Ever get the message, “iTunes has detected a problem with your audio configuration. Audio/Video playback may not operate properly.”?
Here’s one possible fix.
- Go to start -> run. If your keyboard has a ‘windows key’, which looks like the windows icon and is often located next to ctrl/alt, you can get away with pressing (and holding) this key, and tapping the ‘r’ key. I use this shortcut almost every day. On that note, windows-key+e I use even more- try it.
- type ’services.msc’, without the single quotes. This opens a list of the various services running on your computer.
- Make sure iTunes is closed.
- Locate “Windows Audio,” and see if it’s running. If it is, the status will show ‘Started’.
- No? Well guess what, iTunes needs this to be running in order to communicate with your audio device. Start it. There’s a link to start it along the leftmost column. Once it’s started, find a blank area within the services window, right click and hit refresh. Or just tap F5. Has the service died? If not, skip to step 7.
- The service died, didn’t it? Look for a ‘Windows Management Instrumentation’ service. This needs to be running for Windows Audio to be running, even though it’s not listed in the dependancies. Fire it up, then fire up Windows Audio.
- Fire up iTunes, and enjoy.
Originally posted 2009-03-19 18:23:30.
#1 by Brett on April 7, 2009 - 4:32 pm
Thanks a lot, this helped me, Windows Audio stopped running for some reason
#2 by Harv on April 8, 2009 - 8:38 pm
No problem. Thanks for leaving a comment.
#3 by Gabi on February 3, 2010 - 2:20 pm
Thankyou so much for this – extremely helpful! =)
#4 by Anonymous on August 12, 2009 - 2:08 pm
awesome guide….
#5 by Stephanie on November 18, 2009 - 8:18 pm
Thank you very much! This was great. Very easy to fix with your directions.
#6 by Julie on February 7, 2010 - 9:31 am
Thanks so much Harv!!
You were great help
#7 by Joel on April 15, 2009 - 9:17 am
worked a treat. thanks!
#8 by Jane on May 18, 2009 - 5:49 pm
thanks!! it works great now!
#9 by chris on June 17, 2009 - 2:23 am
hey i did this and it still didnt work, i have also uninstalled quicktime and itunes both, seperately and together, i need help please lol
#10 by Harv on June 17, 2009 - 11:39 am
Hi Chris,
make sure your audio device driver is installed properly.
See my article on the subject here: http://learnwithharv.com/blog/finding-drivers-for-unknown-devices/
Good luck.
#11 by The Heretic on June 23, 2009 - 5:23 am
thanks a lot Harv!!!
it worked!
#12 by Harv on June 26, 2009 - 10:08 am
No problem, glad to help!
#13 by Daniela Koolmeyer on June 24, 2009 - 4:12 pm
Did not help !
#14 by Harv on June 26, 2009 - 10:09 am
Hi Daniela,
you have a bigger problem going on. Has it been resolved yet? If not, feel free to email me (harv@learnwithharv.com) and I’ll do what I can to help you out.
#15 by Elizabeth on June 30, 2009 - 9:48 am
Hi Harv,
I am running Windows 2000, and Windows Audio is not even listed in services…?? I started getting this itunes error message after I installed a wireless card. Any ideas??
#16 by Harv on June 30, 2009 - 10:48 am
Elizabeth,
the service may be called something else in Windows 2000. Make sure your drivers are up to date and your audio device is recognized by the system.
#17 by Elizabeth on June 30, 2009 - 10:52 am
Thank you for your response. Pardon my ignorance, but what do you consider to be an ‘audio device’? I listen to music through headphones plugged directly into the back of the computer, and my monitor has built-in speakers. In terms of audio drivers…I wouldn’t have a clue how to check on that.
As I mentioned before, I installed a wireless card into my computer, and then the audio quit working. Any idea how these two things would be tied together?
#18 by Elizabeth on July 1, 2009 - 7:15 am
Harv,
I got some feedback from the tech support of my wireless card, and it turns out that the audio issue was related to the placement of the card in a particular slot in my motherboard. I moved it to another slot and the problem was solved!
