September 10th, 2021
From video calls with coworkers to streaming our favorite shows, we use our laptops to stay connected. So when there's no sound on your computer—and you have to shout, “Can you hear me?" into a void—it can be aggravating.
Fortunately, there are some easy ways to solve the problem. Here at Asurion, when tech breaks, we know how to fix it—whether it's an overheating laptop or a battery that won't charge. Here's our guide to why your sound may not be working on your Windows™ 10 laptop and how to get it back up and running.
Why is there no sound on my laptop?
There are several reasons your laptop's audio may not be working:
We'll walk you through the troubleshooting process.
How to fix Windows 10 audio issues
Is your computer audio not working? We'll get you back up and running. Our tips cover what to do if your sound isn't working on Windows 10.
Check volume
No shame—everyone occasionally forgets to unmute. So your first step should be to click the Speaker icon in the bottom-right corner of the taskbar and make sure your volume is on and turned up.
Try headphones
Plug headphones or a headset into the headphone port in your computer. If the audio works, obviously, you've got sound. You'll also know the problem is with your laptop's built-in speakers.
No audio on Windows? Your operating system may be sending sound to the wrong audio output device. Here's how to fix it:
If the audio device you want to use isn't there, here's what to do:
If you don't know which device you want to use, select one at a time. When the sound works, you have a winner.
Disable audio enhancements
When your computer's sound isn't working, one crucial troubleshooting step is to disable any active audio enhancements, which are built-in features that can improve and customize certain aspects of your audio experience. Here's how to turn off these features:
Install or update audio drivers
Is there still no sound on your laptop or computer? Try updating the drivers—the software that allows your PC to communicate with its hardware. Here's how:
If you have a device equipped with IDT High-Definition audio, you may need to update the drivers associated with it. Follow these steps to update the drivers.
Run audio troubleshooter
If nothing else has worked so far, it's time to try restarting your audio services. These are the settings that manage audio on Windows-based programs. Here's how:
If you still have no sound, run the Audio Troubleshooter, which may automatically fix your laptop's audio problems.
Protect your laptop and all of your other favorite home tech with Asurion Home+. For less than $1/day, you'll get fast repairs for your laptop from trusted experts whenever you need them—no matter where you bought it or the brand. To learn more about laptop protection plans, visit asurion.com/homeplus.
*The Asurion® trademarks and logos are the property of Asurion, LLC. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Asurion is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any of the respective owners of the other trademarks appearing herein.*
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At some point, you might have faced this issue–there is no sound in Windows 10/8/7. If you’re facing a problem like No Sound, and want to know why does my laptop suddenly has no sound; this tutorial can help you to solve the problem. Just make sure that you plugged all the cables correctly and didn’t mute the speakers by mistake before you start.
Over the years, I’ve had many problems with my laptop, and the audio has been one of the biggest challenges. Sometimes it’d just stop working at random — a driver issue at times, Windows at times, hardware at times, etc. Besides, if you try to connect your laptop to external speakers or headphones, you might end up with a mobile device.
In this article, you’ll see different possible reasons why your laptop suddenly has no sound and what you can do to fix it.
Method 1 – Check Volume Controls
Why my laptop suddenly has no sound? As obvious as it sounds, if you’re using these, you should probably check the volume controls in Windows and on your external speakers.
It’s ridiculous how many times people mistakenly press their keyboard’s mute button, and then they can’t figure out why there’s no sound. Although those keys are meant to make it more convenient to mutate your Sound, I found that it ends up causing more grief because people don’t realize what they’ve just done.
Click on the audio icon on the system tray in Windows and make sure that there is no red circle going through it with a cross. Also, if it’s very low, make sure you raise the volume bar to something higher.
Make sure that you turn up the dial for the volume for external speakers. Even if your sound on the laptop is working, if the dial is turned down on the speaker itself, you’re not going to hear anything. Also, ensure that the speakers are correctly connected to the power outlet.
The connection on the back can sometimes become loose, and you have to push the power cord into the speaker. Furthermore, check the audio cable and ensure that it is correctly connected to the speakers and the PC.
