Audio issues - multiple devices

[synaesthesia]

Hi all,

Got a confusing one that's hurting my brain.

Over the last couple of days we've been getting reports of audio not working on laptops. Started 2 days ago with our music laptops, older Lenovo V15's. No output to speakers from MuseScore on the laptop or via the browser on Bandlab or Youtube. Bandlab and Musescore mixers both showed "output" levels, as did the Windows mixer. Restarting fixed one temporarily.

Logged on as an admin, worked perfectly fine. Logged on as test student, worked perfectly fine. Took it back down, they logged onto it, did not work.

Colleague asked "is it the drivers?"

"No, drivers are not related to the user account logged on...."

Maybe impero groups with a mute policy? Nope, stopped the service, restarted, no effect.

Logged back on as admin - hang on, it's no longer working?

Rinse and repeat several times. Gave in and reinstalled drivers. Works.

Confused.com!

Hopefully just a windows update glitch for that model of laptop, not the end of the world as we don't have many of them left.

 

Nope. Staff laptop, more modern HP Probook comes in this morning with the same problem. Awaiting more....

I've got the same model however as the one that came in - exactly same driver versions, exactly same windows update build, but mine works.

Output to HDMI seems to generally work, USB output reliably works. 

Is anyone else getting similar? Googling around shows a few ideas that date back as far as January this year which I'll try with the next one that comes in but we're way beyond January updates - currently 24H2 7171

 

 

[chris_uk]

If you change the audio output to Mono, does it fix it? 

[synaesthesia]

Just waiting for the next one to come in to try a couple of bits including that, the other is disabling audio enhancements

[Andrew_C]

Was it about a year ago (probably further back) M$ broke a lot of audio stuff with an update...  The symptoms sound familiar.

[johnpd]

if it’s spreading you need to hide this from affected machines - also uninstall it and reboot 
 

# Ensure PSWindowsUpdate is available
Install-PackageProvider -Name NuGet -MinimumVersion 2.8.5.201 -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Install-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

# Import module
Import-Module PSWindowsUpdate

# Hide KB5068861
Hide-WindowsUpdate -KBArticleID KB5068861 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Write-Output "KB5068861 has been hidden and will not install."

Edited December 8, 2025 by johnpd

[synaesthesia]

Aye, I've already blocked it from WSUS just in case.

One of those niggles though that'll remain - will it also still be a part of the next update or rollup? 

Joys of transparency (or lack thereof)