Laptop to TV via HDMI, no audio in some games

[vertigoelectric]

We connect our Windows 10 laptop to the TV via HDMI cable.

I have found recently that certain games have no audio when displayed on the TV. So far two games have this problem: ARK Survival Evolved and Kholat.

We still get audio through the TV from the computer. If we play a media file, or play a video on YouTube, or even test the audio through the Windows playback devices or audio mixer. That all works.

However, we get no audio from the games I mentioned. I have no idea why, and it's incredibly annoying. Before you ask, no, it's not the in-game audio settings.

One thing I realized is that both of the titles use the Unreal4 engine. I wonder if that might have something to do with it.

Anybody have any ideas how to help?

---

UPDATE:
Turns out that this problem occurs when games go into full screen mode (dedicated full screen). I still don't know why this happens, but I found that setting the games to use "full screen borderless window" mode works as a workaround.

 

[getochkn]

Is the HDMI set as the default device? Does ARK play sound if you use headphones or not the TV?

 

[sizzling]

Do you have the latest gpu drivers installed? Does your laptop have both a dedicated gpu and a gpu on the CPU? Wondering if you are loosing sound when it switches from the integrated graphics over to the dedicated gpu

 

[vertigoelectric]

Yes, the HDMI device is set as default.

The games have sound if we don't try displaying them on the TV. If we unplug the HDMI cable and just run the games on the laptop alone, the audio is fine.

I'll try updating the GPU drivers to see if that helps.

 

[boju]

HDMI audio from Laptops can be finicky at times needing the TV to be on before the laptop is powered up.

 

[vertigoelectric]

I updated the GPU drivers but it didn't seem to solve the problem.

HDMI audio from Laptops can be finicky at times needing the TV to be on before the laptop is powered up.

The audio is only not present when in certain games.

In Kholat, for example, when the game application starts, there *IS* sound for the intro logos before the main menu (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht9QorZLPfs)

However, once I reach the main menu, there is no game sound from that point on no matter what I do. Windows still plays sound, such as from the mixer volume control slider. There's just no sound from the game.

Again, this doesn't happen with all games...

 

[vertigoelectric]

I did another test.

I hooked up my desktop PC to the TV using the same HDMI cable and tried Kholat and the sound played through the TV properly as we would expect.

This narrows the problem down to being something with the Windows 10 laptop, not the games themselves.

 

[boju]

Yea sorry was just making sure HDMI was properly being initialized. So your HDMI output is behaving in that regard maybe look at the audio quality and drop it down to 16bit dvd 48000hz in Windows if it's set higher, see if that helps.

Your speaker config should be set to stereo, 5.1/surround shouldn't be an option i would have thought not detecting more speakers but mentioning it anyway just to check it off.

 

[vertigoelectric]

Yea sorry was just making sure HDMI was properly being initialized. So your HDMI output is behaving in that regard maybe look at the audio quality and drop it down to 16bit dvd 48000hz in Windows if it's set higher, see if that helps.

Your speaker config should be set to stereo, 5.1/surround shouldn't be an option i would have thought not detecting more speakers but mentioning it anyway just to check it off.

I did try dropping the quality down to 16 bit. Didn't help. Also, as you mention, "stereo" is the only speaker configuration option. To note, when I do the "test speakers" stuff, that all plays through the TV just fine.

 

[boju]

might be the game, see if there are any settings.

Sorry nothing i have suggested has worked. Last step i have to offer is in Win10, disable automatic device installation - http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2763685/stop-windows-automatically-updating-device-drivers.html

Uninstall your audio device, be it through Nvidia/AMD GPU driver uninstall either of which you're using. Reboot then reinstall drivers. Not sure if AMD have an clean install option but Nvidia does under custom. Try those steps and wishing you the best.

 

[getochkn]

I play ark and can try tomorrow and just see if I get sound out through my HDMI receiver.

 

[vertigoelectric]

might be the game, see if there are any settings.

I doubt it's the game because I tried my desktop PC with the same HDMI cable and TV and it Kholat audio worked fine...

oh poo.

 

[boju]

Yea, would have guessed it wasn't the game. How about the rest of my post, did you give that a go?

 

[vertigoelectric]

Boju, I tried uninstalling audio devices and reinstalling but that didn't seem to solve the problem.

However, check it out... I set Kholat to windowed mode so that I could monitor something while the game was active and the sound finally started working. Turns out that, for whatever reason, having the game switch to full screen mode caused the audio to stop working for that game. I got the same thing in ARK. I now just set both games to "full screen borderless window" mode and I get the same full screen visual without the sound failure.

Granted, this isn't a true solution, but it is an acceptable workaround for now.

I still need to figure out why full-screening the games is having this effect. Other games we play in full screen don't have this problem (but perhaps they use the 'borderless full screen window' mode by default already?)

 

[LoungeLizards]

Boju, I tried uninstalling audio devices and reinstalling but that didn't seem to solve the problem.

However, check it out... I set Kholat to windowed mode so that I could monitor something while the game was active and the sound finally started working. Turns out that, for whatever reason, having the game switch to full screen mode caused the audio to stop working for that game. I got the same thing in ARK. I now just set both games to "full screen borderless window" mode and I get the same full screen visual without the sound failure.

Granted, this isn't a true solution, but it is an acceptable workaround for now.

