Windows 8 occasional no sound problem. The device is being used by another application.

Question

Hi,

I have been having sound problems with the speakers on an HP Ultrabook running Windows 8. Occasionally the laptop speakers stop working. When this occurs, I go to Control Panel>Sound, select the speakers(only one set to select), select Configure and Test. After selecting Test, I receive the message Device In Use. The device is being used by another application. Please close any devices that are playing audio to this device and then try again. I've gone to Properties for the speakers, Advanced tab and unchecked option "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device". I've also used Run sndvol to try to determine the application, but it only shows Device:Speakers/HP and Applications:System Sounds.

The only way I've been able to get the speakers to work is to reboot or disable and enable the driver for the IDT High Definition Audio CODEC. Does anyone know of a way to determine the application causing the problem? Thanks in advance for your help.

Gary

Answer 1

Go to device manager, select the audio device/driver and click scan for hardware changes.

voiala! sounds stupid but works for me.

Answer 2

On the HP Community forum an HP tech found that uninstalling Microsoft update KB2962407 should fix the problem.  This update has a fix that states "Shortened battery life when an idle audio device is not turned off on a computer running Windows".  I installed this update on June 19.  I don't have any July updates installed, so uninstalling July updates may not fix the problem.

Answer 3

Hi Gary,

Even i'm facing the same problem with my lenovo laptop....i am fed up literally with this issue.

Could you please update me if you find any solution... mail me at ******@gmail.com

Thanks & Regards,

Mahesh G

Hi,

I have been having sound problems with the speakers on an HP Ultrabook running Windows 8. Occasionally the laptop speakers stop working. When this occurs, I go to Control Panel>Sound, select the speakers(only one set to select), select Configure and Test. After selecting Test, I receive the message Device In Use. The device is being used by another application. Please close any devices that are playing audio to this device and then try again. I've gone to Properties for the speakers, Advanced tab and unchecked option "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device". I've also used Run sndvol to try to determine the application, but it only shows Device:Speakers/HP and Applications:System Sounds.

The only way I've been able to get the speakers to work is to reboot or disable and enable the driver for the IDT High Definition Audio CODEC. Does anyone know of a way to determine the application causing the problem? Thanks in advance for your help.

Gary

Answer 4

I have the same problem. It is a very recent problem, I believe it all started after the forced windwos 8 updates.

Answer 5

Yes, I have the same problem. I think it has to do with windows 8 most recent updates.