Windows 10: Audio issues, seemingly not driver related.

So, I transitioned flawlessly to Windows 10 on release day in 2015, everything was working flawlessly, beside the odd intermittent bug of little relevance.

Now 1 year later things have been a lot less enjoyable. During this time of consistent updates, I've had numerous issues that have come and gone. The latest of these is audio related, and are more annoying than anything else that I felt I had to share my experiences with it thus far.

Every day recently, I boot my computer and there is no audio coming from the HDMI output on my graphics card(s). Device manager shows the driver as being fine, troubleshooting finds no problems, and the sound settings claims "This device is working fine". I then proceed a process of elimination. I reboot my PC and/or my AV receiver, still nothing.

So you'd probably be thinking this is an HDMI issue. Well, you'd be wrong.

I try a variety of other audio devices and outputs, and still no sound. On every occasion however, I have plugged in some USB headphones, only for the sound settings to not default to those like it has done since owning them. On two occasions this has even mocked me, by then playing audio via HDMI into my AV receiver instead.

This is not driver related, and a google search has been little to no good, as there is absolutely no information or help regarding audio besides the usual "device manager" workarounds that people like to share on YouTube, which only helps those with driver troubles, and is still only a workaround and not a genuine fix.

I suspect this is entirely beyond my control, and I shall just have to wait for Microsoft to acknowledge it and fix it? So far the several computers I've migrated to Windows 10 (friends, family, personal) have all had different issues of different annoyance levels, even if the hardware is all very similar.

Oddly enough, if I just leave my computer running for an 45 minutes or so, more often than not the audio does start working, without warning.

So, now my opinion of Windows 10 is long and complicated. It's genuinely destroyed my confidence as the computer technician and network engineer I spent tens of thousands studying, not that I claim to be either of those.

:)

 

After upgrading to Windows 10 LAN drops while wifi still works citing, "the default gateway is not available"

Same issue. Tried everything - reinstall driver, switched cables, custom DNS and ip options. Nothing works.

On Windows 8 and below it was seemingly a driver issue or an issue with the pc turning off the adapter to save power, so it could possibly be related to a similar thing on 10.

 

Perfomance related issues related to audio in Windows

Hello Cyndieaa,

Thank you for posting your concern in Microsoft Community and we regret for the inconvenience. Let me assist you.

To be able to assist you better, let us know a few more details on the below questions.

• How did you upgrade to Windows 10? Was it using Windows update or via Media Creation Tool?
• Do you have any System Restore point set in your PC prior to the issue?
• Does the issue occur randomly or under any particular circumstances?

As an initial recommendation, I suggest you to check for the recent Windows update you are referring to in this case. To do so, you need to check the settings through Windows update. Follow the below steps.

1. Open the Settings Charm with the shortcut Windows Key

+
I.

2. Click/tap Change PC settings.

3. Click on the Update and recovery and click on the
View your update history.

4. You will now see a list of your installed Windows Updates. If you click on any one of the
"Successfully installed on (date)" links , you will find more details for that update.

Now, follow the below methods and check if it helps to resolve the issue.

Method 1

Follow these steps to run the Windows in built troubleshooter to identify any potential driver related issues present in your PC.

a) Write Troubleshooting in the search box and hit enter.

b) Click on Troubleshooting
tab.

c) Click on view all option on the upper left corner.

d) Select the Hardware and Device
option from the list.

e) Click Next to run the Hardware and Device
Troubleshooter.

Method 2

Now if updating the audio device driver did not help, I suggest you to check if rolling back the driver helps to resolve the issue. Follow the below steps.

• First of all, Press Windows logo + R from keyboard. It will open
  RUN.
• Now type devmgmt.msc and press Enter to open Device Manager.
• You will see all the driver list of your PC. Expand Audio Adapters

Rollback driver

Double click on your audio driver in Device Manager. Then Click on
Driver tab and select Rollback.

Important: If your drive is performing well and there is no error, Rollback driver button will be grayed out as an option.

Write to us with the updated status and the required information for us to be able to assist you further.

 

Go to Control Panel/Sound/Playback Devices. Select your HDMI audio, and move it to first device and set it as Default audio device.

 

That's exactly how my audio settings are and have been since I've had this computer. I double check this when I'm plugging in headphones etc too.

 

have you tried switching the HDMI cable? where you plug that anyway? digital audio should be enabled automatically when you plug it on (by default, HDMI or DP) so if that reocognizion is working, its not driver related.

