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.)
fixed it for me as well…… Dell inspiron windows 8.1
Thank you so much! I’ve spent the past three days trying to fix this, with no help from anyone on the Microsoft support team or anywhere else I looked. Your fix was easy to follow and worked instantly. I’m not sure if anything else is still not working but my sound is back and I’m able to open my control panel etc.
Again thank you, and I wish I had looked here first.
thank you so much! I downloaded the 3 .reg files,run it then restarted the pc. Then it is now working.
Another success, thank you very much. Sony Vaio laptop, Windows 8.1, user recently “upgraded” from AVG Free to 2015 trial version (may be relevant if other posts on this topic are to be believed). Regedit and restart … so easy once you know how!
Thanks so much :]
Thanks for your sharing
thanks my friend… Had nothing but trouble with this until I found your post.. Definitely a life saver!
Hey, Thank for the help really helped me solved this problem.
I think the second file combined.reg
should be
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\netprofm\Parameters]
“ServiceDll”=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,\
00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,\
6e,00,65,00,74,00,70,00,72,00,6f,00,66,00,6d,00,73,00,76,00,63,00,2e,00,64,\
00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AudioEndpointBuilder\Parameters]
“ServiceDll”=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,\
00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,\
41,00,75,00,64,00,69,00,6f,00,45,00,6e,00,64,00,70,00,6f,00,69,00,6e,00,74,\
00,42,00,75,00,69,00,6c,00,64,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
though the one you have repeat the same keys and hence does not solve the problem.
Thanks Dallae for point this out. I apparently copied and pasted the same part of the registry export into the combined file. I have fixed it so that the combined file now contains both the correct registry keys instead of the same duplicated registry key.
Follow up posting about Control panel and sound problems in Windows 8.x due to corruption of registry entries
I haven’t got the time or haven’t had the chance to more thoroughly observe the following view of why this registry corruption problem occurs for so many of you people including to my own customer. There appears to be two factors that leads a computer down into this nasty problem:
* it is essential that the filesystem of drive C: (you may only have such a drive) is “clean”. If in the previous days or weeks since the last Windows Update which did not cause any trouble you had an incident of improper shutdown your filesystem will not be clean. I think the filesystem can also get slightly out-of-whack, not clean, if your computer (laptops in particular) has had many sleep wake cycles.
Now particularly when there is a big Windows update it seems it can upset the computer when it tries to be applied to a filesystem which is not clean.
So how do you clean your filesystem or at least check its cleanliness? One way is to open Computer right click drive C: click Properties in the popup; click the Tools tab; click the button Check now; click Start. You’ll get a prompt saying that it can’t do it now and ask do you want to schedule a check at the next restart; click OK and any other oks and restart your computer.
When it restarts with this setting there will be a process which runs which you don’t normally see. The restart will take longer than normal as a result. The computer will restart again after this process. When the computer presents the login screen you will have a clean filesystem.
If you anticipate a Windows update it’s not bad idea to check the filesystem anyway to be sure.
* I noticed that the incorrect registry entries are actually the ones which are correct for my Windows 7 computer.
Putting two and two together I wonder whether Windows 8.x computers run into these two problems because of filesystems which need to be cleaned at the time of application of updates were not in fact clean.
This may give grounds for confidence to perform an update to those who have been burned by this problem and Windows wants to update again.
Thanks a lot I figured it out and fixed it. You are awesome. Thanks!
Thanks Josh I’ve been trying to solve this problem on my PC for the past two weeks.With your instructions I’ve done it under 10 minutes thanks a lot you’re a lifesaver
Thanks for your tips, the worked for me. I’ve got my sound back
The cause for my client was they interrupted Windows Updates while they were installing. Not surprising as on Win8 this process can take hours — literally hours.
Yay, it’s working!
Asus support gave me new drivers and told me that if it still wasn’t working after reboot, to do a complete windows reset.
I didn’t like the sound of that, and that’s how I ended up here 🙂 SO glad I consulted google ^^
Thanks a lot!
Josh,
Thank you so much for posting this. I have been pulling my hair out for a week trying to figure out a solution to this issue. I first saw it on a Lenovo desktop running Win 8.1 and wasn’t able to resolve it. I scheduled to go back a few days later to reformat the computer and the next day a Dell laptop with 8.1 got dropped off in the office with the same symptoms.
I was able to fix the Dell laptop by system restoring to before a round of Windows updates but there wasn’t a good restore point on the Lenovo.
The Lenovo had the audio issue but the Dell did not. My main symptoms were freezing when trying to open most control panel links, sfc /scannow not returning anything when entered, and IE was locking up completely after visiting a website or two. Event Viewer showed the network list error a bunch of times.
I am actually sitting here typing this while still at the client site with the Lenovo. I had to express my gratitude and let you know you saved a fellow technician a big headache. I plan to check out some of your other articles once I’m back at the office.
Hello,
Just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU! This is so helpful and it worked for me!!!
Thanks again!
I just wanted to thank you for your automated registry keys on here. I have been struggling for hours to fix my laptop after a random windows update last night left it crippled. I couldn’t access the control panel or any office programs and stumbled across this page while looking for a fix. I i didn’t even notice my audio device wasn’t working until i saw part two of this page and realized this was these were the exact issues my computer was having. You saved me having to either run a restore or do a full reinstallation of windows which I was about to do, as I use my computer for work and showed up today not knowing my laptop was in a non functioning state. Thank you for saving my day.
dude, you are my hero, thank you, merci beaucoup mon frere!
Thank you sooooo much!! Worked like a charm!
Thank you so much for your efforts. Sound working now. There was no effect until I followed Victor Bien’s advice. Thank you Victor too.
Thanks! Quick and easy fix.
Thank you for the fix, I could not even get into the recovery to reinstall. When I ran the windows file repair from command prompt both problems were still present. I encountered the problem when I got a bad copy of Odin tgat was freled. I had disabled AVG to run it because you have to for a lot of resource tools, they are seen as viruses because they modify the core programs. So when I saw the signs of a corrupted file it was to late. So I disabled the wireless and began avg while I went through and started uninstalling and deleting the problem software. There were 6 different malicious programs. After I deleted them and finished avg I restarted and the two problems came with restart. I could not access. Control panel, settings app, or get the audio to function. Everything else seemed to work, I use chrome so that was fine except it defaulted to conduit searh, malware, and avg did not work either. It was missing half the program. So I repaired it and set it to search for more, came bake with only 7 minor ptoblems of which non of them vcould have been causing the problem, they were just tracking cookies. So I went through and tried to access the recovery with no luck, so I ran the repair from command prompt after it funished and a restart, no luck. I started looking for gge problems on my phone. I was on the road and in a hotel, so no real time. Found your post and started going through the registry, problems were exactly the same. The laptop is a low end hp for travel, so reimaging it was out. No time.