No sound even though audio outputs are connected?

i’m trying out the forum since no advice is working and support isn’t replying to me but essentially i have a 30 day trial version of cubase pro 12 for windows and i havent actually been able to try anything because no sound is coming out. i thought it was an issue with the vst but even wav and mp3 files are silent. everything in audio connections and studio set up is OK and it still doesn’t work.
thanks in advance if any of you have any suggestions

Hi and welcome to the forum,

Have you tried without plug-ins, please? Do you see the meters? Could you attach screenshots, please?