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.)
When I downloaded 8.1 and the sound went out I felt really bad…because I did it on my GIRLFRIEND’S laptop first. Obviously after seeing what it did to the audio I didn’t install it on my own pc lol. Really glad I found these page. I’m not even that computer literate but I followed those simple manual instructions and actually fixed it! Even better, I fixed it today, on her birthday. Thanks a lot for the help!
Thanks for the comment. Hope your girlfriend is grateful for your repair.
Thank you for sharing! It worked like a charm. I greatly appreciate it. Bless you.
Thank you Josh!! As others have said before me, this fixed my issue! I was going crazy trying to work out how to fix this on my brand new machine (Lenovo B50-30 AIO Touch) and your info is the only one that I found that actually works. I can’t thank you enough 🙂 So happy to have sound and explorer working properly again including Control Panel.
BTW, so grateful to you that I’ve donated. Keep up the great work for us regular, non-tech people 🙂
Thabks, Cat for your comment and your donation.
Just wanted to say a huge thank you…have been trying to fix this for days and been driving me mad!! Used the combined.reg, restart and its all working again, so thank you so much you saved me from a nervous breakdown lol x
Greetings and thanks from Southampton in the UK! This problem has been driving my daughter crazy so last night I sat down to take a look. The first thing I discovered was the AVG references which she also had installed. However none of the suggestions I picked up including eventually deleting AVG, worked. Eventually stumbled on your blog, applied the fix (couldn’t make it any worse!) and it worked. Thanks.
Just as an aside – I worked with computers all my working life one way or another and can honestly say I had more problems from updates screwing up an otherwise working computer than any virus issues.
Thanks alot for making this! this solved my problem! highly recommended to those experiencing the same problem. Once again, keep up the good work and god bless you!
thank you ever much! it really helps!
I’m interested in how you figured this one out?
How did you manage to track it down to this?
It worked perfectly for me, but I would not have figured this one out. Seriously;)
How did you do it?
Well, the first time I ran into it, I spent hours trying everything I could think of. I finally gave up on it. A few weeks later we ran into something that it just had to be fixed for. And after looking for a solution, I dove into the registry and started tracking down the cause of the audio service issue. Honestly, if it weren’t for the audio issue, I don’t think I would have found the solution for the control panel.
I’ve had lots of experience with the registry. I’ve messed with the service registry keys before. And I’ve run into problems with services before where deleting the bad service key on one PC and importing it from a working PC would solve fix the service. So I manually checked the service key against another PC. I can’t remember now what lead me to the other service’s registry key. But at any rate, I felt that with all I put into it and not finding a single similar solution, it was worth sharing. Glad it helped you out. I honestly never expected this post to get as popular is it did, if it even got discovered at all. I added statistic reporting to my WordPress a couple months ago because comments started flooding in. Turns out, since I’ve added the counter I’ve seen 400+ visitors daily, and some days up to 1000. This post has also been shared on others’ blogs. I wish I could share some other stuff that would be as useful, lol.
Thanks for your comment. And very glad it helped.
THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH JOSH!!!!!!!!
I also tried everything and like others just about gave up. Your regedit fixed my audio issue right away. After spending prob 12 hrs troubleshooting (manually trying to restart audio service, copying registry portion form other PC etc….nada) I was determined to fix but really had run out of ideas so thank you once again for posting the reg edit. IT SAVED ME!
David
Thank you so much!!! You are an absolute star!
Thank you Josh!!!
These posts were very helpful, but although both the registry keys mentioned needed (?) to be changed, I still had both the audio and Control Panel issues. in AVG, I restored one file (printspool or something like that) from the virus vault but the other seemed like a legit threat so I left it alone. I ended up uninstalling AVG because it seemed to be interfering with System Restore, which I was also attempting. When a restore of one checkpoint failed to fix the problem and another checkpoint was corrupted, I was going to — as a last resort — attempt a repair program mentioned in another post on this issue from tweaking.com. It occurred to me that I should probably reinstall AVG (2015) before I did that in case it was AVG that was corrupting files. When I reinstalled AVG and rebooted — problems gone! So, if the registry fixes don’t help people, I suggest uninstalling and then reinstalling AVG (just uninstalling it didn’t help at all). You might even try that first instead of messing with the registry. It’s completely possible that I would have had to change the registry keys in addition, but it also seems possible that the uninstall/reinstall would have taken care of the issue.
I also wanted to mention that I noticed that, in conjunction with these issues, many programs were missing from my System Tray (that display when you click on the “Show Hidden Icons” up arrow. One thing I discovered was that, if you click on the up arrow and click on “Customize”, a window pops up with the path “Control Panel/All Control Panel Items/Notification Area Icons.” When I clicked on “All Control Panel Items” in the path, the Control Panel came up and was completely functional. When I clicked on “Control Panel”, I got the empty window/freezing behavior. So if you need the Control Panel while working through these things, that’s one way in if it works for you.
Just a suggestion on the instructions above: You might want to write out “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” instead of “HKLM” (“Navigate to HKLM -> SYSTEM”). I had a moment of panic when after reading this and thinking I should be seeing “HKEY_SYSTEM” and thinking I had somehow obliterated a major registry folder. I figured it out pretty quickly but some of the less technically-versed might not know what HKLM refers to.
Thanks for your suggestion and for your added troubleshooting steps you added previously. I’ll modify that when I get a chance.
THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOUR’E THE MAN!!!!!!
It worked like a charm!
WOW. Thanks. This fixed my problem with one change of the registry. Many many thanks
“Endpoint is a duplicate.”
Thank you so much i really aprecciate the help. Problem fixed. “Control Panel not working”
Dare to stand like Joshua, dare to say the word!!!!!! You fixed what 8 other fixes didn’t with the same avg deletion issues..this is the fix when it was deleted or changed long ago and they never cared about sound until recently. I had been in that file 3 or 4 times and never noticed the audiosrv instead of audioendpointbuilder. Either you deserve to be a paid talent or i am a dummie. Lets go with you deserve to be a paid talent!
Hello Josh,
I woke up literally today with my computer working fine and then it gradually just kept losing functionality. I have a Samsung Ativ XE700T1C Tablet PC running Windows 8.1 Pro with the most recent AVG. I first tried to find the problem with AVG blocking system components to no avail. I lost sound, the system would freeze whenever AVG would try and update(which would fail every time), and navigation through the control panel was almost useless. I came across your post for the registry fix, downloaded the “both” file, disabled AVG, ran the installation, restarted and BAM! Everything was back to normal.
With this becoming a recent HUGE problem with so many people, you are about to become a very popular guy! Thanks so much for your help and taking the time to share your solution!
It’s already happened. You can see the hundreds of comments already. I have statistics enabled on my blog and I am seeing 200+ unique visitors to these two posts daily.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! My laptop had both of the problems for the last two days (sound went first then control panel next day). I have been ALLLLL over the web and nothing helped I can’t thank you enough!!!!! You stated in this post that you wanted to compile data on the PCs having these issues. Well first off, my problems started after i did a windows update around 26/6/15. My PC specs are:
Model: Toshiba Satellite L855
Processor: Intel Core i3-3120M CPU @ 2.50GHz
Installed Memory: 4.00 GB
System type: 64 bit OS, x64-based processor
THANK YOU!!! Ask and its yours!
Oh, and im running Windows 8.1
I had to leave a comment, along with all of the others, thanking you profusely for figuring this out! I was at a total loss as to what would solve this issue, and your fix worked wonders. Thank you thank you thank you!!!