Steps to Re-enable Windows Audio Service
My friend called me yesterday as he was facing the problem of Audio not working on his computer. On being asked he told that by mistake he disabled all the services of the computer (Quite stupid, I know). But he was having a hard time to solve that problem as the services were not starting again and gave an error message each time.
Disabling the service included disabling the Windows Audio Service that resulted in audio of the system not working. Nor installing the audio drivers again solved the problem, neither restoring the system to an earlier time.
So if you also want to re-enable the Windows Audio service then try this fix:
1. Windows Audio Service is dependent on the Plug and Play service of the computer and you will see that disabling the Windows Audio Service also disabled the Plug and Play service.
2. So the solution is quite simple and is to just enable the Plug and Play service before the Windows Audio Service.
3. Type services.msc in the Run box to open the Services running in the system.
4. Enable the “Plug and Play” service before any other.
5. Now start the “Windows Audio Service” which will start without any errors this time.
You may require rebooting, but the sound has been enabled for sure.
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May 15th, 2009 at 9:57 am
This solution didn’t work for me. Plug and Play is started, but it still won’t let me start Windows Audio
The error I get is “The dependency service or group failed to start”. I guess it’s dependent on something else too but I don’t know what.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Okay, I got it. I snooped around through the services and found that Windows Audio service has the following dependencies. These services MUST be started first so that Windows Audio will start:
Plug and Play service must be started BEFORE
Windows Audio Endpoint Builder
BOTH of above must be started BEFORE Windows Audio Service
DCOM Service Process Launcher must be started BEFORE
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
BOTH of above must be started BEFORE Windows Audio Service
Multimedia Class Scheduler must be started BEFORE Windows Audio Service
If you are having the same frustrating horrible Vista experience I was having, I hope this will fix the problem for you.
How to find this information:
1. Start > Run > type “services.msc”
2. Scroll down until you find Windows Audio
3. Double-click on Windows Audio
4. Click on the Dependencies tab.
5. See “This service depends on the following service components:”
6. If any component has a + sign next to it, click on the + sign to see which services are further dependencies.
7. Now, write down each service name and start them all… you must start the lower-level service so that the one above it (depending on it) will start.
How to start a service:
1. Run services.msc if it’s not already running
2. Scroll to the service you need.
3. Double click on the service.
4. On the General tab, see “Startup type:” and select Automatic.
5. Click Apply
6. Click the Start button
I really helps. This stuff can be really frustrating for non techie people like me!
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:26 am
Thanks for the great tips. You’ve saved me much money and lots of time!
October 31st, 2009 at 1:36 am
thank you! it works!!!
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:27 am
Thanks Deefer.
1. Just enabling PlugandPlay did not work for me either as I had the same error message: “The dependency service or group failed to start.”
2. After enabling all the dependencies as you described in your comment however everything is working fine.
Thank you, it works.
Also, disabling a lot of processes has made my Vista 2 to 3 times faster, so it was worth the experimentation.
December 31st, 2009 at 4:06 am
Followed DeeFer list but got,”Windows could not find Windows Audio Endpoint Builder” even after I started Plug and Play. So now what? I did get instuctions on how to start services with instruction about “local” and “network” but also a cautionary note about being qualified to make changes.
February 3rd, 2010 at 6:59 am
This worked for me, I only had to remove: “AudioEndpointBuilder” from the list:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/Audiosrv
and in the DependOnService remove all entries except RpcSs and then restart your computer
(I left MMCSS)
February 15th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
My problem is Windows Audio is not listed in my services manager! Help!
March 5th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Enable the service called POWER!
It fixed everyting
March 10th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
i typed in services.msc in the run
and it says (the service cannot be started either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it)
please help!!!