Windows 10: Windows Update messed up my sound

Hello,


I updated my Windows 10 installation; "Feature update to Windows 10, version 1809" on 10/3/19.

Ever since then, my sound card has been playing up. I have been running the same card on the same motherboard, with the same settings, on the same installation of Windows 10 literally since Windows 10 was made available to the public. It was in fact running on windows 8.1 before that, and Windows 8 before that.


The sound card is a SoundBlaster Recon3D PCIe. The motherboard is an ASUS P8Z77V-LX. CPU is an Intel I7-3770, Windows 10 is installed on an SSD.


As I mentioned, up until this update the sound has been completely fine. No problems with anything. However, I noticed after the update that the sound will vary between being completely normal at one time, and then all of a sudden without warning the output starts distorting/buzzing continuously. This distorting/buzzing also goes away after a while for seemingly no apparent reason.

I deleted the sound card driver, deleted all other audio drivers and restarted the computer and reinstalled the SoundBlaster driver and software. Whilst this eliminated the buzzing/distorting, it created a new issue - the speaker channels (left, right, rear-left, rear-right, center, sub) would randomize themselves for no apparent reason whilst playing audio through any source. All of a sudden left channel would switch to right, then disappear entirely or any other combination. I right-clicked the speaker icon in the taskbar, selected "troubleshoot audio" and found out that the "enable audio enhancements" box had been selected in the speaker properties (see image link https://imgur.com/a/pgktQGh). I de-selected this box, and lo and behold the channel-swapping problem was fixed, but the buzzing/distorting returned.

Now as I mentioned I have never had a problem with any audio up to this point. It should also be mentioned that plugging headphones into the headphone port on the front of the case of my computer that uses the high-definition audio output of the motherboard, also presents the buzzing/distorting. It happened at exactly the same time the Windows 10 update occurred, which makes it extremely unlikely and/or coincidental for a hardware error to have simultaneously occurred.

I have tried everything I can think of to rectify this situation, and nothing has worked. I am desperate for a fix, as I want to believe this is hanlon's razor; that Windows 10 software engineers aren't in fact forcing me to buy new hardware in the hope that will work and instead have made a mistake and the latest update simply has some broken code that isn't playing well with my admittedly antique hardware.

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

:)

 

Good surround sound headset

I know you say you're not that guy, but stepping into the $250+ range really brings a change in build quality that might have you never having to buy another set. Otherwise, getting 6 speakers with decent sound in a headset is hard, and that's what you are asking for, and I have no suggestions, but just a bump up the list. *Stick Out Tongue

 

I got no sound microsoft or horrible sound

Hi Roger,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Community.

In order to help you better, could you please confirm a couple of things.

• What happens exactly when you try to play the sound?
• Are you getting any error message?
• Have you installed all the pending Windows updates?

I suggest you to follow the below methods and check if it helps.

Method 1: I suggest you to follow below steps and check.

Step 1: I suggest you to install all the latest pending Windows updates as below and check if it helps.

• Go to “settings” and click on “update and security”.
• Under tab “Windows update”, click on the icon “check for updates”.
• Then once you find the pending updates install it and check.

Step 2: I suggest you to follow the steps from the below article and check if it helps.

Fix sound problems

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows-10/fix-sound-problems#v1h=tab01

Hope this information is helpful and do let us know if you need further assistance. We will be glad to assist.

 

Sound messed up

Since updating to the new Windows Creators Update my sound has really been messed up.

It sounds like it's coming from the centre of the speaker (I'm on a laptop) and it sounds really tinny. I also now have to turn the volume all the way up to 100% to hear things that I used to be able to hear on 10%.

Any suggestions as to what is going on and how to fix it?

Thanks.

**Post moved by the moderator to the appropriate forum category.**