[SOLVED] No speakers or headphones plugged in

[alexsmith2709]

Hi,
Having a bit of an issue with a Dell XPS 13 laptop running windows 10 (17134 build). Customer said that a message about a disk error occured and since then, updates have stopped working and the audio no longer works.
I have checked the HDD and doesnt appear to be any problems. I ran sfc and no problems found. The audio service apparently didnt have permissions to start. Doesnt seem to be a restore point before the problem happened so tried a repair install and that seems to have fixed the permissions issue but now it says that "no speakers or headphones are plugged in". iTunes and windows media player both display an error when starting because of this.
I have plugged in external headphones and speakers to the headphone jack, it recognises they are plugged in, but still displays the error.
I have also tried rolling back and updating the audio drivers.

Windows update still doesnt work. It says it cannot connect to the update service.

Any other suggestions before wiping and starting again?

 

[Computer Bloke]

(A small request: please don't use build numbers unless you're talking about non-production software; if you say your client is running Version 1803 then we'll all know what you mean. Anyway...)

Check the audio hardware with a Linux live CD. If it doesn't work under Linux then you have a hardware problem which is probably unfixable without a motherboard replacement - start looking at USB audio adapters.

If audio works in Linux then reboot into Windows, uninstall everything to do with audio and then throw SDIO at it. If that works then your next problem is to figure out why Windows Update is broken.

If the hardware's OK but Windows is still silent after installing SDIO's finest then check that a clean installation of Windows on a scratch disc works (running the installer up the point where Cortana starts scraping her nails on the blackboard will do), and then talk to your client about a nuke and pave. If the clean installation of Windows still doesn't work then the next step requires an old priest and a young priest and may need a separate thread.

But trust me on the Linux.

 

[alexsmith2709]

Hi Computer Bloke,
I just double checked (i was going by what was displayed in cmd) its 1803 build 17134.112 so not an insider preview.

I booted to a WinPE image i have and the audio was the same there so guessing hardware issue. An update though - The troubleshooter says the audio services are not responding and that the speakers/headphones are not plugged in.
Odd that windows update still doesnt work after a repair install so clearly some software issues too. I have run a windows update troubleshoot and reset with same results.
I have already used SDIO to update the drivers after completely uninstalling.

 

[alexsmith2709]

UPDATE: For those facing similar issues, it looks like i just fixed it by running these two commands:
net localgroup Administrators /add networkservice
and
net localgroup Administrators /add localservice

This appears to have fixed both audio and windows update problems

 

[Computer Bloke]

This appears to have fixed both audio and windows update problems

That sounds suspiciously like magic, and as we all know magic always comes with a price.

What prompted you to run those two commands, and what's the theory behind it?

 

[alexsmith2709]

I searched the good land of google for "audio services are not responding" and came across those commands. After further research these commands had solved issues with other services not starting/responding and as i previously had issues with permissions for the audio service i thought it would be worth a try. Obviously i had a backup from before i started work on this laptop in case it went wrong.

 

[Diggs]

...and did you sell the customer a shiny new SSD so he doesn't get the disk errors anymore?

 

[alexsmith2709]

...and did you sell the customer a shiny new SSD so he doesn't get the disk errors anymore?

It already had one and i could find no evidence of that error myself. The drive appeared to be in perfect condition, both from SMART checks and other scans/checks

 

[nlinecomputers]

So you gave god powers to two services. Hope you don't get pwnd.

 

[Porthos]

its 1803 build 17134.112

Better run Win update. You are a few months behind in CU's.

 

[nlinecomputers]

(A small request: please don't use build numbers unless you're talking about non-production software; if you say your client is running Version 1803 then we'll all know what you mean. Anyway...)

Better run Win update. You are a few months behind in CU's.

Gotta disagree. Porthos' observation is why it is important to use the full build number. Some Cumulative Updates break things.

 

[alexsmith2709]

Better run Win update. You are a few months behind in CU's.

Windows update was run before it went back to the customer. Part of the issue was windows update wasnt able to run.

 

[Computer Bloke]

Gotta disagree. Porthos' observation is why it is important to use the full build number. Some Cumulative Updates break things.

Good point, and sometimes it matters (in which case the full build number including all decimals is useful).

In this case the original message mentioned 17134 (no decimals) and simply calling it 1803 would have given the same information in a human-friendly* way - 1803 is the April 2018 version, 17134 is just a big number. There have been a lot of different 17134 builds; most of us don't have the spare brain capacity to memorise them all (or even to keep up with whatever the latest one is) but learning a new four digit version number every six months isn't too hard.

Either way, NBD.


* I have Welsh ancestry and can therefore count up to 4095 on my fingers - numbers bigger than that have no meaning for me.

 

[glennd]

I have Welsh ancestry and can therefore count up to 4095 on my fingers - numbers bigger than that have no meaning for me.

12 bit? I'm guessing you either have 6 fingers on each hand or only 1 toe on each foot...

 

[Computer Bloke]

12 bit? I'm guessing you either have 6 fingers on each hand or only 1 toe on each foot...

I refer the honourable gentlemen to my earlier answer.

Wales: The Tasmania of the North.