For some reason I can’t hear the sound in my 3ds max. I’m using wav file and it’s playing fine in media player. I saw this same issue been asked by few ppl but with no solution. Does anyone have any idea what can be wrong?
What version of max? are you using the default audio or prosound?
You may have it un-active. Right click the sound track in the curve editor and select properties. There is a checkbox there to make it active that max will randomly turn off from time to time.
If you are using pro sound you can control the volume of the wav file. Also you can turn playback off for rendering, animation previews, and standard playback.
@ Alex: I’m using 3ds Max 2009. I tried to turn off the playback but no sound still. I even tried to test the sound in a new scene with nothing in it but still no luck.
@Jay: I was wondering the same at first but the sound track is still active.
I have no idea what it is coze on one system it works and it doesn’t on the other. I even reinstalled 3ds max 3 times, hehe. Sound is working perfect in that pc, jus doesn’t work in max. Maybe there is a bad juju on it or something, hehe.
Can you see the waveform in the timeline when you turn it on?
Have you tried creating a new scene and adding up the sound to see if it works? Also, can you post a simple scene with the sound file? Cheers!
@jay : yea I can see it.
@Kameleon : I tried doin that too. I think it has something to with my max and not the file. I have attached screenshot of the scene if that helps in anyway.
This would be a complete shot in the dark on my part, but you could try to re-save the wav file with different save parameters. For example if the file in question is a stereo wav, try mono. You might also want to try different bit rates and sampling rates/frequencies. It is possible that the combination of save attributes used for this particular wav file are not fully supported by 3DS Max.
So finally I found the issue. My computer has 2 sound card, one can play sounds in max but not in any other player and the other can’t play on max but in others. Sound card issue, not the software, lame. Thanx for all the suggestions 
Good you found the solution. One more tip, the default sound player (In Max 9), doesn’t handle ADPCM compressed WAV files (the new ProSound stuff obviously works as expected).
SamiV.