Audio Service is not running; Error 0x800706cc

A few days ago I had a windows update, and after it was done everything seemed fine. I muted my sound later on, and suddenly it wouldnt come back on. When I mouse over it, it says Audio Service is not running. After googling the problem I have done the following to try to fix it:
System recovery
Uninstall then Install AVG2015
Updated drivers
Disable then Enable the mmcss.dll file
Tried to start it via Run>Services>Windows Audio
Whenever I try to start it that way, I get Error 0x800706cc: the endpoint is a duplicate.
I really really dont know what else to do to fix it, and it's really getting to be upsetting. If anyone at all could help me out I'd be much appreciative.

Welcome to the forum lxie!

Hopefully this will help; Windows Audio cant be started, error 1740 (0x800706cc: - Microsoft Community

yeah ive tried that after installing AVG again, but it seems like in the midsts of uninstalling it, it had deleted whatever was in the virus vault. So now I just dont have it, and this is my only computer.

All of the audio service no running problems I've seen have ultimately required a Windows reinstall (clean install which includes reformatting the hard drive). There are many posted suggestions if you do a google search, and there may have been some successes, but unfortunately I haven't seen one post on here or the Windows 7 forum that was successful.

Well, there is the registry hack but that is something many may not be comfortable with, I would try it before a clean install but that's me.

Found this post also: Windows 8/8.1 No Audio – “Endpoint is a duplicate” error message. (Part 2/2 | JC tech blog