8 Ways to Fix Audio Issues in Windows 10

Are you facing audio issues in Windows 10? If yes, then this article is for you. Here is how to fix audio issues in Windows 10.

fix audio issues in Windows 10

With every update of Windows, people can find excellent functions and features added to their software. For example, you can add emoji from your keyboard and easily connect your laptop with your phone. The drawback to such updates is they can create problems with certain features of your computer.

The most common of such problems are audio-related. As audio issues are quite common for people working on PC and laptops, each of us has faced it at some time or another. Some frequent issues are the connectivity problem of headphones, no sound from your built-in speakers.


How to Fix Audio Issues in Windows 10?

Today if you are trying to work from home or take meetings from your place, or if you want to connect with friends and families, it becomes essential to fix your audio issues as soon as possible.

In this article, we bring you different procedures which could help you to resolve your problem. Here are some tips and tricks that will help you.

1. Speakers

If you use multiple audio devices for the sound, you should check what you have selected for your audio. This is how you can check that-

Step 1: You should select the speaker icon from the taskbar of your desktop or laptop.

Speakers icon in windows

Step 2: Opt for your cursor to open up a list of your devices connected to your device.

Step 3: Lastly, check that the sound is playing on the device you have selected or prefer—for example, headphones or speakers.

If this does not work, then people should run the troubleshooter for audio.


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2. Audio Troubleshooter

Audio-related issues are quite problematic as they could hamper the playing of videos and the usage of various essential applications. People also could not hear anything from their respective speakers. This is ultimately hampering the overall experience of a user while operating your desktop.

This is more problematic when people learn the new functions and various updated operating system features. The best way to deal with such issues is with the help of a troubleshooter.

Windows 10 comes with a troubleshooter, especially for audio, and this is quite helpful in examining people’s sound systems. The troubleshooter looks for a sign of any problem, and as a result of such a sign, it recommends the procedure to solve your problem.

In some situations, it finds the problem and fixes it on its own. This becomes flexible and easy to use. With the help of this, a great amount of time is saved, and hence the best way to start searching for an audio solution is first to try to troubleshoot.

Here are certain steps as to how you can reach the troubleshoot feature in Windows 10.

Step 1: Go to the search option on your taskbar and search for the word ‘TROUBLESHOOT.’ The result will be an option titled ‘TROUBLESHOOT SETTINGS.’ Move your cursor to select this option.

playing audio troubleshooter

Step 2: The next step is to search for ‘GET UP AND RUNNING’ for the option named ‘PLAYING AUDIO.’ You should select this option and then go for the ‘RUN THE TROUBLE SHOOTER’ option to run it to find issues and rectify them.

Step 3: After successfully doing step 2, the icon of the troubleshooter will appear to open on your taskbar. You should move your cursor to select it to open the new window. After this, you will have various options to troubleshoot various connected audio devices such as headphones or built-in speakers of your PC.

In most situations, people want to choose their default speakers. Though, in this, people have an option to customize it. After this, select the option ‘NEXT.’

Step 4: The last step is to wait while the troubleshooter is running to pinpoint the problem. After its complete run, the troubleshooter might rectify the problem on its own or will provide some suggestion to fix it or to improvise your PC’s sound quality. The last step is to follow the suggestion and to see whether this helps you or not.

Windows 10, when compared to other operating systems of today’s world, is updated frequently. The update brings new features and improvements to the operating system. This was done to help people have a fun experience while operating their desktop, PC, and laptop.

In certain scenarios, the audio-related issues are solved with just an update, but more often, it takes more than that and is somewhat time-consuming as the update could take a little time to appear on the screen.

A recent example of such a case is the Windows update of June 2021. People were having problems after this update as most of their applications started making high pitch noise. We can infer with this that a full update is a solution to solve most of the problems incurring in your operating system, as specific updates could target problems with a device in particular.

