Audio not working on Windows 11 Pro x64

nishadrox · Apr 11, 2026

hader said:
Strange. Everything look OK now. Now looking at your Device management; One thing is standing out: Under Audio Input and Output there should be 2 devices there; Speakers and Microphone. Speakers are missing now. It must be there otherwise no sound. In the attachment my audio device. (ignore Language, NVIDIA (RTX Videocard) and Steelseries, Sonar. (Keyboard) Stage V2 is my Creative Stage V2 2.1 speakers device, connected with USB)

What kind of speakers are connected to your system? (Defective cable? Sound/No Sound/Sound at random etc.) Can you see any speaker device using mmsys.cpl? Inside Settings - System - Sound No speakers? (There is also a setting where you allow apps to use your sound device) Try to add one. You should examine the logbooks and look for warnings or errors. There might be a conflict with a piece of software you have installed that is causing this issue.

At what build level are you sitting on? 26200.8117? Is so try de-install KB5086672. It's giving some people a real headache. There seems to be something fishy with this "patch" for 8816.

The drivers disappear from this list when the sound stops working and reappear when working.

This is when the speaker is active. Otherwise speakers/drivers disappear. No issue with the cable.

I've also noticed PotPlayer failing to play media and showing an error when the speaker suddenly malfunctions (Probably due to driver not being available).

Updates installed:

The problem was there before installing KB5086672.

OAT · Apr 11, 2026

AgathePower said:
Update 26200.8117 popped up again this morning, so I installed it. And boom—

The boom reported is quite worrisome.

OAT · Apr 11, 2026

The file installed is not digitally signed.
I would remove all audio drivers manually (do not reboot)
Then try the drivers from https://www.asrock.com/MB/Intel/B560M Pro4/index.asp#Download

nishadrox · Apr 11, 2026

Uninstalled all including Intel Display Audio (with remove driver checkbox enabled), didn't restart, installed official driver and then restarted.

After installing:

Intel Display Audio is no longer there but High Definition Audio Device has appeared. Speaker is currently active. Have to check for some time as that's how it gets deactivated suddenly. Will post an update later.

TairikuOkami · Apr 11, 2026

WU has just released this optional update, it might address the issue.

omnescient · Apr 11, 2026

My partner suffered an audio 'glitch' c. 12 days ago after various updates, including NVidia & Intel drivers, according to the reliability monitor. Her audio relied on the standard Windows HD Audio Device driver. Her wired speakers disappeared from settings and she could only use the monitor's speakers - something of a puke-fest.

The eventual solution was to disable fast startup. We assumed that for some reason, the external speakers weren't being identified/registered before the system started due to an issue introduced by the updates.

Incidentally, her current startup time, according to Task Manager > Startup apps > Last BIOS time, is more or less the same as it was with fast startup enabled - about 15 seconds - using the same CPU & NVMe as those listed in my system specs - and the speakers are working as expected.

Our analysis may not be accurate, but that may be something worth trying if all else fails...and of course, kindly disregard if you don't have Fast startup enabled anyway.

spapakons · Apr 11, 2026

AgathePower said:
Update 26200.8117 popped up again this morning, so I installed it. And boom—the sound card stopped working properly.
So there's clearly a link between this update and the audio driver, which seems to have been reinstalled (and incorrectly) for no reason.
I uninstalled this Realtek Audio driver and reinstalled the manufacturer's version (I don’t remember which one I had originally), and so far it's working again.

Much like what I said. Ignore Windows Update which might misinterpret hardware IDs and install incompatible drivers. For best compatibility and performance manually download and install the audio drivers from computer/motherboard manufacturer.

spapakons · Apr 11, 2026

hader said:
Strange. Everything look OK now. Now looking at your Device management; One thing is standing out: Under Audio Input and Output there should be 2 devices there; Speakers and Microphone. Speakers are missing now. It must be there otherwise no sound. In the attachment my audio device. (ignore Language, NVIDIA (RTX Videocard) and Steelseries, Sonar. (Keyboard) Stage V2 is my Creative Stage V2 2.1 speakers device, connected with USB)

What kind of speakers are connected to your system? (Defective cable? Sound/No Sound/Sound at random etc.) Can you see any speaker device using mmsys.cpl? Inside Settings - System - Sound No speakers? (There is also a setting where you allow apps to use your sound device) Try to add one. You should examine the logbooks and look for warnings or errors. There might be a conflict with a piece of software you have installed that is causing this issue.

At what build level are you sitting on? 26200.8117? Is so try de-install KB5086672. It's giving some people a real headache. There seems to be something fishy with this "patch" for 8816.

