How to Fix Audio Not Working On Your Laptop

How to Fix Audio Not Working On Your Laptop. Some common audio issues that you may encounter when the audio is not working on your laptop include audio glitches, problems with connecting an external audio device, or simply the sound is not working at all.

These and other audio glitches can be caused by hardware and software issues. For example, your laptop’s speakers or headphones may not work, or a new operating system update has added a patch that may conflict with older audio drivers or your sound card software.

Fix laptop sound not working in Windows 10

Be that as it may, we’re going to show you a few tried and tested solutions to use when you find that the sound isn’t working on your Windows laptop or Mac. Feel free to watch our YouTube video, which quickly covers some of the most important fixes.

Check volume

You may have accidentally muted your laptop by clicking the mute button or the speaker icon on the Windows taskbar.

To check the volume, press the mute button or the Add Volume button on your laptop keyboard, or click the speaker icon in the lower right corner of the taskbar and turn the volume up or down.

If you’ve connected external speakers, turn on and turn up the volume. If you hear sound but still don’t get the sound you want, check the app you are trying to use and turn it on or turn up the volume.

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Try using headphones

If your laptop’s built-in speakers aren’t working, try plugging in headphones or using external speakers. If you are receiving audio through external audio devices, the problem may be with your laptop speakers.

Alternatively, if you have a USB headset or headphones, try plugging them in and check if you are getting any sound as they bypass the default sound driver and can pinpoint exactly where the problem might be.

Change audio devices.

If you’ve plugged in a USB audio device or are plugging into an external HDMI monitor that doesn’t have speakers, Windows may be routing sound to the wrong output device, making you think the sound isn’t working on your laptop.

To work around this issue, go to the Windows taskbar and right-click the speaker icon, select Open Sound Settings, and enter sound options. In the Output section, click Manage Audio Devices.

Select an output device and click the Check button. Try using all visible audio devices until you hear sound.

Check your connections

Verify your connections

Check connections such as headphones, speakers, jacks and plugs for loose cables or cords and make sure they are plugged into the correct multi-jack connector. If you have speakers and headphones plugged in, unplug one and see if that helps.

Run the sound troubleshooter

The Windows Sound Troubleshooter can help you automatically fix sound problems on your laptop. To do this, click Start> Settings> System> Sound and select Troubleshoot.

Or, type audio troubleshooter in the search box on the taskbar, click Fix and look for audio playback problems, and then click Next.

Select the device you want to troubleshoot and follow the instructions to complete the process.

Check for Windows Updates

Click Start> Settings> Update & Security.

Click Windows Update> Check for Updates.

If you see the status “Updates are available”, click “Install Now”. Click on the updates you want to install and then select “Install”.

Restart your laptop and check if the sound is working. If the status shows “You are up to date”, try the next solution.

Check your sound settings

Besides checking if your speakers are turned off or the volume is turned up, you can check if your devices are muted. To do this, click Start> Settings> System> Sound. Select your device, and then click Device Properties for your input and output devices.

Uncheck the Disable box for your devices and check if the sound works again.

Update audio driver

Outdated or faulty drivers can also cause audio and other hardware issues. Make sure your audio driver is up to date, and if not, update it. You can also uninstall it and it will be automatically reinstalled on your computer, use the Windows generic audio driver, or try rolling back the audio driver.

To update your audio driver, right-click Start> Device Manager.

Expand the Sound, video and game controllers category.

Right-click your sound card or audio device and select Update Driver.

Click Search automatically for updated driver software.

Windows will search for a new driver. If not, visit the device manufacturer’s website to download an updated audio driver.

If updating your audio driver doesn’t work, uninstall it and restart your computer to reinstall the driver. To do this, go to Device Manager> Sound, Video and Game Controllers and right-click on your audio device or sound card. Select “Remove device”.

Click Uninstall the driver software for this device and select Uninstall. Reboot your laptop.

Note. If you see a yellow exclamation mark next to your sound card or audio device, it means that you need to find and install an audio driver from the manufacturer’s website.

Use a generic Windows driver

Windows has a generic audio driver that you can use if the first two options to update, uninstall, and reinstall the driver didn’t help.

