How to Fix Audio Services Not Responding in Windows 10

How to fix Audio services not responding in Windows 10: So you have been using Windows 10 for quite a while but suddenly one day out of nowhere an error pops up saying “Audio services not responding” and audio is no longer working on your PC. Don’t worry this is totally fixable but let’s first understand why you are getting such an error.

The Audio service not running error can occur because of outdated or incompatible audio drivers, audio related services might not be running, incorrect permission for Audio services, etc. In any case, without wasting any time let’s see How to Fix Audio services not responding in Windows 10 with the help of the below-listed troubleshooting steps.

Audio services not responding in Windows 10 Fix:

A suggestion by Rosy Baldwin that seem to work for every user, so I have decided to include in the main article:

1.  Press Windows key + R then type services.msc and hit Enter to open the Windows services list.

2. Find Windows Audio in the services list, press W to find it easily.

3. Right-click on Windows Audio then select Properties.

4. From the Properties window navigate to the “Log on” tab.

5. Next, select This account and make sure Local Service is selected with Password.

Note: If you don’t know the password then either you can type a new password and click OK to save changes. Or else you can click on the Browse button then click on the Advanced button. Now click on Find Now button then select LOCAL SERVICE from the search results and click OK.

6. Click Apply followed by OK to save changes.

7. If you’re not able to save changes then first you need to change the settings for another service called Windows Audio Endpoint Builder.

8. Right-click on Windows Audio Endpoint Builder and select Properties. Now navigate to the “Log on” tab.

9. From the “Log on” tab select Local System account.

10. Click Apply followed by Ok to save changes.

11. Now again try to change the settings of the Windows Audio from the “Log on” tab and this time you will be successful.

Method 1: Start Windows Audio services

1. Press Windows key + R then type services.msc and hit Enter to open the Windows services list.

2. Now locate the following services:

Windows Audio 
Windows Audio Endpoint Builder 
Plug and Play

3. Make sure their Startup Type is set to Automatic and the services are Running, either way, restart all of them once again.

4. If the Startup type is not Automatic then double-click the services and inside the property, window set them to Automatic.

Note: You may need to first stop the service by clicking on the Stop button in order to set the service to Automatic. Once done, click on the Start button to again enable the service.

5. Press Windows Key + R then type msconfig and hit Enter to open System Configuration.

6. Switch to the Services tab and make sure the above services are checked in the System configuration window.

7. Restart your computer to apply these changes.

Method 2: Start Windows Audio Components

1. Press Windows key + R then type services.msc

2. Locate Windows Audio service and double click it to open properties.

3. Switch to the Dependencies tab and expand the components listed in “This service depends on the following system components.”

4. Now make sure all the components listed above are Started and Running in the services.msc

5. Finally, restart the Windows Audio services and Reboot to apply changes.

See if you’re able to fix Audio services not responding in Windows 10 error, if not, then continue with the next method.

Method 3: Uninstall Sound drivers

1. Download and Install CCleaner.

2. Go to the Registry window on the left, then scan for all the problems and let it fix them.

3. Next, press Windows Key + R then type devmgmt.msc and hit enter to open Device Manager.

4. Expand Sound, video, and game controllers and click on the sound device then select Uninstall.

5. Now confirm the uninstall by clicking OK.

6. Finally, in the Device Manager window, go to Action and click on Scan for hardware changes.

7. Restart to apply changes.

Method 4: Restore Registry key from Antivirus

1. Open your anti-virus and go to the virus vault.

2. From the system tray right-click on Norton Security and select “View Recent History.”

3. Now select “Quarantine” from the Show drop-down.

4. Inside Quarantine or virus vault search for the Audio device or services that are quarantined.

5. Look for registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCURRENTCONTROL and if the registry key ends in:

AUDIOSRV.DLL
AUDIOENDPOINTBUILDER.DLL

6. Restore them and Restart to apply changes.

7. See if you’re able to resolve the “Audio services not responding in Windows 10” issue, otherwise repeat steps 1 and 2.

Method 5: Modify Registry key

1. Press Windows Key + R then type regedit and hit enter to open Registry Editor.

2. Now inside Registry editor navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesAudioEndPointBuilderParameters

3. Locate ServicDll and if the value is %SystemRoot%System32Audiosrv.dll, this is the cause of the problem.

4. Replace the default value under Value data with this:

%SystemRoot%System32AudioEndPointBuilder.dll

5. Restart your PC to apply changes.

Method 6: Run Audio Troubleshooter

1. Press Windows Key + I to open Settings then click on Update & Security. 

2. From the left-hand menu select Troubleshoot.

3. Now under the “Get up and running” heading click on Playing Audio.

4. Next, click on “Run the troubleshooter” under Playing Audio.

5. Try the suggestions by the troubleshooter and if any issues are found, you need to give permission to the troubleshooter to fix Audio services not responding error.

6. The troubleshooter will automatically diagnose the issue and ask you if you want to apply the fix or not.

7. Click Apply this fix and Reboot to apply changes.

Recommended for you:

If you have followed each and every step according to this guide then you just fixed the issue “Audio services not responding”  but if you still have any queries regarding this post feel free to ask them in the comment section.