 

I've tried multiple audio outputs, I've rebooted my AV receiver, I've done everything typical that could be done. Yes, HDMI audio is on by default. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the sound settings, there is just no audio output when I first boot my computer for the day, and this goes on for about 45 minutes, or whenever some background task finally figures its stuff out, regardless of whether its HDMI, USB, analogue, etc. It is all audio, not just the HDMI output.

To make my point clear again, HDMI is and has always been my default audio output. Plugging in a pair of USB headphones as of recent hasn't changed that, unless I manually change that, and even still I will usually have no audio output, until for unknown reasons the audio randomly starts working again, which seems to be very much beyond my control.

 

HDMI audio is a function of the Video Card. The audio is generated on the video card (I have one HD7770).
When you use a USB sound device, such as a USB headset, the headset gets digital audio data from the PC and converts it to analog in the headset and no PC audio device is used.

Since you have two video cards, for testing remove one of the cards and see if the problem is resolved. If the problem is still there with one Video card, try the other Video card, by itself, to see if the problem resolves or is still there.

 

The USB headset was just an example, I also have analogue audio outputs and spdif amongst my outputs, and regardless of what is plugged in and configured, there is absolutely no sound, as mentioned numerous times now, even the USB headset which was working absolutely fine a few months back.

I'm 99% certain the bug is deeper than drivers and configurations, and it's certainly not faulty hardware either given how unlikely it is that all of my audio devices would have intermittent problems at the same time.

 

Post a screenshot of the Device Manager, Sounds section. That may help.
Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Ten Forums - Windows 10 Forums

 

Windows 10 is showing no driver complications (and so it shouldn't, given it's across 3 or 4 different audio outputs), and the sound settings troubleshooter says everything is functioning fine. It seems very slim that this is a fault of all the audio devices and their drivers, and more a problem deeply rooted within Windows 10 itself. I also have a drive running Ubuntu, no troubles there whatsoever in regards to audio, but that's mostly irrelevant being a completely different OS.

 

Disable the Hauppauge Win TV, in the device manager, then restart the PC and see if that makes any difference.
If not, disable the Webcam and then restart and see what happens. I've seen webcam's cause many audio problems.

 

That's some odd advice. Neither of these things have been problematic since long before I was having audio troubles, and nothing has changed besides the usual system updates... I really should dispose of the WinTV though, it's never been used in the last couple of years. It was just a convenient means to get TV on my computer monitor at the time. As for the webcam, simply unplugging it is easy enough.

My troubleshooting methods suggest both of those are completely irrelevant given how much I know about their history and rather flawless functionality in this PC. It's not like I recently installed something and broke something else in the process. This is just something that has happened with the only changes being Microsoft updates.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful, I'm thankful that you're all interested in trying to be of some help, but I feel like the only person in the universe with this problem right now, and that's typically my luck in regards to most Windows troubles I've had. This just doesn't have any of the tell-tale signs of user configuration or device drivers, and the fact that I do get audio some random amount of time (usually 30-60 minutes) after booting without interfering in any way makes me suspect it is definitely rooted deeper in the operating system.

I guess I'm just s**t out of luck for now, unless Microsoft find a relevant bug and patch it, or open source the kernel so somebody else can... wishful thinking.

 

Did this happen after the Anniversary Update (assuming you have it installed).

There have been issues with some device compatibility after the update. For example my Roland Edirol PCR500 MIDI keyboard is no longer compatible. I have a recording studio and had been using a modified Win8.1 driver as Roland isn't supporting Win 10 and it worked until the Anniversary Update (others with PCR keyboards and some other older recording hardware are also having problem as reported on recording forums).

There is also an issue with some USB connected web cams with the Anniversary Update (Microsoft is working on a fix).

Finally, Sound is always on a shared IRQ (Interrupt) with a higher priority device. Windows treats sound as a low priority device.

 

I can't say for sure it was the anniversary update, but audio troubles have been noticeable since then. What little information I had found about said update was the usual "check your drivers" nonsense I've been hearing non stop from everyone, as if I hadn't thought to check those right away myself.

You've definitely given a more intelligent answer than what Google could offer me. I'll see how it goes tomorrow morning when I boot and definitely consider that, based on the information you provided it does seem feasible.

Hopefully Microsoft will do something soon, not that they'll be getting my praise for having wrecked it in the first place. I know very few people who haven't been inconvenienced by the upgrade to Windows 10, and as good as it has worked otherwise, the ultimatum of upgrading now or paying for it later really puts people on the spot, especially with the first year or more of any major release (especially 10) having a particularly unfinished quality to it.