Audio Mixer in Windows based systems may sometimes fail to launch.This happens if the sound card drivers are not properly installed. One therefore has to do the appropriate installation by downloading from the manufacturer's website or that of the motherboard's maker if the sound card is an in-built one. This how-to will guide you through enabling audio in your Windows Server 2012 R2. This is a quick and easy process and should take less than five minutes. Our guide will show how to enable audio by using the Server Manager on Windows Server 2012 R2.

• Install Windows Audio Service

If you see a red X mark on the Speaker icon in the Notification Area, and when you hover over the icon, you see a message The Audio Service is not running on your Windows 10/8/7 PC then here are a few things you need to take a look at.

The Audio Service is not running

1] Check the status of Windows Services

Run services.msc to open the Windows Services Manager . Scroll down to Windows Audio Service and double-click on it to open its Properties. This Service manages audio for Windows-based programs. If this service is stopped, audio devices and effects will not function properly. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start

Set the Startup Type to Automatic and click on the Start button. If it already started, Stop it and then Start it again.

You should ensure that its Dependency Services are started and have Automatic Startup type:

1. Remote Procedure Call
2. Windows Audio Endpoint Builder

If the Multimedia Class Scheduler Service is present on your system, that too should be Started and set on Automatic.

Multimedia Class Scheduler Service (MMCSS) is a Windows service that allows multimedia applications to get prioritized access to CPU for time-sensitive processing (such as multimedia applications) as well as prioritized disc access to ensure that the process is not starved of data to process.

2] Run Playing Audio Troubleshooter

Windows 10 includes the Playing Audio Troubleshooter, which you can easily invoke via the Control Panel, the Taskbar Search or the Troubleshooters tab of our freeware FixWin 10. You can also access from the from the Troubleshooters Page in Windows 10.

Run it and see if it can fix your problem.

3] Troubleshoot in Clean Boot State

A Clean Boot is used to diagnose and later troubleshoot issues with your system. During a Clean Boot, we start the system with a minimal number of drivers and startup programs which helps isolate the cause with interfering software.

Once you have booted in the Clean Boot State, enable one process after another and see which process makes the problem appear. Thus you can find the offender.

See this post if Windows could not start the Windows Audio service on Local Computer and this one if The Audio service is not running, but you still have sound!

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This post will focus on how to fix the No audio output device is installed Windows 10 error when you mouse over to the speaker icon (with a red cross on it) on the task bar, particularly after Windows 10 update. It could also appear as “No speakers or headphones are plugged in” error.

Though the solutions listed below focus on cases that happen after Windows update, if you have the similar issue after other occasions, you can also use the same solutions to troubleshoot your audio problem.

The No audio output device is installed Windows 10 error is especially common in HP, Dell XPS 13, Toshiba, Lenovo Yoga, and Asus laptops.

Install Windows Audio Service

Fix: No Audio Output Device Is Installed Windows 10 After Update

The error message basically indicates that Windows 10 is unable to detect any audio device in your system. It may be due to something has unintentionally disabled your audio device, incorrect audio drivers, audio connectivity issue, or audio hardware failure.

Enable your audio device

Windows update will sometimes mistakenly disable devices, including your audio output devices. If your audio device works fine before the update and only starts to show No audio output device is installed Windows 10 after update, it could mean the update disabled your audio device by mistake.

Here’s how to re-enable your audio device:

1. Go to start menu.
2. Search for Device Manager and open it.
3. Expand Sound, video and game controllers.
4. Right-click your audio device, then select Enable device.

A request for the usb device descriptor failed.. If you have multiple audio devices listed under the category, just enable all of them. Restart your PC and verify if the No audio output device is installed problem persists.

If you don’t see your audio device, or even the entire sound controller category from the list, go to the next method, or try the fixes in this guide – Sound Not Working on Windows 10 After Update.

Manually reinstall the audio driver

If you your audio device is not listed in device manager, it means that your audio device’s driver is not installed (or was mistakenly removed by Windows update), thus, resulting in No audio output device is installed Windows 10 error.

You will have to reinstall the audio driver. If you have a driver CD with you, install it. Otherwise, try to search for the driver from your device manufacturer’s website.

If you have no idea where to download the driver, you can try to manually install your audio driver by using the add legacy hardware option in Windows 10. To do this, follow the steps below.

1. Go to start menu.
2. Search and open Device Manager.
3. Select Sound, video and game controllers.
4. Click on Action from the menu, then select Add legacy hardware.
5. Click Next.
6. For now, you should try the first option first – Search for and install the hardware automatically (Recommended).
7. If the wizard can’t find anything, click Next.
8. Under Common hardware types, select Sound, video and game controllers.
9. If you know the manufacturer and model of your sound card, select it. Otherwise, select Realtek High Definition Audio as instructed below.
10. Click Next to begin the installation.

When the installation is complete, restart your computer and see if the No audio output device is installed Windows 10 error is fixed.

Uninstall the sound driver

The other method to fix this is to uninstall your sound driver if you can see it in Device Manager. When Windows a new device, it will automatically scan and install the best matched driver for your audio output device.

Open Device Manager. Right-click your audio device / sound card under Sound, video and game controllers. Select Uninstall device. Restart your computer and see if Windows can detect and install your audio driver automatically. Most of the time it’ll be able to detect and install the right driver for your audio, unless if the audio device or the sound card is broken.

If it doesn’t, try to run Windows Update again to let it install the missing driver from Windows driver repository. Alternatively, you can go back to the Device Manager and look for any audio output device with a question mark. Right-click the audio device and then select “Update driver”.

If no audio device can be detected, you need to check on your audio device’s connection – whether it is correctly plugged in to your PC or not. Also, you may need to update your motherboard’s chipset driver and any sound controller driver from the manufacturer’s website.

After trying all the fixes and you’re still getting the No audio output device is installed Windows 10 after update, or No speakers or headphones are plugged in error, drop us a comment and we’ll try to help.

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Description for sharing: If you see 'No audio output device is installed Windows 10' error when you mouse over to speaker icon after update, here's how to fix it.