Why Did Watching Video on Internet Change My Default Audio Settings?

Factual Questions
1

I have been watching video-audio on the internet for some time now. And I have never had any problems. Then more recently I go to this well-known, reputable website (I don’t want to defame anyone, esp. if it isn’t their fault, so I won’t mention which site it was). I am watching these video clips that I am supposed to vote on or something. All is going well, until all the sound suddenly goes. Assuming it is the fault of the website, I just ignore it and move on. But something odd is beginning to unfold. First of all, all the sounds my computer normally makes are gone. The little cute sound that tells me when I have email. The sound that says I accidentally hit the wrong button, and so forth. Silly me, I think to myself. I must’ve left the mute button on. I did use it shortly before. Of course I had been hearing the video clips fine just then. Perhaps the website somehow inadvertently put my mute on. No matter, I simply go to my audio settings, and check on the mute. No mute has been chosen. Perhaps I had the volume to low. Isn’t that either. Finally I realize that is it more than just that. Somehow my default settings had been altered. And by some miracle, I was successful in resetting them :cool: .

But how exactly did this happen? Why did it happen this time? And how could I avoid it in the future? And furthermore, how do you reset all the default settings on your computer’s audio, etc.? And while we’re at it, has anyone else ever had this problem?

To all who lend advice, I thank you in advance :slight_smile: .

2

under control panel, in “Sounds and multimedia” is where you can set your sound schems such as what or if a sound should play for a given action. You can also set this in the “Desktop Themes” section.
Probably what happened was the result of some java commands or something on the web page that likely would have reset on reboot regardless. Usually the effects should disappear along with the web page but java and other internet programming seems to often have little bugs or sometimes weaknesses that some may exploit.

3

You didn’t mention what format the videos you were viewing are. That tells you where to start looking. It could be that a new plugin was automatically downloaded and installed. And something went wrong with that. You should definitely have your browser set to “ask before installing plugins”.

Note that Realmedia (.rm, .ra, etc.) is notorious for screwing up settings (among other bad things), I don’t allow any of their products near my computer.