Having audio problems on your Win10 PC?

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@SwiftOnSecurity is asking: INPUT NEEDED: Has AUDIO on your WINDOWS PC started having any kind of issues? When, what version of Win10, and the name of
[See the full post at: Having audio problems on your Win10 PC?]

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Elly, GreatAndPowerfulTech

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Handshaking over HDMI to get / provide EDID has often been a problem.  I would handle this separately from the no audio out from onboard device (also not clear if directsound or WASAPI is being used).

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woody wrote:

Some interesting responses in the Twitter thread, e.g.:

Last week my master audio control stopped working. Win10 v2004 but latest update fixed it.

I don’t understand that one, as there have been no updates for v2004 in the last two weeks.

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Me, neither. I wonder what Ed saw….

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My laptop suddenly stopped playing any audio. I ran the troubleshooter and it fixed it. KB4497165 & the 5-12 Cumulative Update are the only changes to this machine since the last time it was working. All other computers are fine.

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We have Realtek High Definition Audio.  The speakers stopped working at least 2 months ago, perhaps longer.  We can still get sound through the head phones.

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After reading suggestions on this site, we ran the trouble-shooter and it worked!!

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woody

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System audio is not having issues.

Computer:

• HP ENVY Desktop – 795-0050
• Intel i7 – 8700 CPU,
• 16 GB RAM,
• Windows 10 Pro 64-bit version 1903 build 18362.778.

Audio:

• Speakers Andrea PureAudio USB-SA headset (NC-185VM)
• Driver USBAUDIO.sys Version 6.0.5600.16384

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Same result — no probs. — as Ms. Stevens above, but w/ diff. hardware. Win 10 Pro on an AMD box. 8 processors. Win 10 V. 1909 — 18363.836. Includes recent updates, incl. KBs 4556799, 4552931, 4552152, 4541338, et al. None newer than KB 4556799. This hdwe about 3 months old. Both AMD and Realtek Hi Def audio stuff. I have and use both 7-year desktop no name speakers (boy, do I miss Win 7, but I am loving mydual-boot Linux Mint; and all this stuff also works in Linux!), and I also have and use brand-new nicer $20.00 JVC headphones; all now works flawlessly, and never any trouble with either phones nor speakers since bought this PC. Best to all.

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A month or so ago a friend of mine was having problems with the sound on his Win10 PC. After some research I discovered it was due to a setting in the “Sound” properties in Control Panel on the “Communications” tab. Selecting “Do nothing” solved the issues he was having. Seeing that it happened out of the blue, I can only conclude that it was the result of a recent update.

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[LoneWolf]

If no-one has an answer for this yet, I believe I do, because my wife had the same issue this past week, and it was a real head-scratcher.

This issue occurs with people who have Realtek audio; which of course, means 3/4 of those with on-mainboard audio out there. It’s likely that you had a driver update from Microsoft, and there’s an issue there. Symptoms:

-Your Device Manager once showed “Realtek High Definition Audio”; now it shows “Realtek(R) Audio” instead.

-You also see in Device Manager a new Audio Device entitled “Nahimic mirroring device” or similar

Realtek’s latest driver includes these Nahimic software drivers for some future 3D audio enhancement (likely done in software and provided by this third-party vendor). What *didn’t* happen with the driver update is that the Nahimic control panel didn’t get installed. This is a UWP application you can get from the Microsoft Store; search for “nahimic” and you’ll get this app that’s a blue square with a squiggly white N.

In my case, installing this app and rebooting the system resolved the issue. Also note that Realtek has gone to a UWP application as well; if you don’t have this, you may need to install theirs from the Microsoft store as well.

Sadly, Realtek’s own latest driver download from their website seems to have the same problem, which explains why my installing it didn’t fix the issue either. I think it’s the exact same package Microsoft bundled in their driver updates.

I hope this helps you all; it was an hour of my life I’ll never get back figuring it out.

EDIT: I posted it in reply to @SwiftOnSecurity -I’ll out myself as @DougTerborg on Twitter. ;^)

 

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by LoneWolf.

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woody

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[EP]

Well LoneWolf I assume you are using either an MSI (Microstar International) brand laptop/motherboard or a recent ASRock motherboard that comes with Nahimic 3 audio enhancement software.

I have no such audio problems on my Gigabyte motherboard because it does not come with Nahimic; only recent Gigabyte AERO & AORUS laptops (not desktop boards) come with Nahimic 3.

Sadly, Realtek’s own latest driver download from their website seems to have the same problem, which explains why my installing it didn’t fix the issue either. I think it’s the exact same package Microsoft bundled in their driver updates.

