So this is part two of a solution that I had to discover on my own after hours and hours of searching for the answer to a problem that had a very obscure solution. [ See Part 1 here. ]
So after the first fix which was repairing the netprofm service in the registry, I was left with no audio. When attempting to start the Windows Audio service, I got the error very vague message of “Endpoing is a duplicate.” So I searched through the services in the registry looking for something in the AudioSrv key that may be causing the problem. I noticed two keys which were “AudioEndpoingBuilder” and “AudioSrv”. Everything seemed to be correct except for one thing.
(UPDATE 4/20/2015: For an automatic fix, look below at the bottom of this post for download links and an explanation on my registry exports. No knowledge of the registry is required.)
For the manual fix and details, read on…
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Services -> AudioEndpointBuilder -> Parameters
Check the ServiceDLL data, on the problem system it was:
%SystemRoot%\System32\Audiosrv.dll
It should be:
%SystemRoot%\System32\AudioEndpointBuilder.dll
There didn’t seem to be any problem with the AudioSrv -> Parameters -> ServiceDLL data as it was already set to it’s correct value of :
%SystemRoot%\System32\Audiosrv.dll
So if yours is off, I would go ahead and change it.
After a reboot of the system, all sound was back and the services were started with no errors.
I have, as of writing this later, come across these combined problems twice now. The first time took me hours if not a couple days to finally discover these solutions. The second time I knew exactly what to check.
Both computers where Dell systems. One was a laptop, one was a desktop. Both were lower end consumer grade desktops. Not sure what models. I don’t really know what software was in common. I wish I had taken a log of both systems to compare any similarities. If you end up finding this useful, try to grab some information so we can attempt to track down what is causing this odd change in these two keys. I have a feeling it may be something to do with the factory image they use when creating these particular problematic systems. Possibly a bad driver or update that was pre-installed.
Anyways, I hope this helps someone else as it has me on two occasions so far. Please feel free to comment.
UPDATED 4/20/2015: I have been asked to provide further information on how to edit the registry. My stuff on here is for self-help techies with the assumed knowledge of what I know. However, for those that may need help in editing the registry, I’m attaching registry exports that you can execute to automatically fix the registry keys mentioned in both of these posts. I’ve included an export of each of the mentioned keys as well as one combined export. It honestly won’t hurt anything to run the combined file regardless if you only need on or both fixes, but if you prefer to only fix one of them at a time, go ahead and download the individual keys. To use the downloaded files, just save the REG file to your PC and then just run it like a normal setup file. You may want to disable your antivirus. You may also receive a UAC prompt asking for permissions to make changes to your system, you want to be sure to allow this change. You will most definitely then receive a message from Registry Editor warning you about changing or deleting values in the registry, click Yes to continue. You should then relieve a message that the registry key was added successfully. After applying either of these registry keys you will need to reboot your computer.
Keep in mind, after making these registry changes, you may still have issues that this fix just isn’t the root of. I can’t provide Much else tech support via these forums, but if you have issues running the registry export, then post on here and I’ll try and help you out a bit more with my fix.
Downloads:
- Netprofmsvc.reg (Download either this one…)
- AudioEndpointBuilder.reg (…and this one.)
- Combined.reg (Or download this one only.)
Thank you so much for this. I have been working on a friends laptop for a week frustrated and this was the exact issue!
We are so grateful for your info! Thank you thank you Thank YOU!!!!
Total novice here just wanting to say thanks and I owe you a beer! I returned a Toshiba back to the retailer in January over this problem so was devastated to spend triple the amount of cash on a Lenovo only to hit the same problem again.
I don’t know how you found the root cause but most of all your instructions are clear with no tech waffle.
Josh – for info, reading other comments it maybe AVG…… I’m working on a brand new Lenovo Z50. All I have done is uninstalled superfish and installed AVG.
Thanks fella.
Thank you for posting this! As everyone has already said this was a total time saver and without this most of us would be stuck and wanting to throw our computers out the window! It happened to my new toshiba satelite c50t -a after I was doing something with AVG. Thank you once again
Once again..
MANY MANY MANY THANKS !!!
Awesome! Both registry keys had to be fixed on my W81. I am running W81 in a VirtualBox virtual machine and had the problem so I don’t think it is an image issue. I did a fresh install by downloading the image from Microsoft Action Pack.
Thanks man!!!! Really save my day!! If i can help, i was using AVG anti virus….uninstall then ASAP. Thanks again!!!
Thanks so much!! This completely fixed my issues (Control Panel freezes, no Audio service running, other applications crashing eg search or internet explorer).
I have an Asus X550C Laptop. The error did seem to occur straight after AVG restart to update software.
You saved my life!
I’ve have spent 24 hours trying solve this issue .
Thanks a lot
I cannot thank you enough for this easy to follow tutorial! Oh my goodness I am so excited! I am a silly old woman with absolutely no technical computer skills, but I followed your instructions line for line (and at times letter for letter) and I fixed both problems!
You’re a STAR!
Cheers!
Josh,
There’s a post above from April 11 from Marv. He came over here from a link I posted in a Microsoft forum. Your fix worked for me but Marv says he’s not familiar with Regedit.
Could you post files he could use to fix the issue?
I’ll try to write up a simple guide as soon as I can. Possibly even provide a automatic reg fix.
You are a genius Josh. Thank you very much. Blessings.
THANK YOU! You rock!
Thanks a million!You solved my issue!
Thank you!!! My control panel and audio problems started after a reboot following Windows Update and AVG update.
Wow, it worked, thanks so much! Even someone as tech illiterate as I am was able to figure it out thanks to your guide.
You champion – been trying to fix this for days! Thanks
IT WORKED…came across this site after searching and trying to figure out what was wrong for 5 hours. i had both problems happen at the same time. i dont know the cause or why they got changed. all i know is i woke up and my computer had rebooted all on its on and when i logged on the audio wasnt working and when id click settings in the lil window to the right would freeze a lil then nothing. but both fixes fixed both my problems. thank u thank u thank u 🙂
How can I download the files? Only open one window on the browser with some hex digits
can you help?
Joao, try right clicking on the download link and look for Save As or Save Link As. The file should download as a .REG file. If you still have problems then open them as you did before to see the code. Then open Notepad on your computer. Copy and paste my code into Notepad and then save the file to your desktop as “whatever-name-you-want.reg” with quotes – – Windows will remove the quotes in the file name, but using quotes prevents Notepad from saving the file as name.reg.txt and giving the wrong extension. After you have done that, just double click on the new .REG file that you saved.
Hope that will help you out.
Thank very much, you solve the problem!! Great!!
Hi Thanks for your post! Helped a lot.
Now that I have found the solution, I am trying to find the problem. Anyone know what causes it? Like everyone else, i use AVG. Is it the culprit?
If anyone could shed some light, it would be very helpful.
SS
Thank you very much for posting these instructions. I found both these problems this morning on my new laptop (only bought last weekend). I spent ages searching for the causes and read solutions which I could not understand or carry out, or if I did them they didn’t work.
Though not a techie, I followed your instructions for manually changing the registry settings, and that fixed both problems! So glad I found your site today or I could have spent weeks tearing my hair out.
I have now uninstalled AVG in case it has caused the problem, as I did read that AVG might be blocking some part of a Windows update. Can’t remember where I read it though!