Inspiron 5676 Windows 'Audio Service Not Running'

Question

I'm new to computers and have been searching the community for a couple of weeks now and am unable to find a solution to my problem. Simply put, I'm unable to get any audio from my computer. To my knowledge it did not happen after an update, It worked fine one day and then the next time it booted up and didn't work at all. Being a Inspiron 5676 it has the AMD Ryzen 5 processor with 8 GB of RAM and a 64 bit windows 10 home OS. I'm also using the HDMI cable to connect my monitor with sound to the Inspiron. Now, the speaker icon in the bottom right system tray has a red 'x' through it that says 'the audio service is not running' when hovered over by the mouse. The playback window under sound properties also says 'no audio devices are installed' as well. When checking the 'windows audio service' I notice that all of the dependencies are running but the audio service itself isn't. If I attempt to start the audio service I get a error message 'windows could not start the audio service on local computer 0x80070005: access denied' I've run hardware diagnostics which doesn't indicate any issues as well as the troubleshooter which just points to the audio service not running. I've reinstalled the Realtek drivers for my computer at least three times now (each time rebooting). There is no error message in the device manager when checked either. Also tried a system recovery to an earlier point before the issue occurred with no luck and have booted in safe mode with no difference. Made efforts to connect other speakers, headphones through the audio jack on front of desktop to no avail. I'm unsure of what else to try and any ideas/thoughts would be welcome, thanks!

fireberd · Accepted Answer

I don't like to tell a user to do a reinstall, but that's most likely what is going to be needed to fix this problem, from what I find researching it.

See these Dell procedures.

https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln297920/reset-or-reinstall-windows-10-on-your-dell-computer?lang=en

Miner2049 · Answer

Sorry, but do we have a better reply than this?? Surely we don't have to reinstall Windows to get a sound card working? I'm on windows version 1809. Is there an update we can apply? Eg. I notice windows is up to update 1903 now.. can we update to this first? If so, can you point out how our Dell PC's can update to this version of windows? As my version doesn't have an option to do this when I go to windows update.

2nd possible solution - Can we have the full drivers for the sound card posted maybe?

fireberd · Answer

This is a users helping users forum. Not a direct line to Dell support. If you don't like my response call Dell support or if its out of warranty take it to a repair shop.

I have managed a help desk for 23 years and our number 1 priority was to fix a problem without telling the user to reinstall. I have been helping people on this forum since 2002. I still strive to work a problem but in this case with the many possibilities and seeing other users ultimately having to do a reinstall for the problem, I took the reinstall suggestion.

JCK24 · Answer

Finally an update as i haven't had much time lately. The reinstall of windows 10 fixed the problem, and after researching, was a lot easier to execute than I thought. Thanks FIREBERD the advice got me exactly what I needed.

Inspiron Desktops

Inspiron 5676 Windows "Audio Service Not Running"

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