "Speakers and Dual Headphones" set to default.

Is there some kind of miss-communication going on here? What setting are you referring to?

The audio device settings in SC2 should be set to "Default" for 90% of users. What are yours set to? I think this may be your problem. Set them both to read "Default".

In the Sound control panel, you are supposed to have a separate option for your speakers and for your headphones. Your speakers and headphones should each be using their own separate plugs which each have their own separate entry in the control panel. Your speakers must be default until the moment you plug your headphones in. At that point the headphones are supposed to automatically become default.

Fixed.

So here was the problem: in playback devices, I had "Speakers and Dual Headphones" set to Default Device, and "Independent Dual Headphones" set to Default Communications Device.

This, for some reason, caused any game with voice chat, to output only voice to headphones, while putting game sounds through the speakers.

Shuffling around the settings so that I no longer had a Default Communications Device fixed things. "Speakers and Dual Headphones" are still set to Default Device. Everything's peachy now.

For those who are interested:
Right-click on your speaker icon in the system tray, go to Playback Devices, and make sure Default Device is set to what you want, and make sure there is no Default Communications Device setting.

That is interesting. For future reference, what sound card are you using? I don't even see an option for "default communication device" with my sound blaster xfi or with my realtek on board device.

yeah same, my sound plays through my laptop speakers when i log onto sc2, whats worse, i tried what u guys said to do above, and it doesnt work for me :S

I have this same problem. It's super annoying. Cannot play with any sound when roommates are trying to sleep or around campus.
Nice to see that the blue never responded.

FINALLY! I've been having this problem as well and Logik's post indeed fixes it. if you have IDT Audio Control Panel and you make your speakers Default Communications AND Playback then it fixes the problem.

thanks to everyone who tried to help with this. except you datth, you did nothing.

03/24/2011 03:41 AMPosted by InGeNiuS

yeah same, my sound plays through my laptop speakers when i log onto sc2, whats worse, i tried what u guys said to do above, and it doesnt work for me :S

Yea, it didn't work for me either, but if i temporarily disable my speakers then everything works perfectly through my headphones, it's just a pain to disable and enable the speakers every time. Try that and see if it works. Just make sure to click on "show disabled" so that you can enable it again.

For windows 7, try left clicking the volume icon on the system tray, click mixer, and check the volume of starcraft 2 while it is loaded. Somehow mine got turned off, but it now works fine.

Fixed.

So here was the problem: in playback devices, I had "Speakers and Dual Headphones" set to Default Device, and "Independent Dual Headphones" set to Default Communications Device.

This, for some reason, caused any game with voice chat, to output only voice to headphones, while putting game sounds through the speakers.

Shuffling around the settings so that I no longer had a Default Communications Device fixed things. "Speakers and Dual Headphones" are still set to Default Device. Everything's peachy now.

For those who are interested:
Right-click on your speaker icon in the system tray, go to Playback Devices, and make sure Default Device is set to what you want, and make sure there is no Default Communications Device setting.

Thank you very much, I was having this exact same issue (only after the new patch tho...) and this fixed it.
Just have to make sure that there are no "Default Communications Device" selected.

Fixed.

So here was the problem: in playback devices, I had "Speakers and Dual Headphones" set to Default Device, and "Independent Dual Headphones" set to Default Communications Device.

This, for some reason, caused any game with voice chat, to output only voice to headphones, while putting game sounds through the speakers.

Shuffling around the settings so that I no longer had a Default Communications Device fixed things. "Speakers and Dual Headphones" are still set to Default Device. Everything's peachy now.

For those who are interested:
Right-click on your speaker icon in the system tray, go to Playback Devices, and make sure Default Device is set to what you want, and make sure there is no Default Communications Device setting.

Thank you very much, I was having this exact same issue (only after the new patch tho...) and this fixed it.
Just have to make sure that there are no "Default Communications Device" selected.

My problem is that my laptop speakers are defaulted to "default communications device"... but when I disable it, sound output goes back to my speakers... I still haven't figure out why it's doing this though, it only started happening after the new patch... WTF Blizzard?!