Windows 10: Windows 10 20h2 update broke my main speakers.

I have VoiceMeeter for splitting audio and telling it which inputs and outputs I want, so if I'm streaming/recording gameplay and gameplay audio with OBS while talking to someone on Discord who might be watching me play, neither my audio nor theirs is recorded by OBS.


I had this all set up. It was working perfectly. In VoiceMeeter, my input was an installed virtual cable which was being routed to my hardware output, which was my speakers. I then had OBS set to mute Discord sounds and told my sound settings whether or not to have VoiceMeeter pick up Chrome sounds, and had OBS told to only record sounds that were coming through VoiceMeeter's pickup.


When I got the update, my A1 hardware output in VoiceMeeter would not work with my speakers as the selected output device. I was being forced to use my virtual cable to hear anything, but that wasn't the purpose of the virtual cable. I need it for my input device. If I tried designating my speakers as my output device, I would get no sound and would get an "Audio Renderer Error. Please restart your device" when trying to watch YouTube on this PC.


It's not VoiceMeeter's fault, because it was working before and, when I reverted the update, it worked fine again.


This is why I don't trust Windows updates. They always break something that was working fine before. WHY???

:)

 

Win10 update broke computer speaker

 

Update 20h2

Hi Wicki,

I am Sumit, an Independent Advisor and a 3 year Windows Insider MVP here to help.

20H2 should not be installed right-away on your device - MS said the rollout is only to a fraction of users and would be labeled as an optional update initially. Are you enrolled in WIP?

You may uninstall 20H2 using the steps below:

https://www.yourwindowsguide.com/2020/10/uninst...

Content on the above blog is written by a Microsoft MVP so it is safe. However, do watch out for the ads.

 

[SOLVED] Windows 10 Realtek 'Speaker Fill' not working

FYI, reinstalling Windows broke Speaker Fill about two months ago. I contacted MSI over that period and they ultimately told me that MSI does not allow the Speaker Fill feature on my motherboard. This is why checking the box does nothing.

That said, I believe the Windows 10 Anniversary Update fixed a problem in the generic drivers where Speaker Fill being enabled would reduce the volume 25-50% of all the speakers. I am now back to using Windows 10's generic driver with Speaker Fill enabled and it is working great.