My audio stops working after Windows 7 has been running for a while; Ideas: the audio will work again after a re-boot but again, it will stop working after Windows has been running for a while. Re-bootig always fixes the problem but only for a few hours and then the audio is gone. audio problem Remember - This is a public forum so never post private information such as email or phone numbers!

Hi, Welcome to Microsoft answers forum. You can check for the sound drivers,whether they are installed correctly. if not uninstall them and install again. I suggest you to verify that the default sound device is set correctly Click Start,type Sound in the Start Search box. Click Sound in the search results at the top of the Start menu. Click the Playback tab. Notice the check mark next to the default device. For most users,the default device is Speakers. Make sure that your audio settings are configured as expected. Follow these steps: On the Playback tab, select the playback device, click Properties, click the Advanced tab, and make sure that the Default Format is set to the value that you expect. When you finish, close this window to return to the previous window. On the Playback tab, select the playback device, click Configure, and then make sure the configurations are set correctly. If the sound settings are set correctly, you are using speakers as the sound device, and your speakers are already set as the default device, go to method 5 now. Select the sound device that you want as the default sound device, and then click Set Default. Click OK to save your settings and to close the Sound dialog box. Determine whether you can now hear sound. If you can hear sound, the issue is resolved. If you cannot hear sound, try method 5. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948481 you can also check performing clean boot. To perform a clean boot on a computer that is running Windows Vista, follow these steps: Click Start,type msconfig in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Continue. On the General tab, click Selective Startup. Under Selective Startup, click to clear the Load Startup Items check box. Click the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All. Click OK. When you are prompted, click Restart. After the computer starts, start the program and check whether the problem is resolved. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135 Thanks and Regards, Azam - Microsoft Support

This has been happening to my PC too. It started over a year ago, but was fixed after I reinstalled Windows 7 Professional 64-bit last year (for a different reason). The problem appeared again a couple months ago. Sound stops working after some time (30 mins - a few hours) but works after a reboot. It is almost definitely not a sound driver or hardware issue. It is a problem with Windows 7. If sound never works, then the first thing I would suspect is the sound driver, but since most of us seem to have our sound drivers up to date and audio works at bootup, then that isn't the reason for the audio problem. When audio isn't working for me and I shut down or reboot the PC, as Windows is shutting down, I hear a low volume static pop (with my headphones) as if Windows has halted or stopped the offending program or service that is hanging the audio. This leads me to believe that the audio would actually work again if I could stop Windows from shutting down. I just tried the following method to reinstate the audio without restarting and it has so far worked for me. Go to Device Manager, expand "Sound, video and game controllers", right click "High Definition Audio Device" and select Disable. Then right click on it to Enable it again. I opened an mp3 in Winamp and the audio returned. (I wasn't using Winamp before when the audio stopped. I noticed the audio stopped when trying to start a game). I happend to pause the song and just left it like that for maybe 20 mins. I unpaused it and the audio was gone again. Performing the previous steps to reinstate it did not work at first, so I also Disabled the "AMD High Defintion Audio Device" also located (for me) in "Sound, video and game controllers" and Enabled it again and the sound returned. (See update at the bottom of this message). I have also noticed that sometimes when doing this method, Windows will ask if you would like to restart the computer for the changes to take effect. The changes will still take effect if you answer no to rebooting. I realize this may not work for some people but it is worth a try. I also realize this is not a solution to the root cause of the problem and MS needs to fix this. I highly doubt they will though. I have not noticed pausing or muting audio to consistently reproduce this failure before today, but maybe that can be one of the things that cause this issue. After reading most of the posts in this thread, I believe that there are a number of different applications that can cause this audio issue. But, I believe that Windows 7 is the reason behind it. Like another person posted previously, searching Google shows this to be a fairly common problem. The superb Windows XP and the craptastic Vista do not have this problem. I am pretty sure MS knows this is a Windows 7 issue, but apparently either doesn't know how to fix it and/or is unwilling to admit it is their problem. Tech support just tries to help us with basic things. They aren't the ones actually making patches to the OS. Plus, it just seems as though MS tech support would try to blame the sound driver to pass the buck onto somebody else. Their next step is to stall by asking people to post statistical and diagnostic reports of their PC's. Over time, they hope people will just learn to live with this annoyance. This thread started Oct 28,2009 and the last comment by MS was made March 3, 2010, yet people have been posting somewhat continuously into 2012. I have not seen anything regarding a solution to this problem from MS besides the first reply or updating sound drivers. That is very poor support, both from Tech and from the software engineers responsible for bugs in the OS. Update 7/1/2012 I just repeated the audio problem again. I left a song paused in Winamp for another 20 - 30 mins and the audio was gone again. I would also like to add a clarification to the method I previously posted. To get the audio back, I had to first close Winamp and then Disable and Enable the "High Definition Audio Device". Leaving Winamp open while disabling and enabling the "High Definition Audio Device" did not work. (Update: So basically, close down any program that is trying to play audio first, then disable and enable the audio device in Device Manager.) I created a Device Manager shortcut on the desktop, as I will be needing to use this "fix" a few times a week. I also tried the method posted by IvanMarshall back on May 24, 2011: {{{{"There is actually a very easy way to fix this problem .. You need to restart the "Windows Audio" service, and all comes back fine. I made a one-liner shortcut on my desktop (with powershell) to do this. %SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -Command "Restart-Service AudioSrv" }}}} That method did not work for me. I got an error message and didn't spend the time to debug it since the disabling and enabling the audio device method works for me. I've battled this issue for months! Restarting usually resolved the problem but it's not always easy to do during the work day. I've got a Dell E5500 with a dock and I've tried using different sound ports on the dock and laptop, updated drivers, tried new drivers, reinstalled drivers...nothing worked. I just tried the following method to reinstate the audio without restarting and it has so far worked for me. Go to Device Manager, expand "Sound, video and game controllers", right click "High Definition Audio Device" and select Disable. Then right click on it to Enable it again. This is a workaround instead of a fix but it's the easiest way I've found to get sound back! Thanks, MDS_007 for this idea!

