Our laptops and PCs may stop working without our knowledge. These problems seem even bigger now because everything has shifted online. From meetings to classes everything is happening online.

These small issues can cause hindrance in our professional or academic life. If you use Windows 10 there is one specific problem that is very common in it. The problem of “The Audio Service is not running”.

Many Windows 10 users face the problem of dysfunction of the audio services. It may stop suddenly without any particular reason. And the biggest challenge is that one might not have the time to visit a service centre.

This audio service problem can be noticed through a red X over the volume icon in the taskbar. When you click on the volume button, you can see a pop that says “The Audio Service is not running”.

Even Windows 7, the most successful iterations of the Windows Operating System face this problem quite often. This problem acts as an obstacle to playing audios with or without headphones/speakers.

The main reason why this problem arises is Windows Audio services. It may be because of this or because of other dependencies. They might have either stopped suddenly for some unknown reason or the failure must have happened while initially botting your system.

The most basic and easy solution to solve this problem can be restarting your system. However, restarting may not work every time and it is not a permanent solution. The disrupted audio problem can also be solved at home in some cases through various other methods.

All you need is to run some tests or perform some steps and your problem might just get solved.

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How to Fix The Audio Service is not running Windows 10

Here’s a list of 6 solutions which can solve the Audio problem. These solutions are more concrete and permanent. The 6 most effective are given below.

Solution 1: Simply increase or decrease your computer’s volume

This is a widely faced problem. The people who have comprehensive knowledge about the Windows system are well aware of the fact that this problem can be solved through a simple solution.

The simplest solution is increasing or decreasing your computer’s volume. Yes, that’s exactly what you need to do sometimes. You need to follow the given steps to use this solution effectively:

  1. Go to the taskbar and click the Sound icon- the one which displayed the red X. After clicking on the Sound icon, a slider will emerge. This slider enables you to increase or decrease volume.
  2. Next, try increasing or decreasing the volume. Sliding the slider, a little will also work.
  3. After completing the second step, the red X should immediately disappear in the taskbar.

If this solution has successfully worked, the pop-up message of “The Audio Service is not running” will no longer appear when you move your mouse pointer over the volume pop-up.

Solution 2: Restart the Windows Audio service and all of its dependencies

The second most effective solution is restarting the Windows Audio service and two or three of its dependencies.

You have to keep in mind that these dependencies are set to automatically start when you reboot your computer. You need to follow the following steps to complete the process:

  1. Click the Window Key and press R along with it. A dialogue box will appear.
  2. In the dialogue box, type services.msc.
  3. Look for the following options:  a. Window Audio service b. Window Audio Endpoint Builder service c. Multimedia Class Scheduler service.
  4. One by one, click on the above-mentioned options and set their Start-up type to Automatic.
  5. Then right-click on the given services.
  6. Click on Restart in the resulting menus.

Soon after you restart the listed services, they red X will disappear from the Sound icon in the taskbar. Your audio services will start running just like before and you will not see the pop-up message “The Audio Service is not running” again.

Solution 3: Changing Log-On Settings

Some user accounts may be permitted to log on to the computer and use the Audio services. Whereas, others might not. In such a situation you have to change the log-on settings. Below given steps will help you do so:

  1. Press the Window key and R together once again.
  2. A run dialogue box will appear.
  3. Type “services.msc” in it and press enter.
  4. Look for the “Windows Audio” option and right-click.
  5. Search for the “Log-On” tab. Here you will find the “Local System Account” option. Select this instead of the “This Account” option.
  6. Check if the red X still appears on the Sound icon in the taskbar.
  7. If the problem still exists, check the “This Account” option and type “Local Audio” in the text box.
  8. Next, you will need to create a password of your choice and confirm it.
  9. Finally, click on “Apply” and then “OK”.
  10. Check the Sound icon again for the red X.

The problem will resolve with this solution. But if it doesn’t, head on to Solution 4.

Solution 4: Scanning for Changes

Sometimes your sound system may acquire some corrupt configurations or files. This can affect your system and cause a glitch or lead to dysfunction of the communication system between the driver and the hardware.

For correcting this you will need to uninstall the driver and install it again from the device manager. The following steps will help you resolve this problem:

  1. By clicking on the Window key and R simultaneously, open the Run dialogue box again.
  2. Type “devmgmt.msc” in the text box and enter.
  3. A window for the Device Manager will open.
  4. Search for the “Sound, Video and Game Controllers” option and expand it.
  5. Right-click and click on the uninstall option.
  6. Let the driver finish the uninstalling process.
  7. Next click on the “Scan Hardware Changes” options.
  8. After clicking it, the device manager will automatically reinstall this driver.
  9. Head on to the taskbar and check if you can still see the red X on the Sound icon.
  10. If the problem continues to exist, right-click on the driver and select “Properties”.
  11. Click on the “Driver Details” and select “Rollback Driver”.
  12. Again, go over to the taskbar and see if the red X has disappeared.

This solution will also give you a permanent solution. If not, check out the remaining two options.

Solution 5: Troubleshooting Audio

Sometimes the audio configurations get changed without our knowledge. It can either happen automatically or we might have mistakenly changed it. In some rare cases, it may also happen while installing an application on your computer. To solve this, you need to perform the following steps:

  1. To open settings, press the Windows key and “I” together.
  2. Look for the “Update and Security” option and then select “Troubleshoot” from the left pane.
  3. The Troubleshoot window will open.
  4. Click on “Playing audio”.
  5. Next, select the “Run the Troubleshooter” option.
  6. Once again, head over to the taskbar to check if the problem still exists.

Solution 6: Running some Commands

Some messed up local account configurations can also trigger the problem in sound. This step will tell you how to solve that problem by running some command prompt.
For this, follow the given steps:

  1. For the last time, open the Run dialogue box by pressing the Window Key and R simultaneously.
  2. Type “cmd” in the text box.
  3. Next, press “shift” + “control” + “enter” to give administrative privileges.
  4. In the command prompt type, the below-given command:

net localgroup Administrators /add networkservice

net localgroup Administrators /add localservice

SC config Audiosrv start= auto

REG ADD “HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Audiosrv” /V start /T REG_DWORD /D 2 /F

secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbos

Enter this command one by one and press enter to execute them.

  1. After this, check the sound icon in the taskbar once again to see if the problem still exists.

Conclusion

All the above-given solutions will solve your problem permanently. In case the problem arises again, you can come back to these steps and resolve your problem again.

Also, make sure to check the sound in safe mode. Sometimes there may be some third-party interference in the audio services. And make sure to reinstall the drivers again.

If the given solutions can’t solve your problem, you can also try the Restore Repair Tool. it will scan for repositories and replace the corrupt and missing files.

This tool will work in case the issue has originated because of system corruption.

It is very unlikely that the problem will persist after performing the given solutions. If it does, you should get it checked at a service center by a professional. If there is a problem with the system and it is still under warranty, changes the company might replace it.

These methods have helped hundreds of people facing the same problem and will for sure save your day as well.  These are the most effective methods.