Suddenly, no audio?

[Mettelor]

My desktop won't play audio through anything except HDMI.

My speakers, my headset, and my other headphones all won't play any audio, but HDMI to my TV still will. When I hit the 'test' button, the little jingle won't play through anything except the HDMI, but the green 'sound' bars still go off, like the computer thinks there is audio coming out.

I've tried updating drivers, uninstalling and re-installing drivers, and rolling back drivers. I can't seem to figure it out. I've tried restarting, I've tried setting default devices, I've tried different combinations of disabled/enabled/unplugged/plugged devices, but still no luck. I've tried checking if things are muted, I've tried going into my services and stopping/starting/restarting Windows Audio. I've tried deleting my audio drivers and restarting. I've tried shutting down and turning off the power and letting it sit for a bit. I've tried restoring to yesterday afternoon when I know the audio was working. I've tried going into BIOS and resetting to recommended settings, or whatever it was called. I promise I haven't gone deaf either.

I updated to Windows 10 a couple days ago, but the audio worked up until earlier this afternoon after I was fiddling with my PCI cards (internet troubles).

Any ideas what it could be? At this point I can't really find any suggestions on the internet, and am to the point where if I didn't inadvertently break my motherboard or something while switching around my PCI slots, then I have no idea what to try.

Thank you.

 

[Guest]

This is becoming a more and more common problem. I don't know how to fix it, but if you do figure it out, please post.

 

[Mettelor]

This morning when I logged in, my sound icon on the toolbar isn't showing up, which is very weird. I don't think I did anything that should have caused this.

I went into my taskbar settings, and tried to make sure the icon was turned on. I have volume listed to appear on the taskbar. Under 'turn system icons on or off' the volume slider is greyed out. Just in case that somehow helps someone help me.

 

[Paperdoc]

First of all, look at where your other sound playback units are plugged in. I'm talking about your speaker, headset, and headphones. I would bet they are plugged into jacks on the back of you computer, the ones that are fed by your mobo's own built-in audio chip. If so, that is the source of this issue.

The root of the problem is this: Windows can only use ONE audio output device at a time. Your system has two. One is the audio chip built into your mobo, very often by Realtek. The other is a different audio chip built into your video card. One useful feature of the HDMI connection system is that, unlike Digital Video Interface (DVI), it has lines to carry audio to your monitor, so the sound can come from your monitor's speakers. The dilemma that caries is that the video card does not have a way to get audio signals from your mobo's built-in audio chip. So, the video card comes with its own audio chip and a device driver so Windows can use it as an output device. To make that all work, what you as the user have to do is tell Windows to use THAT chip, and not the mobo chip. VERY often that choice is made for you when you first install the video card and install its drivers. It may be re-made for you when you remove and then re-install your video card, which you did recently.

I am guessing here, but I suspect this is what you has happened. I suspect before your recent trouble you had your sound coming from your speakers as plugged into your computer's back panel, and NOT from the speakers in your monitor. At that time, all the other items worked, too. Now, instead, sound is coming only from your monitor. That behaviour is what tells me that your choice of audio output device has been changed.

So, how to fix? It's actually easy. This outline if using Win XP, but more recent versions are similar. Click on Start at lower left, choose Control Panel, and choose Sounds and Audio Devices. In that window click the Audio tab. It holds three boxes in which you get to choose the output device Windows will use for the different functions: Sound Playback, Sound Recording, and MIDI Music Playback. In the Sound Playback block there is a choosing slot, and you click on the down-arrow at the end to open the menu of possible hardware devices. I expect it is set now for the audio chip on your video card. Change that to the system built into your mobo, probably from Realtek. For microphone use, make a similar change in the Recording device block. When finished, click on "OK" at the bottom and back out of these windows. Now try your sound system. That should make sound come out of the jacks on the back panel of your computer, and NOT from your video card via its HDMI cable.