Update 9/16/2012: To skip my rant just scan down to the bold and underlined solutions. :-) This has been happening to my PC too. It started over a year ago, but was fixed after I reinstalled Windows 7 Professional 64-bit last year (for a different reason). The problem appeared again a couple months ago. Sound stops working after some time (30 mins - a few hours) but works after a reboot. It is almost definitely not a sound driver or hardware issue. It is a problem with Windows 7. If sound never works, then the first thing I would suspect is the sound driver, but since most of us seem to have our sound drivers up to date and audio works at bootup, then that isn't the reason for the audio problem. When audio isn't working for me and I shut down or reboot the PC, as Windows is shutting down, I hear a low volume static pop (with my headphones) as if Windows has halted or stopped the offending program or service that is hanging the audio. This leads me to believe that the audio would actually work again if I could stop Windows from shutting down. I just tried the following method to reinstate the audio without restarting and it has so far worked for me. Go to Device Manager, expand "Sound, video and game controllers", right click "High Definition Audio Device" and select Disable. Then right click on it to Enable it again. I opened an mp3 in Winamp and the audio returned. (I wasn't using Winamp before when the audio stopped. I noticed the audio stopped when trying to start a game). I happend to pause the song and just left it like that for maybe 20 mins. I unpaused it and the audio was gone again. Performing the previous steps to reinstate it did not work at first, so I also Disabled the "AMD High Defintion Audio Device" also located (for me) in "Sound, video and game controllers" and Enabled it again and the sound returned. (See update at the bottom of this message). I have also noticed that sometimes when doing this method, Windows will ask if you would like to restart the computer for the changes to take effect. The changes will still take effect if you answer no to rebooting. I realize this may not work for some people but it is worth a try. I also realize this is not a solution to the root cause of the problem and MS needs to fix this. I highly doubt they will though. I have not noticed pausing or muting audio to consistently reproduce this failure before today, but maybe that can be one of the things that cause this issue. After reading most of the posts in this thread, I believe that there are a number of different applications that can cause this audio issue. But, I believe that Windows 7 is the reason behind it. Like another person posted previously, searching Google shows this to be a fairly common problem. The superb Windows XP and the craptastic Vista do not have this problem. I am pretty sure MS knows this is a Windows 7 issue, but apparently either doesn't know how to fix it and/or is unwilling to admit it is their problem. Tech support just tries to help us with basic things. They aren't the ones actually making patches to the OS. Plus, it just seems as though MS tech support would try to blame the sound driver to pass the buck onto somebody else. Their next step is to stall by asking people to post statistical and diagnostic reports of their PC's. Over time, they hope people will just learn to live with this annoyance. This thread started Oct 28,2009 and the last comment by MS was made March 3, 2010, yet people have been posting somewhat continuously into 2012. I have not seen anything regarding a solution to this problem from MS besides the first reply or updating sound drivers. That is very poor support, both from Tech and from the software engineers responsible for bugs in the OS. Update 7/1/2012 I just repeated the audio problem again. I left a song paused in Winamp for another 20 - 30 mins and the audio was gone again. I would also like to add a clarification to the method I previously posted. To get the audio back, I had to first close Winamp and then Disable and Enable the "High Definition Audio Device". Leaving Winamp open while disabling and enabling the "High Definition Audio Device" did not work. (Update: So basically, close down any program that is trying to play audio first, then disable and enable the audio device in Device Manager .) I created a Device Manager shortcut on the desktop, as I will be needing to use this "fix" a few times a week. I also tried the method posted by IvanMarshall back on May 24, 2011: {{{{"There is actually a very easy way to fix this problem .. You need to restart the "Windows Audio" service, and all comes back fine. I made a one-liner shortcut on my desktop (with powershell) to do this. %SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -Command "Restart-Service AudioSrv" }}}} That method did not work for me. I got an error message and didn't spend the time to debug it since the disabling and enabling the audio device method works for me.