#19 by Harv on July 1, 2009 - 12:25 pm
Elizabeth, that’s wonderful. I was going to do some research as to how Windows 2000 handles IRQ allocation as I thought that was your problem, and I couldn’t for the life of me remember whether W2K did it the new way.
Sounds like that may have been the issue- either way it’s fixed now!
Thanks for stopping by.
#20 by Cassandra on July 11, 2009 - 9:37 pm
I have Windows XP and the message still showed up after doing all that. In steps 4 & 6 both devices were already running so i dont know what to do! I can’t hear or even play music on my computer! HELP MEEE
thanks
#21 by Harv on July 13, 2009 - 9:35 pm
Hi Cassandra,
Try using another audio playing
deviceapplication. If it works, your problem is with iTunes; try re-installing.If it doesn’t, something’s either mis-configured (the audio device could be turned off), you’re missing a driver, or a piece of hardware is broken.
But the first step is to rule out whether it’s iTunes causing the problem.
#22 by Cassandra on July 14, 2009 - 4:03 pm
i dont think i have an audio device on the computer i think i may have deleted it :// actually im pretty sure i did….
what do i do?
#23 by Harv on July 14, 2009 - 5:58 pm
Cassandra-
did you try using an application other than iTunes?
As I said, this would be the first step.
If you have, and are still having problems, you will want to check the device manager to ensure your audio device looks healthy.
Go to your start menu, right-click My Computer and select Manage. You will see a management console- select Device Manager on the left.
If you see any icons with a red X through them, they are disabled. You can right click on the device and select ‘Enable Device’ to attempt to reverse this.
Expand the ‘Sound, video and game controllers’ to check on your audio device(s). If any of them have a yellow (!) sign, it could be a driver problem.
Reply with your findings, so we can get to the bottom of this!
#24 by Cassandra on July 14, 2009 - 6:59 pm
Okay! Under the expanded “Sound, Video and Game controllers” the ”
IDT High Definition Audio CODEC
” sub tab has a (!) on its icon! i right clicked it and UPDATE then tried SCAN FOR HARDWARE CHANGES and it didnt do anything…
then i right clicked again and selected properties. this is what it read:
“This device cannot start. (Code 10)
Click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooter for this device.”
#25 by Harv on July 14, 2009 - 9:13 pm
Hmm. It could be a hardware problem, or a driver problem. Did this issue just suddenly happen, or can you think of something that may have been a catalyst? IE – driver updates or a new sound card perhaps?
Do you know what kind of sound card you have, or if it’s built in to the motherboard? If you can find any disks that came with your computer (or sound card if purchased separately), you may need them. For now you could try disabling and re-enabling the (!) device. Failing that I can walk you through uninstalling and re-installing the drivers, if you have them. First I need to know if you know what your audio device is and whether you have the correct drivers. Awaiting your reply!
#26 by Shayna on October 13, 2009 - 9:48 pm
I have the same problem as Cassandra. I don’t have any discs for the laptop. What happened for me is that I went delete happy in my add/remove programs and I deleted something obviously crucial. I disabled the (!) IDT High Definition Audio CODEC and re-enabled it like you said, but it still had the (!) afterwards. You have been the most informative and helpful of all the websites that I’ve come across the past 2 days! I hope you are willing and able to help! I’ve been going crazy!
#27 by Harv on October 14, 2009 - 12:02 pm
Hi Shayna,
please see my article on finding drivers for unknown devices.
http://learnwithharv.com/blog/finding-drivers-for-unknown-devices/
#28 by Ashley on December 6, 2009 - 11:25 am
Hi, I have the EXACT same problem as well. I have tried mutiple things, I have uninstalled and reinstalled the IDT Audio High Definition CODEC and it still says “The device cannot start. Code 10.” It did just suddenly happen, out of nowhere. I have no idea what kind of sound card I have or whether or not its built into the motherboard. I don’t have any discs. I don’t know what do because when I follow the installiation process it just says Code 10. My warranty is up on my computer so DELL will not help me, nice right?
Anyways, please respond and I would appreciate any help from you.
#29 by buy_vigrxplus on July 14, 2009 - 1:39 pm
Pretty cool post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say
that I have really liked reading your blog posts. Anyway
I’ll be subscribing to your blog and I hope you post again soon!