I still need to figure out why full-screening the games is having this effect. Other games we play in full screen don't have this problem (but perhaps they use the 'borderless full screen window' mode by default already?)

Thankyou! I've had the same problem of no sound specifically from games through HDMI - this is the first solution that's worked for me. Restarting the game in windowed mode allows sound. (I think it is somehow otherwise trying to send sound to a different port? - the games crash if I disable S/PDIF sound). Does anyone have an idea of a more permanent solution though, so I don't have to run everything in windowed mode?

 

[Baljeet_1]

Boju, I tried uninstalling audio devices and reinstalling but that didn't seem to solve the problem.

However, check it out... I set Kholat to windowed mode so that I could monitor something while the game was active and the sound finally started working. Turns out that, for whatever reason, having the game switch to full screen mode caused the audio to stop working for that game. I got the same thing in ARK. I now just set both games to "full screen borderless window" mode and I get the same full screen visual without the sound failure.

Granted, this isn't a true solution, but it is an acceptable workaround for now.

I still need to figure out why full-screening the games is having this effect. Other games we play in full screen don't have this problem (but perhaps they use the 'borderless full screen window' mode by default already?)

Thankyou! I've had the same problem of no sound specifically from games through HDMI - this is the first solution that's worked for me. Restarting the game in windowed mode allows sound. (I think it is somehow otherwise trying to send sound to a different port? - the games crash if I disable S/PDIF sound). Does anyone have an idea of a more permanent solution though, so I don't have to run everything in windowed mode?

I FOUND THE FIX Go to DEVICE MANAGER AND GO TO SOUND,VIDEO AND GAME CONTROLLERS AND UNSTALL LIKE I THINK DISPLAY DRIVER OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT BUT HAS TO BE INTEL ONCE UNSTALLED RESTART PC/LAPTOP.IF A BLACK SCREEN COMES WHEN RESTARTED RESTART THE PC AGAIN AND ONCES ON DESKTOP GO TO PLAYBACK DEVICE AND SET YOUR TV AS DEFAULT

 

[vertigoelectric]

I FOUND THE FIX Go to DEVICE MANAGER AND GO TO SOUND,VIDEO AND GAME CONTROLLERS AND UNSTALL LIKE I THINK DISPLAY DRIVER OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT BUT HAS TO BE INTEL ONCE UNSTALLED RESTART PC/LAPTOP.IF A BLACK SCREEN COMES WHEN RESTARTED RESTART THE PC AGAIN AND ONCES ON DESKTOP GO TO PLAYBACK DEVICE AND SET YOUR TV AS DEFAULT

Sorry for the late reply. I didn't even know about your post until I logged on to the forum for something else.

I'll definitely give this a try and when I do I'll let you know if it worked.

 

[Baljeet_1]

So did it work

 

[Meatex]

Also having this problem
Confirmed that no sound with CS:GO was coming through HDMI and in fact even alt tabbing and trying test speakers would play no sound
However tried fullscreen windowed mode and then game audio worked as per normal
Witcher 3 and the new Tomb Raider needed no such work around and without trying windowed mode I can tell you even manually setting my TV as audio device in Heroes of the Storm no audio came through hdmi

This only came up after I did a fresh install of Windows 10 as my upgraded windows 8 to 10 install had no sound problems

Tried uninstalling Intel graphics and installing older version that I downloaded from laptop maker and no change

 

[C-Dizzle]

Confirmed that no sound with CS:GO was coming through HDMI and in fact even alt tabbing and trying test speakers would play no sound
However tried fullscreen windowed mode and then game audio worked as per normal

This is absolutely the fix to use. In my case, totally random as to which games had this problem. XCOM works, Van Helsing does not. Contagion works, Civ 5 does not. I thought maybe the age/release may have something to do with it, nothing made sense. Tried many of the suggestions listed by others, no luck. Tried Windowed mode, all is good. I'm too stupid to know the science behind it, just know it worked for me.

Thanks a huge boatload kind answermen!!

 

[Funkoid]

I FOUND THE FIX Go to DEVICE MANAGER AND GO TO SOUND,VIDEO AND GAME CONTROLLERS AND UNSTALL LIKE I THINK DISPLAY DRIVER OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT BUT HAS TO BE INTEL ONCE UNSTALLED RESTART PC/LAPTOP.IF A BLACK SCREEN COMES WHEN RESTARTED RESTART THE PC AGAIN AND ONCES ON DESKTOP GO TO PLAYBACK DEVICE AND SET YOUR TV AS DEFAULT

Sorry for the late reply. I didn't even know about your post until I logged on to the forum for something else.

I'll definitely give this a try and when I do I'll let you know if it worked.

Sorry guys, but looks like it doesn't work permanently. I had this exact problem (down to windows/borderless fixing the issue) and gave this fix a shot.

I disabled (rather than uninstalled, seems safer) the Intel Audio driver, and it actually removes the option to play audio through HDMI. After the first windows restart, I re-enabled the Intel audio driver, and I got back the HDMI audio option. When I ran a troubled game, then fullscreen game audio over HDMI started working. Yay! I assume this is where Baljeet left off.

However, I tested ANOTHER windows restart, and it now has gone back to the same problem.

From this, we can deduce the problem has to do with windows initialization with the driver installed/enabled. This might lead to an actual solution from someone.