No Audio Output Device Is Installed, Fix It in Windows
The message "No audio output device is installed" appears when you hover over the speaker icon, which shows a red X, and Sound settings shows no output devices at all. Microsoft lists a missing, outdated, disabled, or failed audio driver as the cause, often after a Windows update or a driver change, and the fix is to make Windows see the audio device again.
Fix it, in order
Run the audio troubleshooter. Open Settings, System, Troubleshoot, Other troubleshooters, and select Run next to Audio. On Windows 11 this opens the Get Help app, which checks the device, the services, and the driver, and can apply repairs itself.
Check Device Manager for a disabled device. Right-click Start and select Device Manager, then expand Sound, video and game controllers. If your audio device is listed with a down arrow, right-click it and select Enable device.
Show hidden devices and scan for hardware changes. In Device Manager, select View, then Show hidden devices. If the audio device appears greyed out, right-click it and select Enable device. Then select Action, then Scan for hardware changes, to force Windows to re-detect it.
Reinstall the audio driver. Right-click the audio device, select Uninstall device, check Attempt to remove the driver for this device if the box appears, and restart the PC. Windows reinstalls the driver on boot.
Install the driver from the PC maker. If Windows reinstalls a generic driver that does not work, download the audio driver for your exact model from the laptop or motherboard maker's support site and run the installer.
Roll back if it started after an update. In Device Manager, open the audio device Properties, open the Driver tab, and select Roll Back Driver. Windows Update sometimes replaces a working manufacturer driver with an incompatible generic one.
Restart the audio services. Press Win + R, type services.msc, and press Enter. Restart Windows Audio and Windows Audio Endpoint Builder, and make sure both are set to Automatic. If they will not start, the driver reinstall above is the next step.
Check the firmware setting. If no audio device appears in Device Manager at all, even as a hidden device, restart into the BIOS or UEFI setup and check that onboard audio is enabled.
Do not pay for a driver updater to fix this. The driver you need is free from Windows Update or the PC maker's support site, and third-party driver tools are a common source of the wrong driver.
If it still happens
If the audio device never appears in Device Manager, even after showing hidden devices and scanning for hardware changes, the audio hardware may be switched off in firmware or faulty. Check the BIOS setting first, then test with a USB headset or USB sound adapter, which bypasses the built-in audio chip entirely and will tell you whether the rest of Windows audio still works.
Common questions
What does the red X on the speaker icon mean? Windows cannot find a working audio output device. Hovering over the icon shows the message "No audio output device is installed", and the cause is almost always a disabled device or a missing driver.
Sound stopped right after a Windows update. What happened? The update likely replaced the manufacturer audio driver with a generic one, or the new driver failed to load. Rolling the driver back, or installing the maker's driver, is the fix.
My device is listed in Device Manager but still shows no output. Why? The device may be disabled, or its driver may have failed with an error code. Right-click it, select Enable device, and if it has a yellow warning, open Properties and read the Device status box for the code.