It may happen sometimes that audio stops working as if the sound card is damaged. However, if you restart Windows audio starts working again, which means that there is some configuration conflict and not a permanent hardware problem.

Especially if you are in the middle of something, downloading, editing a document, whatever, to restart your PC can be a great annoyance, but you can avoid it.

If you are using an external, usb, sound card, just unplug and replug it. Usually this will solve your problem instantly.

If you are using an internal sound card, integrated or not, open your notepad and paste the following lines:

net stop audiosrv
net stop AudioEndpointBuilder
net start audiosrv
net start AudioEndpointBuilder

Save this simple text document as “whatevername.bat” (the name doesn’t matter, but the extension has to be “bat”) and double click to run it. Windows Audio Services will restart and your problem, most probably, will be solved. You can do the same without using a batch file, if you go to Computer Management > Services and restart manually audio services.

Enjoy!