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With Firefox 8, "google translate" translate but doesn't speak (it speaks with IE)

  • 9 replies
  • 72 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Motes

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Hello, Few days ago I downloaded Firefox 8. Today I try google translate (http://translate.google.fr/): it translates without any problem but impossible to have a sound. I verified with Internet Explorer, and there I can listen to google translate, so the problem comes from Firefox. Thanks to solve this problem, because FF is very good and I need google translate too !

Hello, Few days ago I downloaded Firefox 8. Today I try google translate (http://translate.google.fr/): it translates without any problem but impossible to have a sound. I verified with Internet Explorer, and there I can listen to google translate, so the problem comes from Firefox. Thanks to solve this problem, because FF is very good and I need google translate too !

All Replies (9)

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Works for me in Firefox 8 using Windows 7. Translated text from English to German, there were speaker icons on both the from and to language areas. Both speaker icons worked.

Make sure you don't have sound turned off or low in Firefox.

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Hi Thanks for the answer. For me both speaker icons don't work. I specify I use Firefox 8 on Windows XP. Sounds are turned on. It seems the problem is just with this google site because speaker icons work well on the PONS site for example (http://fr.pons.eu/). Strange.

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That is a Flash player.

Start Firefox in Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode to check if one of the extensions or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox (Tools) > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).

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Thanks for the answer. I tried it but nothing. So I desinstalled FF and I reinstalled it. Firstly I tested it without import any of my add-ons/bookmarks, etc. And FF worked well, I would be able to hear the sound of the speaker icons of google translate. Then I imported all my add-ons etc and again they didn't work. So it seems that the problem comes from my profile. I will try to find it. Thanks!

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sound problems:

  1. Restore speaker icon to System Task bar, right-click on clock or tray > Properties > Volume: On
  2. Click on the Sound icon in System tray then on Mixer, make sure Firefox is not muted picture

Additional references

The sound mixer and separate applications controls may have come in with Vista so may not have separate controls 0n XP. Flash and MP3 players also have sound controls make sure it is not muted or very low.

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Thanks for the answer. I tried both solutions, but nothing.

Again, I try to start FF in Safe Mode, I diseabled every extensions and plugins, and then I try to enable them one by one but nothing. The speaker icons of google translate disappeared when the plugin Shockwave Flash was diseabled. So I verified it was the last version, I try to reinstall it, but nothing !

I really don't know what can be the ground of this problem. Have you got any idea, because the only solution I see is to reinstall FF and then every thing one by one ... but it would be hard ...

Thank you for your help and a Merry Christmas for all of you!

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If it does work in Safe-mode then disable all extensions and then try to find which is causing it by enabling one at a time until the problem reappears.

  • Use "Disable all add-ons" on the Safe mode start window to disable all extensions.
  • Close and restart Firefox after each change via "File > Exit" (Mac: "Firefox > Quit"; Linux: "File > Quit")
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Thanks cor-el, but in Safe-mode with all extensions disabled, the speaker icons don't work. The only way to have them working is when I reinstall newly FF and I didn't put anything. Then the icons worked. But once I reinstall my profile, they've not worked anymore. When I tried the Safe-mode with all extensions and plugins disabled, they don't work either. So I don't know what to do.

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I discovered the issue was dom.ipc.plugins.enabled was set to false to prevent firefox from spawning an additional exe for plugins. With this setting set to true, the problem is resolved.

I guess the programmers are in love with the concept of the plugin container, so they quit developing the functionality without it. I would bet their response would be "use the container for the best user experience". Bullocks. They should know IPC is harder to keep straight than shared memory.