Windows 10: Audio service not starting

Before I went to bed yesterday I pressed "update and shutdown". Installed latest windows update and when I turned the pc on in the morning audio didn't work. Checked Services and noticed that Windows Audio Service wasn't running. When I tried to start it I got "access denied." I'm running Windows 10

:)

 

After running Audio troubleshooter error: 'one or more audio service isn't running'

Hi Peter,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community, we appreciate your interest in Windows 10.

As you receive the error message: 'one or more audio service isn't running', this might have occurred due to the audio services.

I suggest you to restart the service, set it to automatic and check if it helps.

Step 1: Stop the Windows Audio service.

• Press Windows Key + R on the keyboard and type
  services.msc, Services window gets opened.
• Search for Windows Audio service, right click on it and click on
  Stop.
• Restart the computer.

Step 2: Start the service and set it to automatic:

• Press Windows Key + R on the keyboard and type
  services.msc, Services window gets opened.
• Search for Windows Audio service, right click on it and click on
  Properties.
• Start the service, set
  Startup type to Automatic.

Hope it helps. Reply to the post with an updated status of this issue for further assistance.

 

Audio Service not starting - access denied

My audio service is refusing to start regardless of what I try on Windows 10 1803.

I have attempted the following:

• Re-installing audio drivers
• Updating audio drivers
• A full virus scan
• A disk check
• An SFC check
• Making sure all the dependencies of the Windows Audio Service are running

None of these have succeeded in changing anything.
Whenever I try to start the audio service, I get this error message:




This made me think it is potentially the firewall messing everything up, so I start up Windows Defender and get this error message:




Are these two problems related, and does anyone know how I can fix it?

EDIT:
The Windows Defender Antivirus Service and Windows Defender Antivirus Network Inspection Service are both not running, and when I try to start them I get this error:




I imagine that this is connected in some way but I have no clue how to fix it.

 

The audio service is not running?!

Hello Abu,

Thank you for keeping us posted on the status of the issue. I would like to assist you further from here.

Please refer to the below steps to start the Audio service and cherck if it helps to resolve the issue

• Open Control Panel and select Administrative Tools, then View Local Services
• Look for "Windows Audio" NOT "Windows Audio Endpoint Builder"
  
  [Just click on any service, then press the letter "W" on your keyboard, it will take you to the services starting with the "w" letter]
• Right click on the "Windows Audio" service and choose "Properties"
• You will see 4 tabs, click on the last one, labeled "Dependencies"
• In that tab, you will see the "This service depends on the following system components" box, it displays 3 services.
  
  Beside each service there is a "+" icon, click on it to expand the list. The 2nd service will have 2 child services, the 3rd service will have 1 child service.
• Now make sure that all the 6 services (3 main, 3 child) have the "Started" status in the "Services" window you opened earlier.
• Most probably you will find one of those services are not running, just start all of them, then try to start the "Window Audio" service from the "General" tab.

However, if the issue is still unresolved, I would suggest you to
check if the same issue occur when logged in through a different user account.

Ref:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/getstarted-set-up-accounts

Hope this helps.