sound is not working in my laptop

Question

please, how can I fix the sound on my laptop? it is not working and there is a cross symbol.

Answer 1

Follow these steps in order on the Windows laptop.

1. Check that Windows sees an audio device

• Select Start and type Device Manager, then open it.
• Expand Sound, video and game controllers.
  • If nothing is listed, or there is a warning icon, the audio driver is missing or not working. Continue with driver steps below.

2. Update the audio driver automatically
3. In Device Manager, under Sound, video and game controllers, right-click the audio device (for example, Realtek Audio, Intel SST, or similar).
4. Select Update driver.
5. Select Search automatically for drivers (Windows 11) or Search automatically for updated driver software (Windows 10).
6. Follow the prompts and then restart the PC if asked.
7. Reinstall the audio driver If updating does not fix the problem or the device shows an error:
8. In Device Manager, right-click the audio device under Sound, video and game controllers.
9. Select Uninstall device.
10. Check Attempt to remove the driver for this device (Windows 11) or Delete the driver software for this device (Windows 10), then select Uninstall.
11. Restart the PC (save any open work first). Windows will try to reinstall the audio driver automatically.
12. Try the generic Windows audio driver If sound still does not work:
13. Open Device Manager again and expand Sound, video and game controllers.
14. Right-click the audio device and select Update driver.
15. Select Browse my computer for drivers.
16. Select Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer (Windows 11) or Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer (Windows 10).
17. Choose the audio device from the list, select Next, and complete the installation.
18. If the issue started after a Windows Update If sound stopped working right after an update:
19. Open Device Manager → Sound, video and game controllers.
20. Right-click the audio device → Properties.
21. Go to the Driver tab and select Roll Back Driver.
22. Follow the instructions and select Yes to roll back.
23. If nothing above works Use a system restore point created before the problem started. See "Restore from a system restore point" in Recovery options in Windows.

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References:

• Fix sound or audio problems in Windows
• No audio with Windows 11 - Microsoft Q&A
• How to fix this. no audio device is installed - Microsoft Q&A
• cannot increase volume even if trouble shooter updates it - Microsoft Q&A
• I have no sound on an new LG Gram laptop - Microsoft Q&A
• Logitech G560 Speakers detect audio (volume bar moves) but no sound comes out - Microsoft Q&A

Answer 2

Try this:

Open Device Manager, and make sure you've audio drivers installed and properly working.

If no audio driver is listed, you can visit your device manufacturer's website to download and install audio drivers for your system model.

If audio driver is present, you can try updating audio drivers to latest version.

Or if you've already updated them, try to roll back previous version to see if that works.

Also, run Playing Audio troubleshooter from Settings app > System > Troubleshoot > Other troubleshooters. Let us know what it reports back.

Answer 3

Hi, I'm John! I will help you with this.

Is your laptop muted? Some laptops have a physical mute/unmute button or key. Try pressing that key, or Fn + the key with a speaker icon to unmute.

If issue persists please try to uninstall audio driver from Device Manager:

• Please open Device Manager by pressing the Windows key + X, then click "Device Manager".
• Expand the "Sound, video and game controllers section".
• Find Realtek(R) Audio or a similar audio driver, then right-click and choose Uninstall device.
• Once uninstalled, restart your PC, Windows will attempt to reinstall the driver automatically.

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If issue persists please let me know. I'm here to help you further.

Click "Add comment" to let me know.

Regards,

John J.D.