Monitors with integrated speakers are becoming more popular and can come in handy when you have space or budget limitations.
They’re typically powerful components (although not as powerful as external speakers) that can help you do your everyday tasks.
However, they may run into software or hardware issues that make them stop working.
Here’s how you can troubleshoot your monitor speakers not having sound.
Monitor Speakers Not Working (Causes, Fixes)
1. Restart Your System
The first solution that people usually try when they run into any computer-related issues is to restart their systems.
Rebooting the computer can fix any temporary glitches in the system that don’t necessarily come from serious issues.
Regularly restarting your system is recommended because it can speed up the computer while maintaining its health and preventing glitches.
This way, you’ll help your processor free up space by shutting down unnecessary programs and flushing its memory.
If your monitor speakers aren’t working, it might be from a minor glitch that goes away by restarting.
If it doesn’t work, you can be sure it’s something more serious and try the following solutions.
2. Check Connections
If your monitor speakers are built-in, you may not need to check connections because there aren’t any wires visibly connecting your speaker and monitor.
However, the connections to the PC case matter.
Check all connections and wires for physical signs of damage or loose connections.
In addition, not any connection type is suitable for monitors with built-in speakers.
That’s because, with these monitors, you’ll need connections that can carry both video and audio together.
Instead of DVI or VGA connection, you’ll need DisplayPort, HDMI, or USB-C.
Other than these options, your audio won’t work.
If your monitor has an audio output jack, it’s for connecting the monitor to a speaker.
Don’t mistake it with the cable that connects the PC and monitor and only connect these two devices using the connections mentioned above.
Then, you should check the other end of the connection, which is the PC’s case.
Make sure all connections are strong, and everything is firmly in place.
Another way to make sure connections are okay is to use another cable to see if it solves the problem.
You could also use the current cables to connect two other devices and see if they work.
This way, you can eliminate the possibility of a faulty cable being the main culprit.
You could also connect the case to another device or monitor and play sounds to ensure the monitor isn’t causing these problems.
If you’re using external speakers, ensure the connections are okay by checking all the inputs and outputs.
If the speaker has a power button on it, make sure it’s turned on.
Finally, connect the speaker to another device to ensure it’s working correctly.
3. Check The Volume Settings
This solution may be too obvious.
After all, nobody will forget to check their audio volumes.
Things happen, though, such as some programs overriding the system’s volume and tampering with it by muting or turning it down, so it never hurts to double-check.
Before doing anything, make sure the speakers aren’t muted or the volume isn’t set to zero.
You could check these settings through the monitor’s on-screen display and using the physical buttons on the side of the monitor.
Plus, don’t forget to check the volume levels through the sound settings on the right corner of the screen.
Click on the speaker icon and set the volume to 100.
Alternatively, you could adjust the volume settings through the Control Panel.
Open the Control Panel by searching it in the taskbar’s search box.
Find “Sound” and click on it to open the audio settings and see a list of playback devices.
Find your monitor, click on it, select “properties,” and go to the “level” tab.
Here, you can check the speaker volumes, see if it’s muted, and change other settings.
Note: If you can’t find your monitor in the list of speakers, right-click the space in the “Sound” window and check “Show disabled devices.”
Right-click on your monitor and choose “Enable.”
If your speaker isn’t on the list of disabled devices, you should reinstall your monitor.
Another obvious solution is to ensure that the problem pertains to the entire system, not a single program.
If you don’t have sound with a particular program, open other audio files from different programs to see if you don’t have sound at all.
Again, it may sound too simplistic, but people can easily overlook these simple things.
4. Update Sound Drivers
One of the most significant reasons your monitor speakers don’t work is that your audio drivers are outdated.
Generally, Microsoft updates all drivers, including audio, network, display, and others, through its regular Windows updates.
However, there are times when these updates aren’t complete and don’t resolve the issues with the previous versions, or the current updates don’t address the issues at hand.
It’s better to update the drivers manually and individually to make sure you have the latest version of the driver.
You could use different ways to update the sound driver, but the easiest one is through Device Manager.
To do so, right-click on the Start menu and select “Device Manager.”
Scroll down to “Sound, Video, and Game Controllers” and find your main audio device.
Right-click on it and select “Update driver” to start updating.
You’ll have two options: “Search automatically for drivers” or “Browse my computer for drivers.”
The first option allows the OS to search for updates over the Internet, and the second option applies to when you download updates from the manufacturer’s website on your computer (explained below).
If it doesn’t work, you could choose the “Uninstall device” option instead of the “update” option and restart your device.
Windows will automatically search for the latest driver updates and install them when your computer boots up again.
Another alternative is to download the driver from the manufacturer’s website directly.
This way, you can ensure that you have the latest updates and aren’t leaving anything to chance.
If you don’t know what audio driver you have, you can see it through the Device Manager method described above.
When you right-click on the audio device, select “Properties,” and under the “General” tab, you can see the audio device’s manufacturer.
Then, go to the manufacturer’s website and look for the latest updates on their support page.
Make sure the file you choose is compatible with your system type.
If you don’t know what system type you have, you can search “system” in the taskbar’s search box and click on the first result.
The window that opens shows every information you need about your system.
After downloading the update, you can easily install it using the method mentioned above.
5. Update Monitor Drivers
The same thing about updating sound drivers applies to monitor drivers.