Various sound drivers are straight from various audio card makers, such as Realtek. Other drivers can come in-built with the update. If you want to reverse your audio issues, keep a close eye on the update icon of your operating system, i.e., Windows. Alternatively, you can also contact your audio card manufacturer to check on updated availability.

It is not tough to fix your audio-related problems. It could be just like updating your device. But if your PC is quite outdated, the update won’t fix anything. The option left is to buy a new device with compatible devices.

Apart from troubleshooting, there are other options as well to resolve audio issues.


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3. Full Update on System and Check on Volume Sliders

2020 Update of Windows 10 has caused many issues concerning the audio that also includes third-party applications. The application is quite low in quality to use. If you have incurred any such problem after the update, the first thing to look for is the volume mixer of your system and to check for any changes in that.

The procedure to open ‘VOLUME MIXER’ is – go to your taskbar, and in the right corner, you can observe a speaker icon. Move your cursor to right-click it and opt to choose ‘VOLUME MIXER.’ After opening it, people should check their sliders for any changes or any third party or any third-party application.

VOLUME MIXER

There might be a situation where some sliders have changed or turned down too low in volume, so you need to adjust that as per your convenience.

Though different audio issues are hard to fix, and if people have issues like volume failure due to the update, then going back to the previous one is not going to fix it, and people who have tried it are not had any successful results. The best thing to do in such cases is to look for the next update as soon as possible so that you can apply, and that is when it will get fixed by Microsoft.

The next option to go for if this doesn’t work is the output device.


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4. Output Device

Suppose you are facing a problem like no sound in such a situation. In that case, there is a possibility that the system is trying to output sound on some old device, such as headphones that you forgot to plug out from your system and are still plugged in or something like that of Bluetooth speakers.

To check whether your system has sent the audio output to the right device, consider checking your system’s output device. This you can do it in three easy steps.

Step 1: Go to your taskbar and move your cursor to a small ‘UP ARROW’ at the bottom of the right corner of your taskbar. The up arrow is next to the clock icon and calendar.

Step 2: After that, move your cursor to right-click on the speaker icon and opt for an ‘OPEN SOUND SETTING’.

OPEN SOUND SETTING

Step 3: Once you are in the settings, look at the top to see an option with the title of ‘CHOOSE YOUR OUTPUT DEVICE.’ After this, go for the drop-down menu, select your device for audio output, and check the volume.


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5. Update Audio Drivers

Sound problems are quite common these days, and the source of it is the poor quality of communication between your sound chip and software such as Windows. This is the main problem that affects the audio quality, and sometimes people could not hear anything, and it does not work. The solution to this is to find the correct upgrade of the software.

This is done in the following steps.

Step 1: Move your cursor to your respective start option and search on the search bar with ‘DEVICE MANAGER.’ Click on the result.

Step 2: Once you open the device manager, the next step is, go to a list of options that you can see and opt for ‘SOUND, VIDEO AND GAME CONTROLLER.’ If your system has an audio card, it will reflect there.

DEVICE MANAGER

Step 3: After that, double click your cursor to open ‘DRIVER TAB’ and search for ‘UPDATE DRIVER.’ By clicking on this, an automatic window search will start to find driver update and download it.

Step 4: After this, the update will be completed. To check whether it is of use or not, restart your system and check your sound.

Apart from these steps, there are other points to consider, such as:

  1. Your operating system, like Windows, will not find the audio driver automatically. If this happens, pay a visit to your manufacturer’s website and search the audio card to download any other update or any other available solution manually.
  2. Suppose the situation arises where the update is of no use, then go to your system’s ‘DEVICE MANAGER,’ find the sound card right click on that and uninstall it by clicking on the ‘UNINSTALL’ option. With this, your driver is out of your system’s environment. Then go to the menu to restart your computer, so the software tries to reinstall the audio driver that you have uninstalled. Allow this to happen, as this might bring your sound back.

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6. Restart Sound Services

If your problems of sound still won’t go away after going through all this procedure mention. There is a possibility that it has major setting issues. Sometimes the problem is how your software, in our case Windows, runs particular services. People can fix this problem by following certain steps.