FYI – The Realtek HD audio driver from the Realtek web site (R2.82) is from late July 2017 and is definitely not fully compatible with your computer (and is in a different format [most likely in standard HDA non-DCH format] than the Realtek audio driver provided by your PC manufacturer or motherboard maker which could be a UAD/DCH version). The “standard” or non-DCH Realtek audio driver from Realtek’s web site includes the Realtek HD Audio Manager control panel applet while the newer Realtek audio drivers in UAD or DCH format use the Realtek Audio Console UWP app downloaded from the MS store.

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by EP.
• This reply was modified 5 years ago by EP.
• This reply was modified 5 years ago by EP.

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For my SO’s mainboard, yes, an MSI Z390M Mortar.  And I had never turned off automatic driver updates on her. I didn’t update them manually.

However, I had heard MSI was not the only one with issues. Her board has a relatively simple ALC892 codec. I have heard other custom control panels are available, though not necessarily for every vendor using Realtek audio on their mainboards.

While I didn’t have it for my Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro WiFi board, I had assumed that might be because I blocked driver updates on my system.

We are SysAdmins.
We walk in the wiring closets no others will enter.
We stand on the bridge, and no malware may pass.
We engage in support, we do not retreat.
We live for the LAN.
We die for the LAN.

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[EP]

both MSI and Gigabyte have released Realtek HD Univeral Audio Driver [UAD] version 6.0.8945.1 from their respective web sites

for your MSI Z390M Mortar board, it’s this one.
for many Gigabyte boards (especially the new boards with Intel Z490, H410 & B460 chipsets), it’s this one.

I’m using the 8945 driver version on my Gigabyte board which uses Realtek audio ALC892

and btw, the Z390M Mortar board does NOT come with Nahimic as noted in the board’s tech specs

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by EP.

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My Dell laptop’s built-in speakers (Realtek Audio) cut out without warning one afternoon. No software updates that day that I could see. The headphones still worked. I took your advice to search for “nahimic” in the Microsoft Store. After I installed the app that’s a blue square with a squiggly white N, things worked fine again. Thanks!

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I tried to use Zoom with a webcam. I could see and hear the other party. He could see me but not hear me. I checked all the Win 10 settings I could find for a microphone. I seem to have everything for the mike turned on or allowed; so would appreciate any suggestions.

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cmar6 wrote:

I tried to use Zoom with a webcam. I could see and hear the other party. He could see me but not hear me. I checked all the Win 10 settings I could find for a microphone. I seem to have everything for the mike turned on or allowed; so would appreciate any suggestions.

Zoom had problems in recent days https://downdetector.com/status/zoom/

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woody

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maybe it’s time to use an alternative to Zoom
perhaps Webex, Google Meet or Skype Meet Now

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my motherboard uses a VIA chipset for audio and it still works fine.

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what kind of motherboard?

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ECS H81H3-I/HDMI (V1.0)

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the latest version of the VIA HD Audio driver is v11.1000b here from ECS.

it’s a Win10 compatible version from late August 2015 (when Win10 first came out)

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Asus P6T Deluxe V2, which has two rows of 3 audio jacks = 6 audio inputs. I have a speaker jack plugged into bottom row middle input (green).

Webcam comes with USB plugged into USB slot. I have tried plugging in the Webcam microphone jack into one of the other 5 inputs at back of mobo to no avail.

Is it possible that an older mobo does not accept a microphone input?

Windows Device Manager/Audio inputs does show “Microphone High Definition Audio” working properly with MS 3/18/19 driver.

I have checked various Win 10 setting for microphone. They are on “Allow” or “On”. But perhaps there is a Win 10 setting buried in Group Policy Editor that is blocking use of microphone?

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read this, cmar6:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/102647-allow-deny-os-apps-access-microphone-windows-10-a.html

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I’ve had to use Zoom a lot on a variety of MACs and Win 8.1 and Win 10. My experience is that the Zoom installations differ a bit depending on the OS and Zoom version, and even from computer to computer both running the same updated OS. On some installations everything works immediately just by joining a meeting. On others you have to click a button that says ‘join a meeting with video’ and/or ‘join a meeting with audio’. Some installations don’t have these buttons but instead require you right-click on your picture (or perhaps if you don’t immediately have video on the black box with your name in it) and then select ‘join with video’ and/or ‘join with audio’.

I learned this the hard way, and pretty much by accident, after having gone through all sorts of gymnastics on a MacBook Air running Mojave.

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