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I am trying to get the PC speaker beep to work on Windows Server 2012 R2 over Remote Desktop. Normal audio is working fine, only the system beep is missing.
The instructions I have found are to enable the Beep service like so:
sc config beep start= auto
net start beep
All of these commands execute fine, but I still cannot hear any beep sound. I am using a simple AutoHotkey script for testing:
SoundBeep, 5000, 1000
This script works on my local computer, and the strange thing is that it also works on another Server 2012 R2. But on the first server (which is a brand new clean install of R2), no beep sound comes out.
Is there some Group Policy setting that I am forgetting to activate, or why is this not working?
This problem is driving me nuts. Is there an event log for the beep service that I could check for errors? Thank you.
THIS PROBLEM IS SOLVED.
Thank you for your help. See my own answer below.
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Might start by checking both here and with manufacturer that the hardware supports the operating system installed.
https://www.windowsservercatalog.com/
also check the manufacturer latest ROM bios, firmware, chipset and driver support pack has been installed.
--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--
Thanks. I should have added it is a VPS environment. Both servers run on a VPS with the latest virtualization drivers installed. However I think the Beep service is not hardware dependent. I read an MS article that it is a software driver that simply feeds beep sounds to the Windows Audio service. And because I can hear normal audio, I am guessing the problem is somewhere in the Beep service, or in the path between Beep and Audio Service. I am going to try to install Server 2016 next to see if it has the same problem. But have to take a break first. Maybe tomorrow.
The hardware manufacturer will be your best resource to troubleshoot.
--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--
Just checking if there's any progress or updates?
--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--
Thanks for checking up. I have tried two other VPS vendors and also tried Windows Server 2019. Does not work. I only have it working on one 2012 R2 Hyper-V server. It is either a bug in Windows, or they have abandoned the Beep service, OR there is a group policy or registry setting missing. Unfortunately there is no hardware vendor to contact for a virtual machine. From what I can tell the beep system is software-based since WIndows 7, but I am not sure. Very strange problem, and cannot figure out why it works on one machine and nowhere else.
Well you can only test / debug one at a time. I'd stick with the physical machine mentioned originally and work with that hardware vendor to resolution.
--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--
Just checking if there's any progress or updates?
--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--
I solved the problem.
Looks like several pieces are needed, including sharing Devices from the RDP client side. That was the piece that was missing in my setup, and why nothing I did on the server made any difference. I wrote the full solution here:
This is the accepted answer. For some reason I cannot accept my own answers on this platform. If someone known how, please comment.
Might try sign out, sign back in as it should be fine to accept your own answer.
Actually I just looked back at an internal discussion about this a month or so ago and they may have restricted user from marking own answer but you can close the thread if you wanted.
Thanks. It seems I have no privileges to do much here. I can edit my own texts, or approve other answers. No other functions are available. But no sweat. The title should make it clear now, so people do not post new answers.