Step 1: The first step is to search for the word ‘SERVICES’ in the search option of your taskbar. Click on the services application.

Step 2: After this step, the new window will open and have a long list of features and services. After this, opt for ‘WINDOWS AUDIO’ and go to ‘RESTART’ your option.

Windows SERVICES

Step 3- After you restart your system, you should go through the services application again and opt for ‘WINDOWS AUDIO ENDPOINT BUILDER AND REMOTE PROCEDURE CALL.’ You have to restart all three applications together as this could help you to fix your audio-related issues.

If this does not work, the following option to fix audio issues is using a generic high-definition device driver for sounds and audio.


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7. Usage of High Definition Devices 

Suppose the problem of your audio software is not fixed by the process mentioned earlier. People can try to switch to more general audio that the software offers. If you use the same audio Windows offers, you will not have any connectivity issues, restoring your sound capabilities. You can opt for this option in easy steps. Such as—

Step 1: Search for the device manager and open it again to update it.

Step 2: Move your cursor to right-click your driver and choose an update option.

Step 3: The third step is to search for it manually and not let Windows search it and go to ‘BROWSE MY COMPUTER FOR DRIVE SOFTWARE’ to browse your options.

Step 4: Lastly, opt for the option ‘LET ME PICK FROM A LIST OF DEVICE DRIVERS ON MY COMPUTER. While clicking on this option, you will open a list comprising of ‘HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO DEVICE.’ You can opt for any device of your choice from the said list as the list is the generic drive for Windows.

Please select the option for your use, install it and see for yourself whether this resolves your problem of sound or not.


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8. Microphone Problems and Cortana

Cortana is a built-in assistant of Windows 10, and you can give it any command with your voice you do not have to write. But this won’t function if you have issues with your audio. This will ultimately raise your problem with your microphone and will not let you have a good experience.

To have a good experience, you need to fix your microphone and Cortana. You can resolve this by making sure that your system consists of a mic. This won’t be an issue because the modern system comes with a mic and microphones, but they are not guaranteed. If your system does not have a built-in mic, you can also take help from your jack for the microphone and connect an external device.

There are some good headphones and sets that you can buy for this purpose. If your microphone is working fine, you need to check your Cortana settings, and you can do it by following certain steps.

Step 1: You need to open Cortana by moving your cursor to the icon and clicking on it. The icon is visible on your Windows search bar, and then go to the ‘SETTINGS COG’ icon, located on the bottom left corner.

Step 2: By taking step 1, you will have various toggle options, and you can control things that your voice assistant can do. One thing that you need to be sure of is to turn on the command for Cortana on words ‘HEY CORTANA.’ You need to turn this command on. This command will make Cortana listen to you because if she is not listening, the command that you give won’t work.

Another situation might arise where you have perfectly fine microphones and Cortana, but it still can’t hear you. Under such circumstances, you need to cross-check the voice recording settings of your device. You can do this by following this procedure.

Step 1: Move your cursor to the ‘UP ARROW,’ visible at the bottom right corner of your device’s screen. It is situated next to the icons of date and clock.

Step 2: The next step is to the right tap on the audio icon and opt ‘OPEN SOUND SETTINGS.’

Step 3: The settings page will open, and if you go to the ‘INPUT SECTION’ of the page, check whether your microphone is selected or not.

Step 4: The last step is to cross-check the settings for your sound by moving your cursor to ‘DEVICE PROPERTIES’ and clicking on it. This will take you to ‘LEVELS TAB.’ The tab’s idle number is 50 to 100. This means you have to see that the tab is set to a range from 50 to 100. Anything from 50 to 100 is good.

This has covered all the possible fixes that could help you to resolve your audio-related issues with Windows 10. This will help you to hear the sound of your system again. We hope this article is about how to fix audio issues in Windows 10 is helpful to you. Do share this content on social media if you found it useful for you in any manner. Please stay connected with us for such informative content. 

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