Windows 10: Help - audio not playing despite replacing drivers and bios !?

I have a Dell Latitude laptop, Win 10.
I have a Realtek sound card which often won't work.
The audio meters jump up and down (see pic below) but no sound comes out, even when I plug in headphones etc. No sound is coming out.



Things I've tried:
1) Update sound card driver
2) Change sound card driver to Audio High Def
3) Update BIOS
4) Update Windows
5) Switch off audio "enhancements"
6) Change sample rates (I tried all of them)
7) Cold boot
8) Uninstalled audio card from device manager, and reinstalled
9) Started-Stopped Windows Audio in Services
10) Updated docking drivers

The laptop was plugged into a dock at one point. I wonder if that confused it?
I think the audio works OK through the docking station.

Help! Any ideas?

:)

 

Musicman

No error code was seen, despite the fact that the audio signal from the bluetooth to the speaker was breaking up as tracks played from any source. The review of the driver for the bluetooth device said that it was up to date.

 

Computer keeps stuttering

Could be a hardware issue. You might need to take it to a repair shop.

Or simply replacing your audio card might solve it.

Checking for updates from your Manufacturer for BIOS, Graphics, and Audio Drivers is also a good idea.

In fact you should do that first.

 

Have you run the Windows Trouble Shooting routine for sound? Right click on speaker, systray, trouble shooting.

When you right click on Speaker and Open Volume mixer are any marked muted, are they all around same level?

When you right click on speaker and select playback devices, click on speakers, click on configure and then test, do you hear sound.