stereoa: So, a lot of the games I bought (Mob Rule, Commandos, etc) have music in some menus, but when going into actual gameplay I get no sound. I am running windows 7 x64. I set all the games to run in win95 mode and as admin AND that fixed it! Temporarily :( As soon as I alt tabbed out of mob rule, it broke all the games again. Now changing compatibility has no effect and I'm back to the same symptoms! I've tried so many things and I am worried my only options are a system restore. I've tried everything on the main support article (install june 2010 directx, disable uac, etc) and no luck. I'm praying that I didn't just waste a bunch of money on games I can't enjoy completely. Hopefully someone out there has advice. Thanks, guys!

IronStar: I it installed in Program FIles(x86)? If so, try installing elsewhere.

Dischord: You didn't waste money, otherwise sound would have never worked. Is a local reason as to why it doesn't work.

In device manager, do your sound devices appear as working? Do other games work ok?

Am just trying to help you isolate the problem.

stereoa: Tried installing to C:\GOG.com. No difference. Used compatibility settings and run as admin and tried without.stereoa: In device manager everything checks out. Here's an image of that and my audio configuration in windows.

Thank you so much for the responses and suggestions! Keep 'em coming!

IronStar: I know that some games have issue with Realtek HD on-board audio.
Might sound trivial, but did you check volume mixer? I know there are bugs with some scripts (TeamSpeak for example) that "forget" to unmute other programs after they finish using sound out.

stereoa: Yeah checked the mixer. It is a consistent location in each game that the sound cuts out. The sound works in most other areas, just not for certain parts. For example in Commandos, the sound works in the menus, fmv's and initial text briefing, but as soon as you get control of the game to play it's silent. For Mob Rule, the sound works in the menus, but not the fmvs and not during actual gameplay. What's so frustrating is I had fixed it, but that darn alt-tab foiled everything. It's like alt-tabbing broke something and made a permanent change.

IronStar: Double posting for reply notification

Check this out:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1331567

Doesn't mention sound problem though.

You have tried Win 98 compatibility? Also If commandos is form steam, steam overlay may be braking it...

Have you tried using on-board card?

stereoa: I would try that exe, but my lovely government is in an all out copyright war with megaupload and I cannot find a mirror. I have tried win 98 compatibility and I do not have the steam version, but instead the GOG version and I am not running it through steam (so no overlay). I tried the on-board card and it worked! Makes me wonder though how I can make my other one work, but maybe it's time to say bye to that card, I was using it for optical 5.1, but my new mobo has that built in. I really didn't want to switch off using that card, but it doesn't really make much sense to use it anyway anymore, I'm sure it won't hurt my i7 too bad to do audio on the board also.