 

[Mettelor]

Okay, I tried to follow your instructions and either I'm not understanding you, there's too great a difference between XP and 10, or it just isn't working.

Some more information on my issue/setup.

I have long had 2 monitors connected to my computer by DVI (VGA? The white cables that screw into the back). I have never had sound play out of my monitors as far as I am aware. I also have a TV across my room plugged in via HDMI. I always use windows+P to cycle through my different display setups, either extending between the two monitors or duplicating one monitor onto the TV across the room. It used to be that I would disable my speakers and headset to get the HDMI to play, but at some point I set HDMI to default, so that when the HDMI is receiving signal, it would automatically play sound. When it isn't receiving signal, no sound comes out, the screen is blank, and in my sound devices panel it claims that it is 'unplugged' although in reality it is still plugged in.

I followed your instructions, and ended up at the sound playback devices menu. My AMD HDMI Output is currently claiming it is 'not plugged in', here is an image that I hope works:

http://i.imgur.com/BCKeXra.png

Hopefully this will better help you help me!

EDIT: My headset is Turtle Beach EarForce X11, and has some sort of weird little 7.1 surround processor thing that I plug it into and then into my computer. The headset itself has 3 plugs, USB, audio out, and mic in, and plugged directly in it doesn't work. If I plug it into the 7.1 thing, then the USB and audio out plug into that, then a digital optical thing and a USB come out of that and into the computer, and I have the mic bypassing this device straight into the mic in port on the back of the computer. Not sure if that helps, but it provides a case where I would normally be getting audio not from the HDMI port or from the audio jack, but instead from presumably the digital optical thing, and it STILL isn't working. I don't fully understand HOW this works, but that it normally works, so if my explanation is 'clear as mud', sorry. I'll try to be more precise if anyone has any questions.

EDIT2: The HDMI, which is producing audio, is actually connecting from the computer, into a Display Port > HDMI adapter and THEN to the TV via an HDMI cable. I just checked, and despite the volume icon disappearing from my taskbar, HDMI audio is still working.

EDIT3: Sorry for all the edits, I just remembered something else I tried. I tried going into the properties for my speakers and disabling all enhancements, made no difference. Went into the advanced tab and tried testing with all of the different format settings, 16-bit, 24-bit, all the different Hz options, didn't do anything, so I set it back to what it was and moved on.

 

[Mettelor]

At what point should I resign to a hardware issue and buy a new motherboard?

UPDATE: After two chats with two different MS agents (1st disconnected), their guy has determined that it is a hardware issue and suggested:

1) Contacting my motherboard manufacturer, check if it's something they can fix.
2) Buying a new sound card and attach to a PCI slot.
3) Buying a new motherboard.

We chatted, I told him everything I had tried, he remoted in and tried everything he could do, fiddled with my options even more, restarted my computer twice, and couldn't get it to work.

 

[Paperdoc]

This is a real puzzler as you say. In fact, the Windows screen you posted tells you exactly the opposite of the truth. It says AMD HDMI Output is not in use and there is nothing plugged into it, and the Speakers are plugged in and being used as the Windows output device. I'd say that Windows is where the problem is, but the MS person could not get it working.

My suggestion to consider is somewhat drastic and would take a bunch of work. Basically it would be to un-install all the audio device drivers at one time, then shut down and disconnect / remove all those audio devices If you can), and boot up without them so that Windows re-writes info in its Registry showing no such devices present. Then shut down and, one by one, re-install each device and install its driver(s), verify it is working, then shut down and proceed with the next.

Unfortunately, that has (at least) one big problem. One of the devices in question is on your video card, so you'd also have to un-install that card's video drivers and the card. This might well leave you with a machine with no video output at all, unless your mobo has a built-in video display you can use temporarily. Even if you have that available, it would mean at some point re-installing your video system and re-configuring it for your 3-display setup. I'm not sure you would want to consider doing all that in the hope that "fresh installs" of all your audio devices and drivers would clear up the problem.