Windows 10 has No Sound? Easy fix!

Windows 10 has no sound?“Windows 10 has no sound- Help!” These were the words of my customer who had recently upgraded to Windows 10 and then for some reason had done a refresh (Windows 10’s in-place reinstall), and subsequently had no sound on their laptop.

Normally if Windows 10 has no sound I’d look into the Device Manager and find either a missing sound device, or a red exclamation next to it, indicating a driver or hardware problem. Device manager looked clean, however. The BIOS showed no options for disabling sound, so I doubted it was disabled and furthermore, it worked before the refresh.

The only oddity I noticed was that instead of “High Definition Audio Device” it gave “IDT High Definition Audio CODEC” as the name of the only audio device. I didn’t recognize that. When I opened that device, it gave the error “A device attached to the system is not functioning.” Okay, so this is why it isn’t working. I removed the device and then scanned for hardware changes, but the same device was detected, the same driver was installed, and the same “A device attached to the system is not functioning.” error was given. Time to try something else.

I did a bit of Googling and it turns out this is a known issue with Windows 10.

Windows 10 has no sound: The easy fix

  1. Open Device Device Manager (Right click Start, click “Device Manager”)
  2. Under “Sound, video and game controllers”, right click “IDT High Definition Audio CODEC” and click “Properties”.
  3. Select the Driver tab
  4. Click “Update Driver…”
  5. Click “Browse my computer for driver software”
  6. Click “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer”
  7. Select “High Definition Audio Device” and then click Next
  8. When a warning comes up that it may not work, click Yes.

The device should now work, and you should immediately get sound on your computer. I didn’t think that solving this problem would be as easy as it was. If your Windows 10 has no sound, and this fixes it, please let us know in the comments!

42 comments

Skip to comment form

    • Sarah Leibowitz on April 14, 2016 at 4:02 pm
    • Reply

    Fix worked for me. Many thanks!

    1. Hey Sarah, thanks for leaving a note. I’m glad it worked! Such an easy fix for an otherwise perplexing problem ๐Ÿ™‚

    • sherese on May 28, 2016 at 2:52 pm
    • Reply

    Thanks I have sound again. It took me over an hour to find your explanation, but it worked. Thanks again!!!!!!!!!

    1. I’m so glad to hear it! Thanks for letting me know that it worked out for you ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Bonnie on July 30, 2016 at 10:20 am
    • Reply

    Thank you so much! It took me two hours to find this solution.

    1. This one had me going the first time I ran into it, too. I’m glad the fix worked for you ๐Ÿ™‚

    • arwen on August 20, 2016 at 10:38 pm
    • Reply

    thank you so much…after trying everything…..

    • Ganesh on February 25, 2017 at 2:58 am
    • Reply

    Worked for me, it was so annoying I was gonna pull my hair off..!!!!! Thanks a lot.. _/\_

    • Emmet Smith on March 26, 2017 at 5:18 am
    • Reply

    You are a legend!! I did so much troubleshooting to no avail and it was that simple. Thank you!

    • juan resendiz on May 3, 2017 at 8:13 pm
    • Reply

    after checking many pages found this one and working perfect now so thanks a lot

    • sanjay on May 13, 2017 at 8:22 am
    • Reply

    Wow, it worked ,thank you so much

    • Mike on August 27, 2017 at 10:43 am
    • Reply

    Hello Ryan,
    Thanks very much.
    You instruction helps me to solve problem.
    ****

    • Trent Smith on August 30, 2017 at 9:11 pm
    • Reply

    Thanks mate worked for my sisters computer

    • g c on August 31, 2017 at 5:56 am
    • Reply

    yes it works. thanks

    • Vibs on September 6, 2017 at 4:01 pm
    • Reply

    Great! so simple and quick. Worked for me

    • Brian on November 14, 2017 at 7:52 pm
    • Reply

    Thank you very much, that worked perfectly!

    • Carl on November 20, 2017 at 7:11 am
    • Reply

    Works as of 20.11.17. Thanks!

    • Dar on November 30, 2017 at 1:20 am
    • Reply

    OMG thank you so much! After the latest update, my audio wouldn’t work and I was freaking out and then I finally stumbled onto this page and this was such a simple fix.

    1. Right on! I’m so glad it worked for you. This one had me scratching my head the first time I ran across it!

    • RJ on December 2, 2017 at 8:48 pm
    • Reply

    It was so very simple and it worked even without restarting my computer! Thanks so much for your very helpful advice!

    • A on December 6, 2017 at 5:25 pm
    • Reply

    Thanks for this article. I recently updated my PC, and panicked when I found out my audio wasn’t working properly.

    • Sheryl on December 8, 2017 at 5:28 am
    • Reply

    After Windows 10 update I had this problem and other “fixes” did nothing. This worked and I can remember having to do this a few months ago. This time, I’m bookmarking or righting down this info! Many, many thanks!

    • Danny McHugh on January 13, 2018 at 10:30 am
    • Reply

    Thanks very much. Had tried every available โ€˜fixโ€™, all without success and then when I followed your instructions, โ€˜Bingoโ€™. It worked immediately.
    Thanks again,
    Danny.

  1. Canโ€™t thank you enough! I have ears!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Jim Jacobsen on May 22, 2018 at 2:10 am
    • Reply

    thanks so much. been working for hours to no avail till I read your post

    1. I’m glad it was helpful ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Daniel on May 24, 2018 at 4:16 pm
    • Reply

    Wow. All the other microsoft sites and their tips didnโ€™t work and this one did. Wow.

    1. Hi Daniel I’m so glad it worked!!

    • Mohamed on June 27, 2018 at 4:38 am
    • Reply

    wow!!. thank you very much!!!!

    1. You’re welcome- I’m so glad the fix worked for you! ๐Ÿ™‚

    • CC on August 10, 2018 at 9:51 am
    • Reply

    I love you.

    • Robert Webb on March 17, 2019 at 8:05 pm
    • Reply

    I don’t know why it took me so long to find your answer to my problem, but I’m glad I did.
    Thanks a lot!
    R Webb
    Angleton, TX

    1. Your quite welcome! I’m glad it worked out for you ๐Ÿ˜Š

    • MELISSA on October 25, 2019 at 3:40 am
    • Reply

    FIXED! THANK YOU!!!

    • Knute on December 1, 2019 at 11:54 pm
    • Reply

    Thank you SO much. After several hours a day of Googling, reading, testing, and retrying (actually about 1 hour) I finally found your post. I tried exactly what you said. The names of the files and a few other things werenโ€™t exactly the same, but the jist was, and VOILA!!! it worked. Iโ€™ll be sure to start with your site next time I encounter a Windows 10 problem that we fix for Microsoft.
    -And we dont even get paid !!!

    Thank you.

    • Bill on February 6, 2020 at 9:43 am
    • Reply

    I do not see IDT High Definition Audio CODECโ€ within Sound, Video and game controllers?

    1. Hi Bill, it might be that this just isn’t the right fit for the problem your having.

    • JEG on February 13, 2020 at 8:29 am
    • Reply

    Thank you. Windows update caused the problem.

    • Jonas Wipf on June 24, 2021 at 11:28 am
    • Reply

    thanks worked for me after a while of trying different fixes

    1. Glad to hear it! Thanks for the comment ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Stewart on January 22, 2022 at 3:43 am
    • Reply

    Thanks a lot for this info .After trying for months to get audio working this has solved the issue and I now have sound !! Cheers ๐Ÿ˜Š

    1. Glad to hear it. Cheers!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.