No Sound- The device is being used by another application

GaryG45

New Member
Messages
8
Hi,
I have been having sound problems with the speakers on an HP Ultrabook. There are times when the laptop speakers stop working. When this occurs, I go to Control Panel>Sound, select the speakers(only one set to select), select Configure and Test. After selecting Test, I receive the message Device In Use. The device is being used by another application. Please close any devices that are playing audio to this device and then try again. I've gone to Properties for the speakers, Advanced tab and unchecked option "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device". I've also used Run sndvol to try to determine the application, but it only shows Device:Speakers/HP and Applications:System Sounds.

The only way I've been able to get the speakers to work is to reboot or disable and enable the driver for the IDT High Definition Audio CODEC. Does anyone know of a way to determine the application causing the problem? Thanks in advance for your help.

Gary
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP ENVY 4-1215dx
    CPU
    i5-3337U
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD 4000
    Browser
    IE10
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky Internet Security 2013
Hi, I've recently started having this exact problem, also with an HP. From what I can tell, it started since the last critical update was performed a few days ago. It seems to me like the latest update affected or corrupted the drivers for the speakers. I tried restoring to a point before this update, and received an error message that a restore was not possible due to corrupt C:/ files. I do not know if this is related to this problem. Please post if you come across any solutions.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Same here, and even tried the same steps as GaryG45. Looking forward for another solutions... =/ I'll be sure to post it here if I manage to do it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
same problem here. started after the latest MSFT critical update. Reboot fixes it for me temporarily. very annoying. come on MSFT!

Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook with Windows 8
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook
Same as everyone above, using an HP Pavilion g6. I've checked all the drivers and worked through the other suggestions on HP's website. Is this just going to be a case of waiting for a fix from Microsoft?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Same exact for me. When I uninstall and reinstall (or it usually reinstalls itself) and restart, the sound will work for a while and then it's gone again. Happened after the last update.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
I also opened this question on the Microsoft Community forum, and I'm hearing the same thing about a recent update potentially causing the problem. This is my wife's laptop, and she thinks the problem started about a month ago. The laptop isn't setup for automatic updates, and the last time I performed updates was June 19. The last update prior to June 19 was in mid-March, so for me it could have been caused by a April, May, or June update. Most likely something in the June updates.

Gary
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP ENVY 4-1215dx
    CPU
    i5-3337U
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD 4000
    Browser
    IE10
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky Internet Security 2013
SAME FREAKING THING! omg.. Thank you admin whoever made this website.... I didn't know what I was going to do...... I had to update day before yesterday, and I was backing up my computer and about to just reformat and then upgrade to 8.1....

I figured it was them trying to secretly push us up... but... now I know it's not just me.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Signed up to say, SAME HERE. Day before yesterday, temporary sound ever since.

So..what are we just waiting for windows to fix it now?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Didn't you guys check with HP about the problem ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
I am having the exact same issue, just signed up for this also. Really frustrating, but glad to see I'm not alone. After a suggestion from a friend, I'm now playing the Beatles album 1 from start up (when the speakers work fine) to see how long it takes for them to cut out.

I'm looking into some other causes, but it looks like a faulty update. Which is good news really, I was worried it might be a hardware failure on my part.

I'm using a an ASUS K55VD Laptop with 4GB RAM running Windows 8 64-bit, just FYI.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 64-bit (6., Build 9200)
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS K55VD
    CPU
    Intel (R) Core(TM) i3-2350M CPU @ 2.30Hz (4 CPUs)
    Memory
    4096MB RAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia
    Browser
    Mozilla Firefox
    Antivirus
    AVG+Spybot
The problem isn't only with HP PCs. It has been reported on Lenovo and Asus PCs too. I have checked the HP Community, and there is a thread for this problem. Installation of the latest IDT High Definition Audio CODEC driver doesn't appear to help. One person installed the M/S version of the driver instead of the HP version. They now have very low sound, and the BEATS audio feature no longer works. Most people feel the problem started after a M/S update.

Gary
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP ENVY 4-1215dx
    CPU
    i5-3337U
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD 4000
    Browser
    IE10
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky Internet Security 2013
I have a found a rather strange solution to this problem. The issue is that an application is seizing exclusive control over the speakers, muting all other sound.

When you first start your PC, play a song through iTunes or a similar program and set it to continually loop. If you don't fancy having music constantly playing simply put the volume of the program to a level that you can't here, or alternatively download a silent MP3 file from here:
5min-silence

This will take constant use of the speakers and allow all other programs to play normally while blocking the application from seizing control.

Obviously this is a temporary solution and we should all try to find an actual fix, but for now this seems to keep them working.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 64-bit (6., Build 9200)
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS K55VD
    CPU
    Intel (R) Core(TM) i3-2350M CPU @ 2.30Hz (4 CPUs)
    Memory
    4096MB RAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia
    Browser
    Mozilla Firefox
    Antivirus
    AVG+Spybot
I kind of came about the same thing and I agree it works ^ I noticed if I watched a movie or something on my computer the sound just would not go out and then continue listening to music, etc...

I also tried uninstalling the latest updates so I don't know if that helped.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
In my case helped unticking allow applications to control device exclusively in control panel -> sound -> speakers properties -> advanced. The exact names may not be as I wrote, because I don't work on english OS and that's my translations.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 and Windows 7
I'm having the same exact issue with one of my users on a Lenovo T530 running Win 8 after installing Windows updates last Friday.

Previously, it had no sound at all, I spoke to Lenovo and they suggested that I go to an earlier restore point, which I did. Now I we have sound but only for about 20 minutes, then we have to restart the PC. Lenovo had no other solution for me.

Thank you for the workaround. We are testing it now. Hopefully, there will be some kind of an official fix for this soon.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win7
Just found this site! So I am NOT the only person. I was absolutely SURE this has something to do with Windows Update; this happened to me twice now, both times right after I updated. The first time I did a System Restore, and it wasn't until I restored to before the Windows Critical Update stuff (with about 15 updates) that I got my sound back. I thought maybe it was an Optional Update for Silverlight that had caused this, since it mentioned idle audio devices. I have an HP-Envy Touchsmart 4-1115dx, running Windows 8-64 bit.

HOWEVER! I just updated again, only the critical updates. Right after I did that, within a few minutes, audio stopped working, F10 button for mute not working, exactly the same as before. Rather than do a System Restore, I went to Windows Update and started uninstalling the latest updates one by one.

The first 3 didn't make any difference; I had to restart after most of them, and the sound worked fine as it booted up, then went away after a few minutes. BUT after I uninstalled KB2973201 (which took forever; it seemed like it was in a loop when it restarted, I was worried, but after 15 minutes it gave me my start-up screen); all my sound came back and stayed back. I have no idea WHY this Security Update would do this (it's for an on-screen keyboard issue), but I did this yesterday and I still have sound.

Now of course Windows keeps prompting me to update the things I uninstalled. I haven't had time to re-install the other stuff yet, but for now, I think I'll try doing that and NOT allowing Windows to update the KB2973201. Please let me know if anyone else has noticed this. I have found nothing on the web about this issue with that update and sound.

Hope this helps all of you, hope this continues to help me!!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8-64
Well, so much for that. It was all working fine, then I plugged in headphones, now I have no sound again. I am SOOOO frustrated. I will finish uninstalling all the last Windows Updates, I am still convinced that is the problem.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8-64
I uninstalled KB2973201 and I'm still having issues. I also have and have had 'allow applications to control device' turned off.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win7
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