Audio randomly cuts out, a restart fixes it
The Windows Audio service sometimes ties itself in a knot. Often after a driver update or a suspend/resume cycle.
Try this first
- 1Right-click the speaker icon > 'Troubleshoot sound problems'. Often the built-in tool fixes it.
- 2Not fixed? Open Services (Win+R, services.msc) > find 'Windows Audio'. Right-click > Restart.
- 3Also restart 'Windows Audio Endpoint Builder'; it belongs to the same group.
- 4Update the audio driver via Device Manager or the laptop maker's site. Realtek drivers sometimes stumble after big Windows updates.
When to bring us in
Audio service crashing several times a week: time for a vendor driver-bundle reinstall. We schedule that as maintenance.
See also
- My laptop is suddenly slowThree main suspects: a runaway background process, near-full disk, or a Windows update in progress.
- One specific application is slow for everyoneIf an app is slow for one person: local. For everyone at once: server side or vendor side.
- Opening files from the file server takes minutesOften the server itself is fine and the issue is network routing or stalling DNS resolution.
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