diff --git a/Lib/test/test_winsound.py b/Lib/test/test_winsound.py
index eff7229bd99..de444220c6e 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_winsound.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_winsound.py
@@ -2,15 +2,23 @@
 
 import unittest
 from test import test_support
-import winsound, time
+import time
 import os
 import subprocess
+import ctypes
+
+winsound = test_support.import_module('winsound')
 import _winreg
 
 
 def has_sound(sound):
     """Find out if a particular event is configured with a default sound"""
     try:
+        # Ask the mixer API for the number of devices it knows about.
+        # When there are no devices, PlaySound will fail.
+        if ctypes.windll.winmm.mixerGetNumDevs() is 0:
+            return False
+
         key = _winreg.OpenKeyEx(_winreg.HKEY_CURRENT_USER,
                 "AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\{0}\.Default".format(sound))
         value = _winreg.EnumValue(key, 0)[1]