To use the generic driver, right-click Start> Device Manager and select the Sound, Video and Game Controllers category to expand it. Right-click on your audio device or sound card and select Update Driver> Find Drivers on My Computer> Let me select from a list of device drivers on my computer.

Click on your audio device and select Next. Follow the instructions on the screen to install the generic driver.

Roll back audio driver

If the sound on your laptop is still not working with the solutions above, try rolling back your audio driver. To do this, right-click on Start> Device Manager> Sound, Video and Game Controllers and right-click on your audio device or sound card. Select Properties.

Click the Driver tab and select Roll Back Driver.

Follow the instructions on the screen and click Yes to roll back the audio driver.

Perform a system restore

System Restore is created when Microsoft installs updates to your computer’s operating system just in case. You can restore the system from a previous point before the sound stopped working and check if that solves the sound problems.

To do this, open Control Panel and type “Recovery” in the search box.

Select “Recovery”.

Then click “Open System Restore”.

Click Next on the Restore System Files and Settings window.

Select the restore point you want to use and click Scan for affected programs and see if your audio driver is one of the vulnerable drivers. If a “Not Found” message is displayed, try the next solution.

Set default audio device

If you are using USB or HDMI to connect to your audio device, select it as your default audio device by going to Control Panel> Hardware and Sound> Sound.

Go to the Playback tab, right-click your audio device> Set as default device and click OK.

Restart audio services

To do this, enter “Services” in the search box and select “Services” in the search results.

Right-click Windows Audio, Windows Audio Endpoint Builder, and Remote Procedure Call (RPC) and select Restart.

Try different audio formats

To do this, open Control Panel> Hardware and Sound> Sound.

Go to the Playback tab and right-click Default Device> Properties.

On the Advanced tab, go to Default Format, change the settings and click OK.

Check if the audio device is playing sound. If not, try changing the setting again until you get sound.

Check your system’s IDT High Definition Audio Codec

Sound problems can be caused by the IDT High Definition Audio codec in your audio system. You can fix this with a manual driver update, which allows you to select the sound driver you want to use. However, not all audio systems have this feature.

Right click on Start> Device Manager> Sound, Video and Game Controllers and find IDT High Definition Audio CODEC.

If you see it, right-click, select Update Driver, and then select Find Drivers on My Computer> Let me select from a list of device drivers on my computer.

If you see a list of preinstalled drivers, click High Definition Audio Device> Next and let it install.

Adjust microphone privacy settings

If the audio issue is related to your microphone, adjust its privacy settings by clicking Start> Settings> Privacy and selecting Microphone.

Click Change under the Allow microphone access on this device setting with the toggle switch to On.

Scroll to “Choose which Microsoft Store apps can access your microphone” and set the switch for the application you are using to “On.”

Disable sound enhancements

Sound enhancements can cause audio problems on your laptop. However, not all devices have audio enhancements, but if yours does, turning them off may fix the problem.

To turn off any enabled sound enhancements, click Control Panel> Hardware and Sound and select Sound.

Go to the Playback tab, right-click on the default device and select Properties.

Select the Disable All Enhancements or Disable All Sound Effects box in the Enhancements tab, depending on the option displayed.

Click OK and check if you have sound now. You can repeat these steps for all default devices.

Make sure you check the correct supported formats and that the exclusive mode is not checked. You can also turn off the Spatial Sound Enhancer and see if the sound returns.

Update BIOS

On very rare occasions, a software update, hardware incompatibility, or Windows reinstallation can cause an issue with sound not working on your laptop. In such cases, you may need to configure something in the BIOS.

The BIOS controls everything in your computer as it is built into the motherboard. Our guide on whether you need a BIOS update or not goes into detail on how to check if you need one, but this is not an environment that you can access directly from Windows.

If you have an old laptop or laptop that boots slowly, press F1 or F2 at startup to enter the BIOS environment before booting. If you have a new laptop, follow these steps to enter BIOS.

Click Start> Settings> Update & Security.

Click on “Recovery” and then click on “Restart Now” in the “Advanced Startup” section.

Click Troubleshoot.

Then click on Advanced Options.

Select UEFI Firmware Settings. If the icon is not available, click Launch Options.

