Audio Service is not running

[KevinJH]

Dear Sir / Madam

Product name: HP Pavilion Desktop PC 570-pO54na DT PC UK
Win 10 Home 64bit Vsn 19041.685
System board: 82F2 00
BIOS: F.46

A day or two ago I noticed the sound icon in the Taskbar had a white cross on a red background. Placing the cursor over it brings up the advisory 'The Audio Service is not running'. With no speakers ever attached and using only headphones, there is now no sound.

After running the Windows Troubleshooter the issue found was 'One or more audio service isn't running (not fixed)' also stating 'Both the Windows Audio and the Windows Audio End Point Builder services must be running for audio to work correctly. At least one of these services isn't running'

Going into Local Services, Windows Audio - trying to 'start' the Windows Audio displays another box stating; 'Services : Windows could not start the widows Audio service on Local Computer. Error 0x80070005: access is denied.

A check of the HP installed drivers shows that under Device 1, the Realtek HD Audio status is Enabled with driver RTKVHD64.sys version 6.0.1.799. Under Device 2, the AMD HD Audio Device is also Enabled with driver AtihdWT6.sys version 10.0.1.12.

However, checking in the Control Panel / Sound - it's advising me that 'No audio devices are installed'.

The last Windows updates:
Feature: 25/11/20
Quality: 11/12/20
Definition: 27/12/20 (Defender)
Other: 12/12/20 (.NET Framework)

I hope I've given you enough information to help resolve this issue but my sincere thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Kind regards,
Kevin H.

[KevinJH]

I'm guessing there's no-one currently available to respond to this query but here's an update;

still have no sound but have managed to get the 'no sound' indicator removed i.e. get the Audio Service restarted 

by changing the Windows 'Change Log On' settings thus:

Windows key + R
Type 'services.msc' and enter
Scroll down and double click 'Windows Audio'
In the Windows Audio Properties window that opens, go to the 'Log On' tab and click 'Local System account' and select it
Then check the option 'Allow service to interact with desktop'
Finally click on 'Apply' and 'OK' to save.
Close Services window.

In my case, although I still have no sound (working on that) at least the audio service is running and the 'x' on the Taskbar icon has gone.

[KevinJH]

Ok, I've hit a wall now and can get no further.  Tried pretty much everything from loading default sound drivers up to the latest ReakTek ones.  On the surface, it all looks good - just no sound available.  I'm hearing from friends now that they too are experiencing sound issues that have occurred following Win 10 updates but like myself are unable to specifically identify which one(s) could be the culprit.  Doesn't make sense that even with no sound, if, for example in a game whereby you select an option that requires a sound to be played - like a 'click' - the programme will simply close.  Another example;  attempt to play a piece of music using any media player but taking Windows Media Player as an example, a pop-up opens stating "Windows Media Player cannot play the file because there is a problem with your sound device. There might not be a sound device installed on your computer, it might be in use by another program or it might not be functioning properly."  Yet testing of the device/driver states that all is installed correctly, with the latest drivers and running ok.  Clearly that's not the case.

Any advice from Support please ?