Assuming the audio drivers are correct but some devices missing for some reason (say because someone manually removed them from Device Manager), just restart the computer and Windows should automatically detect them and reinstall them using the existing audio drivers. Not sure if you can just search for hardware changes, if that doesn't work restart the computer.

hader · Apr 11, 2026

AgathePower said:
Update 26200.8117 popped up again this morning, so I installed it. And boom—the sound card stopped working properly.
So there's clearly a link between this update and the audio driver, which seems to have been reinstalled (and incorrectly) for no reason.
I uninstalled this Realtek Audio driver and reinstalled the manufacturer's version (I don’t remember which one I had originally), and so far it's working again.

Thanks. So there is possible more issues with 8117. Hibernation was already one of them. Thanks for the info.

hader · Apr 11, 2026

TairikuOkami said:
WU has just released this optional update, it might address the issue.

View attachment 168421

Yes. I noticed that also. I checked for updates a few hours back and it found that driver and installed it. Not sure what's the reason behind it. Had no audio issues.

Looking inside the Device manager I can see that it updated a driver under "Audio Processing Objects (APO's): Voice Clarity". At the events tab I see a date of today installing "oem12.inf"..... Still clueless.....

nishadrox · Apr 12, 2026

Speakers are again disabled. The driver updates didn't fix the issue. Any advice?

Realtek driver disappears when this happens:

spapakons · Apr 12, 2026

I guess Windows try to install some incompatible driver update screwing the audio card entirely. Download Microsoft Windows Update Show/Hide Tool or Windows Automatic Update Manager (aka WAU Manager) both available on Major Geeks. These tools search for updates and present you a list. All you need to do is hide (block) any driver updates. Of course you must first make the audio work, otherwise the update might be already installed and not showing on the list.

An alternative is to use a USB sound card (just a cheap speakers/mic not anything fancy), but not very convenient.

AgathePower · Apr 12, 2026

I can now fully explain the issue with the Realtek Audio driver caused by update KB5086672 (26200.8117).

As a reminder, immediately after installing this update, I couldn't adjust the volume, muting didn't turn off the sound, and unplugging my headphones from the front panel caused the sound card to fail (with a cross icon appearing on the speaker).

At first, I thought I had to reinstall the manufacturer's drivers, which worked, but doing that meant I lost the ability to choose between the speakers and the headphones (which are always plugged in) in the Win+Ctrl+V menu.

Today I first uninstalled the Realtek manufacturer drivers, and that's how I got my audio outputs back in Win+Ctrl+V, except that I also lost the ability to change the volume or mute the sound. The installed driver had roughly the same version as Windows.

So I looked into the update history and uninstalled version 26200.8117 (KB5086672). After checking, winver showed 26200.8117 before I uninstalled it, and now it shows 26200.8037. The installed audio driver now has version 10.0.26100.8036.

Everything works exactly as before: outputs displayed in the Win+Ctrl+V list, volume and mute controls working, and unplugging the jack works as expected. It's confirmed KB5086672 has a buggy Realtek High Definition Audio (probably HdAudio.sys) driver.

spapakons · Apr 12, 2026

Use one of the tools I mentioned to block it.

AgathePower · Apr 12, 2026

spapakons said:
Use one of the tools I mentioned to block it.

Will KB5086672 update be installed without the Realtek driver if I uncheck Realtek driver then click "Download and Install"?

Otherwise, how can I install it while disabling the driver?

spapakons · Apr 12, 2026

You block only specific updates. All others will be installed.

AgathePower · Apr 12, 2026

I don't know how to block an update (Realtek here), and KB5086672 is not even listed in the tools.

AgathePower · Apr 12, 2026

I found an answer here:

https://www.google.com/search?q=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE%5CSOFTWARE%5CPolicies%5CMicrosoft%5CWindows%5CDeviceInstall%5CRestrictions%5CDenyDeviceIDs

spapakons · Apr 12, 2026

AgathePower said:
I don't know how to block an update (Realtek here), and KB5086672 is not even listed in the tools.

View attachment 168538

Click on Hide selected.

hader · Apr 12, 2026

AgathePower said:
I found an answer here:

https://www.google.com/search?q=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE%5CSOFTWARE%5CPolicies%5CMicrosoft%5CWindows%5CDeviceInstall%5CRestrictions%5CDenyDeviceIDs

Can't image that would be an issue here. Realtek is nearly standard on all motherboards. Has never been an issue in the past also.

Audio not working on Windows 11 Pro x64

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