Octopus Overlords

All of a sudden for no good reason the sound stopped on my computer.
Yes, the sound it turned on.
It shows the volume being close to max. I happen to be using headphones but different headphones don't matter and no sound comes out with no headphones.
Not even the theme settings work. IE start up or any of the other little MS theme sounds.
I deleted the drivers and reinstalled them. I've reset the computer.
I've used the MS trouble shooting programs. Everything says it's working.
I was just playing Total War Medieval 2 and it was working fine. The I quit and went to the web to view Youtube videos and there was no sound. Haven't had any since.
Any suggestions?

I'm assuming Windows 10?

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2019 6:43 am
It shows the volume being close to max.

Is that the Windows volume control? If not, check that, too. At least once every few months I'll bump my mute key on my keyboard and spend ten minutes trying to figure it out. The sound settings that come with the drivers still show the volume at full.

Check under settings/sound settings. Make sure that the output device is correct. It used to be that Windows and/driver updates would sometimes cause my PC to switch to another output device that wasn't even turned on (in my case, the monitor speakers.)

Thanks, but I did all that. There are 3-4 locations I found out to adjust volume control.

in the sound mixer (or sound control panel), does it show the levels moving when sound is playing?

It might be worth checking to ensure the Windows Audio service was not somehow disabled.

In the Start menu search box, type Services and press enter. Click on Services (Local) and scroll down to Windows Audio. If the service has been stopped for any reason, your system audio will not function correctly. Restart it by double-clicking, and selecting Start. While you are there, double-check the service start-up type. Audio services should be set to Automatic by default. If it's anything different -- Automatic (delayed start), Manual or Disabled -- change it back.

Okay, I checked but it was running. I stopped it and started it up again for no result.

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2019 5:42 pm in the sound mixer (or sound control panel), does it show the levels moving when sound is playing?

Yes

Where do you plug your headphones in?

Um, headphone jack?

At the moment I don't have any headphones plugged in.

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2019 10:32 pm Um, headphone jack?

At the moment I don't have any headphones plugged in.

Yeah, but where is the jack? Front panel, back panel, speakers...And have you tried a different jack if you have one?

I have a microphone jack and a headphone jack located on the right side.
That's it.
I did think it might be the jack but it doesn't get much plugging and unplugging and I tried plugging and unplugging a few times.


When I looked up my device driver I did find "Device HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0282&SUBSYS_1043119D&REV_1000\4&6824705&0&0001 requires further installation" message. But then I deleted the driver and did a new install.

Have you tried the headphones in any other devices? Do you have a sound card, or are you using onboard motherboard sound? Actually, you said it had a jack on the side. Is this a laptop? That changes the troubleshooting quite a bit if it is. If not, check to make sure that if there is a wire from the mobo to the jack that it hasn't come loose.

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 28, 2019 9:04 am When I looked up my device driver I did find "Device HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0282&SUBSYS_1043119D&REV_1000\4&6824705&0&0001 requires further installation" message. But then I deleted the driver and did a new install.

What driver did you install? One from the computer manufacturer, or one from Realtek? Some make/model info might help.

Here's another peculiar idea that might help. A Reddit user managed to get their audio functional again by disabling 'front jack detection' from the settings of the Realtek HD Audio Manager.

Failing that, I'd suggest downloading the latest relevant Realtek drivers for your system from the Realtek site, and then completely uninstalling all Realtek drivers and manually reinstalling.

After deleting and re-installing the Realtek drivers there was no change. The article above is dated and the links were dead.
However I found by left clicking the little sound control icon there was a little up arrow going to Realtek Audio Output and just left clicking on that the sound magically started working.
This computer has more glitches than Trumph's presidency.
The good news is I ordered a new computer. The bad news is I can never tell my wife I fixed this one.

I usually find that if volume and mute aren't the problem, your play back device gets disabled and hidden in "sound"

On your volume if you right click and choose sound you will see a default playback device with the a green check. If you right click on the big open area you can put a check in "show disabled device", then you can experiment with the play back devices and testing each one and setting defaults.

Sorry I didn't see this until now.

Windows can do funny things switching from playback devices from jack to jack to HDMI to USB to Display Port to VM and on and on. All it takes is one hardware change with playback functionality to get weird and your default playback can get disabled and hidden. Your default usually returns after a clean restart (not a shut down and start which is really modified hibernation) but usually is not always.

On your volume if you right click and choose sound you will see a default playback device with the a green check. If you right click on the big open area you can put a check in "show disabled device", then you can experiment with the play back devices and testing each one and setting defaults.


These options are not available on my pc.

Really? Are you windows 7,8, or 10?

I expect something like this



If I had multiple outputs and some of them were disabled, they would be mystery as long there was no check in "Show disabled devices" and I have seen more than one WiFi/HDMI/USB/Zoom/Skype/Lync, etc.... disable on board sound and then not return it when done. it's so common that it's the first thing I troubleshoot after mute and volume control when someone say "I have no sound."

If you aren't seeing what he's describing, try going into search and typing 'sound.' The first result should look like:

Sound
Control Panel

Click that.

Someone with time could to a Chrome Remote Desktop session with him and solve or diagnose the issue in a few minutes.

I'd be up to attempt it in the evenings if nobody else can do it.

My approach: quickly download a Linux Mint Live ISO, get it on a stick (should take something like 15 minutes all together). Boot it (your system won't be touched at all with any Live-Linux unless you go on a drive and start deleting files...), have a stick with some MP3s and play something. If there is sound: it's a windows problem to dig further into, if not, your audio device might have died and a PCI or USB-soundcard will help you get your sound back. You should disable a broken onboard-card in your BIOS.

If you have a Linux handy on an old 4GB stick all this is checked within two minutes.