How to Fix No Sound from HDMI Output in Win 11
I set up a client's new monitor last year, cable connected, picture perfect, and completely silent. Spent ten minutes convinced the monitor's speakers were dead before I noticed Windows had quietly kept the laptop's internal speakers as the default output the whole time — the HDMI audio device was sitting right there in the list, just not selected. That's the fix for probably half of the "no sound from HDMI" cases I've seen, and it's also the one most people skip because they assume plugging in a cable should just work.
The other half split between three causes: the GPU driver (not your dedicated audio driver) is out of date or missing its HDMI audio component, the display or adapter you're using doesn't actually pass audio through, or the receiving device — TV, monitor, soundbar — isn't set up to accept audio on that particular HDMI input. Here's how to work through all four without guessing.
Step 1: confirm the HDMI device is even selected
This takes fifteen seconds and rules out the most common cause first.
- Go to Settings > System > Sound.
- Under Output, look at the current device. If it says your laptop speakers, headphones, or anything other than your monitor/TV/soundbar name, that's the problem.
- Click the correct HDMI device to select it. It's usually labeled with your GPU name (NVIDIA High Definition Audio, AMD High Definition Audio Device, Intel(R) Display Audio) or the display/TV's model name, not something obviously called "HDMI."
- If you don't see it in the list at all, click "More sound settings" (or open the classic sound panel with
mmsys.cpl), and on the Playback tab right-click the empty space and enable "Show Disabled Devices" and "Show Disconnected Devices."
If the HDMI audio device shows up once you unhide it, right-click it, choose Enable, then Set as Default Device. Test audio before doing anything else.
Step 2: confirm it's not a cable or adapter limitation
This one catches people constantly and it isn't a software problem at all. If you're going from USB-C or DisplayPort to HDMI through an adapter, a lot of cheap adapters are video-only — they pass the picture but not the audio signal, especially the passive ones without a chip inside. If you're driving a 4K display, you also need an actual HDMI 2.0 or 2.1-rated cable; older HDMI 1.4 cables can bottleneck bandwidth in ways that cause the audio channel specifically to drop while video keeps working. Swap the cable or adapter for one explicitly rated for audio pass-through and retest before touching drivers.
Step 3: check the receiving device's input and audio settings
TVs and monitors sometimes need their own audio output configured — a TV might be set to output sound to its own internal speakers rather than "PC audio," or a specific HDMI input might have audio format restrictions the OS side can't fix. If the same PC produces sound over HDMI to a different display but not this one, this is where to look, not Device Manager. Check the TV or monitor's own audio menu, and confirm you're plugged into the HDMI input it's actually configured to output.
Symptom, confirming check, and fix
| What you're seeing | Confirming check | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| HDMI device isn't listed as an output option at all | Enable "Show Disabled Devices" and "Show Disconnected Devices" on the Playback tab (mmsys.cpl) | Right-click the HDMI device, Enable, then Set as Default Device |
| HDMI device is listed but produces no sound when selected | Check Device Manager for a warning icon on the display audio driver, or an outdated GPU driver | Update the GPU driver from NVIDIA/AMD/Intel directly — not just Windows Update |
| Picture works over HDMI, sound never has, even on a different display | Check if the cable/adapter is rated for audio pass-through, especially USB-C/DP-to-HDMI adapters | Replace with an active adapter or cable explicitly rated for audio pass-through |
| Sound worked before, then disappeared after a Windows or driver update | Check Device Manager > Display adapters and Sound controllers for a recent driver change | Roll back the GPU driver, or reinstall the vendor's full driver package rather than the generic one |
| HDMI audio device randomly "disappears" from the list, cable stays connected | Reproduce by unplugging/replugging the HDMI cable | Known workaround: unplug and reconnect the cable; if frequent, update the GPU driver, which usually resolves the underlying detection glitch |
Step 4: update the GPU driver, not just the audio driver
This is the step people miss most often, because HDMI audio on a modern Windows 11 PC is handled by the graphics driver's audio component, not your Realtek/Conexant chip. Windows Update reporting "you're up to date" doesn't mean your GPU driver is current — it usually installs a baseline driver, not the vendor's latest release.
