Windows 10: Windows system sounds play through wrong device

Hi, I have had a bit off an odd issue lately with the output of windows system sounds going to the wrong device. I have two audio devices connected to my computer, a pair of headphones and speakers. I currently have the headphones set as the default device and the default communication device and generally speaking, all sounds from apps, websites, etc. play through the headphones. The only sounds that DON'T play through the headphones, and instead play through the speakers, are Windows system sounds. I'm not sure if that's even the proper terminology but I'm referring to this sound in particular:

https://youtu.be/sRTvrtuuGJQ?t=178


Anyone know what the issue might be?

:)

 

Unable to play sound in Windows 10

Hi Larry,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

Let’s try below steps and check if it helps:

• 
  Press (Windows + X) and select
  control panel
  
• 
  Click on the Sound icon.
  
• 
  Under play back devices, right click on an empty area and place a check mark on “Show Disabled Devices” and “Show disconnected Devices.
  
• 
  You will now see the disabled audio devices with the arrow pointing down on them.
  
• 
  Right click on each listed disabled audio device that you want to enable, click on
  Enable and set it as default.
  
• 
  Click OK to close the Sound window.
  
• 
  Restart the computer and check the result.
  

If the issue persists you can try the below steps and check if it helps:

Check if any of the sound items in the device manager is disabled. If yes, then enable it. To do this, try these steps.

• 
  Go to Device manager.
  
• 
  Expand Sound, video and game controllers’ item.
  
• 
  Right click the sub sound items and click
  enable.
  
• 
  Restart the computer and check the result.
  

I suggest you to run the hardware and sound troubleshooter
and check if it helps.

• 
  Type “Troubleshoot” without quotes in search and click on
  Troubleshooting in the results displayed on the left side of the screen.
  
• 
  In the new window, click
  Hardware and Sound.
  
• 
  In the list of options, click on
  Hardware and Devices.
  
• 
  Click Next and follow the on-screen instructions.
  

Hope it helps. Please reply to us with the status of the issue.

 

Sound and Playback Devices

Hi,

To further isolate the issue, please provide the details these following questions:

• 
  Have you updated your driver? If you did, where did get the updates?
  
• 
  Have you check the properties of your device in device manager? Kindly post a screenshot of the status in of the
  drivers in device manager.
  
• 
  What troubleshooting steps have you done so far?
  

You can try to run the
Playing Audio
and
Hardware and Devices troubleshooter
to do an automated fix on this matter. To run the troubleshooter, follow these steps:

Playing Audio:

• 
  On the search bar, type
  Troubleshooting.
  
• 
  Chose
  Hardware and Sound.
  
• 
  Click on
  Playing Audio
  to run the troubleshooter
  

Hardware and Devices:

• 
  On the search bar, type
  Troubleshooting.
  
• 
  Chose
  Hardware and Sound.
  
• 
  Click on
  Hardware and Devices.
  

Let us know how it goes.

Regards.

 

No System Notification Sounds Play After Update To Windows 1809.

I looked here and have compared the desktop settings to the laptops, all are set the same, which are the defaults since I have never tweaked any of these settings on any systems.

These settings are the ones that didn't make any difference when I changed them.

Volume Mixer shows me volume controls for Device and Applications, both which are set to their maximum. However the behaviour I see on the desktop machine when sliding the "Applications" volume slider is that it does not make that "beeping" sound at any point. It only beeps when I slide the "Device" volume slider, unlike what happens on the laptops.

When I am in Settings > System > Sound > I even ran the troubleshooting steps which is able to play "Test Sounds" just fine, but the system notification sounds still won't play. However when I finish the troubleshooting steps, I see this notification with a yellow exclamation mark, which may point to the issue, but am unsure how.