Audio stops working but works after a reboot

Anonymous

My audio stops working after Windows 7 has been running for a while;

Ideas:

the audio will work again after a re-boot but again, it will stop working after Windows has been running for a while. Re-bootig always fixes the problem but only for a few hours and then the audio is gone. audio problem

Remember - This is a public forum so never post private information such as email or phone numbers!

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

Hi,

Welcome to Microsoft answers forum.

You can check for the sound drivers,whether they are installed correctly.

if not uninstall them and install again.

I suggest you to verify that the default sound device is set correctly

Click Start,type Sound in the Start Search box.
Click Sound in the search results at the top of the Start menu.
Click the Playback tab. Notice the check mark next to the default device. For most users,the default device is Speakers.

Make sure that your audio settings are configured as expected. Follow these steps:

On the Playback tab, select the playback device, click Properties, click the Advanced tab, and make sure that the Default Format is set to the value that you expect.

When you finish, close this window to return to the previous window.

On the Playback tab, select the playback device, click Configure, and then make sure the configurations are set correctly.
If the sound settings are set correctly, you are using speakers as the sound device, and your speakers are already set as the default device, go to method 5 now.
Select the sound device that you want as the default sound device, and then click Set Default.
Click OK to save your settings and to close the Sound dialog box.

Determine whether you can now hear sound. If you can hear sound, the issue is resolved. If you cannot hear sound, try method 5.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948481

you can also check performing clean boot.

To perform a clean boot on a computer that is running Windows Vista, follow these steps:

Click Start,type msconfig in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.

On the General tab, click Selective Startup.
Under Selective Startup, click to clear the Load Startup Items check box.
Click the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All.
Click OK.

When you are prompted, click Restart.

