Audio services not responding.

Question

Audio services not responding.

thatlittledonut 0

My laptop's sound suddenly stopped working. At first, it was showing like red cross symbol in the sound icon but i managed to fix that by getting my windows audio running but for some reason, the sound is not responding, i can't hear anything with or without headphones.

I've tried troubleshooting but i just tells me audio services not responding.
Tried updating my audio driver.
Deleted my audio driver and installed it again.
Tried using another audio driver.
Tried using another version of my audio driver.
Had the exact same problem as this person but none of fixes worked for me even though it worked for them.

But nothing works. I use a pretty old asus laptop that uses the conexant smartaudio hd driver.

I am at my wits end and slowly losing my mind, someone please help.

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Answer 1

Francisco Montilla 30,620 Independent Advisor

Hello,

You have already done the right driver work. That error usually means the Windows audio stack itself is unhealthy, not the Conexant driver. Try to repair Windows system files and then hard-reset the audio services.

Open PowerShell as Administrator. Copy the block below, paste it as one shot, then press Enter. It will take a few minutes and your audio will briefly stop during the reset.

dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
sfc /scannow

Stop-Service -Name Audiosrv -Force
Stop-Service -Name AudioEndpointBuilder -Force
Stop-Process -Name audiodg -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Set-Service -Name AudioEndpointBuilder -StartupType Automatic
Set-Service -Name Audiosrv -StartupType Automatic
Start-Service AudioEndpointBuilder
Start-Service Audiosrv

When it finishes, reboot once. After the reboot, right-click the speaker icon, open Sound settings, pick your actual output device, click Device properties, then check Advanced and untick "Allow applications to take exclusive control" and "Disable all enhancements" if they are on. Test with a simple WAV or MP3.

If audio is still silent and the troubleshooter keeps saying audio services not responding, tell me exactly what DISM and SFC reported and whether AudioEndpointBuilder and Windows Audio both show Running in Services. I will give you the next step.

thatlittledonut 0 Reputation points

2025-09-18T12:04:29.3833333+00:00

If audio is still silent and the troubleshooter keeps saying audio services not responding, tell me exactly what DISM and SFC reported and whether AudioEndpointBuilder and Windows Audio both show Running in Services. I will give you the next step.

Audio is still silent and the troubleshooter keeps saying audio services not responding, DISM and SFC said that there was nothing wrong with the laptop, both audio services are running.

Francisco Montilla 30,620 Independent Advisor

Thanks for checking DISM and SFC. Since both services are running and the stack is healthy, the most likely cause is a corrupted or permission-blocked audio endpoint database. We will fix the registry ACLs that Windows Audio Endpoint Builder needs, reset the endpoint cache, and let Windows rebuild it cleanly.

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run this exact block. It backs up the key first, sets correct permissions, clears the Render and Capture caches, and restarts the audio stack.

reg export "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio" "%userprofile%\Desktop\Audio_MMDevices_backup.reg" /y

$root = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio'
$acl = Get-Acl $root
$iflags = [System.Security.AccessControl.InheritanceFlags]::ContainerInherit -bor [System.Security.AccessControl.InheritanceFlags]::ObjectInherit
$pflags = [System.Security.AccessControl.PropagationFlags]::None
$ruleLS = New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.RegistryAccessRule('NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE','FullControl',$iflags,$pflags,'Allow')
$ruleSYS = New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.RegistryAccessRule('NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM','FullControl',$iflags,$pflags,'Allow')
$acl.SetAccessRule($ruleLS)
$acl.SetAccessRule($ruleSYS)
Set-Acl -Path $root -AclObject $acl

Stop-Service Audiosrv -Force
Stop-Service AudioEndpointBuilder -Force

Remove-Item -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio\Render' -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Remove-Item -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio\Capture' -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Start-Service AudioEndpointBuilder
Start-Service Audiosrv

Reboot once, then open Sound settings, choose your output device, and test audio. If there is still no sound, tell me whether the Render and Capture folders were recreated under the registry path above and whether you now see your speakers or headphones listed in Sound control panel. I will take the next step from there.

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Audio services not responding.

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