Quake 4 from GOG has no sound. I have sent them a help request, but we know that will take days. I thought someone here may have had this problem in the past and would know the answer.

There are a few posts in GOG forums like this one
https://www.gog.com/forum/quake_series/sound_problem_openal

and this
https://www.gog.com/forum/quake_series/quake_iv_doesnt_recognize_my_mousekeyboardno_sound

Jenny 100, Thank you, I read these articles and being computer dumb, I am afraid to make changes, I am a coward. I have OpenAL on my computer. While I was fussing at myself, I went into the game file and found Launch Quake IV icon. I used this icon instead of the icon GOG put on desktop and the game has sound and plays perfectly. I got lucky.

Nothing in those two threads was risky. One of them only repeated suggestions GOG gave them -- reinstall DirectX, reinstall the game, add exception to antivirus. If you have OpenAL version 1.1 already there would be no point reinstalling it.

But if the game is now working to your satisfaction, there's no reason to mess with it anyway.