- Go to NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel's own driver download page directly and grab the latest release for your specific GPU model.
- Install it, reboot, and retest HDMI audio.
- If it started after a driver update specifically, go to Device Manager > Display adapters > right-click your GPU > Properties > Driver tab > Roll Back Driver.
If Device Manager shows a separate "Sound, video and game controllers" entry for your GPU's HDMI audio component with a warning icon, right-click it and choose Update driver > Search automatically. If that fails, uninstall it (check "Delete the driver software" if reinstalling the full vendor package afterward) and reboot to let Windows detect it again.
Step 5: run the built-in troubleshooter as a final sanity check
Go to Settings > System > Troubleshoot > Other troubleshooters > Playing Audio, run it, and select the HDMI device when prompted. It won't catch cable or adapter problems, but it's decent at flagging a muted device, a disabled endpoint, or a default-device mismatch you might have missed in Step 1.
A note on soundbars and AV receivers over ARC/eARC
If your setup is PC → TV → soundbar rather than PC → soundbar directly, HDMI-CEC and ARC/eARC add another layer that can go wrong independently of anything above. The TV needs CEC and ARC enabled in its own settings (often buried under a "HDMI-CEC" or brand-specific name like Anynet+ or Bravia Sync), and the PC's audio is going to the TV's HDMI input, not to the soundbar's input directly — so if the TV's ARC connection to the soundbar drops, you'll get picture from the PC and silence everywhere, even though Windows still reports the HDMI output as active and unmuted. Test by playing sound from the TV's own built-in apps first; if that's also silent through the soundbar, the problem is the TV-to-soundbar ARC link, not your PC at all.
Multiple monitors and multiple audio devices
On multi-monitor setups, Windows tracks HDMI audio per physical connection, and it's common to end up with two or three separate "Digital Audio (HDMI)" entries in the output list that all look identical until you hover over them. If sound is going to the wrong monitor's speakers or a monitor with no speakers at all, don't just pick the first HDMI-labeled entry — unplug one display at a time and watch which entry disappears from the list, so you know which physical port maps to which listed device. It's tedious once, but it saves you from re-selecting the wrong device every time Windows reorders the list after a reboot.
Bitstream and spatial audio formats
If sound plays over HDMI but cuts out specifically when a movie, game, or streaming app tries to send Dolby Digital, DTS, or Dolby Atmos over the connection, that's a format mismatch rather than a missing driver. Go to Settings > System > Sound > the HDMI device's properties, and check the format and any bitstreaming options exposed there against what your TV, receiver, or soundbar actually supports. Not every HDMI audio device and cable combination passes every surround format cleanly — dropping down to stereo PCM as a test is a fast way to confirm whether the format itself is the problem before you spend time on drivers or cables that were never at fault.
What I would not do
- Reinstall Windows over an HDMI audio problem. I've never seen this actually be the fix; it's almost always device selection, driver, or cable/adapter.
- Buy a new monitor or TV assuming the display's speakers are broken before confirming Windows even has the right output device selected. This is the single most common false alarm in this whole category.
- Update only the audio driver and ignore the GPU driver. On a system where HDMI audio comes from the graphics card, that's treating the wrong component.
- Assume a passive HDMI adapter supports audio just because the box says "4K." Resolution support and audio pass-through are separate specs, and cheap adapters frequently only advertise the first one clearly.
Checklist before you call this a hardware fault
- Correct HDMI output device selected in Settings > System > Sound (not left on internal speakers)
- HDMI audio device enabled and visible (checked Show Disabled/Disconnected Devices)
- Cable or adapter confirmed to support audio pass-through, not just video
- GPU driver updated directly from the manufacturer, not just Windows Update
- TV or monitor's own audio settings checked, and connected to the input it expects
- Playing Audio troubleshooter run as a final pass
- Tested with a different HDMI cable or a different display, if available, to isolate cable vs. PC vs. display
If you've been through every item on that list and it's still silent, and audio also fails through the PC's other outputs (headphone jack, USB), that's no longer an HDMI-specific problem — treat it as a broader audio driver or Windows Audio service issue and work through that checklist instead of continuing to chase the HDMI cable.