Method 2 – Check Volume in Application
The second simple check that you want to perform is to make sure you don’t mute the sound in the program that you run. Many programs have control over their volume. If you’re watching a DVD movie, for example, then probably the DVD player app will also have sound control! So you have to make sure it’s coming up. Or if you’re watching a YouTube video, the volume in the YouTube player will need to turn up.
You can mute the volume on YouTube for a video. If your speakers are turned up, it won’t matter, no sound will come through. So check the volume controls again and then check that nothing in Windows or in the app itself that plays the audio is silenced.
Method 3 – Restart Windows
If your laptop suddenly has no sound; you never know what issues the OS can cause itself with Windows. If you have audio problems, restart the computer once to see if that fixes the problem is always worth it. Many times that will clear up strange issues that begin to happen if your computer has been on for a long time.
Method 4 – Sound Drivers
Now for the things that are more fun. If everything is OK from above, it may involve more of the issue. The next thing you should try is to check your drivers for sound. Go to Device Manager [Press Start, then type device manager] and click on controllers for audio, video, and game.
First, we want to make sure that next to the sound devices, there is no yellow or red exclamation point. If there’s one, you may miss a driver. You should still try to upgrade your sound card drivers if there are no exclamation points.
The best thing to do is see which manufacturer and model are in the Device Manager, then go to the website and download the latest drivers for your Windows version.
Method 5 – Check Cable Connections
If you have audio problems with your headphones or speakers, you should also check the ports to which the speakers or headphones have been connected.
You want the Line-out port to connect your speakers or headphones. On the other hand, if your computer speakers can’t hear anything, it might be because you’ve got something plugged into the line-out port.
It will immediately stop the audio from playing through the normal computer speakers when something is connected to line-out. So check the ports and make sure that everything is appropriately connected, depending on your audio problem.
Also, if you have a video card that supports HDMI and you use an HDMI cable to connect to your monitor with built-in speakers from your computer, then your audio may be gone because the HDMI video card is not the default audio device.
By going to Control Panel & then sound, you can change this. Click the Playback tab and search for a device with the “speaker” label followed by the device’s name with the HDMI words in it.
Select it, and then click the Default Set button. This will ensure that the sound reaches your monitor through the HDMI cable. Also, if you have a PC with a separate sound card, plus built-in audio on the motherboard, you must make sure that the sound card is installed and the correct output device is picked on the Playback tab.
Finally, if you connect headphones and you can’t hear anything, but you can listen to sound through the internal laptop speakers when you disconnect them, you need to go to the Playback tab in the screenshot above and set your headphones as the default audio device.
Before you open the Sound Control Panel applet, make sure you connect them to the computer first.
Method 6 – Try the Microsoft Fix-It Troubleshooters
Microsoft has a few Fixit solutions just for Windows audio problems. They’ve got a problem-solver for sound playback:
//support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2970908/how-to-use-microsoft-easy-fix-solutions
Select the first link to find and fix playback sounds, then find and fix device and hardware problems. These fix common issues with sound and hardware on Windows PCs. If it’s something simple, it’ll save you some time.
Windows also has a built-in audio problem troubleshooter. Just click Start, type troubleshooting, and click Enter.
At the top, one called Playing Audio should be seen. To run the troubleshooter, click on that.
Method 7 – Update Your BIOS
Some laptops from Sony and Toshiba have a problem where you need to update the BIOS to get the sound to work. This will happen if you upgraded your computer to Windows 7 or downloaded some updates and the sound stopped working all of a sudden. If nothing worked above, it might be old BIOS. Go to the site of the PC manufacturer and download your computer with the latest BIOS.
You can also go to the BIOS and make sure the sound card is enabled. The sound device is sometimes disabled in the BIOS, so nothing you do in Windows will make a difference.
Method 8 – Delete Sound Device Driver, then Reinstall
The other thing you can try is resetting the Windows sound device. You can perform this by going to Device Manager & right-clicking and uninstalling the audio device.
Disable enhancements Right-click the Default Device and select Properties from the Sound Control Panel on the Playback tab. Select Disable all enhancements on the Enhancements tab and see if your audio device can be played. If it helps, great, do this for each device by default, and see if there is any help.
Go ahead & restart the computer, and Windows will reinstall the sound device automatically. In some cases, this can fix your sound problem.
Final Words
Now, you won’t ask, why does my laptop suddenly have no sound? Because the sound on your laptop is working now!