Fixing Common Audio Driver-Related Problems

Sound plays a big part in the operation of most PCs. Gone are the days when computers were silent apart from the odd bit of clicking and whirring. Now, apart from boring work matters, PCs are used to listen to music, watch films, to play games with full soundtrack and to get the complete experience provided by interactive websites.

You can also use your computer to make cheap or even free telephone calls with a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) handset plugged into a USB port. PCs can also respond to voice commands and accept speech input through dictation systems.

All this sound coming out of and going into your PC makes it increasingly important that any audio problems are identified and resolved quickly. In many cases, any problems you get are related to the audio driver for a particular device.

Many of the problems you may get with sound are fairly generalized — sound quality may deteriorate, a device may stop working or you might be unable to adjust the volume. Sometimes it can be more specific, with an error message that identifies a problem with a sound card.

A common error message reports that an audio driver does not support the current audio format or that it is in use by another application. To eliminate the latter possibility, close all other applications that are running, including any that are being processed in the background. You may have to restart the application that reported the error.

The message sometimes occurs because the driver bit depth or the sampling rate are set higher than the sound card can handle. In these cases, you can try to reduce the driver bit depth to 16 and the sampling rate to 44.1 (these are CD quality and adequate for most users). The way you do this depends on the application you are processing, but is often through selecting Options settings.

Every audio device you have needs to communicate with your PC’s operating system. It has to understand and act on commands from the operating system and issue responses in a format suitable for the operating system. The necessary translation is handled by a sound driver that interprets the various messages. Each device has its own audio driver, with variations for different operating systems.

You should always try to keep your audio drivers up-to-date because manufacturers periodically issue updated versions that support additional features, enhance performance and fix known problems. Additionally, many errors associated with audio are caused by sound drivers — they may be incompatible or incorrectly installed.

To update an audio driver, you can download and install the latest version from the manufacturer’s website. Alternatively, use the Windows Device Manager. Depending on the operating system you use, this may be available from the Control Panel or by right-clicking My Computer then choosing Manage.

The Device Manager will list the types of device in the right pane and you need to right-click the required one under the ‘Sound, video and game controllers’ heading and click Properties. Select the Driver tab and click the Update Driver button to download drivers and install the latest version on your PC. When you complete the process, restart your computer.

Recently installed drivers may not have the sound level set correctly. If this is the case, select Sound at the Control Panel, choose the playback and recording device and click Properties. Then set the required volume at the Levels tab.