Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 Sound Muted Game Pass: Why Your Skates are Silent

You just downloaded the massive July 2025 drop. You’re ready to hit the Airport or the Foundry with a nostalgic soundtrack blasting. But then—silence. Total, eerie silence. You see the skaters moving, the menus clicking, but the iconic punk rock and the sound of wheels on concrete are just... gone. Honestly, it’s one of the most frustrating things that can happen with a Game Pass launch, especially for a game like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 where the audio is basically half the experience.

It’s not just you. Since the Iron Galaxy-developed remaster hit Xbox and PC Game Pass on July 11, 2025, a specific "sound muted" bug has been plagueing players. Whether you’re on an Xbox Series X or a beefy Windows rig, the issue usually stems from a handful of weird technical bottlenecks rather than the game being fundamentally "broken."

Let’s get into how to actually fix this so you can stop skating in a sensory deprivation tank.

The PC Game Pass Audio Ghost

If you're playing on PC, the tony hawk's pro skater 3 4 sound muted game pass issue is frequently tied to how Windows handles multiple audio outputs or "Hands-Free" telephony settings. This is a classic Xbox App quirk.

Windows sometimes gets confused when you have a Bluetooth headset connected. It tries to use the "Hands-Free AG Audio" profile, which is meant for phone calls, not high-fidelity gaming. Since the game is trying to output 4K-ready audio, and the headset is stuck in "phone mode," the sound just cuts out entirely.

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Basically, you’ve gotta go into your Sound Control Panel (the old-school one, not just the Windows 11 settings app). Find your headset under the "Playback" and "Recording" tabs. Right-click it, go to Properties, then the "Services" tab, and uncheck Hands-Free Telephony. This forces Windows to treat your headphones like actual headphones.

Another weird fix that actually works? The Task Manager trick. Open Task Manager with Ctrl + Alt + Delete while the game is running, then immediately Alt + F4 out of the Task Manager window. For some reason, this "jolts" the Windows audio driver into realizing a game is actually requesting sound. It sounds like a myth, but plenty of people in the THPS Reddit community swear by it for Game Pass titles.

Xbox Console Sound Issues (Series X|S)

On the console side, it’s usually less about drivers and more about the "Quick Resume" feature or the Party Chat mixer. If you left the game suspended and came back to it, the audio engine might have desynced.

• Force Quit: Don't just go to the home screen. Highlight the THPS 3 + 4 tile, hit the Menu button (three lines), and select "Quit."
• The Mixer Slide: Check your Guide menu. Sometimes, if you were recently in a party, the "Chat Mixer" slider is pushed all the way to the "Person" icon, effectively muting all game audio in favor of voices that aren't even there.
• Hard Reset: If those don't work, hold the power button on the front of the console for 10 seconds until it chirps and dies. Unplug the power cord for 30 seconds. This clears the cache, which is often where these "muted" bugs live.

The "Scrambled File" Problem

There’s a more technical reason this happens specifically on Game Pass. When the Xbox App updates a game—like the day-one patch for THPS 3 + 4—it occasionally "scrambles" the manifest of the audio bank files.

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If you look in your C:\XboxGames folder, specifically under the game’s StreamingAssets directory, there are files like Master Bank.strings.bank. If the update process didn't finish perfectly, the game looks for these files and finds gibberish.

You’ve got two choices here. You can try the "Verify and Repair" tool in the Xbox App, though frankly, it has a 50/50 success rate. The nuclear option—and the one that usually works—is a clean reinstall. It’s annoying, but it ensures the audio containers are indexed correctly by your OS.

Soundtrack Licensing and Muting

Wait—is the whole game muted, or just the music?

If you can hear the "clack" of the board but no music, check your in-game settings. Because this is a 2025 release, Iron Galaxy included a "Streamer Mode." If this is toggled on, it might be muting tracks that Activision doesn't have the global digital broadcast rights for.

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Also, remember that the Digital Deluxe Edition on Game Pass includes "Bonus Soundtracks." If you haven't "claimed" or downloaded the Add-on pack for the Deluxe content, some of the new tracks might not trigger, leading to silence between the classic songs.

Actionable Steps to Restore Sound

If you’re staring at a silent screen right now, do this in order:

1. Restart the Game Fully: No Quick Resume, no suspension. Quit it from the dashboard.
2. Check Windows Environment Variables: (PC only) Search for "Environment Variables" in your Start menu. Look for a variable named SDL_AUDIODRIVER. If it’s there and set to "dsound," delete it or change it to "directsound."
3. Disable Extra Outputs: Turn off your monitor speakers or any virtual cables (like Voicemeeter) that aren't your primary device.
4. Update DirectX: Ensure your DirectX is up to date via Microsoft's official site; THPS 3 + 4 relies heavily on the latest API for its spatial audio.
5. Reinstall: If the sound is still dead after a console hard reset or a driver update, the file structure is likely corrupted. Delete and redownload.

Once you get that audio back, head into the settings and make sure "Special Trick" sound effects are cranked up. You haven't lived until you hear the THPS 3 "special" chime in 7.1 surround sound.