Almost every Windows user has had to figure out why the sound on their computer is lost. The problem can be a reason for many things such as reinstalling, installing a new app, connecting a peripheral device – or just while working. In this article, you will find out a few solutions for PCs and laptops – follow the instructions and audio will start playing again.
If you’re running Windows 10 – no need to rush and worry if the sound is suddenly gone. The Windows system itself is designed to make it easy for you to troubleshoot and diagnose problems quickly and clearly.
What to do when your speakers aren’t working properly
In case your speakers aren’t providing a sound, but you have not applied any changes to the system, removed drivers, or changed the sound card, follow these short instructions:
- Check if your speakers are working properly. Connect them to another PC and listen to the speakers, and if the audio doesn’t play, the problem is with the speakers. Repair or replace them with new ones
- Reboot. System errors accumulate during operation and may cause the sound to disappear. Very part, to fix the sound in your computer, all you need to do is perform a shutdown/shutdown cycle
- Change the overall volume of the sound. You may have accidentally turned it to zero. Click on the speaker icon in the bottom right corner – and set it to the correct value
- Check the audio volume for each of the apps. To do this, first open Volume Mixer and then set each of the sliders to the appropriate position
So you tried all the options, but still no sound on your speakers? Let’s start troubleshooting by fixing the drivers.
How to set drivers properly
To restore the sound, do the following steps to resolve the problem:
- Launch the Device Manager by right-clicking the Start icon
- Expand the Sound Devices list and call the context menu for the problem card
- Turn on the hardware if it was disabled and check if any audio has appeared
- If you were unable to restore the sound on your PC with this action, update the driver for it from the same context menu. You can, on the contrary, roll back the service utility to an old version. To do this, open the Properties and select the appropriate button
Instead of updating or rolling back, you can uninstall the device completely. After a reboot, the system will automatically install the corrected driver.
How to select device properly
A PC that has additional multimedia devices connected to it can send audio to them. The answer to the question of missing sound on the computer what to do is simple – perform the default hardware setup. Follow the instructions:
- Start Control Panel by typing the command in the Start menu
- After selecting the Icons display method, go to the Sound section
- Select the equipment to which the computer should send the signal and set it to Use Default
After making the changes, apply them – and see if the problem is solved.
How to fix an issue via services.msc
Though you might still have no sound on your PC and the above methods didn’t help you, then it’s time to try enabling the Windows Audio service. To do this, follow the guide:
- Open the Start menu and type services.msc. Click on the first link in the output
- In the new window, find the Windows Audio item and right-click on the header to bring up the menu
- Select the Run option if the service was previously inactive
- Double-click on the header – and in the new window set the automatic start-up at each new power-on. After that, restart the PC
How to fix no speakers sound issue on a Mac
If you own a Mac and you have a problem with the speakers or even the sound in the system, then there is a solution, although it seems a little more complicated at first glance. The thing is that first you need to determine what exactly caused this problem, and only then start fixing it.
Here are solutions to the most popular causes:
- No sound from speakers.
- Make sure to check if the volume is turned down or muted
- Also it is always smart to try to play a different audio file, maybe the one you were playing isn’t working
- Computer’s built-in speakers stop working.
- First try unplugging any headphones or external speakers
- Then go to your Apple Menu, where you will find the System Preferences, and click on the Sound button
- Here you have to make sure that the Internal speakers are selected and the Output Sliders slider isn’t all the way to the left
- Try to restart the Sound Controller.
- Open Activity Monitor and find the CoreAudiod process
- Select it and click on the X to quit the process. The process will then restart and, by doing so, should also fix your problem
In this article, you have read about the most probable sources of problems. Other reasons for no sound are viruses, loose pins, or a broken sound card. Scan your PC with antivirus, check the quality of the wiring, buy a cheap card and connect to it – so you can identify the cause more accurately.
