Audio renderer error. Please restart your computer.

This began to happen on my HP Touch Envy M6 laptop not long after another Windows 10 update.  Just every so often, after playing YouTube videos, the audio would stop and I'd get an error that audio rendering had failed, with a mandate for me to reboot my computer. Rebooting it solved the problem. But not permanently.

I went to HP's diagnostic page for audio and there's an audio check utility provided.  I ran it and in about 2 minutes, my audio was restored. Everything checked out A-OK, except for one thing:  Default Audio Format. Somehow it changed. The utility marked it as "Fixed."

So, somehow, somewhere along the line the default audio format gets corrupted and then you can't hear audio. I'm wondering if there's a manual way to intercede and just fix it, rather than having to rely upon HP's utility.  But in any case, I'd rather run the utility than reboot.

Hey everyone! I found a fix. Are you all using an adblocker? That turned out to be the problem. I did not get the error again after whitelisting Youtube. However, I renabled it because reloading the page and getting back to where I was before was faster than watching a 0:05-0:30 ad. XD

I have a HP laptop and started getting this same error. Restarting only fix it temperately and so I tried changing the bios ( with HP) that didn't work but found this solution from my HP assistant and so far it seems to be working. so thought I would share it for the HP people.....

Run the Audio test from the HP PC Hardware Diagnostics (UEFI)

The Hardware Diagnostics Audio Playback Test checks your system to make sure the audio device is functioning properly and tests the functionality of the audio subsystem, including audio controllers and codecs.

NOTE: For more information about installing and using the HP PC Hardware Diagnostic tests, see Testing for Hardware Failures (Windows 10, 8).

Use the following steps to run the HP PC Hardware Diagnostics (UEFI) Audio Test. During the test, a few music notes are played in sequence and then repeated. This test takes 1 minute to complete for each audio output port.

1. Hold the power button for at least five seconds to turn off the computer.
2. Turn on the computer and immediately press the F2 key repeatedly, about once every second.
3. The HP PC Hardware Diagnostics (UEFI) main menu is displayed. Click Component Tests.

Figure: HP PC Hardware Diagnostics (UEFI) main menu

1. The Component Tests menu displays. Click Audio.

Figure: Component Test menu with Audio selected

1. Click Run once to start the test.

Figure: Audio Playback Test

1. Select Speaker to begin the test.

Figure: Testing the Speaker

1. During the test, a few music notes will be played in sequence and repeatedly. Listen carefully and select the number of notes you hear in the sequence. If you enter a tone number incorrectly, run the test again. If you hear nothing, select No sound.

NOTE: Some HP models have a Volume control in the test window. Make sure you increase the volume level before making a music tone selection.

Figure: Entering the number of notes

1. When the Audio Test is complete, the results are displayed on the screen.
2. If the audio test passes, return to the Main menu to exit and restart the computer.
3. If the audio fails the tests, a failure ID will be provided. Write down the information so you have it available when you contact HP Customer Support. The information is also available in the Test Logs, on the Diagnostics UEFI main page.

Figure: Audio test results

If the Audio Playback Test passed without errors but the audio problems are still present, continue to the next step.

I am dealing with same issues, however this ALWAYS happens after watching any downloaded HD movie. Any movie that is sufficiently high definition enough will cause ALL OTHER AUDIO IN MY SYSTEM to stop working. I can still use my computer but I have to shut the windows Movies and TV down in order to restore sound back to my other programs.

I've also been facing this issue and have had my motherboard replaced by Dell. I have followed all the guides previously posted including trying to rollback audio drivers (not possible as this is a new laptop).

I have noticed I am on Windows 1803 with the current version at 1809. I'm now updating to 1809 to see if this resolves the issue. Problem is I have to restart for changes to take effect so I won't know if they have worked for days/weeks potentially.

I can report that today I saw my old nemesis again the "Audio renderer error" msg despite moving to 1809. I am out of ideas at the stage and will have to go back to Dell again.