How to fix the “no audio output device is installed” error on Windows 10

Have you come across the error “no audio output device is installed” and are unable to play any audio on the Windows 10 operating system? This error can be displayed due to several reasons. Most of the reasons are software-related. However, it might happen sometimes that there is a hardware-related problem due to which this error is being displayed. Now, you need not worry much as you will get to know in this article how to resolve this error. So, read on to find out. You should try applying each of the methods discussed here one by one to resolve the error.

See also: How to rollback NVIDIA Drivers in Windows 10

Run the audio troubleshooter

Windows 10 provides a pre-installed audio troubleshooter which, most of the time, can find out on its own what is causing an error without much input from the user. So, this should be the first thing you should try to know how to fix the error regarding the audio that you are getting.

To use this option for resolving the error, you need to open the settings app of the Windows 10 operating system. Once you have the settings app opens, you need to type in ‘troubleshoot’ in the search bar of this app and click to open the ‘troubleshoot settings’ option from the search results displayed. Now, under the heading “get up and running”, you will find the “playing audio” option. Click on it to expand this option. Click to open the “run the troubleshooter” option in this expanded option. The troubleshooter will open up and what you need to do now is follow the instructions of the troubleshooter and perform the troubleshooting to fix the error of “no audio output device is installed”.

Check for Audio driver updates

There could be some issues due to old audio drivers being used in your system. If that is the case then this can be resolved by updating the audio drivers. For this, you need to open the device manager first. You can either open it by searching it in the start menu or using the shortcut of pressing the Windows key and ‘r’ button together on the keyboard and choosing to open the device manager from the menu opened. Here, in the device manager, click to open the “sound, video and game controllers” option. This will show all the audio devices connected to the system. What you need to do here is update each of these audio devices by right-clicking on one of them, then clicking on the ‘update driver’ option and then choosing to search for automatically updated software. Once you are done with this process for each audio device, you might get the error resolved.

Contact support from the PC manufacturer

If the above options did not work for you then it is likely that the issue can be better resolved by the customer care support provided by your PC manufacturer. You should contact them to get the issue resolved. However, do keep in mind that you have only checked for software-related issues till now and there may be a hardware-related issue because of which you are getting the error.

Hardware-related issue

If the above options did not work, you might be experiencing a hardware-related issue i.e. the sound card of your system might have developed some problem. It can happen due to general wear-and-tear over the years or it could be due to some accidents with the system. It is best to check the health of the sound card of the system. This should be done by an expert in electronics hardware. In case the sound card is beyond repair, you might need to replace it.

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