Red X on Volume icon, Audio services not responding

[Ahri]

Okay so, we're trying to the get this PC's sound system back up and running, but it's gotten us completely stumped as to what to do. After doing extensive research and problem solving.. I can't take it anymore. Anyway the volume control has a red X on the icon, you click it and the troubleshooter pops up.

Click speakers and it trouleshoots the speakers. Doesn't do anything but tell me that the audio service is not responding.. Interesting enough both services are running, and set to automatic. Restarted them anyway, multiple times. The dependencies for the Realtek High definition audio are also running. Both registry keys have not been altered. The sound card is integrated onto the motherboard (ASUS Maximus VII Formula).

Now at this point you're thinking.. Something is wrong with the speakers right? Nope! Plugged the speakers into a phone and they worked. Sound card must be bad then though right? Well.. I don't know much about that but.. I'd imagine if an integrated sound card went out we'd also notice other problems from the motherboard. There's also the fact that the monitor is getting sound to come through it.

I forgot to add the most important part, we uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled them multiple times. Even tried a system restore.

 

[hang-the-9]

Are there any errors in Device Manager? Did you try a BIOS update for the motherboard? You can lose audio and have the rest of the motherboard work normally. Or network card, have seen both die.

Your monitor is probably connected through HDMI, if you look at your audio devices used for that, it would be set to the video card, not your motherboard.

When did the issue start, anything happen right before it started? Is there a system restore point you can revert to before the issue started? It will also tell you what was changed at that restore point so you can sort out what caused the issue.