#30 by LnddMiles on July 21, 2009 - 5:56 pm
The best information i have found exactly here. Keep going Thank you
#31 by Serenina on July 22, 2009 - 12:47 pm
LOVE THIS!!!! Thanks so so much – now I don’t have to restart and wait hours!
#32 by Harv on July 23, 2009 - 2:15 am
You’re welcome Serenina – thanks for the comment!
#33 by Danni on July 26, 2009 - 7:17 pm
bravo. i looked at several blogs before i found this one and they all only had one step and then i was lost. you did a great job of covering all the options til the problem was solved. thousand thanks.
#34 by Damon on August 4, 2009 - 4:48 am
I searched my drivers, as you said, and found one that needed to be updated. Now I no longer receive the error message from itunes. Thanks
#35 by Bobbi on August 20, 2009 - 6:07 am
Thanks for that fix, bud.
#36 by bibob on August 22, 2009 - 3:36 am
Thanks so much!!!!
#37 by nikki on August 26, 2009 - 1:49 am
hey, i followed the steps and still didnt work! but whenever i click itunes, the message is not popping anymore. please help me. the windows audio and windows management instrumentation are running but why is the audio still not playing?
#38 by Joanne on August 31, 2009 - 5:10 am
Thank you-it worked! Just got the error message
last night-couldn’t figure it out-
Thank you thank you thank you!!!!
#39 by Liz on September 8, 2009 - 1:27 am
Hi im still having the problem after following your steps, my windows audio and Windows Management Instrumentation were both started, i tried uninstalling quicktime and tried looking under sound, video and game controllers no red ‘x’s or yellow ‘!’s on any of the listed things.
Realtek high definition audio was listed tried uninstalling and tried updating the software by looking for updates.
if i uninstall itunes will it get rid of my music or do i need to do a backup that wil be my next step i just need some advice thanks
#40 by Harv on September 8, 2009 - 6:36 pm
Hi Liz,
make sure iTunes is actually playing the file (you will notice the little ‘position’ triangle moving to the right and the position second count going up).
Also make sure that your speakers are plugged in to the green jack, powered on and turned up.
You will also want to make sure your system sound is not muted and is turned up – go to the Control Panel and select Sounds and Audio Devices, ensure mute isn’t checked and the slider is not all the way left.
Finally, iTunes has its own volume slider, make sure that isn’t all the way left.
To recap – make sure everything’s plugged in (green jack!) and the speakers themselves are on and not turned down low, make sure your system is unmuted and not down low, make sure iTunes is unmuted and turned down low.
No, removing or re-installing iTunes should not delete your music. You may want to back it up anyway just in case. Also make sure you use the Add/Remove programs control panel, NEVER manually remove the iTunes folder yourself.
Good luck.
#41 by Mike on September 10, 2009 - 9:59 am
Hi Mr. Harv, so I’ve got this same problem, I’ve read through your posts hoping it would help me but unfortunately I’m not able to solve this problem. FTR I run Windows XP. I’ve gone through and made sure all of my audio devices are ’started’ as you explained, I reset all of them to see if that would help. Then I checked my audio devices through the control panel and all of them said that they were functioning properly. I originally had this problem with iTunes so I tried using Windows Media Player and it gave me a similar error message. This problem just showed up today and I was listening to music perfectly fine last night. Seriously WTF, how could this happen? If it was a hardware issue then wouldn’t the device manager tell me things were messed up? It seems ridiculous that I would need to update my drivers, seeing as everything was fine last night, I mean that’s straight from the Indian tech support handbook. What do you think I should do? Any help would really be appreciated.
#42 by Harv on September 18, 2009 - 2:49 am
Hi Mike,
that’s strange. Did you try re-installing iTunes?
#43 by Anonymous on September 11, 2009 - 2:55 am
thanks i had this very message. your instructions worked a treat, was considering uninstalling the new version of iTunes but this fixed it. thanks
#44 by glenn Mayberry on September 21, 2009 - 7:05 pm
I have no sound to play music
#45 by Oz on September 22, 2009 - 4:26 am
Thanks! iTunes is working now
#46 by lei. on September 30, 2009 - 10:02 pm
Nice!