The operating system must install the software packages necessary to run the hardware properly.
It detects the hardware automatically, lets you install its drivers without issues, and install regular updates later.
However, if issues like no sound from speakers occur, you should consider outdated drivers as a possibility.
To update your drivers, you could install third-party tools that take care of searching for and installing the latest updates for all drivers, in addition to doing many other system maintenance jobs.
If you want to install the update manually, go to “Device Manager” or install it directly from the manufacturer’s website.
6. Check The Default Playback Device
If you have more than one audio output device, the monitor’s speakers may not be assigned as the main audio output by Windows.
Setting them as the default playback device will solve the issue.
To check this setting, click on the speaker icon on the bottom right corner of the screen and select “Open sound settings.”
In the screen that appears, the first option will be “Choose your output device.”
Expand the menu to see your monitor’s name and the audio driver in brackets.
If you can’t see it in the list, the chances are high that you haven’t connected the monitor correctly.
Check the connections and repeat the process to choose your monitor as the default audio output device.
If you want to ensure that Windows has successfully detected your monitor, you can check it in the “Device Manager” section.
Look for “Monitors” and expand the list to see if your monitor is there.
If it’s not, unplug all the cables, connect the device again, and recheck things.
7. Roll Back The Updates
If your monitor speaker stopped working after a recent Windows update, there’s a high chance that the new update introduced glitches that led to this issue.
The solution is to roll back to a previous update until the next update comes along and hopefully fixes the glitch.
To roll back a Windows update,
Go to “Settings” by right-clicking the “Start” menu and choosing the option.
Click “Update & security > View update history > Uninstall updates.”
Here, you can see all the current updates on your computer and their dates.
Choose the update you suspect caused the issue (which is typically the latest update by date) and right-click on it to see the “Uninstall” option and select it.
Follow the on-screen options to complete the uninstall process.
Note: If rolling back doesn’t solve the sound issue, reinstall the Windows updates to avoid missing out on security updates.
If the rollback option isn’t available, you could use the system restore option.
However, you can only use it if you’ve created restore points before.
Go to “Control Panel > Recovery > Open System Restore.”
Here, you can see the restore points and restore your system to that date.
8. Run Audio Troubleshooter
If you can’t find out where the problem comes from, you can get Windows to troubleshoot automatically.
To run the troubleshooter, type “Troubleshoot” in the Windows search bar on the left corner of the taskbar.
Click on the first result to open the troubleshooting window.
Click “Additional troubleshooters” and then “Playing audio.”
Hit the “Run the troubleshooter” button to start looking for problems.
Follow the on-screen instructions to finish the process and see if it helps.
9. Update Windows
If updating each driver is difficult for you, or you feel your system needs a general update, you can update the operating system and see if it helps resolve the sound problem.
After all, the root cause might be an unknown issue inside the system that’s difficult to pin down.
To do so, go to Settings, and click on the first option on the left pane: “Windows Updates.”
If there’s a new update available, you’ll see “Update available” on top of the page.
Click “Install” to start updating Windows.
Otherwise, you’ll see “You’re up to date,” and below it, there’s a “Check for updates” button.
Click on it to automatically download any available updates.
10. Reinstall The Monitor
If updating the monitor drivers doesn’t work or you can’t find the monitor among the enabled devices for playback, you need to uninstall and reinstall it.
To do so, go to “Device Manager” and scroll down to “Monitors.”
Expand the menu, find your device, and right-click on it.
Click “Uninstall” and follow the on-screen instructions to finish uninstalling.
Note: After reinstalling the monitor, you could remove all the connections from the power outlet and the PC case to make sure you’re starting everything anew.
11. Check The Sound Card
If none of the above methods worked, the issue might be hardware-related, and one of the most crucial pieces of hardware here is the sound card.
If the sound card is damaged, you can’t get sound from it no matter how much you tweak the software-related settings.
To make sure your sound card is working, connect a different set of speakers or headphones to your computer.
Make them the default playback device through the steps mentioned earlier in the article, and then play sounds to see how it goes.
If you still don’t have sound, you should take your computer to a technician to change the sound card.
12. Change Audio Settings In BIOS
This solution is an advanced option, and you may never have to use it, but it’s still a possibility.
Your computer may have an onboard audio chip instead of a removable sound card, and it may have been disabled in the BIOS.
In this case, you should enter BIOS and enable it there.
To find out if you have an onboard sound card, you need to check the back of your computer case.
The audio output and input ports placement shows if your sound card is integrated or removable.
The audio card is integrated if the audio ports are next to the USB or mouse connections.
However, if the audio ports are near the expansion slots, your sound card is removable.
Here’s how to enable audio settings in BIOS:
Restart the computer and press the F2 key (or any other key, such as F1, F10, or Delete key, depending on your motherboard) to enter BIOS.
Go to Advanced > Onboard and press enter.
Depending on the device, you may need to enter the “Device Configuration” section instead of “Onboard.”
Depending on your system, you may have different terms referring to your audio devices and settings, but it’s most likely “audio controller.”
If it’s disabled, change it to “Enable,” save your work, and exit BIOS.
Restart your computer and check if your sound issue has been resolved.
If none of the above methods work, your speakers are most likely damaged.
You should take your monitor to a repair shop and check for possible physical issues.
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