Windows Audio Service stopping

[A-lastair-M]

Recently I've been having some problems with the audio on my VGC-V2M PC.

It kept coming up with the "There are no active mixer devices available" error when I tried to adjust the volume and nothing would play.

I re-installed drivers, installed windows updates manually, disabled them, installed codecs, ran virus scanners etc. everything it said on the net. Then sometimes when I restart it just comes back on. Then a few times later it's gone on restart.

I also used to get an error at start-up saying "Generic Host Process for Win32 Services encountered a problem..." and at that point the sound would go and the screen would change from XP style to Classic then a few minutes later back to XP. I don't know if the sound and this error and both linked to svchost.exe....?

I seemed to have fixed that (hopefully it won't come back like it usually does :smileyangry:) but the audio problem remains.

What I've narrowed it down to is the Windows Audio service keeps stopping. I have it set to Automatic but when the sound goes it shows "stopped" so I have to start it again. Any reason why, or how I can fix this? I also have it set to restart the service for up to 3 failures.

Sorry to keep asking questions. Cheers.

[A-lastair-M]

The errors look something like this:

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/8332/ghpw3220zp.jpg

http://img307.imageshack.us/img307/1687/ghpw3218fw.jpg

Those are just what I found on the net so might not be exactly correct, I will try and screenshot next time I see it (hopefully never touch wood).

I have narrowed it down to what I think is the error "Generic Host Process for Win32 Services encountered a problem..." at startup sometimes (happened again yesterday) and I think this is caused by svchost.exe or Windows Updates. I've read a load of different possible solutions but none have worked. Any ideas? Thanks. Apologies for double post, just no one will see it and I wanted to update.

[kee-lo_]

I would run a full virus check, becuase that really shouldn't happen to a core process in Windows.

[Blencogo]

Agree with McKee-Lo - make extra sure you are clean from Virus & Spyware.

Also check that the Services ''Plug & Play' and 'RPC (Remote Procedure Call)' are both set to Automatic as the audio service is dependent on these two services having been started first.

[A-lastair-M]

I am clean of all viruses, spyware, adware etc. with all the latest definitions downloaded.

The Windows Audio Service is set as dependent on both of those already. RPC is dependent, but Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator isn't, but I'm not sure that's important...?

I've not had it yet so it might be fixed. I thought an update through Windows Automatic Update might have caused it so I turned it off and nothing so far.

I take it there's no more ideas? Thanks anyway guys, I'll keep this updated if it happens again (PLEASE GOD NO).

EDIT:

Yesterday when I posted that, the problem was so annoying I actually had a dream about it last night!

[@7108867805017624]

Recently I've been having some problems with the audio on my VGC-V2M PC.

It kept coming up with the "There are no active mixer devices available" error when I tried to adjust the volume and nothing would play.

Exactly the same is now happening to me, including the svchost.exe error on startup (and including the clean virus scan).

Did you ever resolve this?

[Darxy]

Hey i realise this thread is old-ish now, but im getting the same problem except for the svchost.exe problem. Did any of these problems get resolved? I've only had my vgn-n11s for a month and the problems just keep mounting for me :S