Why don't I get sound from my computer?
Hi, everyone. Leo Notenboom here for AskLeo.com
it happens to all of us.
And interestingly enough,
sound is complicated enough that there are a number of reasons why you might just
find that you think there should be sound, but there isn't.
What I'm going to do is walk through an 11-step checklist for the most common
issues that prevent your computer from playing sound.
So here we are in Windows 11.
You'll notice we have a sound icon down here at the lower right.
This applies, by the way, to Windows 10 as well,
and I think even previous versions of Windows, but everything I'm showing you
here should apply in general to both Windows 10 and 11.
If you click on it, you get a nice little
display of a sound, a volume control and a speaker icon.
Here's a question. Does it have an X in front of it?
If that speaker has an X, your computer is completely muted.
That means it will not play sound no matter what.
You do need to make sure that it is not muted.
Now, this may seem really obvious,
but the fact is the number of times that people come back to me embarrassed
saying, Oh, that's what it was, is actually more than you might think.
Very quickly, it's an easy one.
If it solves the problem, great.
Another one is to understand that this is a volume slider.
What you need to check for is to make sure that it is basically as far to the right
as possible before you make any decisions, because if it is low,
especially if it's low or completely off, you can see that that, too, is muting it.
What I hear from some people is that if it's low enough,
their speakers won't play it or they won't notice that it's being played because it
is so low compared to the noise around them.
So make sure that this is at 100 before you decide that things aren't working.
Speaking of your speakers, and this is one that I can't show you,
but I do want to talk about because, again, it's embarrassingly common.
Are the speakers connected?
I'm sorry, but do check, really.
Again, it's one of those things that is
very, very common and somewhat embarrassing when people come to me
saying, Yep, that was the problem all along.
In that same vein, some computer speakers expect there to be separate power.
Now, they may work without power.
Usually, if that's the case, the volume is greatly diminished.
But even if there is volume, some speakers require power to work at all.
I know mine do here at my desktop.
Make sure that the power is plugged
in both into your line's power or wherever you're getting power from
and to the speakers themselves, and that the power is turned on,
especially if it has a separate switch, that can be an issue.
We've talked about the volume.
We do need to talk about something that I think a lot of people don't realize is
present, and that is something called the mixer.
I'm going to right-click on the speaker
icon, and this time I'm going to open the volume mixer.
Now, I will say that this does look
differently in Windows 10, but the concept is very much the same.
You can see here that we have our same
mute and volume control here that we've been playing with.
But we also have a list of apps,
apps that are currently running that have access to the speaker.
And what's interesting is that each app
can be muted on its own, and each app has its own volume control.
So especially if you find that
system sounds are coming out just fine, but there's that one specific app that no
matter what you do, it can't play sound, come here, have a look.
Make sure that that app is listed,
that it's not muted, and that its volume is set appropriately.
This is one that catches a lot of people by surprise.
In that same vein, you'll notice that I have VLC Media Player playing here.
I'm going to let it loop on something here a little while.
I've got the volume intentionally turned down so that it's not going to interfere.
But the bottom line here is that
VLC Media Player also has its own volume control and its own mute button.
Now, in this case, specifically for VLC, if we play with the volume control,
you'll notice that the system sound volume mixer equivalent is moving with it.
By that I mean that these are essentially
two instances of the same volume control specifically for that application.
If I take it to 100 in the volume mixer, you can see it's at 100 % in VLC.
That's not always the case.
In other words, some applications will
have their own separate volume control that is not the same as in the mixer.
What that means is that you have three places so far in software
that you could potentially be muting or reducing the volume.
The application could be muted or its volume could be low.
The application in the mixer could be muted or the volume could be low.
Or the system audio could be muted or the volume could be low.
So you need to make sure to check all three places.
Another one that catches people by surprise is this output device.
Now, in my case,
I really only have the one output device on this virtual machine.
But it's not at all uncommon to have more than one, especially, for example,
if you have external speakers, but you also have speakers built into your
monitor, or you also have an additional set of speakers connected some other way,
you may be outputting to the wrong speakers.
So make sure that the output device is the one you expect it to be.
You can also see the output device.
You don't have to go to volume mixer.
If you simply click on the speaker icon,
you'll see here that off to the right is this other icon, and that is, in fact,
the opportunity for you to select the sound output.
Again, I only have the one on this virtual machine, but for example,
on my real desktop, I have both speakers and my headphones.
And I will switch between the two,
depending on what's going on and what I'm doing.
But sometimes if I forget
the sound is coming out of the wrong device and especially if it's
the headphones, I may not hear it if I'm not wearing them.
That same issue is true, for example, in the applications you might be running.
Some applications also allow you to choose the specific output device.
Sometimes, usually,
it'll be the same device as your system as you've selected here in the sound control.
But sometimes those applications allow you to choose a different output.
What that means is that your system
and all of the other applications may be outputting to your speakers.
But that one application will allow you
to choose a different output device, and it's sending its sound to that device.
If you don't realize it,
it may seem like the output device or that application isn't working.
The most common scenario that I've run into this recently,
like in the last few years, is with Zoom and other teleconferencing apps.
I will typically leave my normal sound on my normal speakers.
But when I'm in a conference call, I will put on the headphones.
That way, all of Zoom sound is coming
in through my headphones and not through everything else.
That is the selection I make within Zoom.
So definitely check the applications you're running, the application that you
expect sound from, to make sure that the right output device is selected.
Another one that's a little bit less obvious and honestly less common is,
are the drivers for your sound device as up to date as possible?
In Windows, of course,
that means doing Windows update until there are no more updates available.
But even then, sometimes depending on your
hardware, it might make sense for you to check with the manufacturer
of that specific sound device to see if they have even more up to date drivers
that could potentially impact its ability to play sound on your machine.
Finally, the cable is connecting the speakers.
There's two things I want you to look for,
especially when they are external speakers, and that is, are they damaged?
Have they been cracked?
Has your cat chewed on them?
Is there something bad about the cables?
It's one of those things that is so
incredibly easy to overlook and so incredibly easy to fix because you just
plug in new cables and all of a sudden things start to work.
The last one, are they even plugged in?
I don't necessarily mean that they're not
plugged in, but are they plugged in securely?
Certain in types of audio cables definitely have a scenario where they can
look like they're plugged in, but they're not completely plugged in.
Give them that little extra push into the device or into whatever it is
they're connecting to, and see if that doesn't make a difference.
I hope these steps have helped.
Like I said, there are so many things
that can get in the way of sound playing on your PC.
It's hard for me to point at, Go to this one, or, Do that.
But hopefully, with this checklist, we can run through the most common
scenarios and get that sound coming out of your machine.
For updates, for comments,
for links related to this topic and more, visit AskLeo.com/11930
or if you're on YouTube, see the description below.
I'm Leo Notenboom, and this is AskLeo.com.
thanks for watching.