It is usually the output device
Windows can send audio to several places — speakers, headphones, a monitor over HDMI, a Bluetooth headset that is still paired from yesterday. When sound disappears, it has very often gone somewhere you are not listening.
Click the volume icon and look at which device is selected. A monitor connected by HDMI will happily claim the audio and play it through speakers the monitor may not even have.
Driver problems after an update
The second common cause is a Windows update replacing a working audio driver with a generic one. Sound either vanishes or becomes thin and quiet.
This is usually straightforward to put right, and it does not need any hardware replaced. It is the sort of thing that takes minutes remotely at $85/hr.
When it is genuinely hardware
Headphone jacks wear out, particularly on laptops. If sound works through headphones but not speakers, or crackles when you move the plug, that is physical.
Speakers themselves fail rarely but they do fail, usually after a spill. If one side works and the other does not, and headphones are fine, that is the answer.
Things worth trying first, free
Check the output device in the volume menu, and unpair any Bluetooth headset you are not using.
Plug headphones in and out a couple of times — some machines get stuck believing something is still connected.
Restart. Genuinely. Audio services get themselves into odd states and a reboot resets them.
When it is worth paying someone
If the three checks above have not found it, the cause is usually a driver or a Windows audio service that has got itself into a state — and both are quick remote jobs at $85/hr rather than anything needing the machine on a bench.
Where it is worth being careful is business machines. Audio that fails during calls is a productivity problem rather than an annoyance, and if it keeps recurring after being fixed, something else is overwriting the driver each time. That is worth diagnosing properly rather than patching monthly.
We will tell you on the phone whether it sounds like a five-minute fix or something more. There is no charge for that conversation.
Answered plainly.
Can this be fixed remotely?
Usually, yes. Output settings and driver problems account for most audio faults, and both are remote work at $85/hr — often inside half an hour.
Sound works in headphones but not the speakers.
Either the machine still thinks headphones are plugged in, or the speakers have failed. Worth checking the first before paying for the second.
No sound after a Windows update.
Classic driver replacement. Very fixable, and no hardware needs touching.
Is it worth fixing speakers on an old laptop?
Often not, when a cheap external speaker or headphones solve it. We will tell you that rather than quoting you for a strip-down.
Not quite your problem? Start the troubleshooter and it will narrow it down, or see what everything costs.
Tell us what it’s doing.
Quotes are free, and we point you at the cheapest thing that actually solves it.