Windows 10: Audio Service Not Running in Google Chrome / Movie Studio

Welcome to the Tenforums @get2sammyb

First I would check the Windows update history. See if any new drivers were installed by Windows in last couple of weeks or if any updates are failing.

If nothing I would fire up Chrome again, start a video, and I would right click on speaker and open Volume mixer. Chrome should have its own column. Can you adjust volume?

My new fix for everything, do a complete shutdown of Windows by holding shift down and clicking shutdown. This opens a fresh copy of Windows, no Fast Startup Hiberfil.sys.

Can you do a system restore to an earlier time?

Before doing this do you run any Imaging software and can you create a "today" version, just in case. If you don't do Imaging I would recommend Macrium Reflect. There is a tutorial in the forum. Its free, reliable and quick way to get back to a working system.

Others may have other ideas as to resolution.

Well something is going on with updates. That one failed twice and I don't see a success and the other is awaiting a restart. Given you did a complete shutdown it should have installed.

While I agree these are not associated with audio I honestly can't say they don't have some hook(s), it does contain reliability improvements for Groove, App-V, video playback and remote desktop. Here is the link to contents.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4009938

Lets get these updates in, rebooted and see if things change.

Windows Updates

Type troubleshooting in the Cortana search bar, troubleshooting appears at top. Click it, window opens, lower right side "Fix problems with Windows Update", click. Window opens, click on “advance”, click on Run as administrator, click “Next”. Should run clean. If not run again.

Then go to updates and "Check for Updates"

If you want, once the updater trouble shooter shows clean you can go to the Update Catalog and download the update KB3213986. Its about 1GB. To install you enter these two commands at command prompt(admin), then double click on the file you downloaded. Reboot once complete.

Net stop wuauserv
Net stop bits

After reboot go back to updates and check again. This should download any of the remaining smaller ones.

Of course you can allow Windows to take care of all of this for you. I just find the download and install faster on the big ones.

get2sammyb said:

Hi everyone!

Firstly, thank you so much for reading this thread. I've been tearing my hair out all day regarding this problem, and while I feel I've made some progress in isolating the issue, I have no idea how to solve it.

I have a Dell XPS 8900 which I'm very happy with. I had a bum HDD which needed to be changed about six months ago, but since then it's been plain-sailing.

Well, until this morning.

The problem

My computer was operating as usual last night, and I made no changes to the settings nor did I install any new software. However, when I loaded it up this morning I noticed that I couldn't hear audio on YouTube videos in Google Chrome. Where the speaker is in the system tray, I noticed it said 'The Audio Service is Not Running'.



The same thing occurs when trying to load a video project in Sony Movie Studio Platinum 13.0, which I use for work.

Clicking on the speaker brings up a Windows 10 troubleshooting protocol, which fixes the problem.



However, if I attempt to load a YouTube video in Google Chrome or boot up Sony Movie Studio Platinum 13.0, I get no sound and the system tray tells me that 'The Audio Service Is Not Running' again.

I can play video clips and music files using the standard Windows 10 'Films & TV' or 'Groove Music' apps and both work as normal. I can also play music in iTunes as usual.

What I've tried so far

Like I say, I've been messing with this all day, and have tried a number of solutions:

• I reset Windows 10 and re-installed both Google Chrome and Sony Movie Studio Platinum 13.0. It didn't work.
• I uninstalled the Realtek High Definition Audio Driver and re-installed the latest version of the driver for my computer from Dell's website. It didn't work.
• I ran Dell's diagnostics tool on my soundcard, which it passed.
• I've tried various other things like running 'services.msc' and checking the Windows Audio Properties are running and set to 'Automatic' startup type.

I'm honestly stumped. This is now way out of my league and I'm begging for your help. If you have any suggestions at all, I'd really appreciate it because I'm about to lose my mind.

Thank you so much!

When I came upon this problem what I did was
Clicked on the space which then showed it set to 100%
I took it back to 0% then slide the slider back up to 100% and the icon appeared and audio came back
Hope that helps