[oliverh72]

I've had this problem happen to me a few times. The best way to fix it - or at least work around it - is this:

Start Ryzom. Click on 'Game Configuration'. Go to the audio panel and make sure your audio is enabled there. Click OK.

Start Ryzom again. When the auto-patcher starts up, click the main Ryzom window, bringing it to focus, with the patcher in the background. Ryzom will start once the patcher closes and your sound should begin immediately. I've found that if I don't bring the Ryzom window to the top (focused), I will sometimes not have any sound ingame - and you're right, enabling/disabling your sound ingame to try to force it to start WILL cause it to crash every time. Let me know if this helps.

Oliver