After the computer starts, start the program and check whether the problem is resolved.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

Thanks and Regards,

Azam - Microsoft Support

0 comments

150 additional answers

Anonymous

2012-08-03T14:14:12+00:00

This has been happening to my PC too. It started over a year ago, but was fixed after I reinstalled Windows 7 Professional 64-bit last year (for a different reason). The problem appeared again a couple months ago. Sound stops working after some time (30 mins - a few hours) but works after a reboot. It is almost definitely not a sound driver or hardware issue. It is a problem with Windows 7. If sound never works, then the first thing I would suspect is the sound driver, but since most of us seem to have our sound drivers up to date and audio works at bootup, then that isn't the reason for the audio problem. When audio isn't working for me and I shut down or reboot the PC, as Windows is shutting down, I hear a low volume static pop (with my headphones) as if Windows has halted or stopped the offending program or service that is hanging the audio. This leads me to believe that the audio would actually work again if I could stop Windows from shutting down. I just tried the following method to reinstate the audio without restarting and it has so far worked for me. Go to Device Manager, expand "Sound, video and game controllers", right click "High Definition Audio Device" and select Disable. Then right click on it to Enable it again. I opened an mp3 in Winamp and the audio returned. (I wasn't using Winamp before when the audio stopped. I noticed the audio stopped when trying to start a game). I happend to pause the song and just left it like that for maybe 20 mins. I unpaused it and the audio was gone again. Performing the previous steps to reinstate it did not work at first, so I also Disabled the "AMD High Defintion Audio Device" also located (for me) in "Sound, video and game controllers" and Enabled it again and the sound returned. (See update at the bottom of this message).

I have also noticed that sometimes when doing this method, Windows will ask if you would like to restart the computer for the changes to take effect. The changes will still take effect if you answer no to rebooting. I realize this may not work for some people but it is worth a try. I also realize this is not a solution to the root cause of the problem and MS needs to fix this. I highly doubt they will though. I have not noticed pausing or muting audio to consistently reproduce this failure before today, but maybe that can be one of the things that cause this issue. After reading most of the posts in this thread, I believe that there are a number of different applications that can cause this audio issue. But, I believe that Windows 7 is the reason behind it. Like another person posted previously, searching Google shows this to be a fairly common problem. The superb Windows XP and the craptastic Vista do not have this problem.

I am pretty sure MS knows this is a Windows 7 issue, but apparently either doesn't know how to fix it and/or is unwilling to admit it is their problem. Tech support just tries to help us with basic things. They aren't the ones actually making patches to the OS. Plus, it just seems as though MS tech support would try to blame the sound driver to pass the buck onto somebody else. Their next step is to stall by asking people to post statistical and diagnostic reports of their PC's. Over time, they hope people will just learn to live with this annoyance. This thread started Oct 28,2009 and the last comment by MS was made March 3, 2010, yet people have been posting somewhat continuously into 2012. I have not seen anything regarding a solution to this problem from MS besides the first reply or updating sound drivers. That is very poor support, both from Tech and from the software engineers responsible for bugs in the OS.

Update 7/1/2012

I just repeated the audio problem again. I left a song paused in Winamp for another 20 - 30 mins and the audio was gone again. I would also like to add a clarification to the method I previously posted. To get the audio back, I had to first close Winamp and then Disable and Enable the "High Definition Audio Device". Leaving Winamp open while disabling and enabling the "High Definition Audio Device" did not work. (Update: So basically, close down any program that is trying to play audio first, then disable and enable the audio device in Device Manager.)

I created a Device Manager shortcut on the desktop, as I will be needing to use this "fix" a few times a week.

I also tried the method posted by IvanMarshall back on May 24, 2011:

{{{{"There is actually a very easy way to fix this problem ..

You need to restart the "Windows Audio" service, and all comes back fine.

I made a one-liner shortcut on my desktop (with powershell) to do this.

%SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -Command "Restart-Service AudioSrv"

}}}}

That method did not work for me. I got an error message and didn't spend the time to debug it since the disabling and enabling the audio device method works for me.

I've battled this issue for months! Restarting usually resolved the problem but it's not always easy to do during the work day. I've got a Dell E5500 with a dock and I've tried using different sound ports on the dock and laptop, updated drivers, tried new drivers, reinstalled drivers...nothing worked.

I just tried the following method to reinstate the audio without restarting and it has so far worked for me. Go to Device Manager, expand "Sound, video and game controllers", right click "High Definition Audio Device" and select Disable. Then right click on it to Enable it again.

