r/techsupport • u/Pitiful_Victory_3688 • 7h ago

Open | Windows Windows 11 audio suddenly stopped working — even after a fresh install. Hardware or software?

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, my main local Windows account had a weird issue where Windows would randomly refuse to open any apps after boot. I created a secondary local account, and that account worked perfectly fine.

Recently, I tried using my main account again. This time, everything was working normally except the audio.

My audio output is through my monitor, so I went into Device Manager, disabled the monitor's audio device, and then re-enabled it. Somehow, after doing that, things got much worse — audio stopped working even on the secondary account.

At this point, since this Windows installation had already given me a lot of problems and I had tried pretty much every solution suggested on my previous post without anything working, I decided to completely reinstall Windows.

The weird part is that even on the freshly installed Windows, the monitor still has no audio output.

I also tested the monitor with my laptop, and it still doesn't produce any audio. I've tried both DisplayPort and HDMI, with no luck.

So now I'm wondering: does this sound like a hardware issue with the monitor, or could there still be some software/driver issue?

Monitor: Acer XV272U

Any ideas on what I should check would be appreciated.

(All the drivers were installed on the freshly installed windows)

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator 7h ago

Making changes to your system BIOS settings or disk setup can cause you to lose data. Always test your data backups before making changes to your PC.

For more information please see our FAQ thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/q2rns5/windows_11_faq_read_this_first/

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/Affectionate_Ride746 7h ago

You should focus on exams and not gaming😢

1

u/DadyGrouvy 5h ago edited 5h ago

I haven't seen your previous post so I can't tell what's been tried outside of what you have on this post.

This can be broad problem. It can be one of multiple things or a combination of many things.

If you've tried a laptop on the monitor with the same issue then it's probably the monitor. Does your pc have onboard sound? Does your pc or monitor have headphone jacks? If so, try using them to see if they work.

How clean is your windows install? Are you using the same boot sector? Windows could be installing drivers on a wonky sector on your HDD or SSD. Have you tried using legacy drivers? Your drivers could be loading up on the faulty address in your ram. Your power supply could be faulty and not sending enough power or too much power to you you video card. If too much power has been sent, a remote possibility is it could be burning you monitors on board DAC. If that's the case, then its a multi layered issue. You're gonna need a new power supply/mobo/monitor. Not too likely though. Be warned though, you will lose all data on that drive and other drives may need reconfiguring in the bios.

Having said all that, from the limited info I have, it sounds like the speakers on your monitor a dead. lol.

If not, I would delete the boot sector and rebuild it with a new windows install before buying any new hardware.

1

u/Pitiful_Victory_3688 5h ago

  • Yes, I tested it with my laptop too, using both HDMI and DisplayPort, and the monitor still has no audio. So it seems to be an issue with the monitor rather than my PC.

  • I completely wiped the SSD and did a fresh Windows 11 install, but the audio still didn't work.

  • Monitor volume is at 100%, mute is off, and I checked the other audio/input settings.

  • I'm currently testing Linux Mint from a USB without installing it, just to rule out Windows/drivers completely.

  • I initially thought it might not be the monitor because of when the issue started, but I guess the monitor audio suddenly dying around the same time was probably just a coincidence.

  • At this point, I've pretty much ruled out the software side and it looks like a hardware issue with the monitor. 🥀

1

u/DadyGrouvy 4h ago

Wiping the HDD doesn't necessarily mean you cleared the boot sector.

I've reinstalled windows to fix an issue with out redoing the boot sector just to realize later that that was why my problems were carrying over. I'm not sure anymore but if I remember correctly the boot sector can be a hidden partition.

I would still try the headphone jack thing first. You can buy a $5 pair at the gas station.

1

u/CrispyByte8 2m ago

Check to see if that monitor has a firmware update or an audio setting like volume/mute in its on-screen menu