Sound driver issue - Windows 10?

[Mayo Master]

Hi folks,

I've been happily playing the game with a bunch of mods via modpath and Aali's driver v.07.11b. Yesterday I changed my OS from Windows 8 to Windows 10, and since then the game fails to launch. The app log doesn't get past the "Initializing sound..."  so I sense it may be an issue with the sound drivers. However, I've not been able to fix that issue (it may be simple, but I've been running around in circles for some time now).
I tested the sound output in ff7Config.exe, tested my sound devices... nothing. Un-install, re-install, same problem.
Any ideas? Thanks.

[Sega Chief]

Maybe it's related to the recent sound issues Windows 10 installs have been having? These might be promising leads (I'm not a computer guy, but it might be worth checking out):

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/windows-10-how-fix-sound-issues-after-upgrade-1513693

http://microsoft-news.com/heres-how-to-fix-sound-drivers-issues-on-windows-10-build-10130/

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/windows/how-fix-driver-issues-in-windows-10-3585016/

[Mayo Master]

Thanks for the leads, I appreciate.
I still haven't been able to fix the problem. What's odd is that I my computer does have sound, has all the drivers updated, passed the sound test in FF7Config, but when I launch the game it produces the same issue, with the app log never getting past the 'Initializing sound' test. 

[EQ2Alyza]

In the past, if the sound device drop-down menu was left blank in the FF7Config, then the game wouldn't launch. I see you've already checked this.

How did you mod your game? Bootleg? 7th Heaven? Manually?

Why Aali's 0.7.11b instead of 0.8.1b?

[Mayo Master]

I have been setting my mods manually (via modpath) because when I was actively working at Team Avalanche I needed to do a lot of testing for the fields. I was using Aali's 0.7.11b because when I initially tried 0.8 it didn't do well on my end, so I reverted back. I haven't tried with the latest 0.8.1b though.

[Kaldarasha]

I have been setting my mods manually (via modpath) because when I was actively working at Team Avalanche I needed to do a lot of testing for the fields. I was using Aali's 0.7.11b because when I initially tried 0.8 it didn't do well on my end, so I reverted back. I haven't tried with the latest 0.8.1b though.

The modpath is still working, only the old texture replacement was kicked out.

[yarLson]

This is how I use aali's 0.8.1b driver.  It doesn't work if I follow the installation instructions given by aali but if I install the ffconfig.exe from 0.7.11b plus all the files from 0.8.1b and set the graphics driver in ffconfig.exe to custom then it works no problems.  Haven't had any issue with sound whatsoever since on Win 10 however this is obviously dependent on a per driver basis.  I am using the on-board audio inside of Maximus VII Hero board with no trouble.

[Mayo Master]

This is how I use aali's 0.8.1b driver.  It doesn't work if I follow the installation instructions given by aali but if I install the ffconfig.exe from 0.7.11b plus all the files from 0.8.1b and set the graphics driver in ffconfig.exe to custom then it works no problems.  Haven't had any issue with sound whatsoever since on Win 10 however this is obviously dependent on a per driver basis.  I am using the on-board audio inside of Maximus VII Hero board with no trouble.

I tried to follow this method, but then when I run FF7config.exe, upon choosing the "custom" graphic driver, then I get a popup "The specified procedure could not be found". I checked Aali's thread, not sure if that detail was important or not.
In any case, the result was the same: still unable to load the game past the "Initializing sound" test.