No sound , and corrupted system after updates!

Question

no audio on my PC. And can't even restore those updates, because it has corrupted the whole system. My windows is unable to update or restore.

Answer 1

Hi Luboslava,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A Forum. I understand you are experiencing no sound on your PC and that recent Windows updates appear to have corrupted the system, preventing updates or restore from working.

Please make sure you already tried the Q&A Assist steps. In addition, please try the following.

Before we proceed, I would like to narrow this down a bit to better understand the scope of the issue:

1. Are you currently able to sign in to Windows normally, or does the issue occur before or during sign‑in?
2. Does this problem start immediately after a specific Windows update, or did it appear after a restart without a clear update prompt?

In the meantime, you can try these steps:

1, Run a system file check to repair corrupted Windows components

• Press Windows key + X and select Windows Terminal (Admin) or Command Prompt (Admin)
• Type sfc /scannow and press Enter
• Wait for the scan to complete and restart the PC

2, Repair the Windows image using DISM

• Open Windows Terminal (Admin) again
• Run these commands one by one:
  • DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
  • DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
  • DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
• Restart the PC after completion

3, Restart Windows audio services

• Press Windows key + R, type services.msc, and press Enter
• Locate Windows Audio and Windows Audio Endpoint Builder
• Right‑click each service and select Restart
• Test audio again

4, Check if audio devices are disabled

• Right‑click the speaker icon in the taskbar and select Sound settings
• Scroll down and select More sound settings
• Under the Playback tab, right‑click inside the list and enable Show Disabled Devices
• Enable the correct playback device and set it as default

5, Reset Windows Update components

• Open Windows Terminal (Admin)
• Stop update services by running:
  • net stop wuauserv
  • net stop bits
• Restart the PC and check Windows Update again

6, Use Advanced Startup repair

• Open Settings and go to System > Recovery
• Under Advanced startup, select Restart now
• Choose Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Repair
• Allow Windows to attempt automatic repair

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Answer 2

1

For the updates problem:

If you are using Windows 11, open the Settings App.

Go to System - Recovery.

Click the #Reinstall Now' button in the 'Fix problems with Windows Updates' section, then wait for that process to complete.

2

For the Audio Problem.

A

Right click your Start Button and open Device Manager.

Expand the Sound Video and Game COntrollers section.

Please provide a screenshot of that full Device Manager window.

B

Click your Start Button, then just type msinfo and press Enter, please provide a screenshot of the resulting System Information window.

Answer 3

Follow these steps on the affected Windows PC to address both the no‑sound issue and possible corruption from recent updates.

1. Check and set the correct audio output device (Windows 11/10)
   • Select Start > Settings > System > Sound.
   • In Output, select the device that should play sound (speakers/headset). This also sets it as the default output device.
   • If an external monitor without speakers is selected as default, change it to the actual speakers/headphones.
2. Install all pending Windows Updates and restart
   Even if updates are failing, first try the standard path:
   • Windows 11: Start > Settings > Windows Update > Check for updates.
   • Windows 10: Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Check for updates.
   • If updates are available, select Install now, then restart the PC and test audio.
   • After installation, if Update and restart / Update and shut down appears under Start > Power, choose one of those to apply updates.
3. Update the audio driver automatically
   • In the taskbar search box, type device manager and open it.
   • Expand Sound, video and game controllers.
   • Right‑click the sound card or audio device (speakers/headset) and select Update driver.
   • Choose:
     • Windows 11: Search automatically for drivers.
     • Windows 10: Search automatically for updated driver software.
   • Complete the wizard and test audio.
4. If automatic update fails, reinstall the audio driver
   • In Device Manager, under Sound, video and game controllers, right‑click the audio device and select Uninstall device.
   • Windows 11: check Attempt to remove the driver for this device.
   • Windows 10: check Delete the driver software for this device.
   • Select Uninstall.
   • Restart the PC (Start > Power > Restart). Windows will reinstall the audio driver automatically.
   • Test audio again.
5. Try the generic Windows audio driver (if vendor driver is causing issues)
   • Open Device Manager and expand Sound, video and game controllers.
   • Right‑click the audio device and select Update driver.
   • Choose Browse my computer for drivers > Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer (Windows 11 wording: “available drivers”; Windows 10 wording: “device drivers”).
   • Select the High Definition Audio Device (generic driver) and complete the wizard.
   • Test for sound.
6. If audio broke after a specific update, roll back the audio driver
   • Open Device Manager and expand Sound, video and game controllers.
   • Right‑click the sound card/audio device and select Properties.
   • Go to the Driver tab and select Roll Back Driver.
   • Follow the prompts and select Yes to roll back.
   • Test audio after the rollback.
7. If Windows Update and restore are failing (system corruption)
   When updates and restore are broken, use the driver‑level steps above first. If audio still fails and the system remains unstable, use system recovery options documented under Recovery options in Windows (for example, restoring from a system restore point created before the problematic updates).
   • Microsoft creates a restore point when installing updates; restoring from that point can revert both system files and drivers.
   • Follow the guidance in "Restore from a system restore point" in Recovery options in Windows to attempt repair.

If audio devices are missing entirely from Device Manager, install the correct audio driver package from the PC or motherboard manufacturer, then repeat steps 3–5.

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References:

• Fix sound or audio problems in Windows
• Troubleshoot Surface sound and audio accessories
• Audio issues after win11 25h2 update - Microsoft Q&A
• How to fix this. no audio device is installed - Microsoft Q&A
• My audio inputs and outputs suddenly disappeared, how do i fix this? - Microsoft Q&A