Easy instructions and fixed my problem super quick <3
#47 by Donnieboy on October 11, 2009 - 2:57 pm
Just wanted to drop you a line to say, I enjoy reading your site. I thought about starting a blog myself but don’t have the time.
Oh well maybe one day….
#48 by eleo on October 15, 2009 - 12:13 am
Thanks alot….it helped and m enjoying itunes now
#49 by soo happy on October 16, 2009 - 6:24 pm
I spent all day today trying to solve this problem. No sound on the speakers. What I think happened was I deleted something that hadn’t been used in a couple of years. Plus my disc drive is being fickle, not reading the installation CD’s for some reason… Everything seemed fine except it said I had no sound device. Finally went to Dell.com and downloaded the Audio driver. Easy and quick fix, after all that searching!
#50 by hapinoy on October 25, 2009 - 10:45 am
hey i really wanted to thank you for fixing this. cant live without my music. did a virus do this?
#51 by Harv on October 26, 2009 - 1:00 pm
hapinoy,
It’s possible. Make sure you’re running an up-to-date and reputable anti-virus client. I recommend Avast. I specifically discourage using Norton.
Good luck!
#52 by Stephanie on October 28, 2009 - 8:54 pm
Thank you so much, this is was easy to follow and everything worked out perfectly. Again, I can’t thank you enough. Thanks a bunch!!!
#53 by ga on October 29, 2009 - 10:09 am
thank u so much, it is working again. at first it didnt, then after i restarted, it started working again…
#54 by Jon Szelak on November 3, 2009 - 7:35 am
hi. today i downloaded some music and tried to play it and it said. “iTunes has detected a problem with your audio configuration. Audio/Video playback may not operate properly.” i tried the tools the first guy said to use and it did absolutely nothing. any other tips would be useful. thank you.
#55 by Nina on November 26, 2009 - 9:51 am
THANK YOU!!!
It’s working now.
#56 by blake on December 18, 2009 - 12:34 am
thanks it worked wonders glad thers ppllike u =]
#57 by Sam on December 18, 2009 - 11:53 pm
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!, This has been annoying the hell out of me for a long time
#58 by wayne on December 27, 2009 - 11:56 am
My windows audio was already started, but after I stopped it and then started it, itunes worked. I am running windows 7 ultimate. Thanks for the guide! (and especially the windows-key+e. That’s awesome)
#59 by Amy on December 31, 2009 - 10:57 am
Heyy. Umm my music was playing fine yesterday and today i tried to open windows media player and it came up with a error so i then tried to play my music in itunes. I got an error saying iTunes has dectected a problem with your audio configuration. I’ve checked everything is running proprly and made sure there are no red crosses next to anything but nothings helped. Im not sure what to do now.
#60 by Harv on January 2, 2010 - 2:26 am
Hello Amy. Restarting never hurts. Try firing up iTunes after restarting without first launching WMP. If you still get the error, follow my guide above. If you’re still getting the error, try re-installing iTunes. Then check your device manager again, and see if you can confirm that there is indeed an audio device listed. You can also try right-clicking your computer name, at the very top of the device manager window, and select “Scan for hardware changes”. Failing all that, you’ve probably got one of three problems:
1) the iTunes service mentioned in my article is being prohibited from starting,
2) you have a driver problem,
3) you have a hardware problem.
At this point, you may want to consult a professional. Or drop me an email. Harv@LearnWithHarv.com
Thanks for commenting, and good luck.
#61 by spag on January 14, 2010 - 10:23 am
UR THE MAN
#62 by Anonymous on January 14, 2010 - 12:50 pm
Many thanks. Sorted my problem right out.
Cheers
J
#63 by Anonymous on January 27, 2010 - 12:42 pm
Legend, thank you very much
#64 by Evan on February 2, 2010 - 11:21 pm
Thanks, worked like a charm.
#65 by Anonymous on February 7, 2010 - 6:47 am
Thank You, Great Steps!
#66 by Anonymous on February 15, 2010 - 9:58 am
thanks a tone…m prob is solved!