Audio on Dell PC disappears

Hi -

Sorry, I apologize, if this has already been asked here many times before or if it's bad for any other reason, but Monday evening I discovered that I couldn’t get any audio on my Dell PC (bought in summer of 2021) for whatever unknown reason, and couldn’t figure out what it could possibly be due to. So I just restarted my PC, and then the whole audio system returned to normal. But then on Tuesday evening the exact same thing happened (repeated itself). I haven’t been able to find out what misfortune happens to my audio system in the evening, and only restarting my PC restores all the audio. I don’t want to have to keep restarting my PC each & every time all the sound disappears, so before it happens again, can anyone whatsoever help me at all? I would very much appreciate it – thanks.

Uninstall the Audio driver and install the newest version of the driver from the Audio device manufacturer website.

Hi @DLee122298 ,
Try these links, and run a driver scan and hardware scan

Driver Scan & Hardware Scan

Drivers

Have you checked whether it is a problem of the headphones/speakers?

Seen it happen in an old optiplex 9020 ultra sff tower I had. Unplugged the speaker from the Mobo after a month of it happening. Plugged it back in and it worked for a few weeks then completely went out.

Can you check through the sound settings in Windows? See if everything is correct?

I had a sort of similar problem that sometimes, during boot, Windows changed the sound configuration.

I fixed the problem by using something called SoundSwitch. An application that checks and changes back anything Windows decides to change by itself.

Win+x
Device Manager
>Audio inputs and outputs
>Sound, video and game controllers

Maybe the volume is off (with the Mute button or something).

could this be relevant - it is very recent.

Op started another thread without going over what we suggested.

Those are symptoms of the Audio services stopping.

You can restart those by going to the Task Manager > Services.
Find "Audiosrv" and "AudioEndpointBuilder"
Right click > Restart.

Sometimes merely changing the Volume may Restart those services.

Running the Audio troubleshooter will also do that along with other things.
Settings > System > Sound > Advanced > Troubleshooter in the first option, they seem to have altered this a bit.

The first 2 options are faster than doing a PC Restart.

The actual cause will be hard to ascertain. Possibly something to do with another app starting up and for some reason stopping the Audio services.
Way back I had a problem with Avast AV which stopped the Audio services from starting, that was solved by a delayed start to Avast AV.
If you have Special Function Keys assigned that maybe need looking in to.

THANKS very much for all the replies, and but in the last few or couple days I've discovered more Microsoft-related bizarre horrors on my Dell PC that have frustrated me as much as bewilder me. It seems & feels to me that they're all likely related to my sound disappearance problem, but so far I haven't seen any indications whatsoever that my Dell PC has any virus or has EVER had one.

Yesterday, when I tried to view image files in Microsoft File Explorer, the left & right arrow buttons on each end of my screen (left & right), would not show up at all, such that I couldn't click on them to view multiple images as a slideshow, and using the arrow keys on my keyboard wouldn't work either. And in the last 2 or 3 days, both Microsoft Excel & Word have been behaving so weirdly that I've often been unable to do basic actions such as opening, saving, & closing them, as well as word-searching. Unfortunately that's the best way that I can describe it, as I don't think that I can describe it in any better detail without ending up getting too long-winded about it.

I've had so much frustrations with Microsoft that I think it's better to refrain from saying what I think of Microsoft right now (curse words that are better left unsaid), but all your replies here ARE very appreciated, and any further ones will be very appreciated as well - THANKS very much! Depending on my Dell PC, it may be a few days before you hear from me again.

PS - Also, sorry about the cross-posting to another forum, but that was done immediately after I first posted my message here, so there weren't any replies yet for me to see at the time. I haven't ignored anyone.

Do try a repair install using Windows update. It takes quite a long time but it does not go through OOBE and needs almost no interaction.