PC to Interactive whiteboards - audio stopped working

[Reecekellyy]

Hello,

 

I am new to Edugeek, so apologies if I have posted this in the incorrect place.

 

Our school uses VeryPC PCs in classrooms and a mix of SMART, Iiyama, Samsung, Sony interactive whiteboards and they're all connected with HDMI cables.

 

Last week, 3 teachers reported that their interactive whiteboard stopped playing audio. I tried changing cables, ports, reinstalling audio drivers etc and couldn't get anything to work. Until I went into sound settings, clicked on the interactive whiteboard sound option and then changed the 'Format' option to the FM radio quality option and it suddenly started working again, temporarily. I then found that whenever opening a new window or even pausing a youtube video and unpausing it, would cause the audio to disappear again, until I go back into the 'Format' options and change it onto a different quality and then back onto FM radio quality.

 

This is happening now on 5 whiteboards across the school (that I know of). All of them are VeryPC PC's running windows 11 and the whiteboards are a mix of SMART, Iiyama & Sony.

 

This only started happening last week so I have no idea what could have caused this. I hope this makes sense to someone, because it's got me baffled.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[DaveTheTech]

I have found that if the PC is started up before the IWBs, then the PC does not realise that there is an audio device at the other end.

Could this be the same issue you are having? It might not be, due to you loosing audio after the PC is booted.

 

Are there any logs in the event viewer?

Edited March 25, 2024 by DaveTheTech

[DavR]

Is the HDMI output still the default audio device? We have some devices that we use the analogue stereo jack output for audio output, so I have to set the analogue audio as the default. This sounds similar, but in reverse.

 

Right click on volume control, Sounds, Playback tab. Have a look at which devices are your defaults.

 

The other thought is, do you have anything plugged into the analogue audio outputs - front or back of the PCs?

[psydii]

We’ve had weirdness like this. Never could get to the bottom of it, but after a few months it would just go away. Best guess is a driver/windows update related bug that got fixed in later drivers/updates.

 

Had similar with WiFi too. That was not a fun few weeks.

 

In both cases firmware updates were part of the troubleshooting process. In some instances a firmware update of a board (or ap) appeared to solve the problem, in others the driver or windows update was required (or just solved it).

[Reecekellyy]

There is nothing in the event viewer that could explain what's going on. It is very odd because most PCs are started up before the IWBs and the majority of the IWBs are functioning properly, I'm just hoping this is one of those things that resolves itself.

[Reecekellyy]

Yeah, my thought was that it could've been a windows update that has messed things up, but it isn't effecting every single IWB so that kinda rules that out. I may try wiping one of the PCs and starting again to see if that helps.

[Reecekellyy]

Yeah the HDMI is still the default audio device and there is nothing plugged into the audio ports. Thanks for the suggestions though! Hopefully this resolves itself!

[VeryPC_Colin_M]

Hi @Reecekellyy sorry I missed this thread! Apologies this is happening. I'll get Dan in touch with you to check in on this.

Best,

Col

[TFishwick]

We had this problem.

The only surefire soulution I've found is to make sure the Whiteboard is on before the PC is and don't let it lose it's connection. A pain, but other solutions don't always work

[PotNoodleTech]

I am assuming a windows 11 thing - are all of you above that have seen the issue running win11 like the OP?

[chekmate1984]

Strange we have same issues with very PC too. Its a windows 10 device though not 11! Our screeens all promethan though.

[VeryPC_Colin_M]

Hi chekmate1984 please reach out to me directly and I'll aim to get some support headed your way :-)

Best,

Col

[Reecekellyy]

VeryPC support suggested reinstalling a fresh windows 10 and that seems to have done the trick!

[chekmate1984]

One PC reimage is OK but if this spreads to multiple PC then that is nightmare!