Microsoft confirms and resolves Windows 10 audio bug (your device may still be affected)
Microsoft confirmed a new issue affecting Windows 10 devices on August 19, 2022. The company published a new known issue on the Release Health support site of the Windows 10 operating system stating that affected devices could run into audio playback issues.
The issue affected some Windows 10 devices only. It was introduced in the August 2022 preview update for the operating system, KB5015878, and was included in the August 2022 cumulative update for the operating system as well.
According to Microsoft's description, audio may not work properly or at all on affected Windows 10 devices. The issue appears to have different severities: on some systems, audio playback is broken entirely, on others, audio playback was affected for certain applications, audio devices or ports only.
Some affected Windows devices might have no audio, but other affected Windows devices might only have issues on certain ports, certain audio devices or only within certain applications.
One commonality was that audio enhancements was disabled before installation of the cumulative update on most systems. The sound driver could also have issues with the feature on some systems, Microsoft notes.
Microsoft published workarounds for the issue, divided into tips for systems on which the update was not installed on and for systems with the update installed. These workarounds included updating audio drivers, either via Windows Updates or the manufacturer, or making sure that the audio devices for microphone, speakers and headsets were set to the correct device and not to default.
Microsoft reveals that the update may have reinitialized audio endpoints on devices, a likely reason for some of the issues that Windows users ran into after installation of the update.
Administrators might resolve the issue on systems with the update by running the audio troubleshooter on the system or following instructions on disabling audio enhancements.
How to disable audio enhancements
- The following steps need to be performed for each audio device, e.g., for the microphone, headsets and speakers.
- Go to Start > Settings > System > Sound.
- Select the audio device, e.g., microphone, under Input > Device Properties > Additional device properties.
- Look for audio enhancements under the Enhancements or Advanced tab.
- On Enhancements, select "disable all enhancements" or "disable all sound effects". Only one should be displayed.
- On the Advanced tab, look for "Enable audio enhancements" and uncheck the option to disable it.
Repeat the steps for each audio device.
Microsoft, in the meantime, resolved the issue through a Known Issue Rollback. The feature is automated and will prevent the issue on devices on which the August preview or final updates are not installed on yet. The audio playback issue is not resolved on affected devices automatically.
Now You: did you run into audio issues recently on your Windows devices?
Edge, you are really running Edge! Weill I guess FUBAR then.
I’ve had audio issues for YEARS with windows systems. The audio works great on new computers in the first week until the first security update…, from then onwards the output sound on speakers is no more than 10% of its capacity and its impossible to resolve or correct no matter what the recommendations you get. Nothing works to increase the volume. There are 50mil searches on google for audio issues on windows….
MS says that most affected devices had “audio enhancements” setting disabled before installing the KB.
So why disable that setting.
That makes your device MORE vulnerable??
Or do I have it backwards? I don’t think so.
Haha. Anything above Windows 7 is a crapshoot. Never had any of these issues on Windows 7.
I will never understand why people don’t at least wait a month or so before installing updates. Obviously, waiting is not a panacea but it at least will save users from being affected by many of the problems like the audio issue described above. I personally wait as long as I can unless a serious security issue has been identified. Why be a beta tester for Microsoft?
Because they don’t care as long as their computer works? Why blame the victims instead of the perpetrator? Android does great job at updates but Microsoft doesn’t, that’s the difference in company’s quality.
Because they don’t care as long as their computer works?
Yeah, but the point is that it often does not work.
Yes with my headset microphone. Only 40 % of the speaking volume.
You will “love” the new “features” they are adding to Edge.
The only “issues” I had was MS resetting my carefully crafted configurations I had on my laptop with virtual audio cables and ASIO so I can record stuff how I want. Wasted 30 mins to get my old settings back.
A much older Windows update broke audio on a computer I manage. No fix that I could find would work, and I tried several. My ‘fix’ was upgrading to Windows 11.