HI,

For play Tropico 5 on windows 10 1903 and later you must:

1) go on C:\Windows\SysWOW64
2) search XAudio2_7.DLL
3) rename XAudio2_7.DLL on XAudio2_7.DLL.old

4) play tropico 5
5) rename XAudio2_7.DLL.old on XAudio2_7.DLL when you are finished to play at tropico 5.

This solution works but not sound ONLY with tropico 5.

Hey Guys. I just found an easy fix which worked for me under Windows 10 1909.
For me it was sufficient to go to the gamefolder and change the Tropico5.exe to run under Windows 8 Compatbility Mode. Afterwards the game runs smoothly and with sound for me and without crashing. Both when starting directly with the exe and via Galaxy

I tried your solution but it doesn't fix the issue for me... Windows 7 compatibility mode doesn't work as well.

Interesting. We have similar thread in the German forum and there it fixed the problem for 1 guy but didn't fix it for another. What kind of Audio Device/Output are you using? Here it's Audio Output via HDMI via an Nvidia GPU

Audio device: Realtek integrated sound chipset
Video device: GeForce GTX 1060.

I'm pretty sure that everyone owning Realtek soundchip has this issue.

As already said in the German forum: Works for me with an equal setup (audio via HDMI of a nVidia GPU).

It's any audio device.

GPU HDMI, external DAC, you name it, it seems to be a broad range issue with (as always) the way Windows handles audio.

Ever since Vista when Microsoft decided they didn't want audio to have so much authority over the system there has been nothing but problems.

I've contacted GOG, Kalypso and Microsoft over the last few weeks, and everyone is aware of it, but it's in either Kalypso or Microsofts hands to fix - which neither care enough to do. It's not the first time the audio DLL has caused issues either.

I've changed languge packs, I've tried older dedicated PCI sound cards, I've tried a range of USB options, I've tried everything I can think of and a range of things that just about killed Windows. I've tried updates in all three insider rings, swapping the DLLs, and changing permissions.

The only solution I have found is to kill the DLL and play without audio.

I really miss XP.

This might be related to the problems described on Chuck Walbourn's Blog on MSDN, Oct 09, 2015.
Basically - no hard-holding of a reference to the library causes it to be automatically unloaded before all the instances of library's objects are deleted. Kinda like the server grabbing your plate before you have finished eating your dish.
But this is from 2015 and Skyrim among others was plagued by it and got fixed. So not necessarily this is it, but might be related.

It would appear that Tropico 5 uses APIs that go beyond the userland access. Access to audio-related stuff has been limited by Microsoft in the updates to Windows 10, rightfully so. It appears to try to access something it should not -> unhandled access violation -> crash to desktop with the message of audio DLL getting unloaded. That is why really no option works here - including Win 7 / win 8 compatibility. There is something wrong with the way that Tropico 5 talks to the OS about audio devices. The OS decides it goes beyond what the game is allowed to do. Since the software was not written to handle such case it crashes.

I would advice to contact Support and ask for help or a refund. I have already done so. I shall update you pals on the matter when GoG person will get back to me.

So I've tried all the potential fixes mentioned here, despite not really understanding how any of them could work on some machines and not others, and unsurprisingly none of them work for me other than the no sound game. I'm actually thinking that the no sound game is probably okay for me until someone (Calypso) fixes the problem. Microsoft has already done their part, since the code that needs to be added has been made available to developers and all Calypso has to do is graft it in.

When I next get after playing this though I will have some questions that I will have to answer by experiment unless someone already knows.

1) with xaudio2_7.dll renamed to disable it will audio from other programs function? I'm thinking that my solution to losing the audio from the game is probably setting up Firefox to stream radio:Margaritaville.

2) does the program look for it in its own folder first, and is there a way to fool it into thinking it has found it there? In the old days programs could be redirected to alternative audio handling (ALchemy, for example) by putting the API in the folder with the program and giving it the same name as the original API had in the windows folder. I tried out substituting some alternative APIs, like xaudio2_9.dll in place of the renamed xaudio2_7 and while they didn't produce audio they didn't cause the crash either. I'm thinking that if I copy one of them into the game folder and rename it then the program can find it there and give me the disabled audio without having to rename the file in the main system folder. This depends on two things though. First, the program does have to look there first and I'm not sure that it will. Second, it has to be satisfied enough with what it finds even though it doesn't really work.

Any updates on a legit fix for this ?

I got the same result, though someone on the Kalypso forums said the update fixed theirs. They have stopped responding to my support ticket as well.

wrote a ticket to GOG support two days ago.Reiceved their answer today.They apoligized,they know about the problem ,they are currently working on a solution and they will get back to me,when they found one.Means,there isn`t any fix at the moment.
Anyways :merry christmas to everybody , let`s hope for a fix as soon as possible !

How this worked for me:

I have a monitor with audio output

1. Disconnected from my onboard audio jack
2. Plugged headphones into screen audio jack
3. Went into settings and changed audio output device to NVIDIA High Definition
4. Go to Tropico 5 install folder and change Tropico5.exe to run under Windows 8 Compatibility
5. Launch game and it doesn't crash like before

So I guess if the Realtek device is causing the issue this might help you

Thanks for for the update and nice that at least for some people there is a viable fix at the moment :)