When the laptop restarts, press F1 or F2 to enter BIOS and click Restart. The system will reboot and you will enter the BIOS environment. In BIOS, make sure your sound card is enabled and also make sure your laptop is running the latest BIOS / UEFI. You can compare the version with the version on the device manufacturer’s website and update it if a new one is available.

Note. Be careful when updating your BIOS, as it can damage your computer if you don’t follow the instructions carefully.

Laptop Speaker Repair

If nothing works and you still have audio problems on your laptop, you may be seeing a loose speaker on your computer, or even broken speakers. You can take it to a PC technician for repair or, if it is under warranty, send it to the manufacturer for diagnosis and repair.

Fix laptop sound not working in Mac

If you’ve checked the volume and ensured that the volume is not muted and your audio devices are connected correctly, but you still have audio problems on your Mac laptop, try the following solutions.

Check your audio input / output settings

Your Mac might select the wrong audio device due to conflicts, driver incompatibility, misconfiguration, and other reasons.

To fix this problem, go to Apple menu> System Preferences> Sound.

Click the Input tab.

Check your audio device settings. Check and select the correct audio input device and do the same for the audio output device settings.

Note. If you have selected a Bluetooth-enabled device, turn it off, as sound may be played on that device and not on your Mac’s speakers. You can also try disconnecting and reconnecting audio devices, or switching from one output to another.

Reset Core Audio

Image: Apple Developer

Core Audio manages the audio needs of applications on your Mac, such as playback, editing, recording, compressing and decompressing, signal processing, and more. On your Mac, it runs from coreaudiod (the startup daemon), so if the sound doesn’t work, you can restart the coreaudiod process and fix the problem as it resets the sound on your laptop.

To exit the coreaudiod process, you can open the Activity Monitor, enter coreaudiod in the search box, and click Force Quit.

Alternatively, you can start Terminal and enter the sudo killall coreaudiod command. Press Return, enter your password, and check if the sound works again. Coreaudiod will restart, but if it doesn’t, you won’t get any sound at all. In this case, shut down your Mac and restart it.

Note. If restarting fails, use the terminal command: sudo launchctl start com.apple.audio.coreaudiod. This will start the daemon and reinitialize the coreaudiod process.

Issues with third party plugins or applications

Problems with third-party apps and plugins that integrate with your Mac may affect sound due to hardware and software incompatibilities, especially when a new macOS is released. For example, in macOS Catalina, any plugins that are not notarized will not work or work in the operating system, because Apple’s security system notarizes all audio block plugins.

To control sound not working on your laptop for certain applications on your Mac, follow these steps:

Delete the application profile in the Audio MIDI settings if you see any errors and restart the application

Image: Apple

- Open the application, right-click inline output to see available audio devices, and toggle the output device selection to troubleshoot any configuration issues.
- Create an aggregate device by mixing multiple audio interfaces to reduce the chance of configuration errors as the number of audio inputs and outputs increases.

Update macOS

Every time a new macOS is released, it is not only accompanied by improvements and new features, but also audio drivers, kernel frameworks, Unix tools change, new bugs appear, and sometimes sound problems occur. Apple also improves and fixes audio lag, USB audio reliability, and other user-related issues.

If you find that sound is not working on your Mac laptop, try updating your operating system to the latest version and see if that solves the sound issue.

Reset NVRAM

Your Mac laptop uses nonvolatile random access memory to store various settings such as audio volume, time zone, screen resolution, and recent kernel panic information, and quickly access them.

Reset it to fix any glitches with any of these and other attributes. This is because the computer restores your hardware’s default settings and sets the internal hard drive as bootable.

To do this, shut down your Mac and turn it back on. Immediately press and hold the Option, Command, P and R keys for approximately 20 seconds and release them when you hear the startup sound.

If you have a Mac with an Apple T2 Security Chip, release the keys after the Apple logo appears and disappears again.

Disable the firmware password if you have one on your Mac, then open System Preferences when the Mac is finished starting up. Adjust any settings such as audio volume and others that have been reset.

Close

Unlike Windows PCs, Mac laptops do not come with a comprehensive set of tools that can diagnose and fix sound problems, so finding the source of sound problems can be found through trial and error and at your own discretion.

Hope these solutions help you find and fix audio problems on your laptop. If you still have problems after trying any of the above solutions, please share with us by leaving a comment in the section below.