Windows 10: My Realtek speakers randomly stopped working.

Troubleshoot sound problems in Windows

:)

 

External speakers stopped working

Two days ago the external speakers (cheap Altec Lansing speakers) on my Dell laptop just stopped working. At that time, they were appearing in the device list. But I couldn't get them to work. The built-in speakers in the laptop were working. That night I restarted the computer to install some Windows updates. After restarting, the external speakers still were not working. Internal speakers are still working. Now the externals don't show at all in the list. I connected these speakers to another computer and they work fine. I connected a flash drive to the USB port to which the external speakers were connected to test the port and it works. Unfortunately, I don't have anything handy to test the 3.5m headphone jack. (These are 2-connector speakers, a USB and a 3.5.) What to do from here? Everything I read says update the driver but these speakers don't use a driver. I'm afraid if I buy new speakers it will be the same problem. Why won't my computer recognize these speakers? I can get by with the built-ins but they are so tinny-sounding.

 

Bose Speakers Stopped Working

Your latest post says "Audio". Is this what you're mentioning? If not, then try this: Is your Bose Speakers listed here?

If so, select it, and try playing audio.

 

Sennheiser GSP 350. Microphone stops working when I open any game

Wow, ok. I think I've fixed it by accident while fiddling around.

It appears to be the Realtek audio being the issue here. I don't use my onboard sound card as my headset is a USB headset only and my speakers are plugged into an ASUS sound card.

Step by step fix:

• I went into recording devices
• I enabled STEREO MIX (Realtek High Definition Audio)
• Then I set that Stereo Mix as the DEFAULT DEVICE (At this point it took over both input and output devices without my permission )
• Then set my Sennheiser headset as default recording and playback devices in their respective windows even though they both still said they were the default devices when they weren't

Headset microphone is currently functioning while in game now. I'll update the thread if it goes again. Should I completely disable Realtek audio??? Or will windows just force it to work again?