Windows 8 occasional no sound problem. The device is being used by another application.

Anonymous

Hi,

I have been having sound problems with the speakers on an HP Ultrabook running Windows 8. Occasionally the laptop speakers stop working. When this occurs, I go to Control Panel>Sound, select the speakers(only one set to select), select Configure and Test. After selecting Test, I receive the message Device In Use. The device is being used by another application. Please close any devices that are playing audio to this device and then try again. I've gone to Properties for the speakers, Advanced tab and unchecked option "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device". I've also used Run sndvol to try to determine the application, but it only shows Device:Speakers/HP and Applications:System Sounds.

The only way I've been able to get the speakers to work is to reboot or disable and enable the driver for the IDT High Definition Audio CODEC. Does anyone know of a way to determine the application causing the problem? Thanks in advance for your help.

Gary

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Anonymous

Go to device manager, select the audio device/driver and click scan for hardware changes.

voiala! sounds stupid but works for me.

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

On the HP Community forum an HP tech found that uninstalling Microsoft update KB2962407 should fix the problem. This update has a fix that states "Shortened battery life when an idle audio device is not turned off on a computer running Windows". I installed this update on June 19. I don't have any July updates installed, so uninstalling July updates may not fix the problem.

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84 additional answers

Anonymous

2014-07-21T02:17:49+00:00

Also under "Audio inputs and outputs" I disabled "Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)" I have absolutely no idea why disabling the speakers makes them work, so I try not to think about it :)
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Anonymous

2014-07-21T05:02:41+00:00

Hello Gary,

I faced same problem in my hp laptop when I test my speeker then show it used in another device.........plz get me solution in my mail account.....as soon as possible....and plz privacy reason plz don't show my email.......

Thanks,

Ranjeet
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Anonymous

2014-07-21T15:13:40+00:00

Thanks Dr. Pfeiffer,

It worked for me with your Tip.

Sree
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