the audio service is not running

How To Fix The Audio Service Is Not Running

The Audio Service is not running is a very common error in windows. This means that the sound processing service has been discontinued and cannot be automatically launched. This causes the computer to run without audio and you won’t be able to notice sound in your speakers or in your headset while you play media on your computer.

A number of Windows users have encountered and continue to suffer from a certain problem in which the sound icon in their taskbar gets a red X in the bottom right-hand corner. If a Windows user with this problem places a mouse pointer in the taskbar over the Sound icon, they will get a message stating: The Audio Service is not running

This problem is most frequently found with Windows 7, one of the best versions ever developed for Windows Operating System, although it does affect other Windows OS versions sometimes. Nearly any Windows user afflicted by this problem is able to play audio on their own device from all attached speakers/headphones successfully, but still, the Sound icon is a red X in their taskbar, and the audio service on their computer, known as the Windows Audio Service – is not running.

In nearly all situations, the source of the issue is that the Windows Audio service or its related services either fails randomly for some reason or doesn’t start automatically when you first start the system up and, this often triggers the Audio Services not responding Error. Many users with this issue will mitigate it by only restarting their device. This is not a realistic approach to this issue, though; it is uncomfortable to restart your system every time this error occurs. Fortunately, though, there are still many lasting ways of fixing this issue and getting rid of the message ‘The Audio Service is not running,’ and the most efficient are:

Adjust your Computer’s Audio

To overcome an issue where many passionate Windows computer users found themselves failing, many Windows users affected by this problem were able to address it by using a quick and amusing solution – by changing the volume of their computer even to the slightest degree. Many users who were troubled in the past by this issue have succeeded in solving it simply by increasing or reducing the volume of their computers. To use this solution to resolve this problem, you need:

  1. Click on the sound icon (at the very right corner of the taskbar) -This will display a small volume control you can use to change the volume of your system.
  2. Now either increase or decrease the computer’s volume.
  3. This should remove the red X from your taskbar on the Sound icon automatically, and you should no longer have “The Audio Service is not running” error.  

Modify the Audio Related Services

Possibly the incorrect status of the Windows audio service and any other dependencies are causing this issue. Fixing the status should solve the problem.

Follow the steps below to modify the audio-related services settings

  1. Press Windows key + R to open a run command box   
  2. Type services.msc in the box and hit Enter 
  3. Now click on Windows Audio, then Restart  
  4. Right-click on Windows Audio and select Properties 
  5. Select Automatic in Startup Type option
  6. Click on Apply, then OK
  7. Restart Windows Audio Endpoint Builder and Multimedia Class Scheduler services through the same method
  8. Now try playing music or a video to see if it resolves the issue  

Change Your Log – On Settings

In certain instances, services may be enabled to connect to a specific computer account but may not be configured to log in to the actual user account. Therefore, in this method, we will adjust the login settings.  

  • Press Windows key + R to open a run command box  
  • Type services.msc in the box and hit Enter 
  • Right-click on Windows Audio
  • Now click on the Log – on tab and select Local System Account
  • Check if the audio is running
  • Check This Account option if the audio is not running and type Local Service in the box 
  • Now type password in password and confirm password boxes  
  • Click on Apply and then on OK
  • Check if it resolves the issue  

Uninstall Audio Driver  

The old or outdated audio driver on your Windows 10 could trigger this issue. Therefore, we will uninstall and then reinstall the driver from the system manager in this method.

  • Press Windows key + R to open a run command box    
  • Type Devmgmt.msc in the box and hit Enter   
  • Click on Sound, Video and Game Controllers option in the device manager 
  • Right-click on Audio Driver that currently in use and select Uninstall
  • Now check if the issue remains
  • If it does, right-click on driver and choose Properties
  • Click Driver Details and select Rollback Driver
  • Check if it resolves the issue, and if it does not, repeat the steps above and select Update Driver 

Troubleshooting Audio

Sometimes audio configuration becomes corrupted by manual or automatic changes. Therefore, troubleshooting the audio may fix this issue.

  • Open the settings by pressing Windows key + I
  • Click on Update and Security and select Troubleshoot 
  • Now click on Playing Audio and select Run the Troubleshooter option

Troubleshooter option

  • Check if it resolves the issue 
  • Select a reason for the driver rollback.
  • Click Yes to initiate the update process.
  • Once the update completes successfully, restart your computer and check if the issue persists. 

If the button is inaccessible and grayed out, then this means that your computer does have access to an older driver. In this case, you would have to check the manufacturer’s website for an older version and then install it manually. Once the older version is successfully installed manually, restart your computer and check whether or not the Audio Service Not Running issue is fixed.

Running Commands  

Incorrect local account configurations may also lead to this error. Therefore, running some commands can fix this error. 

  • Press Windows key + R to open a run command box 
  • Type cmd in the box and hit Enter
  • Type the below commands one by one and hit Enter

net localgroup Administrators /add networkservice

net localgroup Administrators /add localservice

SC config Audiosrv start= auto

REG ADD “HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Audiosrv” /V start /T REG_DWORD /D 2 /F

secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose

  • See if it resolves the issue

This is how you will see the error gone forever. Use these simple methods to fix Audio service error and let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. 

Read Also