Sound problems after Windows 10 install

May 16, 2020 11:50 AM

I recently upgraded Windows from 8.1 to 10, and no matter how many times I set my default to speakers coming from a jack in the back of my desktop to a Pioneer stereo amp with speakers, Windows 10 won't recognize that when I shut down and start my computer again. I have to go through the troubleshooter and restart to have sound again. What's the fix?
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Have you tried disabling the audio outputs you don't use?
posted by Aleyn at 7:17 PM on May 16

Yes, I had done that. I just deleted them as well, and will let you know if that works.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 8:30 PM on May 16

Nope. Restarted and no sound again.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 8:39 PM on May 16

Had to go through the troubleshooting routine again to make it work. Annoying that it doesn't stick.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 8:46 PM on May 16

Something to try, a variation of steps Aleyn cited: Right click Start. Select Device Manager. Expand Sound, video and game controllers. Ignore any "Virtual Audio Device" entries. More than one audio device probably remains and that's the problem. For each non-virtual device, right click it and select Uninstall Device > Delete the driver software for this device. Reboot. Re-open Device Manager. The devices will be back. For each Intel device, right click and Disable it, leaving only one non-virtual device enabled. Whew. This still might revert with a major Windows update, but not so often as before.
posted by gregoreo at 3:33 AM on May 17

IIRC I had a similar problem, and I followed step one on this seemingly-irrelevant guide (disabling a Win 10 audio "feature"), and it cleared it right up. Again, IIRC, and of course YMMV.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 6:34 AM on May 17

SOLVED. I eventually got the sound to work by disabling a front jack that was somehow interfering.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:11 PM on May 19