Why does this happen (and only periodically): namely, I’ll fire up iTunes and get the message that it’s detected a problem with my audio configuration. Sometimes I’ll actually see a little red X over the speaker icon in the system tray, other times I won’t. In any case it usually resolves with a restart of Windows 7 64-bit. Sometimes I also get an explicit message about the “Audio Service failing to start” and I can go into Services.msc and recover without restarting.
I’ve got an ASUS P8Z68V-LE motherboard with the onboard Realtek HD audio. Pretty sure I have the latest drivers (newer than the ones on ASUS’ page)–am I better off just reverting to the latest thing on my motherboard’s drivers download page?. Just have a Logitech 5.1 system with subwoofer connected to the motherboard’s analog outputs.
When I was using non-USB headsets (don’t use speakers) I’d get that every once in a while (Win 7 64bit). From my experience all the Realtek HD audio stuff is a bit flaky. I’ve got an ASUS board as well.
Roll back to the ASUS drivers instead of using Realtek. In my experience updating audio drivers hasn’t been necessary for years now, you’ll get no performance or quality gains by doing so, unless the newer drivers have more robust equalizer settings.
happened to me occasionally when I was stuck on onboard sound for a few months. A quick solution was to go into device manger, disable the audio device, then re-enable it. Didn’t happen too often so wasn’t bothered enough to look for a more permanent fix.
Device Manager is quickly gotten to by Windows Key + Pause/Break
And yeah removing it and then going Action>Scan for Changes is basically the same as rebooting, so at least that’s a quick way to get it working again instead of rebooting the system.
