Audio Left Channel is absent in app-specific instance

Question

Hi, All:
I was just advised that this topic belongs here in the MSDN forums, so moved the topic from the Community. I am not sure that this particular forum is the correct one. If not, please advise where to put this question.
Here is my original question:
I have created an application (in Delphi) which uses audio output, but recently discovered that the left channel is missing. There is nothing in my program that would do this.
To further test this application, I did the following:
1. Used the Windows PlaySound command to output a simple WAV file. I moved this line to the top most part of the program before anything else was created or intialized.
2. This wav plays immediately on launching the program, but as with the rest of the program (which using SAPI, text2speech), the left audio channel is absent.
3. If I move the program (profviewer.exe) to another location than where the application is installed, the left channel returns.
4. If I change the name of the program to e.g. "test.exe" the left channel returns.
5. On my Win7 systems, if I changed the name from "profviewer.exe" to "test.exe" then ran the application to the initial password dialog then cancelled, then rechanged the name from "test.exe" back to "profviewer.exe"
I discovered that this audio channel anomaly was corrected.
6. On my Win8.1 system, changing the name of the app as in #5 did not fix the audio channel problem.
My guess is that there is some application specific registry setting that controls this. Could you tell me where to look for this so I can fix those systems with Win8.1? Or failing that is there some other work around that I could apply to get the
left channel audio back?
Thank you,
Chuck Belanger

Answer 1

Hi, Matthew:
Here is the output of Meters.exe from a user with Win8.1 and who has no left audio channel in the program (Profviewer.exe). Hope this helps to fix this head scratching issue.
Chuck
-- Playback devices --
Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
    Peak: 0
    Mute: 0
    Volume range: 0% to 100% (-96 dB to 0 dB in steps of 1.5 dB)
    Master: 100% (0 dB)
    Channel 1 of 2: 100% (0 dB)
    Channel 2 of 2: 100% (0 dB)
Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
    Peak: 0.89008
    Mute: 0
    Volume range: 0% to 100% (-65.25 dB to 0 dB in steps of 0.03125 dB)
    Master: 100% (0 dB)
    Channel 1 of 2: 100% (0 dB)
    Channel 2 of 2: 100% (0 dB)
    Active session #1
        Peak value: 0.35822
        Icon path: 
        Display name: 
        Grouping parameter: {e82cafd7-7990-453b-945d-3ab7524368ea}
        Process ID: 17284 (single-process)
        Session identifier: {0.0.0.00000000}.{6b1b2275-77cc-4056-ad76-4c9fcc30e373}|\Device\HarddiskVolume5\Program Files (x86)\NMT\NMT Treeview Version 3.0\NMT Treeview Professional\ProfViewer.exe%b{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
        Session instance identifier: {0.0.0.00000000}.{6b1b2275-77cc-4056-ad76-4c9fcc30e373}|\Device\HarddiskVolume5\Program Files (x86)\NMT\NMT Treeview Version 3.0\NMT Treeview Professional\ProfViewer.exe%b{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}|1%b17284
        System sounds session: no
        HWND: 0x000E2560 Scan Text
        HWND: 0x000D02A4 NMT TreeView - Professional Version->Client: test 1 test 1| Session: 2/14/2015 8:38:27 AM| Mode: CLIENTS
        HWND: 0x001E111A 
        Master volume: 1 (0 dB FS)
        Not muted
        Channel #1 volume: 0 (-1.#INF dB FS)
        Channel #2 volume: 1 (0 dB FS)
Audials Sound Capturing (Audials Sound Capturing)
    Peak: 0
    Mute: 0
    Volume range: 0% to 100% (-96 dB to 0 dB in steps of 1.5 dB)
    Master: 100% (0 dB)
    Channel 1 of 2: 100% (0 dB)
    Channel 2 of 2: 100% (0 dB)
-- Recording devices --
Microphone (Realtek High Definition Audio)
    Peak: 0
    Mute: 0
    Volume range: 0% to 100% (-17.25 dB to 30 dB in steps of 0.03125 dB)
    Master: 100% (30 dB)
    Channel 1 of 2: 100% (30 dB)
    Channel 2 of 2: 100% (30 dB)