It started out as a small problem, but now it's blown up into a huge one. There's big segments in the game where the sound effects will not play. I remember it at first being that the sound effect for the Whark idol opening wouln't play, then it was a door sound effect, then it was the sound for the entire transition from jungle island to the book making island and from then on it was a bunch of levers and small things. The game does not crash but this really ruins the emersion of the game for me. What follows is the exact report I sent technical support, but I thought I'd pose this to you all in case you can come to a conclusion quicker than they can.
In my recent play of Riven, there were numerous sound errors, beginning with no sound playing when the Whark idol in the jungle opened and extending to the audio for the mine-cart ride transition not playing, various lever sounds on the book making island not playing (but for some reason only under certain conditions), some door opening sound effects not playing and the audio for the frog catcher broken to the point that the frog does not make any noise, which could actually break the game for new players as it's somewhat vital to know what the frog sounds like and this is the only part of the game where you hear one.I've attached some pictures that attempt to illustrate the exact areas where this happens and the conditions. Note that the background sound always works and continues to play over the mute sounds that do not function.Also note that I am playing Riven under the correct compatability settings for it to work (640x480, disalbe visual themes, disable desktop composition, disable display scaling on high dpi settings Run as admin, run in compatability mode for Windows 98). My drivers are all up to date as well.Entered hardware information:
Operating system: Windows Vista™ Business (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.091208-0542)
Processor type and speed: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.3GHz
RAM memory: 4094MB RAM
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250
Sound card: N/A (no specific sound card. Use Logitech G35 headset for sound. Assuming graphics card covers sound as well)
Graphics driver version: 8.17.0011.9713 (English)
DirectX version: DirectX 11

again, this is probably a quicktime error. 90% of both myst and riven's errors are qiuicktime related. it sounds like the GOG team was able to fix the actual program errors in the game but haven't conquered the QUicktime issues yet. I need to first know what version of quicktime you have
fasten your seatbelt, as we're in for a long, bumbpy ride getting this to work.

Well, if the fact that I couldn't find it when I searched my programs, compounded with not being able to view a quicktime move is any evidence to go off of, looks like I didn't even have a quicktime player on my machine. Funny, you'd think that after about half a year I'd need one...anyway, it's running Quicktime 7 right now and that cured up a huge sound error already. I didn't have any trouble with any sounds on playing on this last play, but I'll keep you updated in the mean time. This still hasn't solved the button animations not working, though.

Update: The problem ISN'T solved. I played the game last night or a few nights ago and all of the sound on survey island played fine. I played the game just today, though, and all of a sudden there are missing sound effects when I toggle between islands on the overhang over the main grounds.

Okay, I hate to be really obnoxious and tripple post, but if anything the sound errors are getting worse. There's been at least one time now where a sound effect will not play where I know it played previously and because tech support for some reason still hasn't even at least sent me a message telling me that they are busy, my problem's pretty much in the hands of the community here. I'm open to any suggestions as this is starting to destory the emersion of the gamer.

hmm.
What operating system are you using?
and can you tell me what file formats the sounds use in the gog.com version?

My operating system is Windows Vista 64 bit. Upon examining the Riven folder, all of the audio looks to be in dotMHK format (.MHK) although there might be some odd compression with these files as there is far less files than audio clips or rendered frames in the game.

Yes those are the equivilent of the Zip file for riven. That means it's probably the same files (I don't think GOG would try to re-engineer the game completely). I hate to say it, I think this has to be a quicktime-riven dependence issue. I left some suggestions in your other topic. If I was you, I'd send an email to GOG asking what kind of changes they made to Riven. This way we could pinpoint the problem.

The audio files,
The .mhk's from Riven's 10Year DVD have both .wav and .mp2's inside
The .mhk's from Riven's gog version have .wav only inside
Sodo, considering you were using some pretty old drivers for your gfx before updating to the 197.13, maye you could try to look for updated audio drivers. If you don't have a Sound Card, audio is being handled through some integrated chip on your motherboard.

only wav's, huih? Well that saves me having to run the files through Riveal. Does the gog version still use quicktime or does it use something else?

There are a few quicktime related files on the game folder, so basically it either uses quicktime or just a few required quicktime files.
I'm under the impression it doesn't necessarily requires quicktime to be installed, but i'm not sure as i had quicktime already installed when i picked up Riven from gog.

hmm. If it doesn't use quicktime I don't know, then. Almost every "fix" for all other versions of riven have to do with quicktime, but i know nothing about this version if it doesn't use it

Any fixes for the sound files? My version of Riven played great until I got to the prison on the Village Island. Now, only ambient sounds play and a loud, metallic sound has replaced all music and voices. No dialogue can be heard -- only metallic noise. Fix, please.