Lost Sound After Windows 10 Update

Hello and thank you beforehand for any help anyone can give me. I just built a PC that has Windows 10 and a Headphones/Speakers Jack in the front of the case.

Right after I logged in, I got a Windows 10 Update which automatically ran. Afterwards, I now have no sound coming through the Headphones Jack (I had sound before). Checking the volume controls and the System Sounds, I can see where a sound(s) register on the graph of the Speaker Volume, but no sound is actually coming through the Jack that I can hear when I plug in my headphones.

I think it has something to do with the Sound/Video Controllers which are listing 3 items:

NVIDIA High Definition Audio
NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM)
Realtek High Definition Audio

Shouldn't there only be 1 Item listed here?

My other thought is in the Playback Sound Settings which shows:

LG (My monitor brand) Full HD-4 NVIDIA High Definition Audio as the Default
NVIDIA HDMI Output (Port 2) (Says "Not Plugged In")
NVIDIA HDMI Output (Port 3) (Says "Not Plugged In")
Speakers Realtek High Definition Audio (Says "Not Plugged In")
I had a Port 1 for the NVIDIA HDMI Output which also said "Not Plugged In" but now it is not showing on the list.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

BigJack,

I just saw this before I was shutting down for the night and gave it some thought. I'm not sure how much you know about this, so forgive me if some of this is obvious.

Having several devices is not unusual. Your Nvidia is devices were installed because of your video drivers, and they are showing up because you've plugged into your monitors with a cable that carries sound (HDMI.) If you're not using them, you can always disable them or download the driver from Nvidia and do a custom install and tell it to only install the video driver, and the Physix if you use that.

But you were probably getting the sound on the front port from your realtek chipset on the motherboard (which should be your default device) if that's where you were plugged. One thing to check is that in the Sound panel it is still the default device. That could be the problem.

If that doesn't work, another suggestion is to try plugging your headphones through the same jack on the back of the system. The Realtek panel (in the Control manger should have a way to tell the drivers you are using headphones instead of speakers. Or at least point out which jack is for headphones, if it has one.)

In any case, keep your headphones away from your ears when you first test it so you don't damage your hearing!

If you get sound from the back but not the front then it may just be a physical connection issue.

If none of these work, my only other thought is that the Insider preview of windows 10 in current testing mentions a change to the way it handles Realtek drivers. I didn't think it was released yet, but if it has been, that could have also caused a problem. I don't use my onboard realtek audio so I can't test it.

In any case, please be careful with your hearing.

I had one other idea that might be easier. Hit the Windows key, type in "sound" to bring up the Control panel and rightclick on the Realtek and set it as default. You can disable the other Nvidia ones if you'd like and hide them (Uncheck show disabled devices.)

This way you kow the audio is being routed through the Realtek card alone.

And sometimes only connectors on the back works.

Yes, but he said he had sound coming from it before.

I tried setting the Realtek as the Default Device, but while it comes up as an option in "Light Grey", it doesn't let me actually click on it. Any ideas?

Thank you again for everyone's input and advice.

I did some more reading and found this.
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When you open the Realtek HD Audio Manager (double-click the orange speaker in the tray),
there is a small folder-like icon in the top-right area that says "Connector Settings" (near the 'Device advanced settings' and 'ANALOG').

Clicking this folder-icon opens a small dialog with two check-boxes:
make sure the first check-box ("Disable front panel jack detection") is CHECKED -
this causes both front and rear jacks to work, without the system trying to figure-out if the front jack is being used or not.
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Otherwise without the same drivers on my system I can't offer much more help. I use my system for my work and have disabled and taken all the Realtek stuff out.

Maybe this will point you in the right direction.

My Real HD Audio stopped working after a Windows update today on a Windows 10 PC. Tried many things to no avail. Audio files were not even starting to play. After some restarts got audio to at least display in windows sound as playing (green level bars on Windows Sound > Playback devices). No audio from speakers. USB headset was still working when plugged in.

The advice above from "TheMany" fixed it for me immediately. Re-iterating for clarity:

Step 1: Open RealTek HD Audio Manager (right click orange speaker on Windows tray)
Step 2: From any tab - click the 'folder icon' located on the inputs side pane
Step 3: Check the box "Disable front panel jack detection"

Thanks for the feedback, AXOX. Good to hear it helped.