This is a workaround instead of a fix but it's the easiest way I've found to get sound back! Thanks, MDS_007 for this idea!
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Anonymous

2012-07-02T01:01:55+00:00

Update 9/16/2012: To skip my rant just scan down to the bold and underlined solutions. :-)

This has been happening to my PC too. It started over a year ago, but was fixed after I reinstalled Windows 7 Professional 64-bit last year (for a different reason). The problem appeared again a couple months ago. Sound stops working after some time (30 mins - a few hours) but works after a reboot. It is almost definitely not a sound driver or hardware issue. It is a problem with Windows 7. If sound never works, then the first thing I would suspect is the sound driver, but since most of us seem to have our sound drivers up to date and audio works at bootup, then that isn't the reason for the audio problem. When audio isn't working for me and I shut down or reboot the PC, as Windows is shutting down, I hear a low volume static pop (with my headphones) as if Windows has halted or stopped the offending program or service that is hanging the audio. This leads me to believe that the audio would actually work again if I could stop Windows from shutting down. I just tried the following method to reinstate the audio without restarting and it has so far worked for me. Go to Device Manager, expand "Sound, video and game controllers", right click "High Definition Audio Device" and select Disable. Then right click on it to Enable it again. I opened an mp3 in Winamp and the audio returned. (I wasn't using Winamp before when the audio stopped. I noticed the audio stopped when trying to start a game). I happend to pause the song and just left it like that for maybe 20 mins. I unpaused it and the audio was gone again. Performing the previous steps to reinstate it did not work at first, so I also Disabled the "AMD High Defintion Audio Device" also located (for me) in "Sound, video and game controllers" and Enabled it again and the sound returned. (See update at the bottom of this message).

I have also noticed that sometimes when doing this method, Windows will ask if you would like to restart the computer for the changes to take effect. The changes will still take effect if you answer no to rebooting. I realize this may not work for some people but it is worth a try. I also realize this is not a solution to the root cause of the problem and MS needs to fix this. I highly doubt they will though. I have not noticed pausing or muting audio to consistently reproduce this failure before today, but maybe that can be one of the things that cause this issue. After reading most of the posts in this thread, I believe that there are a number of different applications that can cause this audio issue. But, I believe that Windows 7 is the reason behind it. Like another person posted previously, searching Google shows this to be a fairly common problem. The superb Windows XP and the craptastic Vista do not have this problem.

I am pretty sure MS knows this is a Windows 7 issue, but apparently either doesn't know how to fix it and/or is unwilling to admit it is their problem. Tech support just tries to help us with basic things. They aren't the ones actually making patches to the OS. Plus, it just seems as though MS tech support would try to blame the sound driver to pass the buck onto somebody else. Their next step is to stall by asking people to post statistical and diagnostic reports of their PC's. Over time, they hope people will just learn to live with this annoyance. This thread started Oct 28,2009 and the last comment by MS was made March 3, 2010, yet people have been posting somewhat continuously into 2012. I have not seen anything regarding a solution to this problem from MS besides the first reply or updating sound drivers. That is very poor support, both from Tech and from the software engineers responsible for bugs in the OS.

Update 7/1/2012

I just repeated the audio problem again. I left a song paused in Winamp for another 20 - 30 mins and the audio was gone again. I would also like to add a clarification to the method I previously posted. To get the audio back, I had to first close Winamp and then Disable and Enable the "High Definition Audio Device". Leaving Winamp open while disabling and enabling the "High Definition Audio Device" did not work. (Update: So basically, close down any program that is trying to play audio first, then disable and enable the audio device in Device Manager.)

I created a Device Manager shortcut on the desktop, as I will be needing to use this "fix" a few times a week.

I also tried the method posted by IvanMarshall back on May 24, 2011:

{{{{"There is actually a very easy way to fix this problem ..

You need to restart the "Windows Audio" service, and all comes back fine.

I made a one-liner shortcut on my desktop (with powershell) to do this.

%SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -Command "Restart-Service AudioSrv"

}}}}

That method did not work for me. I got an error message and didn't spend the time to debug it since the disabling and enabling the audio device method works for me.
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