Ok I was trying to avoid chain saw vs scalpel, but I can't remember which file hold sound device info.
It should work in all arenas if it works in one. A very odd issue. we can blow a lot of time guessing our way through it, or do the below.
In this case I'm not fond of replacing the Settings folder as it may re-inject the issue.
IF you have the time, lets try this approach, unfortunately, because my memory, it's the chainsaw approach.
Make a folder and name it "AH Backup" or whatever.
You can backup just the settings folder, but below will save much time in any future re-installs.
Make a copy/backup of the below and paste them into that AH Backup folder. You're going to need about 2GB of space to save time, so check your drives. This will save time because we're going to uninstall and delete the entire "Hitech Creations" install folder and Empty Recycle bin. I'd say clean registry but I don't think that's needed.
BACKUP
Folders:
ah3terr
defsights
films
maps
settings
skins
stickdef
File:
stdshape.res (1.9GB)
located in Hitech Creations\Aces High III folder
When you reinstall AH DO NOT copy over any of these folders just copy the "stdshape.res" file to Hitech Creations\Aces High III folder. We want just a clean default install.
Once you've done a clean default install see if it detects your sound devices.
IF it does, copy and paste your backup "settings" folder to Hitech Creations\Aces High III folder.
Now recheck and see if it still detects your devices, just to make sure we didn't just copy over a corrupt file.
If you still have the green light on detecting your device you can then copy and paste those folders and stdshapes.res back to Hitech Creations\Aces High III folder. And you will have everything as it was.
If it resorts back to not detecting it, do another re-install, and copy over everything but settings folder, you'll have to reconfig all that.
The AH Backup folder will be valuable in the future.
